Tag: Mindset

New Course for 2024: High Probability Selling for Inbound Selling

The Backstory: HPS and Inbound Selling

Since the 1990s, High Probability Selling (HPS) has focused predominantly on outbound telephone prospecting, followed by a sales appointment or closing process. Despite the fact that Jacques Werth, one of the co-authors of the HPS book, successfully implemented HPS in several businesses with primarily inbound traffic, the book and training did not cover how to handle inbound sales.

When I asked Jacques about applying HPS to inbound sales calls, he suggested, “just listen to them long enough to give them an outbound prospecting offer.” However, I found that this approach was ineffective and often counterproductive, frustrating both the prospect and me, as well as the referral source.

Through my own experiences, I quickly realized that the traditional HPS methods were not suited for inbound calls. Abandoning HPS was not an option for me, as it would create more chaos. Instead, I adapted HPS to fit inbound selling scenarios.

From 2010, over 13 years working in health insurance agencies and call centers that handled 95% inbound calls, I developed a new approach. I created what we now call “HPS in a non-HPS world” for inbound selling. As I successfully applied these adaptations as an agent, I also trained, coached, and supervised others in implementing HPS for inbound callers.

Why Adapt HPS for Inbound Selling?

Outbound calls are straightforward; you know the topic, the offer, and the likely responses. However, inbound calls are unpredictable. You don’t know who is calling, why they are calling, or even if it’s a sales call. This unpredictability can unsettle even the most seasoned sales professionals.

Through trial and error, I learned how to listen effectively to inbound callers, determining if a sale was possible and if the caller was a High Probability Prospect (HPP). If they were not, I developed ways to gracefully lead them to an exit point while preserving the opportunity for future warm calls. This gentle and respectful disqualification is crucial for maximizing inbound call opportunities.

Workshop Content

This course will teach you how to handle inbound calls using the HPS framework. You will learn:

  • Common Pitfalls and Mistakes: Identify and avoid common mistakes made during inbound calls.
  • Effective Listening Skills: Listen to discern the caller’s primary and secondary concerns, ensuring open and transparent communication.
  • Customer Needs Identification: Identify both expressed and unspoken customer problems and determine their conditions of satisfaction.
  • Resolving Customer Concerns: Find mutually beneficial solutions and establish a respectful, ongoing business relationship.
  • Overcoming Salesperson Biases: Recognize and mitigate preconceived ideas and beliefs that hinder understanding and connection.
  • Creating a Safe Space: Make prospects feel safe to share necessary information for both their benefit and yours.
  • Maintaining HPS Mindset: Balance qualification and disqualification while maintaining neutrality.
  • Implementing HPS Processes: Design and implement written processes to handle inbound inquiries efficiently.

Personal Insights and Strategies

During the workshop, I will share personal anecdotes and strategies that helped me adapt HPS to inbound selling. You’ll learn:

  • How to handle inbound calls confidently and effectively, maintaining the HPS mindset.
  • How to design and implement HPS processes specific to your business needs.
  • How to ensure inbound calls become enjoyable and profitable experiences.

Conclusion

This interactive workshop will equip you with the skills and insights to manage inbound calls successfully, even the unexpected ones. You will discover that handling inbound calls can be a highly enjoyable and profitable part of your sales process.

Instruction: Live and interactive on Zoom, taught by Paul Bunn (with over 13 years selling this way and teaching others) in three sessions. Recordings of live sessions also provided. One-on-one coaching available.

Schedule:  The next course begins Fri 24 May 2024 at 9:30 AM (USA Eastern Time).  The second and third sessions of that course are Fri 31 May and Fri 7 June, same time. 

Price:  $547 USD per person
Purchase:  click here

For updates on this course, see https://www.highprobsell.com/training/inbound.html

Essence of HPS – Course Rescheduled to 2024-03-04 (1 Week Later)

Introduction to the Concepts and Process of High Probability Selling (HPS)

Features of this Course:
– The meaning and purpose of selling
– The mindset (beliefs, habits, attitudes, language)
– The HPS Way of Being
– Overview of a complete HPS sale
– Taught by Paul Bunn and Carl Ingalls
(with 50+ years of combined experience with HPS)

Schedule:  Starts Monday 4 March 2024 at 3:30pm USA Eastern Time.  Two sessions (2 hours each), spaced one week apart, same day of week, same time.  Also see the HPS Calendar for updates. 

Price:  $297 USD per person
Purchase:  click here

If you have any questions, please Contact Us, or call +1 610-627-9030, or email Info@HighProbSell.com

Essence of HPS – New Course Starts 2024-02-26 Mon

Introduction to the Concepts and Process of High Probability Selling (HPS)

Features of this Course:
– The meaning and purpose of selling
– The mindset (beliefs, habits, attitudes, language)
– The HPS Way of Being
– Overview of a complete HPS sale
– Taught by Paul Bunn and Carl Ingalls
(with 50+ years of combined experience with HPS)

Schedule:  Starts Monday 26 February 2024 at 3:30pm USA Eastern Time.  Two sessions (2 hours each), spaced one week apart, same day of week, same time.  Also see the HPS Calendar for updates. 

Price:  $297 USD per person
Purchase:  click here

If you have any questions, please Contact Us, or call +1 610-627-9030, or email Info@HighProbSell.com

Thinking in the Language of High Probability Selling – Short Course

Features:

Topics include:
– The power of unspoken words.
– How to stay in the High Probability Selling (HPS) zone.
– How to recognize when mixing incompatible paradigms.
– The truth about Poison Words.  
– How to keep the thinking from getting in the way.

  • Taught by Paul Bunn and Carl Ingalls.
  • Live group webinars on Zoom, two sessions, two hours each, spaced one week apart. 
  • Webinar recordings will be sent to everyone who purchases this course.
  • Exercises will be assigned to do between sessions.
  • Coaching (one-on-one) after the course:  two sessions, 60 minutes each.

Schedule:  Starts Thursday 4 January 2024 at 11:30am USA Eastern Time.  Session #2 is one week later, same time.  Also see the HPS Calendar for updates. 

Price:  $497 USD

Sign Up & Purchase:  click here

If you purchase this course, please include your email address, so we can send you the Zoom instructions. 

Questions? Please Contact Us, or call +1 610-627-9030, or email Ingalls@HighProbSell.com

Selling With Respect

Respect the prospective customer’s right to decide what they want, without trying to change their mind. That is a major principle behind High Probability Selling. 

We want to find out what the prospect’s decision will be, not how to influence it. Since we estimate probabilities, we need to know what the truth really is, without our interference. 

Asking the right questions, in the right way, gets us a lot closer to the truth. 

For instance, we find that open questions work better than closed ones. Questions that give the prospect as much freedom as possible in how they choose to answer. It may take a little longer, but the response is usually more revealing.  

We give a lot of control to the prospect, and we do a lot of listening. That’s respect. 

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.

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.

A Word That Says It All

There is a single word we say to a prospect that demonstrates one of the most important ways of how we are being. It’s a very simple word that says so much.

Can you guess it?

When we respond to something the prospect says, it’s usually the first word we say.

It signals acceptance. It’s an early indicator that we are not going to try to change someone’s mind.

If you are an experienced practitioner of HPS, and can’t think of this word, it may be because you use it automatically, without being conscious of it.

If you can’t figure out what the word is, don’t worry. It’s ok.

And that is the answer. That’s the word. It’s ok.

Simple Selling – Why Is It So Hard?

The simplest way to sell something is to find people who want it. That’s the basic idea behind High Probability Selling (HPS). But why is it so hard to do?

We complicate things. We go far beyond just finding people. We try to change their minds. We try to get them to do something we want them to do.

These are deep habits, and they are very difficult to let go of. However, changing those habits is necessary to be successful when applying HPS.

There must be some kind of emotional reward that reinforces our need to influence or persuade other people. Here is an article that talks about such rewards: “How to Break Up with Your Bad Habits” by Jud Brewer.

We will discuss this in our next HPS Community Forum (scheduled for Thu 12 Oct 2023 at 10am USA Eastern Time on Zoom). If you want to attend, please Contact Us and please provide an email address where we can send you the Zoom sign-on details. Anyone with an interest in High Probability Selling is welcome. No charge.