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What's the biggest mistake salespeople make today? Let me tell you something. It's not what you think. And, oh, by the way, it does involve you 100%. Yes, it's a huge mistake. And I just had it called out to me today, in fact, by a prospect I was talking to. Hey, let's get the show going. Right now, you're listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a salesman, sell with confidence and integrity. And now, here's your host. Okay, let me tell you what the answer is, because the question today is the biggest mistake salespeople make. The answer, they lead with themselves and not the customer. Hey, I've yet to find a customer that wakes up and says, oh, boy, I hope a salesperson reaches out to me. Said, no customer ever. Here's the deal. If you lead with your product, instead of a problem, you have got a problem. And that's the biggest mistake. And this is why. This is why so many salespeople when they're prospecting get zero response, zero engagement. Now, remember, the sales process is broken down into several different steps. It is not about, I'm trying to make contact with you and suddenly get you to buy from me. No, false. I'm trying to make contact with you, and I'm trying to just gain a next step. I'm trying to figure out as to whether or not there's even a reason for us to have a conversation. I'm trying to give you a little level of confidence, you, the customer, that it's worthy of talking to me. So when you sit there and. And prospect and you lead with it, hey, we help companies do X, who really gives a rep? We sell companies Y. Who gives a rep? Nobody. You've got a lead with a problem. You see, if you start the call off by pitching, I hope the customer hangs up on you. Because the only way the customer would not stay engaged with you is if for some reason they had this random edge. That. Boy, you know what? I do want to buy that right now. I do want to buy that right now. But again, that just does not exist to any degree that you think. Now, I'm all about being transparent. I'm not about trying to hide what I do. Remember, I did write the book Integrity first selling, and I do believe in having integrity, but the integrity is about helping the customer. You see, I want to lead the conversation off with a question or a statement relative to an issue that they are having they themselves are having. It's not about you. Because again, if they want to learn about you, they can probably go to a YouTube video, they can probably go to social media, they can, they can go to your company's website, they can go into any number of areas. And oh, by the way, if you lead with a product, AI will very quickly replace you and you deserve to be replaced by AI. You see, today's customers have challenges, today's customers have problems, but they're also extremely time constrained. You see. So here's situation. I have problem over here on one side and I have lack of time over here. And if I can't understand how I can help solve my problem, because that's ultimately, that's ultimately what corrects time. It really does. Problems. Solving problems gives me, gives me more time. So I gotta find a way, how do I help you solve your problems? So my initial call, my initial sentence in that email, the initial sentence I leave in the voicemail, the initial question I leave when I get you on the phone is, is either a question relative to a burning issue that you probably have because you're in this space that I'm familiar with. In other words, I'm prospecting within my icp, or two, it's a statement of interest of what's happening. Now, either one works. But if you sit there and say, hi, my name is so and so and I'm the account exec. No, that's leading with yourself. You see, what happens is we lead with ourself. When we initially talk about us or talk about our company or talk about what it is that we sell, we do, the initial conversation must be 100% about the customer. And here's what's interesting. Regardless of what it is that I sell, if I can engage you in a question or a conversation relative to your industry to what's pertinent to you, you'll talk, you'll communicate. I had that situation play out just this morning. I had several sales calls and both of them went longer than the 15 minutes I expected. Both of them did. One went 40 minutes and one went probably about 35 minutes because we were able to get into conversations and it had nothing to do with what I sell. But both of them ended up with a clear next step, a very clear next step where both people said, hey, this is great, we do need to talk further. In fact, one of them said, I'm going to send you some information. I would love to get your feedback on it. Whoa, wow. Now think about that. I still was not leading with what it is that I sell. Think about this Salespeople. The number one reason why we are not getting responses is because we lead with ourselves. And, and keep in mind that, because what this is doing is this, this is telling the customer that all you're doing is, is repeating something that they could go find on the web very easy, probably, probably faster than listening to you drone on. And oh, by the way, the longer you drone on, the more you going to think that there's business here and there isn't. Yeah, you see, here's the whole thing. I have to make it about their outcome. This is my whole objective as to why I sell. My whole objective is to help you see and achieve what you didn't think was possible. You know, I've talked about that a lot. I want you to help, I want you to help see and achieve what you didn't think was possible. It's not my solution. If I can help you see and achieve what you didn't think was possible and my solution fits in it. Great. We've got an opportunity to, to do business. Now. I may be able to show you how to, how to see and achieve what you didn't think was possible. And it doesn't involve me. And then I got to refer you to somebody else. That's fine, that's okay. That's selling with integrity because I'm doing what's right for the customer. Stop and think about this. Right now as I'm recording this, we're coming right into the end of the quarter and it feels like every time I turn around we're, we're at the end of the quarter and this is when pitching product becomes more prevalent enough because we're, we're, we're racing to try to close this deal and it does not work. It does not work. I've got to engage the customer. Now what's absolutely fascinating is I see this when we start getting short, time wise, we focus more heavily on the product and as a result we ourselves lose sight of the value we create and we end up discounting. We end up discounting. What I found is this. Customers are very smart. Very smart. And they know once you start pitching product, if this is something that they want, they just kind of start going silent and you're going to get into this desperation play and you're going to wind up talking more price. You are going to wind up talking more price. And what I mean, talking more price, you're going to wind up discounting. Yeah. And the customer's sitting there saying, this is great. You see, when I lead with myself I create a major assortment of problems. The first problem is I'm not able to engage you because you could care less. Second, I never really understand the real value it is that you're looking for because I haven't taken the time to ask questions. And three, when I do try to close, I become so fixated on my product and I don't understand your need. I don't understand how critical this is to you. So what do I do? I start discounting. Leading with ourself is without a doubt the biggest prospecting mistake salespeople make today. Now, there is a time when you talk about your product. There is a time that you talk about everything. These are what I call confirming statements. These are. These are proof validations. This is proof of performance. But that does not come out in the prospecting call, because if it comes out in the prospecting call, I'm desperate. And again, the customer picks up on us. And again, the customer will then only remain engaged with me if they are predestined to buy from me or feel they might be predestined. But this precludes so many other people because again, I'm prospecting because I want to help you see and achieve what you didn't think was possible. And if I have the ability to help someone, I. It's my obligation to reach out to them. You see what I'm saying here? So I want you to go back and I want you to look at the prospecting emails you send out. I want you to look at the voicemails that you leave. I want you to look at when you get on the phone. And are you leading with a question relative to them that's pertinent to them or their company? Chances are, because you don't know them, it's probably going to be at the company or minimally the industry or two. Are you leading with a critical piece of information? And this is what's key, because in the world that we're in today, there's so much volatility. There is so much volatility. Things are changing rapidly in every industry. So there's always an element of news. There's always something that I can. That I can share with somebody that's probably going to pique their interest. And what am I trying to do? I'm just trying to get the conversation going because this is the whole premise of what I'm trying to do with this initial call. Because again, if I lead with the customer's intent, the customer's interest in mind, they're going to Be much more likely to talk to me and much more likely to share information with you. I was telling you that I had two sales calls this morning. One went about 40 minutes, one went about 35 minutes. And I was expecting both to only go about 15 minutes. In both situations, the customer was probably talking about 70% of the time. 70, 75% of the time. I was just asking them some questions about their industry, about what's happening, what's critical. And I was getting incredible. And then, and then they'd share something. Then, then I would just, just add a. Another question to it. Or I'd say, you know what? I saw that in another company I was working with. See, what's very interesting is, is confirming statements take on the most value when they are used to build on a question that the customer asked. Think about that. Value statements. In other words, you know, when I was working with this company, and here, here's some things that I saw that takes on a lot more value when I'm using it in response to a question or a statement that they shared with me versus me just blurting it out there. You see, in this situation, what I'm doing is I'm still leading with the customer. I'm getting a chance to share. I'm getting a chance to share, but everything I share builds on whatever it is that they want, want to say. What's interesting is both of these sales calls, I went in with a very defined, here's what I want to get out of. Here's what I want to get out of it. Yeah, but I had questions I wanted to ask. So naturally I leave with questions and they begin sharing. And then I. We get so far off of my roadmap, it's unbelievable. But we're having a great conversation. We're having a powerful conversation. And what's interesting is the customer is never going to hang up on themselves. The customer is not going to hang up on themselves. And it's incredibly valuable. So what is happening here is this. It's a very simple thing. I am creating value with the customer by elevating the customer. And I elevate the customer by encouraging their engagement. And I encourage their engagement because of the questions I ask or the information that I share. In one of these two particular customers I was speaking with on the phone this morning, I shared with them an example of another player in a different industry, but similar type of customer experience. Wow. The customer lit up. Lit up. It was absolutely fantastic. And when they lit up, what did they do? They began sharing more and it was interesting, but I immediately, when I got done with the call, I sent them back. Both of these customers, I individually, I sent them back a follow up email, kind of here's some next steps and here's some info. Here's some additional information. One of them sent me back this long note. Hey, thank you so much. Incredibly bent, incredibly beneficial. I've talked to a number of people as I'm trying to find answers, as I'm trying to find solutions. And you clearly understood the business. Truth be known, it wasn't that I understood the business. I was just taking the time to listen and I was elevating the customer. You see, lack of relevance kills response rates. Want you to put that on your desk. A lack of relevance kills response rates. And when you have relevant questions or statements to them, I guarantee it, you will begin generating a higher response rate. I talk about all of this and more in my book Integrity first selling. Hey, if this has resonated with you, hey, first of all, I want you to buy the book too. Reach out to me, would you? I'd like to have a conversation with you. Let's have a conversation with you. I got plenty of additional ideas, plenty of additional thoughts and if there's a way that I can help you or your sales team would love to do two episodes a week, one like this, second one where you do a deep dive with a subject matter expert. My whole goal is to help you become the most valuable salesperson out there because you've done one thing. You've elevated the customers around you. I'm Mark Hunter, the sales center. Do subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. Great selling.