A current HPS student remarked that High Prob is an inversion of traditional sales. And I was surfing YouTube shorts this morning and learned about another inversion that I found fascinating; Smoke On the Water by…wait for it…Beethoven?
Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AlSB7PCU2tM
What’s your metaphor for High Prob?
by Jacques Werth, edited by Carl Ingalls and Paul Bunn
We were in a large meeting room in a nice hotel, in a suburb of Seattle. Twelve successful Realtors were attending a Real Estate Sales Mastery workshop. They were an unusually well-dressed group for a two-day offsite workshop.
At our request, one of the participants had borrowed a sample front door and door frame from a builder. It was in the front of the meeting room and it was braced to stand on its own. The outside of the door was to the right, and to the left of the inside of the door we had a kitchen table and some chairs. Those were the props that we needed to begin the first exercise.
One of the workshop participants was asked to role-play how she approaches a visit to a homeowner who wants to sell his house. The instructor played the part of the home owner.
The first Realtor walked up to the outside of the door and knocked. The instructor opened the door and said “Hello.”
The Realtor flashed a big smile, held out her hand and said, very cordially, “Mr. Smith, it is so good to meet you. I am Pam Jackson with XYZ Real Estate. How are you today?”
The instructor invited her in and offered her a chair in the “kitchen.”
“Your home is very lovely. I really like what you did with the kitchen,” said Pam with delight, while looking all around.
The instructor stopped the role-play at that point and thanked Pam. He asked her to switch roles. She would now play the homeowner and the next participant would play the Realtor. That participant was even more effusive than Pam. Each successive Realtor tried to out-do those what went before them in their attempts to impress the prospect with their enthusiasm, charm and likeability.
During those role-plays, the other Realtors watched intently and remained very quiet. Several preened their clothing and hair before it was their turn.
For the second part of the role-play the instructor played the part of the Realtor, with Pam playing the homeowner. The instructor knocked on the door, and the Pam opened it. “Yes?’ she said.
“I’m Joe Instructor with HPS Realty. Are you Pam Jackson?”
“Yes, I am,” she said, reaching to shake his hand. “Come in. I suppose you want to look over the house.”
“Before we do that, we need to get to know each other and determine whether we have a mutually acceptable basis for doing business.”
Homeowner: “Okay, we can sit in the kitchen, here.”
Realtor: “When we spoke on the phone we agreed this meeting would take about ninety minutes of uninterrupted time. Have you arranged for that?”
Homeowner: “Yes, I turned off my phone and put the dog out in the back yard.”
Realtor: “We agreed that the purpose of our meeting is to determine whether we have a mutually acceptable basis for selling your home. Is that your intention?”
Homeowner: “Yes.”
Realtor: “And, we agreed that if we can meet your conditions of satisfaction for the sale of your home, we will make a decision about that today. Is that still your intention?”
Homeowner: “Yes, it is.”
The instructor thanked Pam and asked her to rejoin the rest of the group. Then, he asked the entire group, “What did you notice about the way I just approached Pam, the prospect?”
They called out their answers:
“You were very straight-forward.”
“You were dignified.”
“You were very relaxed.”
“You were authentic.”
“You were not acting.”
“You were in control.”
“You asked for and got commitments.”
Pam then capped it off with, “I felt privileged to be your prospect. I felt respected, and I felt respect for you.”
The above article was copied from an earlier post on this blog, and recently edited by Paul Bunn and Carl Ingalls.
by Paul Bunn
A student recently asked us what they should do with a list of “lost deals”. And at what point is a deal or sale “lost”? In their case, a lost deal equated to a person who didn’t purchase what the student was selling, in the timeframe the student wanted them to buy.
This inquiry got me thinking about one of the fundamental parts of High Probability Selling that is often overlooked; the words and language we use casually that either enhances or detracts from an effective HPS mindset. Discerning this fundamental part requires listening to ourselves, specifically the words we choose.
My thinking and intuitive feel on the subject of a lost sale, is that a real loss only occurs if that person at that company says they never want to hear from you again. Everyone else who doesn’t want your service now falls into “not now”.
And although we commonly use “lost” in our sales language, there is really no such thing. You can only lose something you actually had in your possession in the first place.
And quite clearly, although our long-conditioned sales brain may initially say otherwise, when a person says “not now” it’s obviously not about losing a sale that we had in our possession. A sale we had in our imagination, a sale that existed in our mental map of the future perhaps, but an actual completed transaction? I think not.
Back in prehistoric days (the late 1900’s), I would drive past a McDonald’s and the sign would say over 10 million sold. The sign did not say that 50 million drove past a McDonald’s that century and never stopped.
What they paid attention to, and yes I used to work at McDonald’s, was the interaction with those people who stopped and bought a burger or two and some fries and a coke. A Quarter Pounder that nobody purchased was not a lost sale. It’s only part of an ongoing equation.
Another consideration is that sales is a person to person activity. Companies and businesses and organizations don’t buy anything. People are the ones who buy, or make the sale. And they do it for their own reasons in their own time. The goal of a High Probability Salesperson is to be in communication with them as close as possible to whenever their reasons align with the outcomes that our products or services provide, during the timeframe in which they are ready to buy.
So, at what point is a sale considered “Lost”? So infrequently, we never really measure them.
And what do we do with a list of “lost” deals? Continue prospecting to them like anyone else on your list.
By Paul Bunn and Carl Ingalls
The Quest for the “One”
Many salespeople who contact us are looking for that one all-powerful sales tip or technique that will make them more successful.
Finding Buried Treasure
Many sales seminars are sold by promising to deliver a “new” tip or trick or a silver bullet
technique that will magically make all of your customers buy. Enticed by the possible existence of a secret weapon that you haven’t heard about yet, you continually search for this buried treasure…based on the belief that one more elusive idea will catapult you to sales success.
Breakthroughs?
Nearly all of these ideas that are presented as breakthroughs have been around since the beginning of recorded selling history. From using a prospect’s first name over and over throughout your conversation with them, to using your charisma and charm to create a relationship so they’ll buy from you, to acting interested. A recent Google search yielded hundreds of sites offering anywhere from 10 to 75 tips per site.
They Often Make Sense
How do you determine whether a sales tip or new idea will actually work? Often, the effectiveness of the latest “killer tactic” is based upon folklore, or a singular success story. The most popular ones make perfect sense, because they are very logical – at a superficial level.
The Reality, Part 1
It is when you actually try to apply these ideas that problems occur. They don’t work as they are supposed to. For example, you encounter unexpected sales resistance, and you think you just didn’t do it right.
The Reality, Part 2
It isn’t you…it’s the technique. Techniques that are based on persuasion, whether overt or covert, no matter how sophisticated, actually prevent more sales than they generate.
An Alternative
Learn to sell using the opposite of persuasion. Focus on what people want and don’t try to change that. It’s not about technique; it’s about intention.
If you want to learn more about this, read Chapter One of the book High Probability Selling.