Month: June 2007

Do You Believe Your Prospects?

By Paul Bunn

High Probability Selling

 

Numerous sales trainers and coaches will tell us that to be successful in selling, we must believe in ourselves, and also believe in our product and/or services.  Self-belief and self-confidence equal more sales.  There’s just one key belief missing.   

We have been in search of a CRM customer database system and have visited several websites and other information sources looking for a suitable system.  We made some calls and received calls from a few vendors offering their solutions.  Nearly all of them went like this:

Salesperson launched into his or her pitch, trying to get me to attend a demo, busily trying to tell me what’s so great about their offering.  I clearly stated that I had no interest in a demo.  I just wanted to match up our requirements to their features as quickly as possible, then watch a demo that shows those features, and buy the system that was the best fit.  A one-size-fits-all demo of undetermined length would be a complete waste of time, for both of us.

Every vendor call went generally the same way.  I asked for a short set of bullet points on the features of their system…I received a dozen-plus slide PowerPoint “brochure” and an invitation to another demo.  Every successive call was an exercise in the salesperson trying to get me to fit into his sales cycle, and to get me excited about the product.  

After all, I’m making a long-term purchase requiring a significant commitment of time and resources.  Enthusiasm is a nice feeling, but it won’t last as long as a database system that takes a month to get fully implemented, only to find out that it doesn’t deliver what we need and want.  Enthusiasm doesn’t last.  Reality lasts.  And reality is what is purchased, especially the ones that require long term investments of time and money.

This opportunity wasn’t lost by those salespeople…it was ignored and abandoned.  How many of those do you run across, and seldom even notice their presence?

The solution of course is to listen to our prospects; and then believe what they say.  Even if what they tell us it isn’t what we want to hear right now; even if they don’t mirror our excitement and enthusiasm and conviction.  Keep your ears open for the prospects that are looking for someone to work with, who know generally what they want to accomplish.  Make it easy for them to do business with you.  You’ll differentiate yourself from all the rest. And, if you’re going to abandon something, make it your agenda and not a willing prospect.

Take the easier and more profitable path.  Sell to the ones that are ready to buy.  Save the rest for next time.  How do you do that?  It’s as simple as “Believe in your prospects.”

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

Are You Stuck with Slow Sales Growth?

By Jacques Werth
High Probability Selling

If your sales productivity is not continuously improving, then you are probably stuck.  It is likely because you are using one or more of the following sales methods and tactics:

  • Cold Calling          
  • Solution Selling
  • Needs Selling
  • Selling Benefits      
  • Consultative Selling
  • Rapport Building
  • Identifying Needs   
  • Finding Pain                   
  • Presenting            
  • Persuading            
  • Convincing                     
  • Closing Techniques
  • Overcoming Objections

Why would any of those methods and tactics get you stuck?  Because they are all parts of the traditional selling system that was developed over 70 years ago.  It all worked pretty well until around the mid-1980s.  Since then these have all gradually become obsolete. 

The world has changed immensely in the last 20 years:  culturally, economically, technically, educationally, and so on.  It all started with the advent of the personal computer and then the Internet.  Every other business activity (such as marketing, finance, engineering, accounting, etc.) has changed dramatically to adjust to those changes.  Yet, selling has changed very little in the last 70 years.  

If you want to get unstuck, if you are ready for dramatic sales growth, find out about the new sales process that really works now. Learn about the new sales process, developed by top performing salespeople, to take advantage of the modern business environment. 

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

Questions: Open-Ended or Close-Ended?

By Jacques Werth, President

High Probability® Selling

Almost all salespeople know the “right answer” to that one.  Or do they?

If you are practicing “Needs Selling,” or any of its modern derivatives, such as Consultative Selling or Solution Selling, you’re asking open-ended questions. You want to try to get your prospects talking about their needs, their problems, and their pain.

You want to steer the conversation around to getting them “interested” in working with you, so that you can help alleviate their pain by helping solve their problems. Open-ended questions are designed to do that.

That sounds exactly right, doesn’t it? It’s just the way you want to sell. If that’s the right way to sell, and it really works, and it’s not so hard to do, so why aren’t you rich?

Why is it that most salespeople, almost all of them asking open-ended questions, either fail or fail to achieve real success?  Why do they struggle to meet quota?  Why are so many salespeople unhappy with their work?  Could it be that selling systems that rely on open-ended questions don’t work very well anymore?

Now, I’m not saying that you should never ask open-ended questions. In High Probability Selling, there are specific times and specific circumstances when open-ended questions are entirely appropriate – but not many. Finding out what they want, what they are willing to commit to buy requires closed-ended questioning. Once a prospect has indicated that they want the benefits of your product or service, some open-ended questions are warranted.

You see, effective selling is all about commitments – mutual commitments.  And the most effective way to arrive at commitments is with closed-ended questions. The big problem is that most salespeople don’t understand the theory and mechanics of commitments. In reality, commitments are what close sales. 

Closing is most effective when it opens the sale and drives the entire sales process. The High Probability Selling process typically involves at least 25 closing commitments, all arrived at with closed-ended questions.

That is how almost all of the top one-percent of salespeople actually sell. That’s what makes the High Probability Selling different from the sales methods that you already know, and (maybe) still believe in. Can you afford to go on using ineffective sales methods to support your family and power your ambitions? Note the closed-ended question, then read it again – and give yourself an honest answer.

 

 

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

 

Selling Beyond Fear

By Jacques Werth, President
High Probability® Selling

In the 17 years we’ve been training salespeople in High Probability Selling, we’ve known that what we teach scares people. What we haven’t known is *why* our methods scare some salespeople into clinging to their old – but ineffective – sales approaches. Why can’t many salespeople change the way they sell?

After years of research, we’ve finally determined why so many salespeople can’t change the way they sell: They’re afraid of doing what really works!

Through extensive research under the guidance of psychologist Dr. Wayne Diamond, we’ve concluded that salespeople’s own fears are the biggest impediment to their success. Fear is the real ‘enemy’.  Here is a 3-Step Strategy for overcoming your fears, discomfort, uneasiness, anxiety…

1.  Determine if the fear is based on reality or fantasy.

The first thing you need to do is determine whether the fears you have are based in Reality or Fantasy. You can’t beat what isn’t real. You can’t overcome what is real if you won’t admit it exists. If a fear is based in reality, facing it helps to overcome the fear. If a fear is based in fantasy, acknowledging the fantasy helps to overcome it.

What you resist persists. If you resist facing your fears, they will persist.

2.  Assumptions are “Sales Killers”

Assuming that you know how people will react often produces negative results. It doesn’t matter if your assumptions are generally negative or positive. Both are condescending and/or insulting. Both are based on some or all of the fears listed above.

Assumptions are usually based on what you believe to be true, or what you wish was true. Our false assumptions may be due to past unsuccessful sales experiences, or they may be relics of personal experiences, recent or long ‘buried’.   You can use step 1 also.

3. Acknowledge your fears and address / resolve the root causes.

Typical Sales Fears

Reality / Root Cause

 

 

The Fear of Rejection

The way you sell causes rejection

The Fear of Loss

You can’t lose what you don’t have yet

The Fear of Scarcity

Learn how to find an abundance of prospects

The Fear of Being Intrusive

People who mind intrusion don’t take calls

The Fear of Being Offensive

The timid way you sell offends prospects more

The Fear of Not Being Believed

Practice full disclosure and be believed

The Fear of Being Disrespected

Directness and authenticity get respect

The Fear of Failure and/or the Fear of Success

Needs professional guidance

 

 Typically, salespeople mask these fears with macho attitudes. They think of themselves as heroic figures, persevering against all obstacles, fighting the good fight day after day. But, think this through first: Who are they really fighting?

This is where true courage enters the picture: We have to recognize and confront our fears before we can overcome them.

 

 

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

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