Month: July 2013

You Can’t Sell High Probability Prospects That Way

by Jacques Werth

Frank, a southern California Realtor, called and said he wanted to learn High Probability Prospecting.  I asked “Why?”

He said, “Yesterday, I was a guest in a foursome at Shady Canyon and a couple of members, who are also Realtors, were raving about your prospecting system.  So, that’s exactly what I want.”

I said, “Have you read the High Probability Selling book?”

“No, I don’t need to,” he said.  “If it works for them it’ll work for me.”

“Not necessarily,” I said.  “The High Probability Prospecting process by itself isn’t likely to produce the kind of results they’re getting, without following through with the High Probability Selling process.”

Frank said, “They didn’t say anything about selling.  Besides, I already know how to sell.  I just need to get more appointments with good prospects.”

I asked, “Did they tell you anything about High Probability Selling?”

“Well,” he said, “they weren’t actually talking to me.  I just overheard them talking to another Realtor, and like I said, I just need more good appointments.”

I said, “The way you sell now is not likely to work with high probability prospects.  And, we don’t want anyone that we train to set themselves up for disappointment.”

“Why won’t it work?” he asked.

“We don’t know.  Some very smart people have tried, and learned the hard way.  Maybe there is something about that kind of prospect that just doesn’t work with ordinary selling methods.”

“Then what should I do?” he asked.

“You could read the book ‘High Probability Selling.’  It describes the entire process, both prospecting and selling, demonstrated through example dialogues.  If you read it, and you then decide that this really is what you want, give us a call.”

Top Salespeople Sell to Top Decision Makers

by Jacques Werth

To make more sales, meet with the highest level person who makes decisions about purchasing what you are selling.  It’s not a good strategy to talk to anyone at a lower level first, unless it is the top decision maker’s assistant (also known as a gatekeeper).  Here is an example:

Sean, a young salesperson with a very large software company visited with the IT manager of one the largest car manufacturers.  Sean was told that they were “absolutely not interested” in his type of software.  Sean mentioned the conversation to his sales manager, who reminded him that he was trained to contact C-level Execs, not managers.

Sean began to phone several of the senior VPs of the car company.  Eventually, he spoke to the assistant to the Chief Information Officer (CIO), and he explained what he was selling.  A minute later the CIO got on the line and said, “I understand that you have software that can automatically identify corrupted and missing information in our database files.  Is that correct?”

Sean said, “Yes that’s correct.  Is that what you want?”

She said, “Yes.  How soon can we get together?”

Sean met with the CIO the next day and he went through the entire High Probability Selling process with her.  He came back two days later with the product manager for that software.  After a thorough discussion about what the software could and could not do, the product manager estimated the price to be between 3 and 4 million dollars.  The CIO asked for a written quotation.

Within a week the CIO authorized a $3.5mm purchase of the software, and handed Sean a written purchase order.

 

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