A Question Recently Posed to “The Sales Hunter”

“I recently got a job offer as a sales manager at a car dealership and tour/travel agency company. My sales team is small, but experienced. I would like to know whether you have any sales tips in how we may try to reach our segment of the market.”

First off, I’d identify who your target customer is. It’s very easy to start trying to reach out to what you believe are potential customers only to find out there is no chance they’ll ever buy from you. Secondly, I’d find out what it is you do best and what your current customers say they like about doing business with you. Third, match up what your current customers say they like about you with the profile of your perfect customer. Your objective is to find the key benefit new customers would be most drawn to.

After you’ve done the above, develop 3 - 5 “pain questions”. These are questions that are designed to help the targeted prospect begin to see the pain they have and how you are the solution. Example: “What are some of the changes you’ve had to make to compensate for the current price of gas?” or “What’s the best experience you’ve ever had on a tour?” Both of these questions will help get the person talking, which then gives you the opportunity to ask more questions. By doing so, you get the prospect to do all the talking and you learn as much information as possible to work with.

Let me shift gears a bit and talk about finding prospects. Begin by using the second step above as a gate opener to get your customers to give you referrals you can contact. There’s nothing better than a referral, especially one where the person doing the referring makes the initial contact on your behalf. Secondly, target your message very, very, very tight. We’re all inundated with too much information, so we tend to only pay attention to information that hits our personal bull’s-eye. This means you need to do as much profiling as possible of your perfect customer profile and only do those marketing / awareness activities that will hit them. Don’t kid yourself: the vast majority of advertising is wasted and the best is probably very expensive on a per contact basis. But, if you’re hitting the right contact, then the high cost perception suddenly goes away.


Contact Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter for your next Conference or Sales Meeting. To see and hear Mark Hunter now visit www.TheSalesHunter.com

Sales Training Tip #194: Avoid the Light

When making a sales call, avoid sitting with your back to a window. The bright, outdoor light can often make it hard for the customer / prospect to focus on you.

Contact Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter, for your next Conference or Sales Meeting. To see and hear Mark Hunter now visit www.TheSalesHunter.com

Consultative Selling Tip: Know your Customer's Customer

Consultative selling is all about knowing how your customer is going to use your product or service and, more importantly, helping them identify previously unknown areas of need they may have. Now, it seems simple, but something get lost in the translation in many companies. This week, I saw that the global giant Unilever is getting out of the household cleaning category in the US (All, Wisk, etc.) by selling off their brands. What I found amazing was an article in Advertising Age talking about how their CEO and other top people had not been in a laundry room in years. It's unbelievable how the top people of a major company could not find the time to know how their customer's really use their product.

With this fact in mind, I guess it shouldn't be surprising that they're selling this business. The key lesson: Make sure you take the time to really know how your customer and your customer's customers use your product or service.