Jon Williams reached out to me (Carl Ingalls) on Facebook Messenger recently, with some questions about the application of High Probability Selling.
I am posting our conversation here with some minor editing, and with permission.
Jon: I wanted to ask you, have you ever been asked about how to sell things that aren’t as straight forward as a product per se. Like artwork, finery items like collectors stuff?
I heard this marketers take on it and she said you’ve got to look at what people want and “need” (manufacturing the need because they want it) and focus on that rather than the literal item.
I was thinking more about this and thought that’s definitely a decent start and to think about what the collectors want, the history of the piece or collection (as a feature), etc.
Carl: I have had several people inquire about selling something that is not very tangible. HPS is one example of that. I have also been asked about selling art. Collector’s items are fairly straightforward, at least on the selling side.
Jon: Gotcha. Ya I’ve always wondered about strictly non-tangibles.
Carl: If you see your job as one of influencing someone to buy, then HPS methods do not apply at all. The marketer person you mentioned recommends methods that are consistent with that. You really have to pick one or the other. If you flip back and forth [between influencing and not influencing], people won’t trust you.
Jon: Influencing or making offers based on what they want?
That’s what I took away from it as far as what they were saying. She walked us through her thinking and then applied that back to her style which I agree can certainly come off more “getting this or that” vs discovery.
Carl: If the people you reach out to do not have a clear picture of what you are offering, you need to have a good marketing system in place that educates them. Don’t try to do it during one-on-one selling. Extremely inefficient and unrewarding.
Jon: From what I’ve learned in marketing, it applies to everything, which is, truly know your audience and get real feedback from their perspective, the good the bad and the ugly.
If we have this and don’t add to it, then it becomes easier to “make offers”. 🙂
Carl: Making an offer based on what the other person wants is perfectly consistent with HPS, and is not an attempt to influence their decision.
Jon: Ya that’s what I focus on too 🙂
We’ve all had about enough of the internet hype and all this pressure to sell based on their need.
What about empathy?
Do we actually care about the human on the other side? Or are they just another dollar with a pulse?
That’s been made clear via high prob and very verrry few sales training does this well or at all. (Marketing training seems even worse because it’s so removed from the one-on-one)
Carl: In classical HPS outbound prospecting (one-on-one), we normally do not know what the individual wants. We may know something about the probabilities, based on the demographics used when purchasing a list. And the most efficient way of finding out if they want what we are offering is simply to ask them directly. The more specific [the offer], the better.
With the newer HPS Inbound prospecting (where a prospect reaches out to the salesperson), we listen to find out what they want, and we decide if we want to offer something based on that.
Jon: I do hear the better ones saying this method where they do interviews with their existing customers or clients, not to sell them anything new but to gain understanding from their perspective.
I do love this method of listening to them and going from there.
I think you shared this once, that when we start listening we may find they have a completely different want than what we thought at the beginning.
Carl: Some people call that marketing research [doing interviews with existing customers].
Most of the time, I’m a one-man operation. This means that I fill all of the roles. Market research, marketing, prospecting, selling, fulfillment, office manager, etc.
Jon: How have you found that to work for you?
I’m the same way. I only want about 2-3 really solid clients when I get there.
Carl: I like the variety of roles, a lot. However, going solo is a very lonely job, and I do have trouble with that.
Jon: Ya, I’ve heard that too, about the lonely part. For now I don’t mind but it may change later, lol
Carl: I’m looking forward to doing a 3-session workshop on the TRI, starting this Tuesday 11 Jan. That’s real connection with real people, and teaching them how to do it too. Of course, you already know about that.
By the way, I’d like to put our conversation on the HPS Blog. May I have your permission to do that? I’ll probably use just our first names. Any thoughts?
Probably some minor editing. I’ll send you a copy to review first.
This is an example of one-to-many marketing that educates.
Jon: Ya that’s perfectly acceptable with me. Thanks for asking ☺️
Carl: You are very welcome. And I really appreciate the thoughtful conversation.
Jon: Yes it’s helped me understand the differences too and to get clear myself.
Questions and comments on this blog are very welcome.
High Probability Selling Blog 