Mark McGraw talks to Josh Pitchford, one of the top 1% of sales coaches and trainers globally. Josh is passionate about helping salespeople and sales leaders achieve their very best through sales training, coaching, and sales processes.
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You’ll learn actionable strategies to identify and connect with your ideal clients, refine your approach to sales prospecting, and build meaningful relationships that lead to sustained success.
- Josh starts the conversation by sharing his journey to sales, joining Sandler, and how he became good at prospecting.
- Josh shares his love for prospecting and the exact steps he follows when on a prospecting call with clients.
- Prospecting is not about trying to convince anybody of anything. If you're on a call and you're trying to convince somebody of something, you're fighting an uphill battle.
- Mark breaks down the ‘Gumball Prospecting’ analogy.
- Just as you can't control the color of the gumball you get, you can't always predict the outcome of your prospecting efforts. The key is to learn not to take rejection personally.
- According to Josh, most of your prospects will not be a fit--and it’s okay.
- For Josh, a good prospecting call should be full of questions. It allows you to be in control, but they feel like they're in control because they're talking.
- Josh reveals how he sorts prospects from hot to cold--and the differentiator between a prospect and a suspect.
- Mark and Josh discuss the pros and cons of scripting a prospecting call.
- Josh explains how the right prospects sell themselves. But they can’t do it tactically without questioning.
- If you find yourself pitching and talking about your services on a cold call, you're way out of line. Because at that point, people don’t care enough yet.
- Mark and Josh talk about the mistakes they see salespeople make when on a prospecting call.
- Why salespeople should stop trying to close for an appointment too early.
- Josh breaks down how salespeople can learn to gauge the interest levels of a prospect.
- The prospect needs to have enough pain for it to make sense for them right now. Even if they fit your ideal client profile, it doesn't mean that your solution is a priority for them right now.
- Mark shares why he believes the first cold call should focus on booking time, not closing deals.
- Josh covers the buyer-seller dance, and how buyers and sellers traditionally behave.
- Every seller’s goal should be to take the sales conversation from transactional to consultative and collaborative selling, where we're working on this pain together.
- Josh explains why sellers must understand the value of their time.
- Every time you take an appointment with a prospect that's not of the right fit, there's an opportunity cost for somebody out there that you should be helping.
- Mark and Josh highlight the benefits of having a ‘you can’t lose anything’ mindset. Go into every meeting with the mindset where there’s nothing to lose. The upside is something good can come out of this.
- Josh reveals the difference between prospecting and cold calling.
- According to Josh, the whole point of the call is to get to an outcome. The problem is that most salespeople are trying to get to a positive outcome.
- Josh shares why salespeople should stop calling a cold call an ambush call. If you have belief and conviction in your products or services, you owe them a call to see if it’s something you can help them with.
- If sellers focus on understanding where the client is and how they can serve them, the selling part will take care of itself.
Mentioned in This Episode:
BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/follow
Sandler.com
BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/sandler
Josh Pitchford on LinkedIn
BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/3
