Mark Hunter on Shattering Your Limited Sales Beliefs

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0:35Pick up that guide today at belaysolutions.com forward slash gravy or text gravy to 55123. This is the Sales Gravy Podcast. Hi, I'm Jeb Blunt, bestselling author, fanatical prospecting, objections, sales EQ, and inked. And I'm here to help you open more doors, close bigger deals, and rock your commission check. Welcome back to the Sales Gravy Podcast. I'm Jeff Blunt, Jr., your host. And today we have my favorite guest for the Sales Grady Podcast. I'm just gonna put it out there, my favorite guest, Mr. Mark Hunter, author of Integrity for Selling, A Mind for Sales, High Profit Prospecting, High Profit Selling, and some incredible books in the sales space.

1:13He's been working for the last however many decades. We've had many podcasts together with Fortune 500, Fortune 100, Fortune 200, small business, mid-sized business. He helped people sell more every single day. That is his life, his job. He spends his entire working life observing what high performance sales teams do well. And I'm so excited to have him on the podcast to talk about Outbound Conference in 2026. Outbound is coming up in Las Vegas, November 9th through the 12th. Mark, thank you so much for being here. And I am excited to talk about what we're doing there. Well, you tell me what we're doing.

1:43First of all, you said my favorite guest. I think you say that every week with the show. It's OK. You got to listen to it every week to figure it out. Hey, I'll tell you what. Outbound is about pipeline and productivity. And if you haven't noticed, we've all noticed the marketplace has changed. And I mean, tools and techniques and hacks and apps and all those that worked a year ago aren't working today. And so when we talk about pipeline and productivity, because that's the other thing, productivity, man, we could talk about that forever because a lot of salespeople are busy, but they're not productive.

2:16Big difference, big difference between the two. We're going to be really bringing in a lot of strategies and a lot of ideas because I'll tell you what, anybody listening to this right now, anybody watching this right now has got stuff in their pipeline that you got got to get rid of because it's not going anywhere. It's not moving. Get it out of there. Focus on fewer and you'll make more money. Too many salespeople are not making quota because they're chasing deadwood. The data on it was like 70 or 80 % of all sales reps across all industries missed quota in 2025 or in 2024. And now stop and think about that.

2:49That number is abysmal. If you were a CEO of a company and you turned in results like that, you would not be the CEO. Why do we allow that in the sales community? Why? Why? Well, first of all, I think it's because we frame up what we're doing totally wrong. Because again, we're trying to chase anything and everything. If it's got a heartbeat, we're trying to go after it. You know, my dog's got a heartbeat. My dog's not buying anything from me. You know, you got to tighten up the focus. And have you ever noticed that sales kickoff meetings spend 90 % of their time talking about the product and only 10 % talking about selling?

3:27Why is that? We got to fix that. Don't lead with your product. Don't lead with your product. Lead with the problem. You've got to set the table for that. Now, you can't tell them that they're stupid, but it's by asking questions. Awareness is the mother of change. You create awareness with the questions that you ask. Sales is not as hard as we make it out to be. I see too many salespeople. They lead with the product and then they race to the demo. Let me tell you something. I don't know of anybody who wakes up in the morning and says, man, I hope I get to sit through another boring demo. If people want a demo, you can go to YouTube.

4:02You can go to YouTube and get any company's product on a video. They don't want that. No. They want help on what's challenging them right now today. Here's the magic question. This is the magic question I want anybody to ask. What are your KPIs for this year? I was with a CEO back here about a month ago. And I asked him, I said, OK, what's the board? What are the very specifics? Because, again, he doesn't have KPIs. He is, you know, the board has. And he said, hey, thanks for asking. Here's where I got to go. And that becomes the pain. That becomes the challenge. That becomes the problem. So you're talking to any type of a customer.

4:44Ask them, what are your KPIs? First of all, they're going to be shocked that you're willing to ask that question. And you know what? They will share it with you. If they've got a problem, they're going to share it with you. That's what your solution is designed to help them overcome. With that, that's a mic drop moment. Thank you. Good night. See you at Outbound. We'll see you at Outbound. Well, I like that you brought up this really interesting concept, which is busyness versus doing the work that gets us to our numbers. And I know that most sales reps feel this. And our theme for Outbound is breaking through buyer resistance.

5:18And a lot of buyer resistance comes from being in the sales process with people who don't ask good questions and give you a demo and do all this product pitch. And they're resistant because they don't feel any trust or they don't feel that they have the ability to make a decision with this person that they can feel good about. And the other part of this is that sales teams are spending time with deals that are never going to close. And this busyness perspective is so powerful and so prevalent, but it can be difficult to overcome. So at Outbound, you've been on stage. You're a mainstay. You're one of the four horsemen of Outbound.

5:49When you get up on stage and you talk about productivity and you talk about pipeline and you help sales teams realize where they're spending their time and their energy, what do you notice about the conversations that happen at Outbound after you've come off stage and you're in the room with people who are high-performing business athletes? Well, yeah. Now, suddenly people are talking about what's the questions I got to ask? Because there's three criteria that you got to get any buyer over the hurdle. What are the questions I need to ask to create urgency? Yeah. Because again, people can have problems, but it may not be urgent.

6:20I've got a lot of challenges around my house and my wife wants to do things. They're just not urgent. I'm not going to get to them. I'm going to get to what's urgent. And the same thing in a business. Two, is there budget? And it's not so much is there budget. Don't ask that question. That's stupid. No. In other words, it is the investment you're looking for them to make. Does that pale in comparison to the return on their investment? You may be asking them to spend a million dollars, but because of this investing with you a million dollars, they're going to reap a 20 million dollar return. Bingo, 20 to one.

6:55You got that one in the bank. The other piece is this, And this is a little bit of a strange one. Is the buyer going to look stupid if this doesn't work? Everybody's afraid of losing their job right now. Everybody. I mean, the economy is just weird. Now, it's different varies by industries. Nobody wants to make a decision that they're going to be foolish on. If there's any risk in that, they don't make a decision. And that's our number one competitor. No decision. That comes back to that. We haven't created enough trust. There's not enough accountability between myself, the salesperson, and you, the customer, and vice versa.

7:35And three, you are not confident. Now, it's not salesperson being confident. The customer has to be confident that the decision they are about to make is the right one. This is why if you race to the close, it reverts to price. Because again, give it to me cheap enough and I'll be confident. it. That's not the way to sell. I want to get, you know, maybe a little bit more insight from you and learn from you because you asked such an interesting question to your prospects. What are your KPIs this year? But I often find when I work with sales teams that that question is great, except that most salespeople don't know where to go.

8:12Once they have the answer to it, they go, oh, great. You have$5 million of revenue that you want to increase in the next quarter anyways. And then they just keep moving along. So from a productivity and pipeline perspective, What are some questions or what are some insights that you get from, you know, teaching sales seems to ask that question. And what do they do after they've got the bone in their jaws? What's the process that you're using right now and how confident are you doing that? What are the challenges that you're facing? You know, what are the issues? Why was it 5 million? Why was it not 2 million or 10 million?

8:48How are you feeling? It's just asking them questions about that and shut up. Don't even think. Don't even think about your product, your solution. Don't even think about that. Just let the customer share and talk because they may come back and say, oh, you know what? We got that one made in the shade. What happens if you exceed that? What happens if instead of getting five, you got seven or eight million? Or maybe there's another KPI. In other words, just talk to the customer. and listen. Ask a follow-up question on it. You just keep unpacking, unpacking, unpacking. I've done this time and time again, and it's amazing.

9:30The more they share, the more confidence they have in you because you're actually paying attention to what they are saying. It turns out listening is really powerful. And then a follow-up question to that is, for me, when I get into the conversations, I set the appointment, especially if it's outbound. Like if I'm prospecting the way that I do, and I set a cold appointment with somebody, I call them up or I email them or I send them a DM on LinkedIn and they say, yeah, sure, I'll take a meeting with you. I find too often that sales reps come in with an adversarial mindset. I have to sell this person on why I'm there.

10:01The question I ask people along with those is, tell me about how this conversation fits into your growth goals. Why did you take this conversation? Then they give you the answer. And here's the thing with integrity first selling. I read this book. Here's what the lesson should be for salespeople. When you ask these good questions, yes, they trust you. Yes, you can get further down the road and you can get to the demo and maybe you get the sale. But on the other hand, we talk about productivity and pipeline. If you are trying to be efficient with your day, sometimes the discovery conversation means that they're not the right fit.

10:33Like when you take all the information back and you go, I can't value bridge what I'm doing to what they want to get done. And you need to be honest. And then you can just say this deal I'm taking out of my pipeline. I'm throwing it over there. And I'm not going to spend 40 hours of my week work on this. If the dog don't hunt, don't take him hunting. Going into a follow-up call, I want every important note right at my fingertips, not buried somewhere in a scribbled stack of notes. And with Plod Notepin S, I always have them because it's a wearable, portable note taker that lets me stay present and focused on customers during every single meeting.

11:06Plod captures the conversation and turns it into organized summaries and action items so I can follow up faster. And if I need a specific detail, Plod's recall has that ready for me. And that's why Jeb Senior and I and all of Sales Gravy trusts our Plod Notepen S. Try Plod and stay focused on the conversation while it handles all of your notes. Go to plod.ai forward slash Jeb. That's plod.ai forward slash Jeb and use code JEB to get 10 % off your purchase. We try, you know, in sales, stay in the game, stay in the game, stay in the game. Okay, I believe in staying in the game. I want to stay in the game.

11:40Only if they're qualified. Only if I know that I have a need that I can help them with. Only if I know that they fit who I am. I am going after, you know, otherwise, no, I don't want to. I don't want to have them in my pipeline. It's just dumb. It seems easier than it than it actually is in practice. And the psychology behind that and all of the things that we just said right there in that brief moment of, yeah, I don't want to play the game if they're not qualified. Feels really easy for us to say this because we've been practicing it for so long. But you and I have both been in places where we played the game for so long because we didn't have the pipeline.

12:15We didn't have the process. We didn't have the efficiencies. We didn't see what we'd see today. And I'm still learning this process. And when you're at Outbound, which is the biggest, baddest conference in sales around these particular topics, when you are there on site, what is it that draws you to Outbound every single year that we have it? And what do you think draws the audience back year after year after year to join us at Outbound, even though we are talking about lots of similar concepts since 2018, since we've been doing this, but it's still impactful for everyone who shows up. Why would you as a sales leader join us at Outbound this year in November based on your experiences?

12:53Why do you take a shower every day? Because otherwise you'd stink. It's just that simple because here's the deal. Here's the deal. a rising tide lifts all boat. We've become the sum of the five people we hang out with. Jim Rowan said that line years, years ago. There's something magical about being at Alphound because you are with other intense, successful people. And the conversations that happen after the sessions, over meals, over a drink, wherever it might be, you hang out with great people. And it's amazing at how you get challenged. I'm part of a mastermind group of four other incredibly successful individuals.

13:36It's amazing at how we lift each other up. This is why you have to be at Outbound. It's not for slackers. Don't come if you think that what you're going to do is, oh, I'm going to get the perfect playbook and it's good. Well, yeah, you're going to get a playbook, but then doggone it, you got to go do something with it. Here's what I like about Outbound. And I hear this from more people. In fact, I was talking to somebody just the other day who was at our last two outmounds, and he made the comment. He said, I'm still using strategies and techniques. I learned outbound. And I'm knocking it out of the park.

14:15You know, what's funny is everybody has this limiting belief. Everybody has a limiting belief. Outbound allows you to shatter that. I get to coach salespeople around the world, and there's a real estate person I get to coach in Dubai. You talk about challenging right now. He's actually ahead of his annual plan. Oh, by the way, his annual plan this year, his annual goal was 3x what he had last year. His average transaction is four times the size of what it was last year. He does not allow anything to stand in his way. The apartment building he lives in was attacked by a drone. Later that day, he went out and closed his biggest deal of the year.

15:01Limiting beliefs. You get to outbound and you should be exhausted. Like the idea is that you don't leave there rejuvenated with all kinds of rest. You don't hang out by the pool and drink Mai Tais and hang out with Mark. We run before five o 'clock in the morning. We're in the sessions. We are learning every single second. And then we leave those sessions. We have conversations with other ultra performers and we cannot stop talking about how we're going to make our lives better. And then we go prospect and we come back to the conference and we learn more. And then in the evening, we play hard because that's what we do.

15:33And Mark Hunter plays hard. But we go to bed early because we're getting up before 5 a.m. and running a 10K. Easier for us East Coaster folks and Central Time folks when we get that extra hour back. You've been one of the OGs of Outbound. I was maybe 17 years old and we walked up on stage and y 'all were doing some practice. You and Mike Weinberg and Anthony and Jeb. And I remember sitting in that room and y 'all were really excited about 2018 because it was the first Outbound. It's this tiny little room. And now we're several, almost, gosh, almost a decade since that day, which feels incredible that we're even there.

16:02I remember how excited y 'all were for the people who are joining you because they just love sales so much. What is one thing, I guess, about the interactions that people have with you that are offstage that means so much to you as a content creator, as somebody who is a thought leader? You get the ability to intermingle with the people outside of just hopping up on stage, hopping on a plane, and leaving the event. You get to hang out with everybody. What does that mean to you? It's the passion for people. You know, if you're in sales and it's all about the money, you're in it for the wrong goal.

16:37Money is great, but you're in it to impact and influence others. And for me, it's the ability to interact. I'll never forget the first outbound we did. There was a lady who came up and she was crying. She was absolutely crying because she said, you guys changed my life, but you gave me today. And we've had so many of those success stories along the way. Sales is about investing in others. Zig Ziglar had that line. The best way to achieve your goals is if you help enough other people achieve their goals. And I truly do believe that, you know, that's that side note. People are saying, oh, I want referrals.

17:11I want referrals. Great. How many referrals have you given? You got to give referrals. Then you'll get referrals. When we invest in people, and this is what jazzes me, this is what excites me about Albound, is every time you get to create new relationships and you renew old relationships. And those just light a fire. They're fun. They're cool. The money we make, that's the scoreboard. It's the conversations. Those are the plays on the field that put the numbers on the scoreboard. Sales is not as complicated as we make it out to be. Pick up the phone, make the call, have the conversation. Hello?

17:54What part of this do you not understand? And help somebody else out. Sometimes people don't want to be helped. And that's where people get hung up. Move on. Well, Mark, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for being at Outbound and being one of our four horsemen, people who have joined us since the very beginning. You have been a part of it since, you know, since 2018. And you've seen it grow and become what it is today, the biggest, baddest conference in sales. If you have not gotten your tickets yet and you're listening to this podcast, you got to go to outboundconference.com right now, outboundconference.com and go get your tickets.

18:22We will be in Las Vegas at the beautiful Red Rock Resort and in. We're going to be hosting a VIP bowling event. We're going to be doing runs at three o 'clock in the morning. Shoot, we might not even sleep. We're just going to get it. We're just going to keep running until the next conference day comes. And we are going to be there November 9th through the 12th. So go get your badges at outboundconference.com. Mark, thank you so much for being here and we appreciate you. We'll see you in Las Vegas.

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