There’s a lot of traffic out there; stay in your lane. If you try to cut lanes, you are going to get into an accident much faster.
When you’re prospecting, chances are you chase a lot of leads, but get little to no traction.
You have to get traction to be able to know what questions to ask, and to become confident and knowledgeable with the type of people you’re dealing with—no matter how many verticals you’re dealing with.
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Strategy #1: Deal with one vertical each day.
I want you to set up your cadence to where you’re only dealing with one vertical each day.
By staying tight with that vertical, you’re going to pick up more information. Sure, the first few calls you make in that vertical are a little bit awkward, even if you’ve been selling in that vertical for quite some time.
But once you get four or five phone calls in and start getting some repetition, it’s amazing how much more confident you sound. It comes across better in your voice, in the voicemails and the emails you send, because now you’re able to be concise and targeted to that vertical.
Strategy #2: Assign each vertical a time block.
Some of you might say, “Mark, that doesn’t work for me because I’ve got to respond to everything as it comes in.”
Fine, I totally get it. But what you’re going to do is choose one vertical for a two or three-hour period, and then take care of all your other stuff.
Then later in the day, come back and do another two-hour block in that vertical. You want to block your prospecting into minimally two-hour blocks, if not four-hour blocks or all day if you can. Follow this strategy and you’re going to gain so much more knowledge.
Absolutely update your CRM system.
Don’t wait until the end of the day. Put it in as you go.
Why? Because as you type it in, it’s going to trigger another thought.
Keep a pad of paper right by you as you’re making your calls, because you might think of great questions in the moment.
When you’re thinking about prospecting in the CRM system, you tend to record historical information about what happened. What I want to do is make sure I capture what I’m going to do as well.
Create a playbook.
You may have a section in your CRM system where you’re keeping notes by industry, as well as great questions by industry. You can create a digital playbook.
And if you don’t have that, then you have a notepad and you keep it handy. I’ve been doing this for years, and it allows me to be incredibly smart about different industries quickly.
In my job as a speaker and trainer, I deal with a lot of different verticals. I’ve got a library of questions, key insights. These are insights that I’ve picked up.
It doesn’t turn me into a subject matter expert, but it does give you more confidence to be able to make the call. And in time, you will become a subject matter expert.
Read these 4 Steps for Any Salesperson to Become a Subject Matter Expert.
More confidence, more motivation.
It’s going to do two other things for you:
One, it’s going to increase your level of confidence. Before you go to bed, you’ll know, “Hey, tomorrow morning I’m dealing with aerospace…. Tomorrow morning I’m dealing with automotive.” It allows you to get more motivated to stay in that vertical.
This is excellent for those of you who have to sell in multiple industries because of the nature of who you sell for.
Clusterize.
Sales managers, do your salespeople a favor, and as leads come across, clusterize them so that they can work all of the leads within the ________ space here. Clusterize, that’s a technical term.
For example, one person can work all the leads in trucking, or whatever it might be, but allow your people to stay tight. Don’t just randomly pass them out. When you keep leads focused by vertical, it’s amazing how much better their results will be.
No More Goals! Try this instead…
+how to make your goals for this year much more powerful
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Find Ep. 169 on The Sales Hunter Podcast now.
Lessons in Adaptability
w/ David Kreiger
+How embracing change not only enhances efficiency but also fosters growth
+How to combat loneliness as a sales leader/executive/entrepreneur
+ The 5-Year Journaling Technique that brings perspective
Episode drops WEDNESDAY, 1/17/2024!!
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Copyright 2024, 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.
