Month: November 2023

Understanding High Probability Selling – Podcast Interview of Carl Ingalls by Paul Cuomo

Summary below written by Paul Cuomo, for the podcast he published on 29 June 2021:

For many of us who have read sales books, took courses or browsed through the thousands of hours of free sales training online, we often notice that much of the material and concepts are a regurgitation of past concepts. High Probability Selling is not. High Probability Selling is a way of selling without “getting people to buy.” No persuading, no convincing, no arguing, no handling objections.  No impressing people, no pretending to be a friend, no groveling for the sale…..yes you just read that. I had a wonderful discussion with Carl Ingalls, a Consultant who trains salespeople on this methodology.

High Probability Selling the book, was written by Jacques Werth and the process was discovered by observing behaviors of top sales performers within his organization. The book was recommended to me in the late 1990’s and it has had an enormous impact on me.  Very excited to share this interview with the audience.

Paul Cuomo, The Foundational Sales Podcast

Listen to this podcast here. 72 minutes

Blinded by Love (of what you sell)

Be careful when selling something that seems like a “no brainer”. If the reasons to buy it are so compelling that it sounds too good to be true, this will raise suspicion in the prospect’s mind too often. No amount of logic will overcome that, and it is terribly frustrating to try.

Also, your enthusiasm, even when sincere, is likely to come across like every other excited salesperson trying to push the prospect into a sale.

There is a special way of being that is the ultimate goal of High Probability Selling. And this is how we avoid triggering that general sense of unease a prospect may feel about the salesperson.

That way of being is naturally neutral and objective. No agenda and no attachment to the immediate outcome.

There’s No Such Thing as No Pressure Selling

That’s what Todd Liles says in his blog post at https://www.servextra.com/blog/sales/6-keys-to-low-pressure-selling/

It makes logical sense, because if you believe that selling is about getting someone to buy, it is impossible to do that without applying some pressure.

However, in High Probability Selling (HPS), we do not believe it’s about getting someone to buy. For us, selling is about finding people who want to buy for their own reasons, without any influence from us. We call that No Pressure Selling.

However, we actually do apply pressure in one way. Although we don’t try to get the prospect to buy, we do try to get them to make a decision. We ask, “Is that something you want?”

One way to sell with even less pressure than we do in HPS, is to be completely passive and wait for a sale to come to you. We don’t recommend that.

HPS From People Who Have Never Heard of It

That’s how Jacques Werth learned it. He discovered High Probability Selling (HPS) by watching and copying what hundreds of very successful salespeople were doing.

by Carl Ingalls and Paul Bunn

That’s how Jacques Werth learned it. He discovered High Probability Selling (HPS) by watching and copying what hundreds of very successful salespeople were doing. Nobody had a name for it, until Werth created the name and wrote the book.

These top salespeople used a variety of methods, which Werth compiled into a single process. None of them followed that complete process, but most of them followed a common theme, a way of being when they were selling.

The process varied between these salespeople, but their way of being was the same, and that is what we focus on now.

This HPS way of being does not follow the commonly accepted doctrine of selling. Once you look outside of that doctrine (getting people to buy), you may start to see examples of HPS in the broader world around you.

For example, “Do you want to buy some Girl Scout cookies?” is pure and natural HPS. They don’t ask us if we need it. They don’t spin it to make it tastier. We respect them, because they are standing up and asking us a direct question, and they respect us to decide if we want cookies without being persuaded. Mutual respect.

Exercise. Find and note examples of the HPS way of being, and especially from people who have never heard of High Probability Selling.

We will write more about this. Meanwhile, your comments and questions are very much appreciated.