Tag: Prospecting

Upcoming Workshops in January 2017

Upcoming Workshops:

  • 17 Jan 2017 – Getting Personal, 3 Sessions, $245
  • 26 Jan 2017 – Chapter 12 Explained, 1 Session, $45
  • ?? Feb 2017 – Prospecting, 10 Sessions, $1050

Getting Personal with High Probability Selling – Level 1.  This is a good place to start learning HPS.  It is a group workshop on one of the most important parts of High Probability Selling, which is how we interact with people.

The price is $245 per person.  This covers 3 sessions, spaced 1 week apart, plus recordings of each session (which are sent to participants only). Conducted by telephone (teleconference, interactive), with practice exercises to do during and between sessions.  Led by Carl Ingalls.

Schedule. The next Getting Personal workshop starts on Tuesday 17 January 2017, and continues with the two Tuesdays that follow (24 and 31 Jan).  The starting time for each session is 2pm USA Eastern Time.  Duration of each session is 1 to 2 hours.

For more details, or to purchase, please see www.HighProbSell.com/workshops/tri1/

Chapter 12 Explained.  This is a review and explanation of all of the steps in the entire High Probability Selling process, with answers to participant’s questions.

The price is $45 per person.  This covers 1 session, 60 to 90 minutes long, plus a recording of the session.  Conducted by telephone (teleconference, interactive), with questions and answers.  Led by Carl Ingalls.

Schedule:  Thursday 26 January 2017, at 3:30pm USA Eastern Time.

For more details, or to purchase, please see www.HighProbSell.com/workshops/chapt12/

To listen to a sample of the 18 Aug 2016 recording of this workshop, please click here.  The full recording is available for purchase for $29 USD.

Prospecting with High Probability – New.  This group workshop covers a detailed process of how to contact people (reaching out), and how to respond to people who contact us.

Updated Process – The High Probability Prospecting process has been updated to reflect changes in the way people use the telephone today.  The expert in the updated version of High Probability Prospecting is Paul Bunn, who will be teaching this course.

The price is $1050 per person.  This covers 10 group sessions, 60 to 90 minutes long, plus 30 minutes of individual coaching for each participant.  Conducted by telephone (teleconference, interactive), with questions and answers.  All sessions are recorded.  Recordings of group sessions are sent to the group.  Recordings of individual sessions are sent to the individual.

Schedule – February 2017.  Dates and times will be announced here on this blog as soon as they are have been determined.  If you have a preference, please let us know.  Sessions will be spaced 1 week apart.

For more details about this workshop and what is covered, please see www.HighProbSell.com/workshops/prospecting/

Other Workshops.  For information about other group workshops, and also about individual coaching, please visit the HPS training webpage at www.HighProbSell.com/workshops

All times are in USA Eastern Time, which is the same time zone as New York City.

All prices are in USA Dollars.

Relationship Selling

Would you trust someone who tried to form a relationship with you solely for the purpose of selling you something?

Many salespeople believe that the key to getting someone to buy is to build a “relationship” first.  They are the ones who say “how are you” on a cold call.

Saying “how are you” on a cold call is one of the signs that someone is going to try to get you to buy.  You may have noticed that, consciously or unconsciously, and it may affect your decision about whether you will buy from that salesperson or not.

In High Probability Selling, we don’t try to build relationships.  Relationships come from doing business, not the other way around.

Limit the Scope of Prospecting Offers

A High Probability Prospecting offer should be very specific, with a limited scope.  Avoid using a more general offer that tries to encompass most of what you do.

Some examples:

Instead of saying “I sell life insurance”, use at least two separate offers, where each excludes the other:

  • “I sell a whole life insurance policy that …”
  • “I sell a term life insurance policy that …”

Instead of saying “We offer IT support services”, break that down into two or more very specific offers:

  • “We provide a remote help desk service that …”
  • “We offer a network monitoring service that …”

This can be a very scary thing to do.  It doesn’t feel right to purposely exclude such a large portion of the audience in each prospecting offer.

Part of the reason it doesn’t feel right is that most of us are too desperate about each prospecting call, and emotionally attached to a positive outcome.  This makes us behave as if this is our only chance to get the prospect to buy from us.

But High Probability Prospecting is not about “getting” the prospect to buy.  It’s about finding someone who wants what we are selling, and is ready to buy now.

We do that by calling the same prospects over and over, with different prospecting offers.  Over time, they get a very good picture of what we are about.  Doing this in small bites gets better results than trying to get the entire message across at once.

High Probability Prospecting Offers Reviewed Here

We invite you to submit your High Probability Prospecting Offer as a comment on this post.  Jacques Werth and/or Carl Ingalls may review your prospecting offer and provide suggestions on how it can be made more consistent with High Probability Prospecting.

We also invite other readers to comment on people’s prospecting offers.  Many of our readers are very knowledgeable about High Probability Prospecting.

Before you submit a prospecting offer for review, keep in mind these points.

  • Review Guidelines for Creating a High Probability Prospecting Offer (a previous post on this blog).
  • Add a comment to this blog post, and include your prospecting offer in your comment.
  • Before you click on the button to submit your comment, you may want to click on the checkbox that says “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail”.
  • Submit only one prospecting offer at a time.  If you put more than one prospecting offer in your comment, we are less likely to respond.
  • Do not include any hyperlinks in the body of your comment.  You may enter a hyperlink in the text box labeled “URI” if you wish.
  • Your comment (and any replies to it) will be public, available for anyone to see.  You may use your real name and your real company name if you want, or you may use an alias instead, like “This is John Doe of ABC Company.”

Please note that this is an experiment.  We don’t know how well it will work.  If it turns out well, we may continue it.  If not, we may remove this post and all comments.

2019 Update – This experiment has been going very well.  Readers are welcome to post High Probability Prospecting Offers for review.

Guidelines for Creating a High Probability Prospecting Offer (Updated)

by Jacques Werth and Carl Ingalls – Updated May 2019 by Ingalls

Structure.  There are 3 parts to a High Probability Prospecting Offer:

  1. Identify yourself (full name) and who you represent (name of organization).
  2. Identify what you are selling in this particular offer.
  3. Identify one or two features about what you are selling.

After we present the offer, we ask, “Is that something you want.”  We do not count that as part of the offer.

Guidelines.  Keep these points in mind when creating a prospecting offer.

  • Make the offer very specific.  Do not try to create an offer that covers everything you sell.  When a prospect says “no” to your offer, you need to have a different offer the next time you call the same prospect.
  • Be factual and use neutral matter-of-fact wording and intonation.
  • Use simple language.  Avoid jargon, even when you are certain that the prospect would understand it.
  • No persuasion, no convincing arguments.  Do not include anything that sounds like a reason why the prospect should buy.
  • Do not use the words “you” or “your” or “yours” in the offer.  The first time we refer to the prospect that way is when we ask the question after the offer.
  • Be very brief and concise.  Use a maximum of 30 words in the offer, even if it means you have to use one feature instead of two.
  • When you identify yourself, it is best to start with “This is”.  The results are better than if you say “My name is”.  We don’t know why.
  • Don’t say “Hello” and don’t say “How are you”, unless the prospect says something like that to you first.
  • Use your full name.  Never use just your first name by itself.
  • For instance, “This is Jacques Werth of High Probability Selling.”
  • When you identify what you are selling, make sure your wording is simple and easy to understand.  Also, it is better to make it clear what a customers gets from you (the “Get”), rather than saying something that you do.
  • Use Features, not Benefits.  A feature is a concrete attribute that describes part of what you are selling, part of what the prospect gets immediately.  A benefit is a positive outcome that can happen later.
  • A feature can be something that differentiates your product or service.
  • A feature can be used to “paint a picture” of what you are selling, in a way that makes it more real or solid in the prospect’s mind.
  • Use features to make your offer more specific.  Next time you call the same prospect with an offer for the same product or service, use a different set of features.

Having good prospecting offers is important, but it’s only part of the process.  How you use your prospecting offers is just as important.

Happy prospecting.

2019-05-14 Update by Carl Ingalls

Previously, we recommended a maximum of 45 words in the offer, and we also recommended two features in each offer.  We now believe this makes the offer far too long, and we now recommend a maximum of 30 words in a High Probability Prospecting Offer.  Shorter is usually better, even if it means that you have to use only one feature instead of two.

I have added several details to the guidelines that were not in the original post.  – Ingalls

 

I Don’t Leave Voice Messages

by Jacques Werth

A student once asked me about leaving voice mail messages when prospecting, and this is how I answered.  You can listen to the recording of my answer, or read it below.

I called one company down in St. Louis who I really wanted to do business with, and I put them on my own prospecting list.  I called six times and I talked to the assistant to the vice president I wanted to talk to, and she kept saying “I can’t take a message, I’ll give you his voice mail.”

I said, “I don’t leave voice mail messages.”

She said, “Well that’s too bad, because I can’t take a message.”

The seventh time I called, I called at lunchtime.  I figured out she goes to lunch from one to two, so I called at 1:15, and somebody else answered the phone.  And I gave her my prospecting offer, and she said only Joe “so and so” can give you an answer to that question.

I said, “Well don’t give me his voice mail”, so she said “Why not?”

I said, “I don’t leave voice mail messages because they mainly annoy people.”

And she laughed and she said, “You’re right.  I’ll tell you what I’ll do.  If you’re willing to call here after six o’clock, between six and seven, I’ll give you his private line and you’ll be able to reach him then.”

So I said ok and she gave me his private number.  And I said, “Let me ask you why are you giving me his private number?”

And she says, “Well I know he wants what you have to offer.”

I said, “Why am I calling him between six and seven?”

She said, “Joe’s a workaholic.  He doesn’t leave here until eight or nine o’clock at night.  And that’s the only time he’ll pick up his phone.”

So I said, “Is it ok if I tell him you gave me the number?”

She said, “I wouldn’t give it to you if it wasn’t ok.”

This is a short piece that is taken from a recording of a teleseminar workshop on “Selling Financial Services”.  We sell the complete recording on the Products page of our website.

 

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.”

How to Say Ok Goodbye When a Prospect Says No

There are just three things to do when a prospect says “No”.  First you say “Ok” and then you say “Good-bye” and then you hang up.  However, the way you do each of these makes a lot of difference.  The meaning that the listener perceives is greatly influenced by your tone and timing.

The tone should be emotionally neutral, matter-of-fact, as if you were making a simple statement that has no “attitude”.  It should not convey your frustration about hearing “no” from yet another prospect.  It should not reveal your boredom with the process of making call after call.  It is also very important that your tone does not communicate an enthusiasm or friendliness that the prospect is likely to presume is faked.

The timing should clearly separate the “Ok” from the “Good-bye”.  Say these two words as two separate statements, with a pause in between.  Do not act like you are in a rush.  After you say “Good-bye” wait a while in silence before you hang up.  It’s best to let the other party hang up first.

Keep the intended meaning of each of these three things clearly in your mind when you do them.

  • Ok means that you acknowledge and accept what the prospect has just said.  It means that you are not going to argue.  It demonstrates that you did not have an emotional attachment to that particular outcome.  It demonstrates that you listen.
  • Good-bye means that you are done with this call.  It means that you have nothing more to say.  It demonstrates that you are moving on in a businesslike manner.
  • Waiting for a while before you hang up means that you are not dismissing the prospect.  You are not “slamming the door”.  It also gives the prospect an opportunity to ask you not to hang up yet.  This does happen, especially after you have called that prospect a few times.

To hear some samples of how to say “Ok … Good-bye”, you can play the following audio

We Need Your Help with a Marketing Question About a Call to Action

We need your help.  What would a Call to Action from High Probability Selling (HPS) look like and feel like?  We want to hear your thoughts, and even more importantly, we want to know how you feel.

Marketing experts tell us that every “pitch” should contain a clear Call to Action, something that we want the reader or listener to do.  But they live in a persuasive world, where marketing and selling is all about pushing or nudging or influencing people into buying something.  High Probability Selling is not in that world at all.

We don’t pitch.  Instead of trying to get someone to buy, HPS is about finding someone who wants to buy what we are selling, and then communicating with that person in a way that is completely consistent with this purpose.  So, what would a Call to Action look like in order to be compatible with High Probability Selling?

It can’t be pushy.  We’ve tried that.  Our website used to say “Get Started Now!” in big bold type on the home page.  It just didn’t feel right, and one of our readers pointed this out to us recently on Twitter.  So we changed it to something else.  We thought about it, and made a guess about what might work.

Our thinking went like this.  In the world of persuasion, a Call to Action is a push in a direction chosen by the seller.  In the world of HighProb, it’s replaced by a map, so that the potential buyer can make an informed decision.  People want to know what direction to go, but they don’t want to be pushed.  What we have now starts with “What’s next?  We offer the following suggestions”.  This is followed by our best guesses about what a reader might want.

High Probability Prospecting contains a good example of a High Probability version of a Call to Action.  Another Twitter friend pointed out that we are asking someone to make a decision (a type of action) when we are prospecting and we ask, “Is that something you want?”  When we do this, we make no attempt to steer the prospect toward a particular answer.  It’s a Call to Action without a direction.

We need to be creative.  High Probability Selling contradicts conventional wisdom about marketing and selling.  We want creative people to tell us what they think and feel.

 

We thank our readers, especially Linda Sgoluppi and Russ Thoman (@Linda_Sgoluppi and @RussThoman on Twitter), for calling us into action and for helping us clarify our thoughts on this.

Turning the Fear of Selling into Confidence

by Jacques Werth

In my first sales job, I visited over 100 potential customers a week.  Every time I walked into a company and asked to see the person who could make a decision to buy the kind of product I was selling, I did so with trepidation.  Each time, it became harder and more nerve wracking.

When I occasionally got to talk to decision makers, I was uncomfortable just trying to build a little rapport with them.  After 4 months, I had sold nothing, I was thoroughly discouraged, and I was ready to quit.

Then I got lucky.  The top salesperson in the huge company that employed me agreed to let me go on sales calls with him.  I learned a new way of selling by carefully observing how he worked.  I also learned that his truly relaxed way of communicating set him apart from other salespeople.

He did not do any of the typical rapport building techniques that salespeople are taught.  He knew how to control the conversation confidently without controlling the prospect.  After watching him for a couple of days, I learned how to do that by practicing his way of communicating with everyone I met.

Five years later, I was a highly successful salesperson and managed my first sales force.  Since that time, I have hired, trained, and managed hundreds of salespeople.  Most of them exhibited the same kind of anxiety that I did as a neophyte salesperson, even after they had been in sales for years.  I taught many of them how to be relaxed and confident, and they became much more successful.

Just as I did, people can learn to talk to almost anyone with confidence in their competence if they get the right kind of training and practice.