Carl Ingalls

When High Probability Selling Doesn’t Work

 Articles, Blog  2 Responses »
Sep 172009
 
 
High Probability Selling (HPS) does not work for everybody or for every situation.
  • If your job is to sell the way your boss tells you to, and that way is not High Probability Selling, then using HPS may get you fired.  If you want to go ahead and do it anyway, you might have to pretend that you are doing what your boss tells you to do, and start looking for a new job.  Do not be tempted to use your new success to prove your boss wrong.
  • If you enjoy the feeling that you are very persuasive, then High Probability Selling probably won’t work for you.  Any attempt to persuade when using HPS will backfire, because it will generate even more mistrust than if you simply used a traditional way of selling.  If you feel that your success depends upon your ability to change prospect’s minds, then it may be very difficult for you to give up that feeling.
  • If you think of your prospects as prey to be driven into a sale, then High Probability Selling will not be appealing to you.  HPS does not offer any techniques for tricking people into buying from you.
  • If you believe that finding people who already want what you are selling is merely “order taking” and not real selling, then High Probability Selling is not for you.  Making more money due to the increased volume of sales may not be enough to compensate for the feeling that you aren’t creating the sale.
  • If you find it very difficult to try something that is very different from what other people seem to be doing, then you might not be able to try High Probability Selling.
  • If you are uncomfortable with the idea of calling a list of people, and taking “No” for an answer from most of them, then High Probability Selling may not be for you.  The best way to find “Yes” is to learn to accept “No” and move on.
 Posted by Carl Ingalls at 6:21 pm

Survey Results on What Motivates People to Sell Better

 Articles, Blog  No Responses »
Sep 022009
 
Here are the results from the survey on “Why Would You Want to Sell Better?”, which began with a blog post on 21 August 2009.
 
Percent Reason for Selling Better
52 Be more competent and effective at what you do.
16 Make more money, without having to work harder.
16 Be a Top Producer, with all the recognition, perks, and status.
12 Other (explained below)
4 Spend less time working, for the same amount of money.
0 Feel better about what you do for a living.
 
Total number of responses = 25 (so far)
 
Other reasons are summarized as:
  • Make a bigger contribution to charitable causes.
  • Be recognized as the most successful practitioner of HPS.
  • Sell more of something that makes other people’s lives better.
 
We thank all who have contributed to this survey.  We are still collecting results.  If you want to participate, you may fill out our webform.
 Posted by Carl Ingalls at 10:23 pm

Why Would You Want to Sell Better? (survey)

 Articles, Blog  No Responses »
Aug 212009
 
Imagine that you found a way to sell much more effectively.  How would you use this new ability to change your life?  What is most important to you?
  • Make more money, without having to work harder.
  • Spend less time working, for the same amount of money.
  • Be a Top Producer, with all the recognition, perks, and status.
  • Feel better about what you do for a living.
  • Be more competent and effective at what you do.
  • Other, something we didn’t think of.
Please tell us what matters most to you, either by leaving a comment on this blog post, or by filling out our webform. 
 
We will use this information to help improve our marketing.  Thank you.
 Posted by Carl Ingalls at 3:06 pm

Whatever It Takes

 Articles, Blog  4 Responses »
Aug 142009
 
Do you do whatever it takes to get an appointment with a prospect?
 
Put yourself in the place of the prospect.  Think about how you feel when a salesperson calls you, wants to meet with you, and will not take “No” for an answer.  Sometimes the easiest way out is to agree to an appointment that you do not care about, and might not even keep.  You and the salesperson have just agreed to a pretense.  The salesperson will pretend that an appointment is exactly what he or she wants, and you will pretend that you will actually make the appointment. 
 
Suppose that you actually do keep the appointment to meet with the salesperson, and yet you have no intention of buying anything.  Perhaps you are getting something you want out of the appointment, with no strings attached.  How do you feel about that?  How do you feel about yourself, and how do you feel about the salesperson?  Is there any reason for either of you to trust or respect the other? 
 
Without trust and respect, what are the chances that you will allow the salesperson to change your mind during the meeting?  And if it does happen that way, what are the chances that you will think better of it and cancel the order later? 
 
Now put yourself in the place of the salesperson.  You are on the phone again, doing whatever it takes to get an appointment with another prospect, or you are traveling to another appointment that will probably turn into a no-show or a no-sale. 
 
There must be a better way.  The will to do “whatever it takes” is there.  For most salespeople, doing “whatever it takes” means working a lot harder at doing the same things they’ve been doing all along. 
 
But what if “what it takes” is doing something very different?
 
 Posted by Carl Ingalls at 5:48 pm

What High Probability Selling is About – Briefly

 Articles, Blog, High Probability Selling, What Is HPS?  4 Responses »
Aug 112009
 
High Probability Selling is both a method of selling and a way of thinking about selling that is fundamentally different from how most people think about selling.
 
Most salespeople believe that selling is about convincing someone to buy from them.  They may use overt persuasion or subtle influence.  The objective is to change the prospect’s mind.
 
A different way of thinking about selling is to find people who already want what you are selling, rather than trying to convince them.  This is one of several core principles of High Probability Selling.
 
The way that you think about selling drives what you do.  What you do makes all the difference.
 Posted by Carl Ingalls at 5:44 pm

The Power of Accepting “No”

 Articles, Blog  4 Responses »
Jul 102009
 

The following is part of a recent conversation on Twitter.com between Carl Ingalls (http://twitter.com/Carl_Ingalls) and Christina Luminea (http://twitter.com/cristinaluminea).  Jacques Werth (http://twitter.com/JacquesWerth) is the owner of this blog. 

Carl:  Your ability to take “no” for an answer makes it easier for others to say “yes”.

Your ability to take “no” for an answer makes it easier for others to say “yes”.

Christina:  This really got me thinking: RT (@Carl_Ingalls: Your ability to take “no” for an answer makes it easier for others to say “yes”. Thanks Carl

Carl:  Thank you for the RT, and I would love to hear about your thinking. I’m always looking for better ideas & ways to say them.

Christina:  I think you are right. By taking “no” for an answer you show people respect for their ideas and beliefs. You build trust.

Christina:  People will be more confident to say ‘yes’ next time, knowing their opinion counts and they are not taken for granted.

Christina:  The strangest thing is all of this makes sense but I wouldn’t have thought of it before. This is why: Thank you!

Carl:  Thank you very much for sharing your thinking with me, and expressing it so well. It helps clarify my own thinking.

Carl:  The idea of “taking no for an answer” is part of a sales philosophy I’ve been studying, called High Probability Selling.

Carl:  I am helping the founder with a blog. May I have your permission to quote your tweets there? http://TinyURL.com/HPSBlog

Christina:  Please feel free to use any of my tweets and I am looking forward to share thoughts and ideas with you, in the future.

Jacques:  Your conversation with @cristinaluminea would be good to post on our blog.

Carl:  “The Power of Accepting No”, a Twitter conversation with @cristinaluminea posted on http://TinyURL.com/HPSBlog

 Posted by Carl Ingalls at 2:43 pm
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