Editor’s note: KiteDesk is running a promotion with Mark Hunter and offering copies of High-Profit Prospecting for free. Ken’s review is based on his own personal experience with the book and was not solicited in combination with this offer.
It seems like new sales books are coming out every week but I can promise you this– High-Profit Prospecting is one that must be in your sales library. It has made the Acumen Sales Book Club list.
High-Profit Prospecting by Mark Hunter, published by AMA (American Management Association), has laid out solutions to one of the top sales problems facing every sales organization. In 2015 Acumen performed a survey at every conference we spoke at asking each member of the audience to define the top 5 challenges they face in sales–
Filling the pipeline / Prospecting were consistency listed #1 or #2!
It is my belief that organizations that expect Marketing to be responsible for lead generation and pipeline development are wrong. To win market dominance, Sales must drive prospecting.
As frequent readers of my blogs know, I measure the successful books I read by the number of “page corners I turn”, Mark’s book earned an award of 24 pages with a host of underlined, circled and marked-up sections. His subtitle says it all:
Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results
Mark broke the book into four sections with 23 chapters of jammed-packed ideas and tactics to help every salesperson at every level propel their business.
Powerful Chapters
Just a few of the chapter titles will help you understand why I felt this is a powerful book:
Fit the Prospecting Plan to Your Market
Time Management for Prospecting
Best Practices for Making the Initial Contact
Winning at the Enterprise Level
Customer Engagement Dos and Don’ts
The chapters that justify this book and after 19 years of consulting with sales organizations I have found are the most challenging and overlooked are:
Referrals and other Major Pipeline Builders
In this chapter, Mark shares many ideas but his four-step referral development process is great. He details how and what actions the salesperson must execute to ensure success in using referrals. It is a sales training session all by itself!
Email, Communications, and Connection
Many people believe we can sell or prospect using email, in the majority of situations, it fails. This chapter is a must read for Marketing teams and all Salespeople, Mark shares tactical steps, specific email scripts that can be tailored for your business, many examples but his 3 Strategies to “get the email opened” are absolutely right on!
Recommendation
Buy this book.
It is my recommendation every salesperson in your organization read this book and follow the Acumen Book Club process: Assign a chapter to each salesperson, ask them to lead a discussion on a weekly basis during your sales meetings. As a Sales Manager develop a plan to train your salespeople how to prospect but also a plan to Inspect what You Expect that your salespeople are executing effectively.
What is your best method to prospect and fill your pipeline?
Take advantage of our special offer– get High-Profit Prospecting for free!
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