What does your sales funnel look like? Regardless of whether you’re in B2B or B2C, we can’t lose sight that the sale is not made until it’s 1to1 — one person connecting with one person.
Only when we get to the one-to-one conversation will we be in a situation to understand what the customer is looking for and how we can assist. The stronger our one-to-one communication, the better the price we’ll be able to command.
Too many discounts are given because we have not had the level of dialogue we need to be having.
Check out this 24-second video:
The problem of not having strong enough one-to-one dialogue begins with how we view sales leads and prospecting. If all we’re doing is trying to gather as many leads as possible, we’ll never have the time to go deep enough in a one-to-one relationship with our best prospects to understand their needs.
In my work with companies, I see this problem all the time. I don’t care how many leads a salesperson has. In fact, too many leads will wind up hurting sales and especially profitability. If all we’re doing is servicing leads, then how will we ever have the time to go one-to-one with our best opportunities?
A goal I challenge salespeople with (and I do get push back on it from some sales managers) is to measure the amount of time you’re spending with high potential prospects. This is what we need to be measuring, combined with that the closing ratio of our high-value prospects.
I’ve seen full adoption of this process result in two major outcomes. First is a higher closing ratio, and second is deals closing with higher revenue and profit.
It’s time we focus on measuring what will make a difference to our top-line and bottom-line and stop measuring activity.
Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.
Mark Hunter, your next keynote speaker:
Mark Hunter, CSP, “The Sales Hunter” is recognized globally as one of the top sales speakers, known for his challenging insights, high-energy, and passion to create change that he delivers each time he speaks, whether it be a sales kick-off meeting, corporate function or association event. Mark Hunter is the author of the best selling book, High-Profit Prospecting. Here’s what others are saying:
Mark presented “Accelerate Your Sales Prospecting” at the February 2015 Institute for Excellence in Sales program in Northern Virginia. He nailed it and gave the 150 selling professionals and business owners in attendance amazing tips, strategies and tactics they could implement that day. The sales leaders at our program universally acknowledged Mark as one of the top speakers we’ve ever had.
- Fred Diamond, Executive Director, IES Washington DC
At our annual company sales meeting we’ ve never seen a speaker work so hard, with advance preparation, with such genuine style of delivery, and with such hunger for results. If you weren’t on the edge of your seat….you were in a coma. Period!
- Mark Allen, Regional Manager, Marlin Companies
Mark’s strategies are innovative, easy to follow and easy to use in the “real world.” He customized his strategies to directly speak to the issues and challenges facing our unique business, and he helped us encompass specific selling examples. This training was very applicable to our sales staff, both at a senior and junior level, as it reinforced important sales techniques.”
- Danielle Pakradooni, Blue Man Group
Copyright 2017, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.
