Confidence is not about talking louder or being pushy. It’s about a quiet certainty built on preparation, competence, and integrity. Let’s break down why confidence matters — and how the lack of it can stealthily undermine every step of the sales process.

Customers Feel What You Project

Customers sense confidence before they ever read a proposal or hear a pitch. They see it in eye contact, tone of voice, and the willingness (or unwillingness) to stand behind recommendations.

“Customers notice uncertainty long before salespeople realize they are displaying it.”

A salesperson might try to cover up doubts by talking too quickly, over-explaining, apologizing for reaching out, or immediately offering a discount. None of these coping tactics build trust.

The Root Cause: Unbelief in Your Own Value

If confidence is lacking, it almost always stems from not truly believing in the value you bring. Don’t expect customers to see something you haven’t owned yourself.

A lack of confidence doesn’t just slow deals. It inserts hesitation and raises doubts. And doubts are sales killers.

“Customers will rarely have more confidence in your solution than you do.”

It’s not just about knowing your product — it’s about being rock solid in knowing who you help, how you help, and why your solution is worth it. If that’s shaky, prospects sense it immediately.

Weakness Shows Up Everywhere

Lack of confidence doesn’t announce itself with flashing lights. It surfaces through subtle behaviors:

• Apologizing for making contact
• Rushing through explanations
• Over-defending recommendations
• Avoiding tough questions
• Accepting vague answers
• Hesitating on price — and jumping to discount
• Failing to ask for the next step

None of this builds the trust required to move a deal forward.

Arrogance is Not Confidence

Confidence should never be confused with arrogance. Arrogance is loud and overbearing; confidence is steady and unassuming.

“Confidence is not believing you’re always right. It’s being secure enough to pursue the truth.”

Confident salespeople ask open questions that create conversation. They listen. They’re willing to say when a solution isn’t right for a customer. Arrogant salespeople, on the other hand, try to prove something, dominate discussions, and are fixated on making the sale no matter what.

Preparation Builds Confidence

True confidence isn’t accidental. It’s the byproduct of intentional, focused preparation.

Before any important call, ask:

• What do I know about this customer’s needs and business outcomes?
• What problems are they trying to solve?
• What questions will move the conversation forward?
• What value have I provided to similar customers?
• What objections might I hear, and how will I respond?

The most confident sellers don’t memorize scripts. They know their material so well, they can hold a meaningful conversation on any aspect of it. Preparation frees the mind to focus on the customer instead of worrying about what to say next.

Confidence Protects Your Price

The ultimate test of sales confidence is what happens when price is challenged. The salesperson who lacks confidence folds, apologizes, and offers discounts before they’re even requested.

Instead, a confident salesperson leans in with questions:

• “Help me understand what concerns you have about the price.”
• “What are you comparing us against?”
• “Besides price, what would determine the best decision?”

These open questions reveal the real objections and keep the focus on value, not just cost.

Take Action to Build Confidence

Confidence isn’t something to wait for — it’s something to build, one action at a time.

“You become more confident by making the call. You become more confident by hearing no and discovering that you survived.”

Don’t avoid what feels uncomfortable. Start each day with one tough sales action:

• Reach out to a senior decision-maker.
• Ask about the real budget.
• Challenge a vague objection.
• Hold the line on price and ask for the business.

Repeated, uncomfortable action is the fastest way to make confidence your new baseline.

Always Lead with a Clear Next Step

Customers want direction. Confidence means being able to state clearly what happens next, rather than ending conversations with vague wrap-ups.

Instead of “Let me know what you think,” say, “Based on what we discussed, the next step should be _. Can we schedule that now?”

If the answer is no, treat it as valuable feedback, not rejection. A clear no is far more helpful than an endless maybe.

Make Confidence Your Daily Practice

Confident salespeople structure their routines and stick to them relentlessly. Confidence is not about bravado — it’s about believing in the value you create and being prepared to lead.

Support confidence with steady repetition, daily discipline, and unwavering belief in your value. Every confident action you take today builds strength for tomorrow’s challenge.

Don’t let a lack of confidence quietly sabotage your sales. Forge it, practice it, and watch your performance transform.

Mark Hunter :
Is your lack of confidence costing you sales? Confidence is not arrogance. Confidence is quiet certainty supported by preparation, competence, and integrity. See, customers don’t expect you to be loud. They don’t expect you to be aggressive. They don’t expect you to be overly polished. In fact, that turns them off. What they want is a salesperson who is confident. Hey, let’s unpack this.

Mark Hunter :
And the show begins right now.

Speaker B :
You’re listening to the Sales Hunter Podcast with Marc Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a sales leader sell with confidence and integrity. And now, here’s your host.

Mark Hunter :
Are you confident in the value you create for your customers? You see, I find that confidence is lacking because so many salespeople, they just don’t have confidence in the value they create. Let me walk you through some things here. Customers can feel your confidence, or more importantly, they can feel a lack of it. Customers notice uncertainty long before salespeople realize they are displaying it. Yeah, and they display it because you, you display a lack of confidence in your eye contact, your mannerisms, everything. And, and don’t say, oh well, I don’t have face-to-face calls. I know, but you probably have Teams calls. You probably— and oh, by the way, even on phone calls It’s amazing how that halting voice comes through.

Mark Hunter :
You see, they hear it in your words, your tone, your pace, and your willingness to defend your recommendations. Oh, did you hear what I just said? People who have a lack of confidence want to overly defend their recommendations. Yeah, I actually— yeah, I actually mean that. I, and, and I mean this very seriously because what they do is they have some sort of a false belief that they just somehow want to cling to. You see, it’s not just rolling over and playing dead and agreeing with the customer. Oh, believe me, salespeople do that too. You see, when you lack confidence, the customer begins questioning whether or not they should trust you. See, because it shows in your body language— failing to give eye contact, nervous twitch.

Mark Hunter :
If you don’t— Stop and think about that. If, if you don’t believe in your solution, Why would, why would your customer? A lack of confidence creates doubt, and doubt always slows decisions. Customers will rarely have your— have more confidence in your solution than you do. Yeah. See, if you fail to believe it, they will too. How a lack of confidence shows up, shows up in a number of different ways. Salespeople do not usually announce that they lack confidence. No, it appears through their behavior.

Mark Hunter :
They apologize for contacting the prospect. They talk too quickly and fill every silence. They overexplain the product. They avoid asking difficult questions. They accept vague answers from the customer. They hesitate when stating the price. This is the worst one. They hesitate, and then when they state the discount— I mean, when they state the price, they immediately offer a discount.

Mark Hunter :
They offer discounts before the customer asks. They fail to ask for the next step or the business. They fail to give eye contact. So some examples of weak language, and this is not just in the selling phase when you’re trying to get the deal, but all the way through. Hey, I was just checking in. I got one of those emails this morning. I was just checking in. I know you’re probably busy.

Mark Hunter :
I’m sorry to bother you. Hopefully this might work for you. Our price is a little high, but would it be okay if I followed up sometime? None of this language gives the customer confidence. Your words and your body language reveal what you believe about yourself and the value you provide. Now, up front at the beginning, I said confidence is not arrogance, and I gotta unpack this. Arrogance says, I know everything. Confidence says, I know enough to ask the right questions. That’s what’s interesting.

Mark Hunter :
Confident salespeople ask customers questions that create conversations. Arrogant salespeople ask questions to try to make the customer look stupid. Arrogance— arrogant people dominate the conversation. Confidence creates space for the customer to talk. Arrogance needs to prove something. Confidence is focused on helping the customer, whereas arrogance pushes for the sale. Confidence is willing to tell the customer when the solution is not right. Yeah.

Mark Hunter :
See, true sales confidence is grounded in integrity. It’s why I wrote the book Integrity First Selling. I unpack this a whole lot in the book Integrity First Selling. You’re, you’re not trying to persuade everyone to buy. You’re trying to help the right customers. at the right time, achieve the right outcome. Confidence is not believing you’re always right. It’s being secure enough to pursue the truth.

Mark Hunter :
Confidence begins with preparation. You cannot expect to feel confident when you’ve not prepared. And this is so critical. You have to prep. Preparation creates confidence. Before an important call, you got to ask yourself, What do I know about this customer? What problem might they be trying to solve that I can help them with? What business outcomes matter to them? What questions do I need to be asking? What value have we created for similar customers? In other words, do I have a story that I can go with it? What objections am I likely to hear, and what’s going to be my response to them? What next steps do I want to secure? Preparation allows you to enter the conversation focused. On the customer instead of worrying about what you will say next. This includes prepping with your body language.

Mark Hunter :
Confidence does not come from memorizing a perfect script. No, no, don’t, no. In fact, the most confident salespeople don’t have a script. They don’t have a script at all. It just comes from knowing that you’re prepared. You, you know your material so well that you can have a conversation on any element of it. The more prepared you are The less pressure you feel to perform. Confidence protects your price.

Mark Hunter :
This is, this is a big point. One of the clearest tests of sales confidence is what happens when the customer challenges the price. A salesperson lacking confidence either becomes defensive or rolls over and plays dead. Yeah. They go to, they go to both extremes. They talk excessively. They never give eye contact and They appear fidgety. They apologize for the price, immediately offer a discount, and assume the low-priced competitor is going to win the deal.

Mark Hunter :
See, this is confidence. Confidence drives so much. This is why I say your mindset is so critical in sales, because your mindset determines your level of confidence. Yeah. Confident salesperson always slows down and asks, help me understand, help me understand what concerns you have about the price. Ooh, huh. An uncertain salesperson is not going to ask that question. An arrogant salesperson is not going to answer that question.

Mark Hunter :
What are you comparing us against? Wow, wow. Only a confident salesperson can ask that. Besides price, what will determine The best decision. Now, hopefully you’ve done your homework through the sales call and you know, you know what will determine the best decision, but you want to hear it from the customer. What would the impact be if this problem is not resolved? Which part of value we discussed is not connecting? You see, if you stop and think about that, all of these questions really stem from not when the price is being offered. You know, the, here, I want you to buy this. It’s created because of the answers from all the questions you’ve had up to that point in time. This is why a confident salesperson is able to close so much easier, so much easier, because they’ve done the homework and, and they don’t get nervous when it comes time to put the price on the table.

Mark Hunter :
You see, think about this. Your price Does not suddenly become wrong because the customer questions it. Keep that in mind. Don’t, don’t, don’t ever think that you’re suddenly in the wrong just because they question. Sometimes customers just challenge the price simply because previous salespeople have awarded them for doing so. Yeah. So you’re really kind of going against the grain, but that’s what confident salespeople do. They’re willing to go against the grain.

Mark Hunter :
When you discount too quickly, You are not only lowering your price, you’re lowering the customer’s confidence in your value. And if you’re coming back and selling to this customer again, you are destroying your value proposition long-term. Confidence comes from action. Many salespeople believe they need to feel confident before taking action. No, it’s usually the other way around. You become more confident by making the call. You become more confident by asking difficult questions. Yeah, this is why I say you, you can’t ask too difficult a question early on.

Mark Hunter :
You become more confident by stating the price and remaining confident. You see what you’re doing is, is you’re actually creating confidence on both sides of the table. You’re confident and the customer’s confident. And this is key. This— you become more confident by stating the price and remaining quiet. So key. The, the non-confident salesperson immediately jumps in and says, I can discount, I can discount. You see, you become more confident by hearing no and discovering that you, that you survived.

Mark Hunter :
That’s why I sometimes say that the most profitable business you’ll ever get is the business you walk away from. You become more confident by reviewing what worked and improving what did not. This is why you have to do a postmortem. On every sales call, whether it goes good or bad. Confidence is built through repetition. Avoidance only makes the fear larger. I, I, I can’t stress this enough. When I’m dealing with salespeople, when I find people who are extremely repetitive driven, in other words, they have a very set process as to how they start the day, how they do, how they do their business.

Mark Hunter :
It is amazing how much more confident they are. Confidence is built through repetition. I, I want you to take one uncomfortable sales action each day. And this is— you do this and it’s kind of like a muscle that you are strengthening, you’re training. I want you to contact a higher-level decision maker. Just reach out. I did this the other day. I, I reached out and contacted a higher-level decision maker.

Mark Hunter :
Yeah, it was great, great conversation. Ask about the customer’s real budget. Ask about how they build their budget. Ask about what the other key expenditures are that they’re dealing with. Challenge a vague objection. Don’t, don’t just, you know, go ahead and push back on it. Challenge it. Ask them why.

Mark Hunter :
Ask why the opportunity is stalled. Hold firm on your price and ask directly for the business. And, and I almost say, I almost don’t like the term ask. You tell the customer, this is what the price is. Because again, the customer is investing in you. They’re investing. They’re not buying. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, I want to buy from a salesperson.

Mark Hunter :
They have, they have solutions they’re trying to solve, and you have the solution. So in other words, what they’re doing is they’re investing money in you, in your company, to help them create the solution that they’re looking for. Confidence is not something that you wait for. It’s something you build. That’s why I went through those questions. I want you to do this every day. Confidence requires a clear next step. Confident salespeople don’t end conversations with vague intentions.

Mark Hunter :
Instead of saying, let me know what you think, you got to be direct. Based on what we discussed, the next step should be blank. Can we schedule that now? Confidence means being willing to recommend what should happen next. You’re not forcing the customer. You’re providing leadership. If the customer’s not ready, ask what still needs to be resolved. Do not accept ambiguity simply because you are afraid of hearing no. So many times the, the non-confident salesperson is afraid to put the offer directly, deliberately out there because they’re afraid the customer’s going to say no.

Mark Hunter :
The confident salesperson is okay. They want to hear no because here’s the whole thing. A clear no is more valuable than a comfortable maybe. If there’s a no, now I know what to deal with. If there’s a maybe, I don’t know where, I don’t know where I’m going. Here’s a question you want to ask yourself before your next sales conversation. Where am I showing uncertainty? What difficult question am I avoiding? Do I truly understand and believe in the value I provide? Am I prepared to state my price without apologizing? What specific next step will I ask the customer to take? Confidence is not about becoming someone you’re not. No, confidence is about trusting your prep, your preparation, believing in the value you create, and caring enough about the customer to lead the conversation.

Mark Hunter :
This is why I can’t stress enough I have yet to meet a confident salesperson who is not repetitive and has a very structured process as to how they go about things. I’ve met arrogant salespeople who are not structured, but that’s arrogance. Arrogance has no place in sales, period. Your lack of confidence may be costing you sales. No, no, no, wrong. Your lack of confidence is costing you sales. But every confident action that you take today makes you stronger for the next conversation. This is a— this is like going to the gym every day for several years.

Mark Hunter :
It’s amazing how much stronger you’ll become. Hey, this is the Sales Hunter Podcast. New format every week, every Thursday. We do a deep dive in a much deeper issue, just like what you’re getting here. Do me a favor. If you’re having a sales kickoff meeting, you got to reach out to me. I got to be part of your sales kickoff meeting. Maybe it’s not a sales kickoff meeting formal, but it’s just so much time.

Mark Hunter :
Reach out. We got to have a conversation. I want to come into your organization and help you. This is what I do. Do me another favor, would you? Leave me a review on your favorite podcast app. Share this podcast with your friends, with your peers, with other people you work with. I’m Marc Hunter, The Sales Hunter. I do it for one reason, to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible.

Mark Hunter :
And I believe we did that today. Great selling.

Let’s break down the habits and conversations that turn information gaps into trust, and trust into deals. If you want your customer to buy with eyes wide open, these are the areas you can’t afford to ignore.

1. Ask Yourself What You Might Be Leaving Unsaid

Every negotiation tempts you to gloss over painful truths. Maybe there’s a limitation in your offer, a new competitor in the mix, or even a budget constraint on the customer’s side. Avoiding these topics doesn’t protect your deal, rather it sets it up for disappointment.

Confident sellers put everything on the table. Before even considering a price change, ask yourself why you feel that urge. Are you responding to true customer needs, or just trying to dodge a tough “no”? Clarity here keeps your confidence high and your value clear.

2. Think About What Could Surprise Them After the Sale

Post-sale surprises fuel buyer’s remorse. Ask yourself: Are there aspects of implementation, support, or timelines that could catch your customer off guard? It’s your job to surface those unknowns before contracts are signed.

When customers know what to expect—good, bad, and in between—they become partners, not just buyers. Surprises only feel good if they’re positive, so take the guesswork out of the deal.

3. Discuss Limitations Alongside Strengths

It’s tempting to rattle off ROI stats and promises. But integrity means showing both sides. A strong seller lays out real differences between offers, along with total costs and returns.

Don’t overstate what you can deliver. If another vendor has a valid edge, acknowledge it, then clarify your own differentiators. Competitors don’t win or lose deals, clarity does. Lay out the facts, and let your value hold its ground.

4. Explain What Success Requires from the Customer

No solution delivers itself. Spell out exactly what the customer must do to gain the benefits you’re promising. Is it a process change, a timeline commitment, or additional internal buy-in?

The more precisely you set expectations, the less room there is for finger-pointing down the line. Honesty now prevents headaches later.

5. Replace Vague Reassurance with Specific Commitments

Promising you’ll “take care of everything” isn’t enough. Customers want concrete commitments. Show them an ROI worksheet or walk through real numbers. Define what you’ll deliver, how, and when.

Specifics make people feel secure. When the benchmarks for success are clear, so is the path for accountability.

6. Help the Customer Make a Decision They Can Defend

Decision-makers need more than a gut feeling, they need something to justify the deal to their colleagues. Don’t let them compare you to others in a vacuum. Lead the conversation about value, total ownership cost, and long-term impact.

By being the guide instead of a silent participant, you help your champion look good. They’ll remember who armed them with the facts when it counts.

7. Examine Your Next Proposal

Before your next price conversation, do a prep session. Write down three outcomes your offer delivers, and one probing question that will uncover the customer’s real objection.

If you get the customer to articulate why they’ll win by working with you, your chances of closing skyrocket. 

Let them connect the dots. Your role is to guide, not to push.

If you’re lowering your price because you don’t trust your value, a discount won’t rescue the sale. 

When your customer knows what you know and still says yes, you’ve built a partnership that’s built to last. Great selling starts with unflinching honesty.

The Real Cost of Low Confidence in Sales

Find out how to protect your price, turn action into confidence, and lead your customers with certainty. 

Find episode #458 wherever you download podcasts!

 Do You Nurture Your Network or Just Use It?

NEXT WEEK ON THE SALES HUNTER PODCAST…

Join Mark and Sonia as they share strategies to develop a sales approach that captivates and deeply engages your audience.

Episode #459 is out NEXT THURSDAY!!

Copyright 2026, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.

1. The Real Sales Challenge Isn’t Finding More Leads

The instinct for most salespeople is to blame weak pipelines on lack of leads. But the truth? Most teams already have enough opportunities, they’re just not moving forward. Mark pulls no punches: “More leads are not gonna fix—if you put more stuff into a bucket with holes, it’s not gonna fill the bucket.”

AI tools can dump thousands of names into the CRM, but broken or weak sales conversations will send them straight through the cracks. The job is not just filling the pipeline; it’s making sure those leads become qualified prospects through the power of compelling engagement.

2. Measure Conversations, Not Just Activity

Activity metrics like dials, emails sent, and meetings booked are easy to track. Many sales teams operate with a “spreadsheet jockey” mentality, mistaking busywork for progress. Mark sets a smarter standard: he focuses on quality by tracking five meaningful conversations per day.

“A healthy pipeline is one where you’re having conversations and you’re moving them closing.”

A full CRM might feel good, but it can mask weak engagement. Sales organizations need to stop equating database volume with pipeline health. What matters is whether conversations are revealing value and closing gaps.

3. Ask Deeper, Harder Questions

Most sales conversations go nowhere because sellers ask surface-level questions and talk too much. Generic questions net generic answers. Mark is clear: the most powerful question is the one neither you nor the customer can immediately answer. That’s what sparks real discovery.

Consider these critical conversation plays:

• Ask about KPIs and outcomes, not just pain points.
• Uncover what’s preventing success right now.
• Be ready to talk about the business impact of inaction.
• Tailor questions to each contact’s role and perspective.

Sales calls that don’t end with a clear next step almost always stall out. If every prospect gets the same script, that’s a red flag.

4. Go Deep Before You Go Wide

Success comes from making each conversation count. Before chasing the next slew of cold leads, look for untapped value in current relationships and existing customers. Many stalled prospects aren’t unqualified, they’ve simply never been given a reason to move forward.

“One strong relationship may be worth more than 100 cold names.”

Dig further: are there other stakeholders to engage? Additional needs to address within current accounts? When conversations create insight and action, new opportunities emerge from the pipeline you already have.

5. Evaluate the Conversation (Not Just the Contact List)

After every sales call, ask:

• What did I learn that I didn’t know before?
• Did the customer gain new insight?
• Did we agree on a specific, compelling next step?

Mark recommends this post-call checklist: “Learn, teach, sell. Learn, listen and discover. Teach, add value. Serve before you sell.”

Failing to nail these basics means it’s not a lead issue, it’s a conversation quality issue. Review the last 10 conversations, not just the last 100 names added to the CRM.

Take the Next Step with Better Questions

Sales growth depends more on deep, outcome-driven conversations than on chasing a never-ending stream of leads. Before searching for new contacts, look at the names already in the pipeline and craft specific questions to unlock each opportunity.

Lead generation will always matter, but it can never make up for weak discovery and poor dialogue. “Your next opportunity may not be hiding in a new list of leads. It may already be in your pipeline waiting for you to have a better conversation.”

Real sales progress starts with asking better questions, digging deeper, and making every conversation count. That’s how to fill a pipeline for real.

Mark Hunter :
Do we need better leads or do we need better conversations? Which is the path to getting you the sales that you’re looking for? And that’s the topic. And the show begins right now.

Speaker B :
You’re listening to the Sales Hunter Podcast with Marc Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a sales leader sell with confidence and integrity. And now here’s your host.

Mark Hunter :
Hey, most salespeople assume an empty pipeline is a lead generation problem. Often, they already have enough, really, opportunities. What they aren’t getting is they’re not creating conversations compelling enough to move the opportunities forward. You see, the game of chasing leads— and this is what AI has brought us, this ability to to get all kinds of leads, all kinds of leads. That’s not the problem. The problem is fixing weak conversations. You see, more leads are not gonna fix— if you put more stuff into a bucket with holes, it’s not gonna fill the bucket. No.

Mark Hunter :
You see, and this is what happens when we have weak conversations. You see, salespeople, and I’m gonna walk you through several points right here. Salespeople love to say, I need more leads. But, but, But before you add more names to the list, ask yourself, what really happens to the leads I already have? In other words, did they genuinely lack potential? In other words, were they not really qualified? Or did you have conversations that failed to uncover it? See, I’m going to argue that many of your leads actually do qualify. But again, AI is allowing us to generate more leads. So again, we can be very tight. As to who it is we need to be prospecting. But the problem is our conversations fail to uncover— we fail to engage with compelling conversations to get that lead to become a real qualified prospect.

Mark Hunter :
And that’s what I think. I think there’s a big difference between leads and highly qualified prospects. See, more leads may make your pipeline look bigger, but better conversations make your pipeline more valuable. Think about that one. See, the danger of chasing volume is this: activity is easy to measure. It’s calls made, emails sent, contacts added, meetings booked, etc., etc. And it’s all stuff that makes your boss happy, right? It’s, it’s, it’s happy talk. Because if you’ve got a spreadsheet jockey— either you have a spreadsheet jockey mentality or your boss does— that’s what you’re going to be driven towards: activity just for the sake of doing it.

Mark Hunter :
See, conversation quality is harder to measure. So salespeople often hide behind activity. Now, if you know me for any length of time, you know that I have one metric that I measure, and that is my personal sales metric every day is to have 5 conversations each day. 5 conversations. Now, I know to do that we got to send out emails, we got to send out this, but you know what’s funny? We don’t even track the number of emails we send out. We don’t even track the number of— I track The number of conversations, because this is where I can actually begin to find out as to whether or not I’m having a meaningful conversation with somebody that’s going to do business with me. And oh, by the way, you’re asking me what’s the definition of a conversation? It’s with a person who is either currently buying from me, in other words, I’m currently working with them. 2, they’re a prospect.

Mark Hunter :
Oh, somebody I want to get work— I want to be able to work with. Or 3, Somebody who can refer me. That’s my definition. I have 5 of those conversations a day. You see, here’s the whole thing. Too many salespeople just keep adding prospects instead of examining why the current opportunities are stalling. Where are they? Are they stalling out before the first conversation? Are they stalling out after the second conversation? And I’ve done a number of podcasts on this, and I’ll break this down even further in coming weeks. See, a bigger pipeline can easily create the illusion of progress.

Mark Hunter :
It can make you feel good. But it’s going to mask poor qualification and weak engagement. This is what you have to be careful of. See, more leads entering a broken sales process only produces more lost opportunities. You’re putting more stuff into a bucket and it’s got holes. So here’s the thing. Stop confusing a full CRM with a healthy pipeline. Yeah.

Mark Hunter :
Yeah. Stop confusing a full CRM with a healthy pipeline. A healthy pipeline is one where you’re having conversations and you’re moving them closing. In other words, the way I look at a healthy pipeline is the number of conversations, the number of touches it takes to close a lead today versus what it took a year or so. Is that decreasing minimally? Is it staying the same? In other words, am I being effective? And what’s the percentage of those that I’m actually closing? Now, here’s the challenge, and I used to sit there and say, I want to be more expeditious, fewer touches, fewer conversations, etc., enabled to close a deal. And that was a measurement, that was a metric that I used to have up until probably about 2 or 3 years ago. Now, because of the noise out there, it— and because customers have more opportunities to look around, I’m saying if I can just keep it even— in other words, I don’t want it to be getting worse, because I talk to too many salespeople where they say I have to have 10, 15, 20 conversations before I can get somebody to buy, and it used to only be 10. Okay, now I say, you know what, you’ve got a quality problem.

Mark Hunter :
You’ve got a quality of your conversations. You see, many sales conversations fail because the salesperson talks too much and listens too little. They ask surface-level questions that produce predictable answers. You see, my goal in, in a sales call is not to ask questions that I know You can answer, or it’s not to ask questions that I know you, the customer, can’t answer, but I can answer. That’s why I’m going to look big. That’s what so many salespeople do. I want to ask questions that neither you nor I can answer. That’s going to produce a conversation.

Mark Hunter :
You see, what happens is we wind up moving to the solution long before understanding the problem. This is why I’ve got to ask difficult questions up front. I am also focusing too much on product features instead of business outcomes. Product features are a dime a dozen. What’s the business outcome? How is my— what I’m going to be able to bring to you going to help you achieve the outcome that you’re looking for? I also oftentimes fail to create urgency or explain the cost of doing nothing. Now, I can’t create artificial urgency. I know there’s a lot of people out there who say they can. No, you really can’t.

Mark Hunter :
That’s not selling with integrity. It’s not what I’m all about. But here’s the whole thing. But you can explain the cost of doing nothing. In other words, what happens if you don’t solve this problem? What, what happens? I love going down that path, especially if I’m dealing with senior-level people. They can quickly begin to see that this is an issue that needs resolving and resolving now. See, I also got to make sure that I’m not treating every prospect the same. And rather than making the conversation relevant, what do I mean by this? Because if I’m having a conversation with a senior-level person, I’m asking different questions than I am maybe the person on the production floor.

Mark Hunter :
See, I’ve got to tailor my conversation, and this is the way I stop having holes in my bucket. And I also got to make sure that I end each meeting with it, with a clear next step, because again, too many salespeople end a sales call and they don’t Have a clear next step. If I listen to your last 5 sales calls, would I hear 5 different customer conversations, or would I hear the same presentation 5 times? I would hope, I would hope it’s 5 different customer conversations. Okay, so what makes a conversation valuable? A strong conversation helps the customer understand something that they didn’t fully understand before. This is why, this is why you’ve got to ask difficult questions. You need to be able to uncover what’s the customer trying to achieve. This is why my big question I love asking is, what are your KPIs? What are your KPIs? What are you being charged with achieving this year? What’s preventing them from achieving it? Why the issue matters now? The business and personal consequences of leaving it unresolved. Who else is affected by the problem? How will the customer measure a successful outcome? How will this impact the customers you sell to? Who else is impacted by this decision? What are other things that you’ve tried? Why has this become such a critical issue? You see, these are all things that you’ve got to uncover.

Mark Hunter :
See, your purpose isn’t merely to gather information. It’s to help the customer think more clearly. This is absolutely— see, a great sales conversation doesn’t just give you information. It gives the customer insight. Think about that. A great sales conversation doesn’t just give you information. It gives the customer insight. Better questions are going to create better conversations.

Mark Hunter :
See, this is why I went through that list that I just went through with you. Because again, you got to move beyond questions such as, What keeps you up at night? You got to ask questions that are connected to the customer situation. This is why each, each presentation, each conversation needs to be different. You have to be prepared to ask the tough questions. I talk about this often. Why? Because it’s so critical. You see, questions that I might be asking, and I’m just going to kind of give you a little bit of a rundown right here. What are you trying to accomplish that you’re not accomplishing today? What’s getting in the way? How long has it been a problem? What is this costing you in time, revenue, margin, or missed opportunities? Who else in the organization is affected? What happens if nothing changes? Why is addressing this important now? What would a successful outcome look like? How would you measure the improvement? What would prevent you from moving forward? Who else is this decision going to impact? How will this impact your customers? Don’t race through the questions.

Mark Hunter :
Listen to each answer and ask a second question. Another— ask a follow-up question. Your best insights are always gained not by the response they give to the initial question, It’s gained by what they share with you in the follow-up. Ooh, am I getting somewhere with this? You see, your best question is often the one prompted by the customer’s last answer. I want you to go deep versus wide. Salespeople frequently abandon opportunities too early because the prospect didn’t immediately respond or buy. Yeah, they just didn’t look. Uh, well, before looking for another lead, look deeper into existing relationships.

Mark Hunter :
There’s so much business, especially as we come into the 4th quarter right now. There’s so much business from existing customers that we can get. Are there other decision makers you should be meeting? Are there additional needs, locations, departments, or business units that you should be talking to? Could a current customer introduce you to someone else? Remember earlier how I said one of my metrics is I want to talk to people who can refer me? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Are stalled prospects truly unqualified, or have you failed to give them a compelling reason to answer? You see, oftentimes what happens is they’re stalled because you haven’t demonstrated enough volume— I mean, excuse me, you haven’t demonstrated enough value as to why they should move forward. One strong relationship may be worth More than 100 cold names. Evaluate your conversation before blaming your leads.

Mark Hunter :
This is what I, I’m going to kind of close here with this here. I can’t— after each sales call, you got to ask yourself, what did I learn that I didn’t know before? What did the customer learn? This is why I say LTS: learn, teach, sell. Remember this? I’ve shared this numerous times. Learn— every call I go in, I want to L, listen, learn. T, I want to teach them something. And S, I serve before I sell. Did we identify a measurable problem or desired outcome? Did I uncover the cost of not taking action? Did we agree on a specific next step? Does the customer have a reason to take that next step? If you can’t answer these questions, score yourself on these questions. Take those questions and score yourself on them.

Mark Hunter :
Be brutal with yourself. Because again, failing to address these, failing to get answers to these is the reason you have holes in your bucket. See, if you can’t answer these questions, the problem may not be your lead. Before adding 100 names to your prospecting list, review your last 10 sales conversations and ask yourself, did I create insight? Did I uncover urgency? Did I connect the problem to a business outcome? Did I earn a clear next step? Yeah, you’re gonna need leads. Prospecting always matters, but lead quantity can never compensate for poor conversation quality. Your next opportunity may not be hiding in a new list of leads. It may already be in your pipeline waiting for you to have a better conversation. I want you to, as a next step, go in, Look at your CRM system, look at those leads in there, and begin developing very specific questions for each one of those that you’re going to be asking them over the next week or 2.

Mark Hunter :
The idea is that before you go chasing new leads, look at the quality of what you have. And I’ll bet you have some even leads that you’ve qualified as prospects that, hmm, they may not be prospects because you may be smoking dope and jumping rope. See, this is why this questioning process is so critical. Hey, my name is Marc Hunter, The Sales Hunter, and you know, we’ve changed the format around starting in October, somewhere in October. We’re going to one episode a week like this with me with a single topic where we’re doing a deep dive and really giving you insights. I do this for one very simple reason, because I want to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible. Hey, if you’ve got a sales kickoff meeting coming up, I want you to call me right now. Reach out.

Mark Hunter :
Let’s have a conversation. Let me come into your organization And help you because I want to help you and your sales team. Would you do— and do me one other favor, leave me a review on your favorite podcast app. My name is Marc Hunter, The Sales Hunter. It is always great being able to share sales with you because that’s what I’m passionate about— great selling.

If you want to sell with integrity and avoid slashing margins you could have protected, it’s time to get honest about why you reach for that discount.

Let’s break down the seven steps that will help you defend your price, build trust, and win deals without resorting to unnecessary discounting.

1. Before lowering the price, find out why you want to lower it

The first question you need to answer is: What’s driving my urge to drop the price?

Too often, salespeople cut price just to avoid hearing “no.” That discomfort is real, but you can’t let it dictate your deal strategy. Ask yourself what’s really at play. Is there a legitimate change in the terms? Has the scope actually shifted? Or are you just uncomfortable with possible rejection? Remember, it’s okay to hear “no.” Trying to buy a “yes” with a discount only hurts you and your credibility.

2. A request for a discount does not prove your price is wrong

A customer asking for a discount is not evidence your price is off. It’s just a request. The reality? Many buyers ask for price cuts because it’s worked for them in the past, not because the offer isn’t fair.

Treat discount requests as the start of a conversation, not a verdict on your value. This is where you establish trust and stay committed to your value proposition.

3. Confidence comes from understanding the customer’s outcome

Confidence is built on clarity. If you really understand the customer’s desired outcome: their problem, the consequences, and the impact you can make, you’ll stand by your pricing with conviction.

If you don’t know why the customer needs to make a decision, it’s nearly impossible to feel confident about your offer. And if you’re not confident, the customer won’t be either. Dig until you fully understand the critical nature of their decision. When you do, resisting discount pressure suddenly gets a lot easier.

4. Ask what is behind the request

Instead of caving in, ask what’s driving the push for a lower price.

Is it a real budget constraint?
A competitor’s offer?
A different scope?
Or just habit?

The answer will guide your response. Maybe you need to remove something from your proposal to meet a budget. Maybe you simply need to highlight what you deliver that competitors don’t. But you’ll only find out by asking. You create value for your customer, and that’s worth defending.

5. Make sure the customer understands what they are comparing

Comparison shopping is a given, especially with big deals. But don’t let customers compare apples to oranges. Your job is to make sure they understand the differences. Are they weighing two-to four-year contracts? Considering varying levels of support or reliability?

Don’t let them make these judgments in a vacuum. Help them understand, plainly and factually, what sets you apart. Never bash the competition, instead lay out the facts clearly and help customers make more informed choices.

6. Protect price without overstating your value

Integrity matters. Don’t inflate what you can do to justify your price. Be accurate and honest in describing your value. You never need to make wild claims if your offer stands up on its own. Try creating an ROI worksheet, not just for your customer, but for yourself. Calculate the total cost of ownership and the genuine gains the customer receives. This simple step will boost your confidence and help you defend your price with integrity.

7. Prepare before your next price conversation

Preparation is your best defense against discounting under pressure. Before your next pricing discussion, write down three concrete outcomes your offer delivers. Then, craft one question designed to uncover the real objection.

When you can guide the customer to see, for themselves, the value you offer, you’re far more likely to close the sale at your true price. If you don’t believe in the value you deliver, no discount will fix that.

Discounting is easy. Defending your price takes courage and preparation. If you’re ready to sell with confidence and integrity, start here. Build real understanding, communicate real value, and prepare for those tough conversations. Great selling always starts with belief in yourself, and in what you offer.

5 Conversation Strategies that Fill Pipeline Better than Chasing Leads

Do you need better leads, or is it time for better conversations?

Find episode #457 wherever you download podcasts!

The Real Cost of Low Confidence in Sales

LIVE NEXT THURSDAY

Mark breaks down the subtle signs that show customers you doubt your own value.

Episode #458 is out NEXT THURSDAY!

Copyright 2026, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.

Earning the Right to a Response

Customers don’t owe anyone a reply. The burden is on the salesperson to earn that response. If there’s silence, it often means the message simply wasn’t relevant, urgent, or valuable enough to interrupt their day.

“Customers don’t owe you a response. You have to earn the response, and that is where the breakdown occurs.”

Forget the “Just Checking In” Routine

Empty follow-up messages kill momentum. “Just checking in” is not a strategy. Neither are emails asking if the proposal was reviewed or if there are any questions. These are self-serving, and customers know it.

Every follow-up must deliver value. That means sharing a new insight, a timely update, or a relevant question that helps the customer think differently.

“Your follow-up should include at least one of the following: a new insight, a new question, some new information, a customer example, a business issue they may not have considered, a consequence of waiting, a new opportunity.”

Get Specific. Get Personal.

Generic messages get ignored. Specific questions prompt action. Instead of weak asks like, “Any thoughts on this?” try, “When you look at the proposal, which is more important: reducing implementation time or minimizing disruption?”

Pull in the customer’s own words from earlier conversations. Referencing something they shared shows empathy, understanding, and attention to detail.

“Use their words. Go back to the original conversation you had with them. What did the customer tell you?”

Connect to Today’s Business Problems

If a solution doesn’t feel relevant to what’s happening right now, it drops to the bottom of the priority list. The follow-up must tie directly to what the customer is facing in the moment.

Highlight the cost of indecision. Ask, “What happens if you wait another 30 days?” or “How is this delay impacting your customers?” Make the price of inaction real and immediate.

Don’t Dump Information, Instead Spark a Conversation

Follow-ups should be short, sharp, and designed to trigger a reply, never a data dump that lets the customer make a decision without you. Limit emails to three or four sentences. The goal isn’t to educate, it’s to create interest and get a seat at the table.

Show Market Expertise

Bring insights from the wider industry, the customer’s competitors, or recent news. Position yourself as an expert, not just a vendor desperate for a response. When buyers see that level of understanding, they’re far more likely to re-engage.

When To Walk Away

Silence sometimes is the answer. If there’s no response after several meaningful follow-ups, don’t become the salesperson that clogs the inbox with nagging reminders. Know when to go quiet. Save energy for high-value opportunities, and be ready to reconnect when circumstances change.

Test Every Message Before Sending

Before hitting send, pause. Ask, “If I were the customer, would I reply to this?” If the answer is no, rewrite it. Add more insight or a better question. Every message should move the customer forward, not just keep the deal on life support.

Stop accusing customers of ghosting when there’s been no real reason to respond. It’s not about following up, it’s about earning the right to the next conversation.

Mark Hunter :
Is the customer really ghosting you, or did you just simply not give them a reason to get in touch with you? Hey, it’s your fault, not the customer’s. And the show begins right now. You’re listening to the Sales Hunter Podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a sales leader sell with confidence and integrity. And now here’s your host. Customers don’t owe you a response. They don’t. You have to earn the response, and that is where the breakdown occurs. You see, the customer’s ghosting you because you didn’t give them a reason.

Mark Hunter :
You didn’t earn the response. Too many salespeople label a customer as ghosting when the real issue is there just wasn’t. So hey, let’s get— let’s cut to the chase. Let’s get into it. First of all, let’s stop blaming the customer, okay? Let’s just get that off the table right now. And I know this is how you’re feeling. You’ve had— you maybe have had a great conversation. Maybe they seemed interested.

Mark Hunter :
You sent the proposal, you followed up, you— nothing. You followed up again, nothing, nothing. Hey, come on, they didn’t ghost you. You did not provide the value that they were looking for when they needed it, how they needed it. You see, here’s the question: did they ghost you, or did you not provide them what they’re looking for at that time. You see, here it is. Customer being silent doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not interested. It doesn’t, doesn’t.

Mark Hunter :
It may mean that your message isn’t important enough for them to interrupt their day. You see, you’re not delivering timely value. This is why just checking in is not a sales strategy. I hate that. Every day I get an email from somebody that says, I’m just checking in. Forget it. That’s not what you’re doing. You see, Or saying, oh, I wanted to see if you had any questions, or I wanted to bounce this to the top of your list, circling back, all of those pieces.

Mark Hunter :
What’s missing? It’s value. Okay, here’s the deal. Every one of those messages is asking the customer to do something for you. You need to be asking them, what can you do for them? You see, you’ve got to be giving them an update of value. Instead, what you need to be asking is, what am I giving them that makes responding worthwhile? Okay, now that’s not what you’re asking the customer, but you got to ask yourself this because every follow-up needs a reason. Before you send the follow-up, ask yourself, why would the customer respond to this message today? And this is critical— today. And I’ll unpack this more in a bit. You see, your follow-up should include at least one of the following.

Mark Hunter :
It’s got to be a new insight. It’s got to be a new question. It’s got to be some new information. A customer example, a business issue they may not have considered, a consequence of waiting, a new opportunity. It could be any number of things. But here’s, here’s the thing. Your inquiry to them, your email to them, your message to them needs to be short, 3 to 4 lines. This is absolutely critical.

Mark Hunter :
Now, here’s where I’m going with this. You are trying to provide the customer with enough information to where they’ll respond to you. You see, you don’t want to send them so much information they can make a decision without you. No, what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to spark interest and have them see you as somebody they need to talk to. This is why I say it’s only 3 to 4 sentences, period. Because again, what I’m doing is I’m creating interest. Now, if you’ve gone through this pattern with the customer, you’ve done this half a dozen times, and I’ll dig into more More of this in just a bit. Then yeah, you can start sharing with them more, more information, but not too much more, because again, you’ve got to make sure that you get the conversation.

Mark Hunter :
Your goal is not to educate them without having them talk to you. Now, you see, if you’re not bringing something new to the conversation, don’t expect the customer to bring something new back to you, right? Think about this, right? You want the customer to respond, but you haven’t given them— see, here’s the thing. This is why I say don’t ask, you know, uh, if, if you have any thoughts. You can ask better questions. You know, a weak question is, have you had a chance to review the proposal? They can ignore that. Instead, what you want to ask is something like this: hey, when you look at the proposal, which is more important to you, reducing the implementation time or minimizing disruption? Now, you notice what I did was I asked a question. And framed it around the critical needs. I framed it around timely critical needs.

Mark Hunter :
And this is what’s absolutely— this is where so many salespeople miss out. They may have a very viable solution, very viable option, but if it doesn’t address what the customer is working on right now, it doesn’t work. You see, here’s another good question that you can respond. You mentioned getting this solved before Q4. Is critical. Is that timing still important? See, now I’m asking them for a straight up yes or no, and I’m trying to get clarification on this. And that’s okay. That’s okay.

Mark Hunter :
But what I’m doing is I’m helping them see that I care about your business right now. Here’s another one. What’s the biggest issue keeping this from moving forward? You know, this, and you may have to unpack what this is. Again, I, I’ve done this many, many times. I’ve had solutions that I know I can provide, and I’ve had to stop and ask because, because they’re not responding. What’s the critical issue? And, and they may say, hey, it’s not in the budget for this year, or it’s not fine. That’s okay. But what I’m getting is I’m at least getting them to respond.

Mark Hunter :
Specific questions create responses. Generic questions create silence. This is why I say, hey, any thoughts on this? You know, what’s your view on this? That’s just too generic. I can ask that of them when I’m face-to-face with them on a Teams call, Zoom call, face-to-face, whatever. But I can’t ask that in an email or any kind of a message. No, it just doesn’t work. I’ve got to be very, very specific and dialed into where they’re at. Now, the other piece is I want to use the customer’s own words.

Mark Hunter :
Use their words. Go back to the original conversation you had with them. What did the customer tell you? Your follow-up email may be, may be specifically, you mentioned this, and how is this going to impact this? In other words, you literally play back to them what they shared with you. Now, this is incredibly valuable. In a voicemail because I can demonstrate a little bit of empathy. I can demonstrate a little bit of understanding, but I’m talking more about here in terms of an email. You see, here’s the whole thing. Maybe they said we need to get costs under control, or our team is stretched, we can’t afford another delay, our current supplier.

Mark Hunter :
Okay, so in the follow-up, you can sit there and say, Deb, when we spoke, you mentioned The delays were costing your team nearly a day each week. Has that improved or is it still an issue? Or, hey, how about this one? Deb, when we spoke, you mentioned the delays were costing you a day each week. How is that impacting your customers? In other words, now what I’m doing is I’m referencing something that they shared with you and I’m playing back to them specifically and ask them a question on it. You see, I’m no longer checking in. I’m giving them some insight. Now, you may share with them some insights. You mentioned that this is a critical— this is a delay that’s impacting X, and I see where Y, a competitor, is coming out with something. Yeah.

Mark Hunter :
See, now what I’m doing is I’m not only playing back to them what they shared with me, but I’m building on it. By creating a sense of urgency because I’m understanding what’s happening in the marketplace with a competitor. This is where understanding what’s going on in the marketplace, in the industry that they’re, that they’re playing in, is absolutely critical. Because what you’re doing is you’re, you’re continuing the conversation about their problem and demonstrating to them that you truly know a lot more. That’s absolutely key because The critical issue is they may say, I don’t need to work with you, I can go work with somebody else. But if I can, in my follow-up messages— and again, I got to keep them short, got to keep them tight— demonstrate to them that I understand the industry, I understand their customers, I understand their competitors, this helps separate me from somebody else. Because remember, information has been democratized because of AI. It has.

Mark Hunter :
Everybody has availability to all kinds of information. What I’m trying to get to now is I’m trying to get to where you, the customer, see me as not only having information— it’s been democratized— but I know what to do with it. I can help you with it. This is what’s absolutely key because again, many times the customer has an issue, but they can go someplace else to get it solved. See, you have to be seen as the expert. And this is why I, I love putting in there one sentence of, here’s what I’m seeing elsewhere in the industry. I’m sharing a little bit of my commentary because now what I’m doing is I’m, I’m delivering to them something that begs their response, but I’m also positioning my— me as an expert in their space. That is going to increase the likelihood of them responding to me significantly.

Mark Hunter :
This is why generic responses, generic follow-up messages just don’t cut it. Take a few minutes. You got to craft the message because here’s a— here’s the other thing that you can really play, play in on, and that is make the cost of doing nothing visible for the customer. In other words, Customers don’t always feel urgency because salespeople don’t help them see the cost of waiting. We don’t play that out. I, again, I love doing this. You can ask, what happens if you wait another 30 days? What happens if these orders don’t get shipped? What happens if this expansion doesn’t get done in context of your other initiatives you have going on. You see, what I did there was I tied in what I’m selling in conjunction with a bigger piece of the picture.

Mark Hunter :
And I can find the bigger piece of picture by looking at their annual reports, their quarterly earnings. I look at what’s happening in the industry. You see, what I want to try to do is I want them to see what the cost of the problem is. What’s the problem cost? Many times they don’t fully understand. They don’t fully understand what the cost is. And now this is where stories can come into play. I do not recommend sharing stories in follow-up messages where I’m trying to unghost a customer. No, no, I gotta save that story for when I have them face to face, online, something of that nature.

Mark Hunter :
Then I should— you know, I was working with a company recently, similar industry, That, and, and I can share the story with them of what happens, of what could happen if they don’t respond now. You see, there may be an opportunity cost that they’re missing. There may be an additional risk that they are facing. You see, your follow-up might easily say, when we talked, you estimated this problem was costing you about $10,000 per month. Waiting another quarter is a $30,000 decision. Now, for a lot of companies, $10,000 per month issue is not, not a problem, but it may be $1 million, it may be $2 million, maybe $5 million. See, what I’m looking for is I’m looking for them to see from me enough pain as to how I can help them. When I do that, then there is a reason for them to respond.

Mark Hunter :
See, urgency isn’t created by us, the salesperson, needing the deal. Urgency is not created by us. It’s quarter end, it’s month end, it’s year end. No, that’s not urgency. Urgency comes from the customer understanding the cost, the real cost of not acting. And I’ll tell you what’s interesting. Many times the customer doesn’t really realize this. They are so caught up in their world.

Mark Hunter :
They’re so caught up in all their things that they don’t realize that. Now, you also got to know the customer’s ghosting you. You got to know when to walk away. There are times when you do need to walk away. Yeah. Don’t become the salesperson who’s sending 14 emails every other day saying, just moving this to the top of your inbox. No, that At some point, silence is information. Now, there’s a response that you can send.

Mark Hunter :
I do not like doing this, but I’m going to share it. Then I’m going to share with you what I prefer doing. So you could send, you know, the customer a note. Hey, it looks like this isn’t a priority right now. I’ll close this out on my end. If circumstances change, I’m happy to reconnect. I hate doing that. Now ironically, this oftentimes gets a response.

Mark Hunter :
What I tend to do is I just go silent. I just simply stop sending them messages. Now the length of time is going to be contingent upon the size of the opportunity. In other words, if it’s a small opportunity, I’m not going to chase you very long, but if it’s a big opportunity, I’m going to chase you for a long time. But what I’ll do is make them appoint time When I’ve just gone silent, I’ve gone silent and I’m going to wait until there’s a big opportunity, until big change in news, big— maybe there’s a change in the company, change in something. Then I’ll start reaching out to them again. Remember, the challenge I want to leave you with before you send your next follow-up, stop and ask yourself, if I were the customer, would I respond to this? The answer is no, don’t hit send. Add an insight, ask a better question.

Mark Hunter :
Remember, bring something new. Stop accusing the customer of ghosting you when you haven’t given them a reason to respond. And remember, your job isn’t to follow up. Your job is to move the customer forward. Hey, I’m Marc Hunter of The Sales Center. You’ve been listening to The Sales Center Podcast. My whole goal is to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible. If you’ve got an SKO meeting coming up, reach out.

Mark Hunter :
I want to be part of it. I want to be part of your next sales kickoff meeting because I can come in, I can share with you strategies. And of course, my new book, Integrity First Selling, pick it up. Hey, I’m Marc Haine of The Sales Hunter. Great selling.

Too many salespeople confuse activity with progress, and pipeline quantity with pipeline quality. It’s time to cut through the wishful thinking and build a pipeline that actually deserves to close.

Let’s break down the roadblocks and habits that hold most pipelines back, and get you moving toward stronger, more dependable results.

1. A name in your CRM is not automatically an opportunity.

This is where the rot usually starts. Just because you’ve added a contact to your CRM, sent a proposal, or had a friendly conversation, doesn’t mean you’ve found a real opportunity. Real deals begin with a compelling reason the customer actually cares about.

A contact record is nothing more than a placeholder until you know exactly why the customer might decide to change. Don’t let your CRM fill up with ghosts and wishful thinking. Anchor every opportunity in a genuine business case.

2. Separate your enthusiasm from the customer’s commitment.

It’s easy to fall in love with your own deals. The excitement of a big account, a smooth call, or a positive meeting can fool even the most seasoned rep. But your enthusiasm doesn’t close deals, rather the customer’s commitment does.

Ask yourself: What actions has the customer taken? Have they sent you information, shown up for meetings, or revealed their internal hurdles? Until they take tangible steps, you’re chasing your own excitement, not a true opportunity. Make customer actions—not your gut feeling—the test for qualification.

3. Ask the questions you’re tempted to avoid.

Softball questions are safe. They keep conversations pleasant and risk-free, but they never get to the real truth. The best salespeople aren’t afraid to go where it gets uncomfortable.

Ask the tough questions:

• What could prevent this from moving forward?
• Where does this rank against other initiatives?
• What happens if this problem stays unsolved?

If you’re only asking what’s easy, you’re only getting the surface. Dig deeper. The hard questions reveal whether you really have a deal or just a prospect who’s being polite.

4. A real opportunity needs a customer outcome.

Can you clearly state what your customer actually wants to achieve? Not what you’re selling, but what outcome they truly care about?

If the only story you can tell is about your offer’s features, you haven’t uncovered an opportunity. You’re just pitching. Connect everything back to the customer’s desired results and why it matters to them. Until that outcome is clear, the deal remains shaky, no matter how promising the surface details appear.

5. Every opportunity needs a next step both sides have agreed to.

It’s not enough to plan a follow-up “sometime soon.” The strength of your pipeline depends on clear, mutual next steps. Both you and the customer need to agree explicitly on what happens next and when.

If only you are driving the process, it’s not truly moving forward. Get your customer to confirm a next meeting, share information, or take an action. Mutual commitment separates real opportunities from wishful thinking.

6. Be willing to move an opportunity out of your forecast.

Protect your pipeline’s integrity, even if it means making tough calls. Don’t be afraid to remove deals that have gone stale, lost momentum, or never had real substance in the first place.

A clogged pipeline does more harm than good. If you’re keeping weak opportunities just to look busy or keep management happy, you’re only fooling yourself. Clear out any deal that doesn’t pass the test. This creates space for stronger, better qualified opportunities that actually deserve your attention.

7. Review your five largest opportunities.

Here’s your challenge: Review your five biggest deals right now:

• Can you clearly identify the customer’s real desired outcome?
• Is there hard evidence of commitment on their part?
• Is there a next step you both have agreed to?

If any of these are missing, be honest with yourself about how real that deal actually is. Forget about budgets for a moment. If the problem matters enough, customers find a budget. The real litmus test is urgency and action on their end.

Your pipeline should paint a picture of what your customers are actually doing, not what you hope will happen. It’s time to cut the fluff, drill deep, and create a pipeline that reflects real progress.

That’s how you stop settling for wishful thinking and start building predictable, powerful results.

Your Follow-Ups Are Boring & Why Clients Disappear

Is your customer really ghosting you or did you give them no reason to respond?

Find episode #456 wherever you download podcasts!

SNEAK PEEK: UP NEXT WEEK

Episode #457 is out NEXT THURSDAY!!

Sales isn’t about mass outreach or automation. The future belongs to those who can build trust, contribute value, and create authentic relationships. Here’s how to get there.

Trust Is the Real Differentiator

Social media makes connecting easy. But customers want more than a connection. They’re searching for trust and authenticity.

“The future of sales is bright when you put the customer first.”

It’s not about how many people are in your network, but about how valuable you are to those networks. The best sales pros contribute, share, and help their communities. In an era crowded by AI-generated content, trust is the currency that matters most.

Customers are skeptical. They’re bombarded by information, much of it fake or generic. More than ever, real integrity and authenticity stand out.

The Importance of Micro-Markets

Forget the old mass marketing mentality. Smart selling is all about micro-markets: tight, focused groups where sellers can be seen and valued.

“Let AI have the mass stuff.”

Work backward from your own “5, 25, 100, 1,000” strategy. Build a list of the 25 most important people to your business: referral sources, decision makers, subject matter experts. Invest time where it counts. The wide net is for AI. The deep relationships are for top performers.

Why Trade Shows and Conferences Matter More Than Ever

In the face of digital overload, opportunities for in-person connection are gold. Trade shows and conferences used to be about volume. Now, they’re about targeted conversations.

“Trade shows and conferences more than ever are an ability for you to interface and the ability for customers to interface with more customers than ever.”

No one said you need a booth. The real magic happens off the show floor when sellers create authentic conversations and build trust face-to-face. These events are prime territory for meaningful networking, referrals, and deep customer learning.

Authentic Relationships Create Referrals

Referrals aren’t just based on transactions, but on genuine relationships. It’s about understanding customer needs at a deeper level and being ready to serve.

People want to do business with those they trust and respect. The shortcut? There isn’t one. It requires real work via calls, meetings, relationship-building.

Quality Beats Quantity in Outreach

Spraying emails and texts may feel productive, but it’s the fastest route to irrelevance. Customers know when a message isn’t personal. Mass outreach can (and will) be replaced by AI. Double down on high-value, intentional outreach to your core group.

Ask the hard question: Is your sales mission focused on serving people, or just on selling product? Real sales is about helping others see what’s possible and reaching those who truly need value.

AI: Tool, Not Threat

AI isn’t the enemy. It’s a tool. It gives knowledge, insights, and efficiency. But it doesn’t build trust, start conversations, or make sales happen. Allow it to amplify your reach and refine your focus, but never let it replace your personal touch.

Become Findable and Referable

Today’s referrals happen online as much as in person. Being findable on LinkedIn, in industry groups, and in AI-powered searches makes it easy for others to point in your direction.

Build a story of authority. Develop referenceability everywhere your customers look, but don’t let online fame replace real relationship-building. “Internet rich and sales poor” is a trap.

Focus on phone calls, value-driven content, and real conversations. That’s what builds a reputation that gets referrals flowing before you’ve even met a prospect.

The Bright Future Is Yours to Build

Put the customer first. Focus on the people you get to serve, not just the product you sell. Invest in integrity, targeted outreach, and building authority.

Sales is brighter than ever for those willing to embrace what AI can’t do and to double down on real human connection.

The strongest sellers aren’t those with the widest reach or the slickest tech stack, but those who create the most value and trust with their customers. That’s the future of sales.

Mark Hunter :
What is the future of sales? Let me tell you something. It’s not doom and gloom. We have a lot to look forward to because the best parts of sales are going to continue forever. I’m going to unpack it. The show begins right now.

Speaker B :
You’re listening to the Sales Hunter Podcast with Marc Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a sales leader sell with confidence and integrity.

Mark Hunter :
And now, here’s your host. Hey, the future of sales. Don’t go wigging out thinking AI is going to take over everything. Oh, it is taking over everything. But there are some key elements that AI will never, ever take over. In fact, it will actually enhance. And that’s what I want to talk about right now because the future of sales is very promising if you embrace these. Let’s get right to the chase.

Mark Hunter :
Trust matters more than ever. You see, here’s what’s interesting. It’s about creating connections. It’s about building networks. It’s about being referable. But wait, it’s more than just being connected. Because again, social media allows anyone to connect to anybody. It does.

Mark Hunter :
I mean, again, you can have all the connections in the world and you can build big networks. It’s about creating networks that you’re contributing to and being valuable, being a part of. A few weeks ago, I did a podcast regarding the key concept of your 5, your 25, your 100, and even your 1,000. And I’m going to encourage you to go back and Listen to it. Because again, this is not a mass market. It is a micro market. That is the future of sales. Let AI have the mass stuff.

Mark Hunter :
Let them have that. But I’ll tell you what, customers more than ever are looking for people they can trust. You see, sales has developed a pretty bad reputation. Let’s not kid ourselves. Okay? Can we just cut to the chase? And unfortunately, AI is probably going to make it worse because it’s going to expose everything. It’s not a— in fact, I think it’s going to expose the evil, the dark side of everything, because it’s going to really expose, uh, truth for what it really is. And believe me, you’re not gonna be able to blow smoke. And 2, it’s going to create so much noise.

Mark Hunter :
And that’s the whole thing. You see, AI increases the level of noise. And this is where integrity— and it’s one of the reasons I recently wrote the book Integrity First Selling. If you haven’t picked up a copy of it, grab a copy of it, because Integrity is what people are looking for. Again, because AI can create so many fake messages, so many fake personas, so many fake of everything. It can make anybody seem anybody they want to. And believe me, this is only going to accelerate even more. So it creates the need for authenticity.

Mark Hunter :
Now, here’s what’s going to change with regards to the selling process. Trade shows and conferences are actually going to become more important than ever. Whoa, what did he just say? Yeah, trade shows and conferences. And why? Because it’s the ability for people to go belly to belly, face to face. You see, one of the things that COVID kind of exposed to us was the sheer cost of making sales calls, getting on an airplane, driving across town, driving for hours, whatever it might be. But it created a tremendous amount of hard cost and soft cost in terms of time, which is really a hard cost. Trade shows and conferences more than ever are an ability for you to interface and the ability for customers to interface with more customers than ever. And this is why I say trade shows and conferences have to be part of your sales mix going forward.

Mark Hunter :
Now, this isn’t about, you know, I got to have a booth, I got to exhibit. No, no. Yeah, if it fits, fine, do it. But it’s about creating conversations. It’s about letting people see you authentically. Because again, this is the way referrals are going to take place. Remember in the first piece, I said how trust is so important. And it is.

Mark Hunter :
And you’re going to create referrals. And so, you don’t create referrals without authentic relationships. Because here’s the whole thing. Authentic relationships allow you to understand from the customer more what their needs are. Now remember, studies are consistently showing that 60% of all salespeople are missing their quota, missing their quota. They’re not making their number. Something’s not working. See, it’s broken.

Mark Hunter :
And studies are consistently showing that over 75% of all customers don’t really want to talk to a salesperson. And there are many, many studies out there that state that customers feel salespeople bring nothing to the party. That means we’ve got a disconnect. That means we’ve got to slow down. We’ve got to slow down and we’ve got to narrow our prospecting funnel. We’ve got to narrow our prospecting funnel. We just can’t be throwing crap out there. Now again, AI allows us to, to create posts and create commentary, and I know people that are sending thousands of emails out every day.

Mark Hunter :
Let me tell you something, that’s going to come back and backfire on you very quickly, very quickly. Because again, people want to do business with who they trust and respect. You see, buyers are more informed than ever, and as a result of being more informed, they’re more skeptical than ever. It goes back to the, the numbers I just shared with you. Right now. Okay, it’s a blinding flash, the obvious. I get it. So what this means is it’s going to take more information, more insights, more demonstrations of you and who you are that they feel are genuine.

Mark Hunter :
Not disingenuous, but absolute genuine, where they feel this is you. You see, this is where AI is going to come into play to actually help you, because AI is going to give you knowledge, give you expertise, give you insights and so forth regarding industry, customers, etc., etc. But it’s going to be for you to interpret that and use that. And again, this is a big change from where we’ve been. Oh no, it’s not a big change from where we’ve been. It actually goes right back around to where we were before AI. You see, the future of sales is realizing that AI is just another tool, much like The internet. Remember when the internet came on the scene? Many of you are old enough to remember when AI came on the scene and really became big, you know, the early 2000s.

Speaker B :
Yeah.

Mark Hunter :
And we thought that was going to change everything. It didn’t. It didn’t change everything. What it did was it augmented things, it simplified things. Yeah, it complicated something. And this is what AI is doing. AI is just the next generation of it. Relax.

Mark Hunter :
I’m going to encourage you The future of sales is about you developing genuine relationships. Now, I, I told you earlier about the 5-25-100, and I’ll just share a few more insights on that, basically on the 25 and the 100. I want you to build out your list right now of who are the 25 people. Who are the 25 people that can impact your business the most? Who are the 25 people who can refer you? Who are the 25 people who you can do business with? Who are the 25 people who are subject matter experts, etc., etc. These, these are the 25 people that you got to zero in on. You got to zero in on them. You have to zero in on them. Then as time allows, you, you build yourself out and you begin creating that list of 100, which are, which are really people who are auditioning to become part of the 25.

Mark Hunter :
But if you’re sitting there saying, I’ve got to send 500 emails out I’ve got to, I’ve got to do, you know, 300 text messages or whatever. No, no, AI will replace you. And what you’re doing is you’re succumbing to the belief that AI has already replaced you because AI can do that. And AI can do that. AI can do that far better than you can. Oh man, they can do it so well, it’s unbelievable. So you got to stop and ask yourself this question. Where’s my sales process? Is my sales process focused around my product or is it around the people I serve? And this is a question that I challenge everybody in sales.

Mark Hunter :
Ask yourself, is my sales process and my sales mission focused around the people who I get to help? You know, years ago I began using a line that, that sales, the definition of sales is helping others see and achieve what they didn’t think was possible. And my definition of prospecting is helping, you know, if, if you know you can help someone, you owe it to them to reach out to them. And I firmly believe that. And in an AI world, that actually becomes easier to do. You see, the future of sales is not locked up with AI. The future of sales is unlocked with AI, because now you have the tools to help you identify and become smarter in terms of understanding who are your 25 and who are auditioning in the 100 to potentially become part of your 25. What this does is it allows you to go deeper with those customers. This is— this changes how you look at trade shows.

Mark Hunter :
This changes how you look at conferences. Because rather than having the, the trade show booth where you’ve got hundreds of people streaming past and you’re just hoping to snag somebody, now you’re at a trade show or conference and you’re looking to have sit-down meetings with those 3, 4, 5, 6 people. You’re looking to create relationships with very specific targets because you’ve done the pre-work to get them there. You know, you’ve identified that they’re going to be there, and you’re— and, and you, and you hopefully have created a time to physically meet. But if you haven’t, you at least know they’re going to be there, and you’re going to make sure that your paths cross and you create an ability to have a conversation. You see, the future of sales is about relationships more than ever. Now let me come back, and I want to talk something about— because I just went very briefly past it regarding social media and, and referrals. Let me tell you something, this is going to become key.

Mark Hunter :
Referrals going forward in, in the future of sales is more important than ever. But you become easier to refer the easier you’re findable out there on AI, and the easier it is for people to find sources of value that say you’re, you’re valuable. And this may be other sites that reference you. This might be industry papers, association sites that that reference you or talk about you, or maybe your own sites. You see, what’s absolutely fascinating is your level of referrals go up exponentially because you won’t even know people are referring you. Because what they’re doing is they’re saying, hey, check out Mark Hunter. Yeah, just go out to LinkedIn or go out to, you know, go out to YouTube or go out to, you know, podcasts and check them out. And what happens is people do that, and that’s a very easy way for people to be referred.

Mark Hunter :
And people are— we’ll say in a conversation with somebody else, they say, you know, I got a challenge with that. I, I found that this guy Mark Hunter had, had the answer. Check it out. You should check out his podcast or check out his book. Check— this is the future of sales because you are seen as the authoritative expert. So what I want you to do is I want you to look at where, where you’re spending your prospecting time, your selling time, and what’s the commonality there, and how do you begin creating an authoritative story that you can share, an authoritative story that you can put out there. Now, don’t do that at the expense of not making your phone calls to your 25, not developing relationships with your 25, etc. No, no, this is just a side piece.

Mark Hunter :
Because again, I’ve seen so many people, what they do is they become, become internet rich and sales poor. So there’s a balance. Don’t become sales poor. You got to keep making those calls. God, got to keep doing that, doing that work. But what you’re doing is all those calls that you’re making, you are looking to find those 25. And as you continue to build more content and referenceability, and, and it’s not just from an SEO, search engine optimization, but it’s AEO and, um, answer engine optimization. In other words, not only is just plain Google search finding you, but AI is finding you too, finding your company.

Mark Hunter :
Because what this does is it makes you easier to refer and you become the authoritative expert even before you’ve had the conversation with them. This is where you get the customer. This is where you get the customers. Hey, I’m ready to do business with you. And yet they don’t, yet you have really not even talked with them. Now I’m not saying to circumvent the sales process, but boy, it sure makes it easier. The future of sales is bright. It starts with you being focused not on your product, but on the people you get to serve and how you get to serve them.

Mark Hunter :
Hey, check out my book, Integrity First Selling, would you? It’s packed full. People are loving it. They’re absolutely, because again, it’s showing you how to sell in today’s world. And here’s what it’s all about. The future of sales is bright when you put the customer first. I do 2 episodes a week, one like this, and second episode is where I have a subject matter expert and we do a deep dive on topic. The Sales Center Podcast. I do it same reason as my definition of sales, to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible.

Mark Hunter :
Hey, would you do me one more favor? If you’re having an SKO coming up, Next year, call, call me. Let’s talk. Let’s talk about your SKO, would you? If you’re having a sales meeting of any type here, here in the fall, whatever, call me. I want to be part of it, whether it be in person, whether it be online, whatever. And hey, I’ll see you in the next episode. My name is Marc Haine of The Sales Center. Great selling.

More than ever, people crave real connection. Don’t let technology rob you or your customers of authenticity.

AI Can Create, But You Must Decide

AI can churn out options. Scripts. Emails. Talking points. But it can’t make decisions for you. Responsibility for what you say, what you send, how you show up—that’s yours and yours alone.

Treat AI like the starting point. Never the finish line. The message isn’t truly yours until you own it, shape it, and stand by it.

Efficiency Is Not the Same as Trust

AI can help you work faster. The workload lightens, the pace quickens. But efficiency is not trust, and it never will be.

A slick message means nothing without honesty, relevance, and real understanding. You want trust? Put yourself into every communication. People know the difference.

Don’t Automate the Relationship

Let AI help with prep work. Use it to shape your thinking, build your presentations, and pull together the facts. But never let it take your place.

Human connections can’t be automated. Your relationships aren’t a workflow. If you hand off that responsibility, you lose the power to influence and connect. Customers know, and they care.

Personalization Is More Than a Name

Personalization doesn’t mean starting an email with “Dear .” Machines have been doing that for years. It’s surface-level, and your customer can smell the difference instantly.

Real personalization is knowing your customer. Understanding their needs, their pain points, what matters most to them. AI can gather information, but you bring the insight. Never delegate this.

Never Pretend to Know

AI can sound confident even when it’s dead wrong. Don’t fall for it. Never pretend you know more than you do. Customers are sharp. They’ll spot the act immediately.

Always verify. Double-check the facts. Never take AI’s word as gospel. Your credibility is on the line every time you open your mouth.

Your Promises Still Belong to You

Don’t push blame onto technology. If you make a commitment, you own it. Your promises aren’t automated. If something needs to be done, get it done. Excuses erode trust faster than anything else.

Use AI to Prepare Better

AI is a fantastic prep tool. Let it help you research, organize your thoughts, and anticipate tough questions. Walk into your customer meetings sharper and smarter.

But remember, it’s only a tool. It prepares you, it never replaces you.

Keep Your Voice in the Message

If the message doesn’t sound like you, scrap it. Customers want to hear from a real human. AI-generated content is everywhere. What stands out is your authentic voice.

Edit every message until it rings true. If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t send it via email.

Integrity Is the Differentiator

Integrity is your edge. It’s what sets you apart and gives customers a reason to trust you. AI can fill the world with noise, but only you can bring credibility and real connection.

Sales is about relationships, now more than ever. When you lead with integrity, everyone wins: your customers, your team, and you.

Don’t hand your reputation to a machine. Use AI wisely. Lean into what only you can do. Authenticity over automation, every time.

The Only Sales Skills AI Can’t Beat

Discover why the future of sales is brighter than you think.

Find episode #455 wherever you download podcasts!

Next Week Sneak Peek!

Your Follow-Ups Are Boring & Why Clients Disappear

Episode #456 is out NEXT THURSDAY!

Copyright 2026, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.

On a recent episode of The Sales Hunter Podcast, Mark welcomed Sam Richter, a leading expert in sales intelligence and digital prospecting, to tackle a problem every seller faces: response rates are tanking, and inboxes are overflowing with robotic outreach.

What separates meaningful prospecting from the generic noise? Sam shares why most sales efforts look and feel inhuman, and exactly how to rewire your approach.

Join Mark & Sam for a practical 45-minute webinar on preparing for sales conversations that earn attention and build trust.

Register now to grab your spot!

Are You Just Blasting Out Emails?

The days of treating every name in the CRM the same are over.

Sam Richter calls out the core problem: too many reps are chasing silver bullets, searching for the perfect sequence or automation tool that will flood their calendars with meetings. But the reality, Sam warns, is much different. “Everybody’s looking for a magic silver bullet, and the reality is one doesn’t exist.”

The first fix? Know the difference between suspects and prospects. Suspects are everyone you could possibly target. They fit a demographic, but you don’t know if they care. True prospects have shown actual interest by responding, downloading something, or raising a hand.

Most reps treat them the same, blasting out slightly personalized scripts at scale. This results in “very stupid prospecting emails… not about me but about the salesperson,” as Mark calls it.

Lists vs. Lasers: Precision Over Volume

If it feels like activity metrics are driving your team, you’re not alone. But dialing for dollars no longer gets results. As Sam frames it, “A list is somebody who fits a demographic profile. A laser is someone who you really know that what you sell can help them achieve their goals more efficiently, effectively, profitably than they might be able to do on their own.”

Top sellers dial in on laser targets: people who are both relevant and reachable, not just names pulled from LinkedIn. Instead of sending everyone the same webinar invite or white paper, they filter by sales triggers and intent.

The Right Way to Personalize (It’s Not What You Think)

It’s tempting to let AI tools scrape LinkedIn and spit out “personalized” messages, but buyers see through this immediately. Generic “I saw your recent post” openings fool no one.

Instead, show genuine understanding. Sam recommends the THEM-US-FIT-PROOF framework:

• THEM: Do you understand what they care about?
• US: Do you know your own product’s strengths?
• FIT: Can you help them succeed better than before?
• PROOF: Have you delivered for someone just like them?

Prospecting isn’t rocket science, just disciplined research and authentic outreach. “If you haven’t read my post, don’t tell me you’ve read my post. I don’t care…I know you’re lying. I can tell,” Sam says.

Funnel Focus: Spend Time Where It Matters

Your time is your most valuable resource. Chasing 10,000 contacts delivers little ROI if you can’t move prospects to the next stage. The most effective sellers do deeper homework earlier, qualifying and customizing their approach for the right subset.

Today, technology and AI make researching prospects easier than ever. Sam’s approach: “It’s not a search engine. It’s a them engine.” Use every tool to learn what truly matters to your top targets before ever sending a message or scheduling a call.

The secret isn’t spending more hours, but spending them where it counts. As Sam puts it, “If your people aren’t using tools…that salesperson ought to be fired. What it’s showing is they don’t care.”

Where Real Value and Job Security Come From

With AI accelerating, there’s a myth that tech will replace sellers. Sam flatly rejects this: “AI cannot connect with a human. AI cannot build trust. AI doesn’t have wisdom…Those are the areas that I think a salesperson has to be focusing on moving forward.”

The job isn’t to peddle widgets, but to understand outcomes. Why is the buyer considering this solution now? What challenge are they trying to solve? As Mark shared, “It’s not the widget, it’s what the widget does. It’s the outcome of the widget. This is where sales is going.”

Rethink Your Prospecting Math

Here’s a simple formula every sales pro should know, courtesy of Sam:

1. Number of people you reach (suspects)
2. Percentage that move to interested (prospects)
3. Percentage you actually close
4. Average order size

Chasing more suspects with mass emails won’t move your win rate. The big lever is converting interested prospects to wins through relevance, trust, and true understanding.

Or, as Sam sums up: “I’d rather make fewer calls to the right people with the right message at the right time.”

Human Selling Wins Now More Than Ever

The future of prospecting isn’t robotic. It’s strategic, human, and value-driven. AI helps you research faster, but your advantage as a seller is being the expert, building relationships, and guiding buyers to solutions that matter.

The sellers who will win aren’t the ones who work twice as hard—they’re the ones who work on what matters.

“Sales Hunter Podcast is designed for one thing: to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible.”

Ready to leave the robot prospecting behind? Get genuine, go deeper, and watch your results change.

Mark Hunter :
Why are you getting fewer and fewer responses to your prospecting emails? And why are you receiving more and more— hey, it’s time we really call out the elephant in the room. That’s the topic. I got a great guest today, and we’re going to dive into it. And the show begins right now.

Sam Richter :
You’re listening to the Sales Hunter Podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a sales leader sell with confidence and integrity. And now here’s your host.

Mark Hunter :
Already today I’ve received half a dozen very stupid prospecting emails, not about me but about the salesperson. And oh, helping me today, Sam Richter. He is literally, without a doubt, probably the best individual possible to help dissect this problem. Why am I talking? Let’s get him on, on the show right now. Sam, welcome.

Sam Richter :
How you doing, Mark?

Mark Hunter :
I’m doing great. You do so much work behind the scenes in really helping? Because this is, this is a problem. Uh, we don’t know who we’re prospecting, we don’t know who we’re reaching out to. And what are the challenges that you find salespeople are dealing with to try to get to the right, you know, the right decision maker?

Sam Richter :
Yeah, I think the, the first part is everybody’s looking for a magic silver bullet, and the reality is one doesn’t exist. I think one of the things that salespeople have to do is delineate between suspects and and prospects, because they’re both important. Suspects are at the top of the funnel, right? At any given point in time, you might have 10,000, 30,000 suspects. These are people that you’re sending emails, emails of value to them. You’re not selling particularly. It could be inviting them to a webinar. It could be, you know, something, a study, a research report, whatever that you want to provide. Now, once someone responds, then they become a prospect.

Sam Richter :
A prospect to me is the person who goes into your CRM. Now, not everybody might follow that workflow. That’s just— I think it’s an important workflow based on what I’m about to say. So suspects, you, you want to be personal and customized, but it’s hard to customize 30,000 suspects. Uh, you, you might be able to put obviously their name And then just make sure it’s something of value to them. So if you’re— if you’ve got a study that talks about XYZ happening in the manufacturing industry, you don’t send that out to someone in the healthcare industry. Now, your prospects, once they become a prospect— and again, I define that fairly loosely— somebody who’s responded in some way. That could be they’ve signed up for a webinar, they’ve downloaded your white paper, Whatever it might be.

Sam Richter :
Now they’re in your prospect. Now they’re in your CRM. And those folks, I think what’s really important there is relevancy, a high degree of relevancy. Now, where does this tie into the big mistake that I see people doing? I see people treating them the same. So a lot of salespeople want lists. And as I like to say, there are some— and lists is what your suspect list is. For prospects, I think those folks, those are a laser. So there’s a difference between a laser and a list.

Sam Richter :
A list is somebody who fits a demographic profile. A laser is someone who you really know that what you sell can help them achieve their goals more efficiently, effectively, profitably than they might be able to do on their own. Now, that could be based on a sales trigger. Again, that could be Based on an event that they responded to, and those folks are getting highly, highly relevant communications.

Mark Hunter :
Now let’s break that down, because again, I think what we’ve got is we’ve got several different things here. You could have a lot of people then in that prospect list, and I’ll kind of push back a little bit, but I’ll let you get your perspective. Those are people who I think have interest, which is great. I want to be reaching out to them. But wow, how do I stay in touch with all of those people?

Sam Richter :
Well, I think again, it depends how many you have. So let’s say, you know, again, your suspect list, let’s just say it’s a, you’re going after everybody in an industry niche. Okay, you might have 50,000 people in your suspect list. Those are cold emails. They may not have opted in to receive that message. So your suspect list, again, it needs to be as niched as possible. So it could be an industry, could be based on a trigger event, you know, something going on, but it’s, it’s at a large group. And what you provide of value needs to be something that they’re interested in.

Sam Richter :
It could be a webinar, white paper, like I said, research report, survey, whatever they’re interested in. But again, those are— you may not have an opt-in list. Those are the lists you, you purchase through a tool. Your prospects, again, you, you might have lots of them. It might be more than a dozen. It might be a few hundred. It might be a few thousand. And so, what you need to do there is make sure that in your CRM system or whatever you’re using, that you have the places where you can really, really customize name of company, reason they reached out, sales trigger event.

Sam Richter :
And then, that’s where the beauty of AI can come in as well is you can really get very personal on aligning your CRM. I mean, it’s all— if you think about it, think about it in a spreadsheet format, right? You’ve got all these data, all this data in different columns. And so you have name of company, name of person, but then you have sales trigger, and then you have sales trigger, and maybe it’s based on what they responded to. They responded to an email, they attended a webinar. So, all those are opportunities for you to customize that message. What I don’t like, Marc, is seeing these emails where it’s just obvious somebody is mind your LinkedIn profile. And they’re— all they’re doing is they’re looking at the last post you made and they say, Marc, you know, that recent post you made about XYZ really resonates with me. No, it doesn’t, because you haven’t read it.

Sam Richter :
Because I know you haven’t read it because it wouldn’t resonate with you because it was targeted toward a very specific audience. So I think that’s the other part too, Marc, is there has to be some thought put into it. You can’t just throw everything at AI. You have to put some thought into, for lack of a better term, what are those columns and how are you going to personalize those columns so it feels a little bit more genuine?

Mark Hunter :
Okay. Now, I love where you’re going now because now you’re getting down because this is the problem. I get all these emails and so forth and You can clearly tell they said they’ve looked at this, but they haven’t. They said they’ve read that, but they haven’t. And again, AI can generate that. So what you’re saying is we’ve got to then pull this down and get far more specific with these prospects, ’cause I think there’s kind of multiple stages within prospects. There’s prospects and then there’s highly qualified prospects.

Sam Richter :
That’s right.

Mark Hunter :
Highly qualified, you know, now I know that. And so what’s kind of a methodology that you think exists To kind of get that, because ultimately I can’t spend my time with 10,000 prospects. I just don’t have enough time in the day. So walk me through, you know, what— how do we address this?

Sam Richter :
Well, I think— and again, I think you bring up a really good point. So there’s suspects, then prospects, and then there’s multiple levels of prospects, and we can talk about that in a little bit. But to directly answer your question, I think the key is with prospects— well, with everybody— but the key is, is to be genuine, to be authentic. If you haven’t read my post, don’t tell me you’ve read my post. I don’t care, okay? I know you’re lying. I can tell. You used an em dash even saying in the first sentence that you read my post. Nobody in the history of the planet has ever used an em dash, uh, in, in writing an email, okay? So I know it was written by AI.

Sam Richter :
If you don’t know what an em dash is, imagine like 4 hyphens connected together connecting 2 words. AI does it, humans don’t. So just be genuine and just say, hey, Mark. So again, they’re a suspect. Now they become a prospect. And let’s say broadly because of a sales trigger. Let’s say your sales trigger is— I’m just making this up— the person received a new promotion. Now that we know, maybe we see it on their LinkedIn, we saw it in a news article.

Sam Richter :
So, in your email, we might say, Mark, the reason I’m reaching out is I know you were recently promoted based on the article. And then you link to the article. So, again, maybe as the receiver of that, do I really believe that you read the article? No, but I know it’s relevant to me. You know, based on your new promotion, based on your new hire, I thought you might be interested in XYZ. Let me back up a little bit. I’m a big follower of the THEM-US-FIT-PROOF format. I learned that through Phil Sterlin, dear friend of mine at Summit Group. But sales, Marc, sometimes we try to make it really complex and it doesn’t need to be.

Sam Richter :
THEM. Do you understand them? What do they care about?

Mark Hunter :
US.

Sam Richter :
Do you understand your product? FIT. Can you help them achieve their goal a little bit more efficiently, effectively, or profitably than they might be able to do on their own?

Mark Hunter :
PROOF.

Sam Richter :
Show me you’ve done it for other people just like me. So, if you go into your communication with that thinking, what do we know about them? Well, what do we know about us? Is there alignment? Give me some proof. By the way, no complex sale, and I’m not even sure no easy sale, but certainly no complex sale has ever progressed forward unless there are the intersection of all 4 of those. So you figure out in your communication, where do those fit?

Mark Hunter :
Now, okay, now we’re bringing this list down into a tighter funnel because at the end of the day, the most valuable resource I have is my own time.

Sam Richter :
That’s right.

Mark Hunter :
Is there a methodology that you suggest, or is there a magic number that you think people can handle in terms of getting that granular? Well, or I should say getting that specific.

Sam Richter :
Yeah, I’ll tell you what I use once someone has. So now on the level of prospects, right? So we’ve gone from suspects, prospects. Now we’re going to highly qualified prospects. Those are people that have responded to an email. Hey, I’m interested. They’ve responded to a phone call, whatever it might be. Now, I’m gonna use AI. I’m going to use technology, but I’m going to leverage it to be— to really understand the them.

Sam Richter :
I call it the them engine, right? It’s not a search engine. It’s a them engine. What do we know about them? What do they care about? What’s going on in their world? What are their strategic initiatives? What is their potential SWOT analysis? How do they buy? Different buyers buy differently. The beautiful thing about technology and AI, we can get a lot of those answers. before we pick up the phone, before we have that Zoom call, before we send that highly customized email. But at that point, now I’m really doing my homework.

Mark Hunter :
Okay, I love where you’re going with this because really what we’re doing is we’re taking work that I think salespeople used to do further down in the funnel and moving it closer to the top to really getting us more specific to allow us, and this is a belief that I’ve had, I want to be able to spend more time with fewer people. That’s exactly what you’re talking about, doing more homework upfront.

Sam Richter :
But it’s more efficient, right? I mean, yes, in the old days, in the old days, you, you’d take people out for a 2-hour lunch. Okay, I don’t need to do 2. Why did we do that? We did that because we wanted to understand them. And frankly, they didn’t have Google either, so they needed to understand us. And so they were willing to give up 2 hours, we were willing to give up 2 hours. Well, let’s assume that if a highly qualified prospect is in that bucket, they’ve responded to something, they’ve already Googled us, they already are interested, they’ve raised their hand. I don’t have 2 hours to spend with them, but do I have 5 minutes? Yeah. Do I have 10 minutes? Yeah.

Sam Richter :
And I have to tell you, I mean, there are tools that I use that I’ll tell sales managers, if your people aren’t using this tool or something similar to understand the prospect before you pick up the phone, before they do a Zoom call, before they get in the car, then that salesperson ought to be fired. Because—

Mark Hunter :
Yeah.

Sam Richter :
What it’s showing is they don’t care. They don’t care. All they care about is their commission. Good salesperson is in it because they know that if they can help the other person, that’s the them, us fit, if they can help the other person, the fit part, the commission will come, the bonus will come, the sales will come. But you’re not going to have a long-term relationship if the salesperson, again, this is my opinion, is only interested in closing the deal, not interested in providing value.

Mark Hunter :
Okay. You’ve uncovered several things there. One is this whole thing that salespeople still don’t understand. Nobody will take a meeting with a salesperson without first checking out the salesperson and their company. Yeah, of course. I mean, that’s just a given. So, I mean, and yet I still see salespeople leading off with, hey, we’ve been in business 47 years, look at our factory, da da da da da da. Right, nobody cares.

Mark Hunter :
Nobody cares. But the other piece that I like where you’re going with this is it’s really helping us to uncover not interest, but intent early on. Because I think The more— the closer we get to intent, the faster the sales cycle is going to go. What you said specifically, it’s not about the commission. It’s about serving the customer. When we serve the customer, the commission is purely the scoreboard.

Sam Richter :
Yeah.

Mark Hunter :
That’s purely the points on the scoreboard. The touchdown, that’s when we were able to actually help the customer. the plays on the field. It’s interesting because you and I are going to be doing a webinar here in a couple of weeks and want people to check it out because we’re going to be unpacking this. You’ve got some products. You’ve got some really solutions that help people address this. Question for you. Are you seeing, because you work with thousands of salespeople all over, are you seeing salespeople spending more time at the top of the funnel? or at the bottom of the funnel compared to 3 or 4 years ago?

Sam Richter :
Well, that’s a great question. I think at the top of the funnel, I continually hear, I just need a list. Just give me a list. I’m going to build an email automation sequence. You know, again, they’re looking for some magic silver bullet. Here’s the reality, Mark. AI is going to change the way everybody buys. Like, we are still in the AOL dial-up phase of generative AI.

Sam Richter :
You know, wow, I can download a movie in 17 hours. It’s incredible. Um, we’re still in that phase. What do I mean? I don’t know if you’ve played with Muse yet. That’s the new Facebook, Meta, whatever they’re calling the company today, tool that actually helps— will actually buy things for you. All right, they just announced yesterday that they’re hiring an executive, a very experienced executive, to manage the enterprise Muse account. What does that mean? Well, it means that there’s probably nothing you sell that is not going to be bought through AI, recommended by a muse type of a product, right? So, if that’s true, then what is the only thing left that we have as a salesperson? Now, what I talk about in my sales keynotes is I use what’s called the SHIFT mindset. SHIFT.

Sam Richter :
And SHIFT is an acronym. S is streamlining workflow. H, harnessing expertise. I is innovation. F, Focus strategically, but T is the one I want to focus on now. T is thrive as a human, and that’s the only place, in my opinion, where salespeople are going to be able to differentiate moving forward. What is thrive as a human? It’s all the things that AI cannot do. AI cannot connect with a human.

Sam Richter :
AI cannot build trust. AI doesn’t have wisdom. AI can’t make a judgment call. AI has no empathy, courage, vulnerability. AI has no accountability. Those are the areas that I think a salesperson, uh, has to be focusing on moving forward. Because if you’re not providing value, if you’re not sitting down and saying, uh, listen, my son’s a financial advisor and I tell them this all the time, listen, in the future nobody’s going to be hiring you for asset allocation models or stock picking. Anybody can do that.

Sam Richter :
What they’re going to hire you for is to become the family CFO. What does the family CFO mean? They’re hiring you when they’re nervous, when they have questions for your advice. They know they can get into AI and they know they can even personalize AI. But that’s still not— no, I want to talk to a person. I want someone to tell me it’s all going to be okay. I want someone to sit down and say, look, you should buy versus lease that car. Or you should rent versus own that house. That’s— it’s the part that the AI can’t take away.

Sam Richter :
You know, I’ll say, listen, a lot of people think that AI is taking away our humanity. And I would say, no, it’s the exact opposite. AI is creating the efficiency that allows us to do what only humans can do. And that’s be human. So, how does this tie into what we’re talking about? As we get down to the intent, as you said, it’s really not just the intent of why someone wants to buy from you. But let’s peel back the onion a little bit. What are they trying to solve? That’s where the salesperson needs to provide value. They’re not looking to buy a widget.

Sam Richter :
They’re looking to buy a widget because having that widget allows them to do X. You need to figure out what X is because frankly, the widget might not even be the answer that they need, but they don’t know that because you’ve got the experience and they don’t.

Mark Hunter :
Okay. You’ve just said several things that are so key, because I think we’re seeing an evolution of sales. I go back during great economic periods, the salesperson was focused on closing the deal. Because leads just happen, leads just happen. And I think this is where, you know, and now what’s happened is, oh no, I don’t have enough deals to close, so it’s all about this lead generation. And that’s a false flag, that is a false flag, because ultimately AI is gonna take all that away from us.

Sam Richter :
Yeah.

Mark Hunter :
And our focus as salespeople has to be on just what you said, How do we create that trust, that relationship? How do we be the individual that can help the company, the person navigate through challenges? Because it’s not the widget, it’s what the widget does. It’s the outcome of the widget. This is where sales is going. Hey, I am so excited that you and I are gonna be doing a webinar here in just a couple of weeks where we’re gonna be unpacking this a lot more and sharing with the audience. a couple of tools that you’ve created that are really helping us get to that, I think, kind of Sales 3.0, where it’s back to this really deep relationship using AI to get us there faster.

Sam Richter :
Well, let me give you the math, Marc. Let me make it real simple. There’s only 4 levels you can— 4 levers you can pull as a salesperson. Number of people that you reach out to. That’s the suspect list. How many people are you reaching out to? The percentage of those people who say, hey, I’m kind of interested. Okay, those are the people we’re moving into the prospect list. Now usually that’s going to be 1-2%.

Sam Richter :
The percentage of those people that say, you know what, um, I’m gonna buy from you. Now a lot of people think that that’s— that the first one is the close rate. It’s not. No, there’s— people forget that first one, moving them from prospects Or excuse me, suspects to prospects. So, let’s say that you close. You get 5% of the people just for easy math to raise their hand, right? 50% of those people you actually close. And then, the other lever you can pull is the average order size. Now, which of those percentage points moves the needle the best? Is it talking to more people? No.

Sam Richter :
Is it even getting more people To say I’m interested, no. It’s people who say they’re interested in closing the deal. That’s the most important one. You do that with relevance. You do that with trust. You do that with really understanding them. But but to me, I see too many salespeople, sales managers in particular, say you’re not making enough calls. You’re not making enough calls, and people get bonus on making more calls.

Sam Richter :
No, I’d rather make fewer calls. You said this earlier. I’d rather make Fewer calls to the right people with the right message at the right time.

Mark Hunter :
Oh, spot on. That is, that is so valuable. And this is where I think the value of us as salespeople is not at risk due to AI. The value of us as salespeople increases because of AI, because we can use AI to do these tools. Hey, we’re going to put in the show notes the link to get registered for this webinar. coming up here very soon, but I do want you to check it out. Sam, uh, how do people get in touch with you?

Sam Richter :
Yeah, it’s just easy. You can Google me. I’m pretty, pretty easy to find. Sam Richter, R-I-C-H-T-E-R, uh, samrichter.com is my—

Mark Hunter :
there it is.

Sam Richter :
And, uh, sbrworldwide.com is my AI tools website.

Mark Hunter :
I love it. And, and like I said, if you can’t find somebody by Googling them, then they’re not relevant. And definitely Sam Richter, R-I-C-H-T-E-R. Absolutely, without a doubt. Hey, great talking with you. You’ve been listening to the Sales Hunter Podcast, new format. We’re going to one episode a week where it’s me doing a solo show, unpacking something, and occasionally a really special guest like we’ve had here today with Sam Richter. Sales Hunter Podcast is designed for one thing, to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible.

Mark Hunter :
Do me a favor, leave me a review on your favorite podcast app. And of course, hey, check out any one of my books, whether it be Integrity First Selling, A Mind for Sales, or High Profit Prospecting. I’m Marc Hunter, The Sales Hunter. Great selling.

Let’s break down exactly why stepping outside your comfort zone is the real key to earning trust, getting to the truth, and closing deals. Here’s how to start asking the questions your competition won’t.

Comfortable Questions Create Comfortable Answers

Stop asking about the weather. Don’t waste your breath on what they did last weekend. These common, easy questions lead straight to superficial answers. You won’t get any closer to your customer’s real challenges or priorities by playing it safe.

If all you ask are comfortable questions, you stay in shallow water. Depth only comes when you’re willing to dig deeper and ask the questions no one else will.

Curiosity Must Be Stronger Than Fear

Think of a little kid. Kids don’t hold back or tiptoe around tough questions. Their curiosity always wins out over fear. That’s exactly the mindset great salespeople need.

What’s really holding you back? Usually, it’s the fear of asking something your prospect can’t answer, or that you don’t know the answer to yourself. Let curiosity have the upper hand.

Want the most important insight about your customer? Ask. Don’t hesitate.

Ask What Others Avoid

Every marketplace is crowded. The only way to stand out is to ask the questions everyone else avoids. Dive into the uncomfortable topics: how they make decisions, what internal roadblocks they’re facing, the risks if they fail.

Most reps steer clear from these subjects. That’s their loss and your opportunity. If you want to avoid competing on price alone, you can’t just blend in. Take the leap. Ask what your peers won’t.

Permission Creates Openness

Worried you’ll offend or rattle your prospect with a tough question? Give them a heads-up with a simple ask: “May I ask you a more direct question?”

This technique works wonders. It signals respect and prepares your prospect to open up. Instead of closing off, they lean in and reveal much more. Sometimes, all it takes is asking for permission to unlock a whole new level of honesty.

Ask About the Cost of Doing Nothing

Here’s a question that flips the script: “If nothing changes, what will happen?” Most prospects underestimate just how high the cost of inaction really is.

Prompt them to pause and consider the consequences of sticking with the status quo. When you help them realize the true impact of their challenges, urgency takes root. That urgency can shift the entire deal in your favor.

Clarify Who Really Decides

Don’t assume you’re talking to the decision-maker. In most cases, you aren’t. Instead, ask “Who else is involved in a decision like this?” or “How have past decisions like this been made?”

Listen carefully for names and details. There’s almost always someone else behind the curtain. You need to find out exactly who pulls the strings if you want your proposal to move forward.

Challenge Vague Answers

When you hear something generic such as “It’s too expensive,” or “Something else is more important,” don’t let it slide. Push back. Ask them to explain what they really mean.

Never accept a vague answer at face value. Each response should trigger a follow-up. It’s those deeper questions that reveal what’s really getting in their way.

Silence Is Part of the Question

Don’t be afraid of silence. Too many reps rush to fill the gap by jumping in with their own ideas. Don’t do it. After you ask a tough question, pause. Let your prospect think.

You’ll be amazed at what they share when you simply wait. Silence creates space for honesty. Use it.

Integrity Makes Directness Safe

Nothing beats integrity. When your customer knows you genuinely want to help them make the right decision, direct questions become safe, not threatening.

That’s what makes the difference between someone who’s just trying to push a product and someone who’s there to solve real problems. Build trust. Be courageous. And always act with integrity.

When you make this shift in how you ask and listen, your entire sales approach changes and so do your results. Remember, the best sales question is usually the one you’re most afraid to ask. Don’t play it safe. Great selling requires you to dig deeper, get uncomfortable, and always put integrity first. That’s how you help customers succeed, and how you succeed too.

Keeping Your Sales Drive Alive When Results Drop

How far will you go to regain your sales motivation?

Find episode #453 wherever you download podcasts!

Are You Prospecting Like a Robot?

w/ Sam Richter

Why are your prospecting emails falling flat even when you personalize them?

Episode #454 is out THURSDAY!!

Copyright 2026, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.