Tag: The Language Of Selling

Objection-Free Selling?

By Paul  Bunn

High Probability Selling™

 

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”

–   Mark Twain

 I’ve done a bit of internet searching about objections.  In the majority of sales training websites, “overcoming objections” is listed as a critical part of any sales process.  There are a multitude of techniques and tactics offered, including memorizing the 150-plus common objections and using 135 or so phrases to overcome them. 

When you are trying to get people to do something they don’t want to do (such as getting them to give you an appointment, or persuading them to buy something they don’t want to buy yet) you generate sales resistance in the form of objections.  Sales resistance is the most prevalent root cause of the objections that salespeople have to continue to try to overcome. 

What if there was another way to achieve a closed sale without having to overcome objections?  What if there was a way to prevent the sales resistance that causes nearly all the objections heard by salespeople? 

Our research, compiled over 40 years of observing top salespeople in the field, has shown that they eliminate the cause of most objections… by changing the approach to selling.  Several key observations came from this research, two of which are:

Top producers approach prospecting in a very different way.  Instead of attempting to convince a prospect to make an appointment, the goal of their prospecting is to find the prospects that don’t require convincing and persuasion to make a purchase.  Contrary to popular belief, these prospects exist in every market we’ve encountered. 

Then, these top salespeople approach selling in a very different way.  On the rare occasions that an objection comes up, they acknowledge and discuss it with the prospect in a manner that we describe as “full disclosure.”  They discuss the detriments of their offering as well as the features and benefits, which prevent an objection from becoming a deal-killer.

The result:  Objection-free selling.
 

 

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

Are You Stuck with Slow Sales Growth?

By Jacques Werth
High Probability Selling

If your sales productivity is not continuously improving, then you are probably stuck.  It is likely because you are using one or more of the following sales methods and tactics:

  • Cold Calling          
  • Solution Selling
  • Needs Selling
  • Selling Benefits      
  • Consultative Selling
  • Rapport Building
  • Identifying Needs   
  • Finding Pain                   
  • Presenting            
  • Persuading            
  • Convincing                     
  • Closing Techniques
  • Overcoming Objections

Why would any of those methods and tactics get you stuck?  Because they are all parts of the traditional selling system that was developed over 70 years ago.  It all worked pretty well until around the mid-1980s.  Since then these have all gradually become obsolete. 

The world has changed immensely in the last 20 years:  culturally, economically, technically, educationally, and so on.  It all started with the advent of the personal computer and then the Internet.  Every other business activity (such as marketing, finance, engineering, accounting, etc.) has changed dramatically to adjust to those changes.  Yet, selling has changed very little in the last 70 years.  

If you want to get unstuck, if you are ready for dramatic sales growth, find out about the new sales process that really works now. Learn about the new sales process, developed by top performing salespeople, to take advantage of the modern business environment. 

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

Questions: Open-Ended or Close-Ended?

By Jacques Werth, President

High Probability® Selling

Almost all salespeople know the “right answer” to that one.  Or do they?

If you are practicing “Needs Selling,” or any of its modern derivatives, such as Consultative Selling or Solution Selling, you’re asking open-ended questions. You want to try to get your prospects talking about their needs, their problems, and their pain.

You want to steer the conversation around to getting them “interested” in working with you, so that you can help alleviate their pain by helping solve their problems. Open-ended questions are designed to do that.

That sounds exactly right, doesn’t it? It’s just the way you want to sell. If that’s the right way to sell, and it really works, and it’s not so hard to do, so why aren’t you rich?

Why is it that most salespeople, almost all of them asking open-ended questions, either fail or fail to achieve real success?  Why do they struggle to meet quota?  Why are so many salespeople unhappy with their work?  Could it be that selling systems that rely on open-ended questions don’t work very well anymore?

Now, I’m not saying that you should never ask open-ended questions. In High Probability Selling, there are specific times and specific circumstances when open-ended questions are entirely appropriate – but not many. Finding out what they want, what they are willing to commit to buy requires closed-ended questioning. Once a prospect has indicated that they want the benefits of your product or service, some open-ended questions are warranted.

You see, effective selling is all about commitments – mutual commitments.  And the most effective way to arrive at commitments is with closed-ended questions. The big problem is that most salespeople don’t understand the theory and mechanics of commitments. In reality, commitments are what close sales. 

Closing is most effective when it opens the sale and drives the entire sales process. The High Probability Selling process typically involves at least 25 closing commitments, all arrived at with closed-ended questions.

That is how almost all of the top one-percent of salespeople actually sell. That’s what makes the High Probability Selling different from the sales methods that you already know, and (maybe) still believe in. Can you afford to go on using ineffective sales methods to support your family and power your ambitions? Note the closed-ended question, then read it again – and give yourself an honest answer.

 

 

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

 

Selling Beyond Fear

By Jacques Werth, President
High Probability® Selling

In the 17 years we’ve been training salespeople in High Probability Selling, we’ve known that what we teach scares people. What we haven’t known is *why* our methods scare some salespeople into clinging to their old – but ineffective – sales approaches. Why can’t many salespeople change the way they sell?

After years of research, we’ve finally determined why so many salespeople can’t change the way they sell: They’re afraid of doing what really works!

Through extensive research under the guidance of psychologist Dr. Wayne Diamond, we’ve concluded that salespeople’s own fears are the biggest impediment to their success. Fear is the real ‘enemy’.  Here is a 3-Step Strategy for overcoming your fears, discomfort, uneasiness, anxiety…

1.  Determine if the fear is based on reality or fantasy.

The first thing you need to do is determine whether the fears you have are based in Reality or Fantasy. You can’t beat what isn’t real. You can’t overcome what is real if you won’t admit it exists. If a fear is based in reality, facing it helps to overcome the fear. If a fear is based in fantasy, acknowledging the fantasy helps to overcome it.

What you resist persists. If you resist facing your fears, they will persist.

2.  Assumptions are “Sales Killers”

Assuming that you know how people will react often produces negative results. It doesn’t matter if your assumptions are generally negative or positive. Both are condescending and/or insulting. Both are based on some or all of the fears listed above.

Assumptions are usually based on what you believe to be true, or what you wish was true. Our false assumptions may be due to past unsuccessful sales experiences, or they may be relics of personal experiences, recent or long ‘buried’.   You can use step 1 also.

3. Acknowledge your fears and address / resolve the root causes.

Typical Sales Fears

Reality / Root Cause

 

 

The Fear of Rejection

The way you sell causes rejection

The Fear of Loss

You can’t lose what you don’t have yet

The Fear of Scarcity

Learn how to find an abundance of prospects

The Fear of Being Intrusive

People who mind intrusion don’t take calls

The Fear of Being Offensive

The timid way you sell offends prospects more

The Fear of Not Being Believed

Practice full disclosure and be believed

The Fear of Being Disrespected

Directness and authenticity get respect

The Fear of Failure and/or the Fear of Success

Needs professional guidance

 

 Typically, salespeople mask these fears with macho attitudes. They think of themselves as heroic figures, persevering against all obstacles, fighting the good fight day after day. But, think this through first: Who are they really fighting?

This is where true courage enters the picture: We have to recognize and confront our fears before we can overcome them.

 

 

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

Eliminate the Fear of Cold Calling and Rejection

By Jacques Werth, President

High Probability® Selling

I’ve never met a salesperson who has not experienced a fear of the phone at one time or another. Almost all of them have their reasons for being reluctant to make calls, and most of them have no idea what really causes it.  There are two basic reasons for the fear of cold calling. Both are easy to remedy if you know how.

1.  1.  The Experience of Repeated Failure

Most salespeople set out to contact a large number of people who have an apparent need for their products and service.  Their objective is to convince every one of them to grant an appointment.

Let’s assume that you contact 50 people a day and average 2 appointments. In your business, that may be a very good result.  Nevertheless, you will have the experience of repeated failure because you tried to convince all of them to set an appointment and failed to meet your objective of 48 out of 50 calls.

The remedy is to change your objective.  This new objective is to make appointments only with High Probability Prospects – and to disqualify everyone else. Make those 50 calls and be clear that you’ll only make an appointment if the prospect wants what you’re selling. If the prospect doesn’t want what you’re selling, terminate the call quickly and courteously.  You now have the experience of succeeding in your objective 50 times out of 50 calls.  And you will be conditioning them to take your next call…you’ll be there when they’re ready and 99percent of the time, they’ll take your calls.

Meeting only with the prospects that have an intention of buying certainly helps as well.

2.  2.  Fear of Rejection

Most salespeople have a prospecting "pitch" which is designed to interest, entice, excite, convince and persuade people to give them appointments.  They have a string of questions to get the prospect involved and interested in meeting them.  However, every question they ask increases the prospect’s sales resistance.  Negative reactions to their methods grow very quickly.

Most prospects react to any prospecting pitch defensively.  Their resistance is aroused as soon as they hear your warm greeting and your friendly, enthusiastic, professional pitch. The more skillful you are in keeping them talking and listening, the more they become wary and annoyed. Eventually, many of them become non-communicative, or too busy to talk, abrupt, sarcastic, or otherwise negative.  All of these reactions cause most salespeople to feel rejected.

Almost all sales managers and trainers will say that you’re not being rejected, that the prospects are merely declining the offer of your products or services.  Why then do almost all salespeople feel rejected?  Are you too sensitive, too thin-skinned?

Think about it.  Who do you trust?  Is it the sales manager who wants you to keep on going until you become insensitive to the rejection?  Or do you trust your own perceptions, your feelings of rejection?  Are all other salespeople who feel the rejection also wrong?

No, you feel rejected, personally rejected, because you are being personally rejected. That rejection is caused by the normal defensive reactions that everyone has against being persuaded to do something they don’t already want to do.  If you want to eliminate rejection you must change the way you prospect. It’s all about intention.

The Remedy – See Item 1 above.

THE RESULTS – No more fear of cold calling and no more wasted time with low probability prospects.  You meet with prospects who are ready to buy.

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

Get Real with Yourself

 

By Jacques Werth, President
High Probability® Selling

Fifty-one years ago I began to study selling — not just because I’m a curious, analytical type, but because I’ve always had a burning desire to succeed. When I was young I learned that big money can be made in sales and I wanted "my share." Later, I realized that only a tiny percentage of the people who entered the sales profession make it big.

Disappointment

Getting my first college degree, majoring in Industrial Sales, I “aced” all my sales courses. In my first sales job, I came to realize that what I learned in college didn’t work for me. After taking many other sales courses, I learned most corporate and commercial sales trainers couldn’t teach selling, either.

So, I set out to find the best salespeople, regardless of industry, to see what they did that other salespeople didn’t do. Over the years, I’ve gone out on sales calls with hundreds of the best salespeople and learned that the top 1% of all salespeople don’t sell the way the other 99% do.

Discovery – Honesty is the "Magic Bullet"

The most surprising thing I discovered is that most of the top salespeople are totally honest in their work. They’re honest with their prospects and customers, and they’re honest with themselves.

Numbers Don’t Lie

You have often heard that "sales is a numbers game." One of the big differences between the top salespeople and all the rest is that the best know their numbers. Top salespeople keep records of their sales activities every day, and they rigorously analyze their statistics.

Don’t Lie to Yourself!

The biggest barrier to success for most salespeople is that they don’t know their numbers, and they don’t want to know. That makes lying to themselves all too easy.

In every company we work with, almost all of the salespeople think and really believe that their closing rates are at least twice as high as they actually are, except for the few top salespeople.

Get Real – With Yourself

Most salespeople don’t know how to sell very well, but they think they do. If they knew their numbers, they would have to face the truth about their skills. They would have to change what they’re doing.

Change can be very uncomfortable. It’s more comfortable to lie to yourself than to change what you do every day. That’s one of the key reasons why most salespeople fail, and those that survive continue to struggle to make a good living.

False Prospects

Most salespeople spend most of their time with prospects that "have great potential," but seldom buy from them. The average salesperson goes through all of the motions that look like selling, but fails to bring in much business.

Average salespeople seldom truly qualify their prospects. They rarely dis-qualify their prospects, either. If they did, they would need to find new prospects — but they don’t know how prospect effectively, efficiently and enjoyably.

Real Relationships. Real Selling.

We know what top salespeople actually do when they’re selling. We have observed them in action and know what works and what doesn’t work. We know what top salespeople do to eliminate the rejection most salespeople have to live with and suffer with every day.

We know how they eliminate objections so they don’t have to "overcome" them. We know how they close dozens of times during each sales visit without any pressure on their prospects or themselves. Top salespeople develop relationships of mutual trust and respect with most of their prospects — without any phony "rapport building."

The essence of our book, "High Probability Selling," is how top salespeople actually sell. It’s about learning a selling process that makes it highly probable that you’ll close the majority of your prospects. And it’s what you can learn how to do in our sales training workshops.

 

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

 

Selling – Why is it So Hard to Learn?

By Jacques Werth

High Probability Selling

The primary reason it is so hard to learn to sell (well) is that almost all modern selling systems do not work very well. Virtually all selling systems are based on the “Needs Selling” paradigm, which was developed over seventy years ago.  Modern versions of Needs Selling such as, “Consultative Selling,” “Solution Selling,” Spin Selling,” and “Value Based Selling,” etc., are all based on the same premise.  

The basic premise of almost all ancient and modern selling systems is that a salesperson is supposed to meet with “interested” prospects, and persuade and convince them to buy.  Those systems worked well until the mid-1980s.  None of the techniques and systems designed for persuading and convincing are still very effective.

Virtually every other business discipline has gone through a multitude of changes in order to accommodate the myriad technical, psychographic, social and business changes that occurred over the last fifty years.  However, sales is still about persuading and convincing interested prospects to buy.

Therefore, people keep inventing new techniques for persuading and convincing.   Between Tom Hopkins’ first book “Mastering the Art of Selling” in 1981, until Charles Vega’s “1001 Professional Sales Tips” in 2006, many thousands of sales techniques have been developed.

As an example, one trainer teaches “99 ways to close a sale.”  When it was suggested that no one could actually remember 99 different closing techniques, he responded, “It is not that difficult.  There are really only 9 different closing techniques, and 11 variations of them, depending on the situation. So, you only need to remember 20 ways to close.”

With thousands of techniques and systems touting different ways to do the same thing, how can anyone remember and decide what to do and when to do it?  It is a wonder that anyone can learn how to sell.

Even now, you are still expected to convince and persuade prospects to buy something they are merely interested in.  How can you expect to do that, when it is so difficult to convince yourself to do anything differently?

Contrast all of that with High Probability Selling.

The basic premise is to meet with prospects who already want to buy the features of your products and services, and to mutually determine whether you have an acceptable basis for doing business.  No persuading or convincing is required.

In High Probability Prospecting, there are 12 basic responses to telephone prospecting offers.  And, there is one standard reply to each of those responses. You have those 12 replies printed out in front of you when you are prospecting. No memorization is required.

There are two basic ways to set up appointments with prospects.  There are five basic questions to get commitments to do business.  That too, requires no memorization.

When you visit with committed prospects, eighty percent of the time you are working from a printed questionnaire.  There are four basic closes that are utilized about 35 times, at appropriate points throughout the questionnaire.
No memorization is required, and no pressure or discomfort is generated.

Even during free-form discussions and inquiries, you are working from a guideline with seven basic rules.  Hardly any memorization required.

You do not have to constantly apply your brainpower to search your memory for what comes next or for the best reply to a question.  Therefore, you can use it to really listen to your prospects and work with them effectively.

High Probability Selling is a step-by-step sales process.  It is relatively easy to learn.  It can be customized for your products, services and markets.  Like any other tool or process, skill comes with utilization. You still have to do the work if you want to earn what the real professionals earn.  But first you need to decide – do you want to learn this new sales process?

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you may want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

How Can You Tell If a Salesperson is Lying?

By Jacques Werth, President
High Probability® Selling

Q: How can you tell if a salesperson is lying?
A: His lips are moving. (just joking?)

Do most prospects believe what you say? If your answer is “Yes,” you are probably already a very successful salesperson. If your answer is “No” or “Sometimes,” you face skepticism, doubt, and occasional hostility on a daily basis. It’s not fun and not very rewarding.

What causes prospects to doubt and challenge much of your "pitch"? How can you overcome distrust quickly, efficiently, and effectively?

Self-doubt leads to mistrust. When salespeople doubt themselves, others quickly sense it and become doubtful.
Uncertainty creates mistrust: If you’re afraid to say "I don’t know," and try to cover up your uncertainty, others sense it and become skeptical.

Over-eagerness engenders mistrust: If you try to compensate for feeling anxious by being inappropriately cheerful, others become wary and skeptical.

Feeling defeated often leads to defeat: If you expect "just another rejection" when you approach a prospect, prospects sense it, and will likely reject you.  Begin developing genuine self-confidence. Learn techniques for disrupting your personal negative thought patterns and replacing them with positive expectations. Learn to stop sabotaging your own success.

How do you get people to believe and trust you? By being genuinely trustworthy, with prospects and with yourself. Are you? If the answer is "No," you need to learn to trust yourself. 

 

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

Don’t Ask for the Order

By Jacques Werth, President

High Probability® Selling

This may seem confusing, since traditionally the whole idea of selling is to get an order from a customer. But if the order is a natural outcome of the conversation between prospect and seller—that is, if there is a mutually acceptable reason for doing business from the start—then your primary concern should be to draw up the prospect’s Conditions of Satisfaction, for price, delivery, features, etc.  After each item ask, “Is that what you want?” Then, each item becomes a “close.”  This automatically creates a series of two-way commitments and the order is the natural end result.

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion

Attitude and Expectations Shape Your Communications

By Jacques Werth, President

High Probability® Selling

Your attitudes, beliefs and emotions guide your tonality and manner of speaking. That’s one of the things we focus on in High Probability Selling.

We describe the best attitude to be "neutrality." It’s where we treat the prospect with respect – but not deference. It’s what Eric Berne, author of “Transactional Analysis,” described as Adult-to-Adult Communications, and we describe as “non-judgmental” or “neutral” communications. If your expectation for your relationships is Mutual Respect, your sales results can improve to an amazing level.

It’s relatively easy to learn, and it can become the natural way for you to speak. If you focus on an attitude of neutrality while you are telephone prospecting or calling customers, you can quickly become someone who gets respect, automatically.

 

If you want to learn the process and mindset of top producing salespeople, you want to learn more about High Probability Selling.

Until Next Time…Sell Well

Jacques Werth – High Probability Selling

Copyright 2007.

 

Tags: How+to+sell, The+secret+to+selling, Selling+and+Persuasion