High Probability Selling

by Jacques Werth and Carl Ingalls of High Probability Selling

“Market demand” comes from people who want what you’re selling.  This article describes an efficient process for finding and connecting with these people.

Call the Right People

Get a list from a reputable list broker of people who are likely to need your product.  Start with the demographics of your current customers, or with those of your competitors.  Check all the different demographics that the list broker can sort for and select those most pertinent to your business.

Focus only on the decision makers, the people who have the authority to buy.

Call each person on your list.  Ask to speak with that person.  If you get a gatekeeper, ask for help.  Don’t attempt to “get around” the gatekeeper.  Some can and will influence the decision maker.  Treat everyone with respect.

Have the Right Attitude

Be direct, open, and transparent.  Be clear and obvious about your purpose.

Be a seeker.  Be the prospector looking for gold, not the alchemist who desperately tries to turn everything into gold.  Look in likely places, and move on when they don’t pan out.

Respect the fact that the buying decision is up to the prospect, not up to you.  Think of how you feel when a salesperson tries to make your purchase decision for you, and especially when you know that you are the one who has to deal with the outcome.

Begin your conversation by immediately getting down to business.  Don’t begin with, “Hi, how are you?”  That sends the wrong signal.  People who want to do business aren’t looking for a new friend.

Say the Right Things

Identify yourself and your company.  Describe your product as concisely as possible.  Ask if this is something they want.  Say all of this in 45 words or less, preferably less.  If you’re still talking after 45 words, your prospect has probably stopped listening.

Avoid saying anything designed to persuade, convince, or influence.  You are looking for someone who already wants what you’re selling.  Anything you say that is meant to influence them will create sales resistance.

How you say these things matters just as much as what you say.  Pay careful attention to your clarity, tone, and timing.

Ask the Right Question

The question is simple: “Is this something you want?”  It doesn’t ask the prospect to decide if they will buy from you.  It asks them to tell you whether they want your specific type of product or service, or not.

This question will identify the prospects who have real buying intent, as opposed to those who are merely interested.

Do not ask, “Is this something you might want?”  It’s too tentative.  You’re not looking for a maybe, and neither is a real buyer.

Listen and Respect the Answer

Only after the prospect says a definite “Yes,” should you spend any time talking with them.

You need to be prepared to take “No” for an answer, and to respect that answer.  Don’t try to turn it into “Yes.”  Don’t even attempt to discuss it.

If the prospect says “No,” simply accept it and courteously end the call.  Don’t let any disappointment or frustration color your tone of voice or manner.  Always be respectful and professional.  This will significantly improve your chances that the same person will say “Yes” on a future call.

If the prospect says “Maybe,” you can tell them that you are looking for people who definitely want what you are selling right now.  Politely end the call and do not spend any time talking with them.

If the prospect asks a specific question about your product or service that can be answered simply and directly, then answer the question.  Then restate your offer and ask again if this is something they want.

Never hesitate to answer a question about price.  Answering with a wide price range often works best, i.e.: “It will cost between $10,000 and $20,000, depending upon your specific requirements.”

If the prospect is merely interested or asks for general information, verify that you have their correct email address and send them the appropriate email brochure.  Then end the call politely and move on.

If the prospect asks you not to call them again, make sure you comply completely.  No mistakes.  Keep your own “do not call” list, and never call that person again.  (There may be other decision makers in the same company you should be calling; find them.)

If people seem confused about what you’re saying and don’t understand the question, then your prospecting offer may be too vague.  This can also happen if you attempt to sell the benefits of your product, rather than clearly stating what it is.

Move On and Keep Records

After each call, record the results and move on to the next person on your list as quickly as possible.  Be persistently disciplined.  Set a goal for how often you are going to prospect, and for how long.

Keep a log of how much time you spend prospecting, who you called, what offer you gave them, and what was the result.  There is software to manage these details for you, but doing it manually for a while is a good way to develop a clear picture of what’s happening.  Tracking results is the best way to improve your methods.

Call People Again and Again

Continue calling the same list.  Each individual should hear from you every 3 to 4 weeks.  Vary your prospecting offers so that you don’t repeat yourself.  It’s best to have a cycle of at least five different prospecting offers, so you go through all of them before the prospect hears the first one again.

Being able to take “No” for an answer, respecting your prospect’s time, and not being repetitive are the things that will allow you to call again and again.  This creates favorable “front-of-mind” awareness, so that when the prospect does want what you’re selling, they will likely think of you, and respond positively to your next call.

If you follow the steps in this article, you’ll have a much higher probability of contacting prospects when the time is right.  Prospects buy in their own time.

Many years ago I operated a company that waterproofed just about any sort of structure, including residential basements.  Every time there was a heavy rain storm, about three percent of the jobs we did leaked.  We stood by our guarantee, which means that we fixed these leaks as quickly as possible at no charge.

However, the leaks tended to all happen at once, which made it difficult to get them all fixed as quickly as some of our customers wanted.  A few of our customers were very upset about this.  I told my staff to send those people to me.

One day I heard a very loud bang and angry shouting coming from the front office.  I went out to see.  There was a large man holding a baseball bat high over his head in one hand.  He looked and sounded enraged, irrational, and dangerous.  Several of the office staff were cowering along one wall.

He shouted, “I said I want your repair crew out at my house today!”  Then he added some mean threats and fowl language, followed by, “And I mean today!”

As I approached him he turned to me and yelled, “Are you the boss?”  He was still holding the bat.

I looked him in the eyes and said in a conversational manner, “You seem very upset.”

“You’re damned right I’m upset.  You people took my money to waterproof my basement and now it’s flooded and it’s going to ruin my carpets and paneling.  I called to tell you to come out immediately and fix it.  So you &%##*s tell me I have to wait four days.  I want it fixed now, today!”  With that he slammed the baseball bat down hard on one of the desktops, and then I knew what caused the bang I had heard.

I calmly said, “You still seem very upset.”

“Wouldn’t you be upset if you woke up to a flood in your basement?” he shouted, a little less loudly.

“You still seem upset,” I said.

“I wouldn’t be so upset if you just did what I wanted,” he said.  He said this with a much calmer demeanor.

“Are you ready to talk to me in a cooperative manner?” I asked.

He let out a sigh, visibly relaxed, and said, “Yes.”  I could see that his voice and manner were almost normal.

“The first thing you need to do is put that bat in your car.  Then come right back here and you will have my full attention.  We will go into my office and take care of this.”

When he returned, he apologized to everyone there.  Then we had a productive conversation in my office, with an outcome that was satisfactory to both of us.

Situations involving angry people are a normal part of doing business, and of life.  Most of the time, they are not as serious as the one in this story.  Here are some key pointers about how to react.

• Listen to the angry invective, threats, and verbal abuse.  Make sure all of your attention is focused on listening, and don’t get distracted.  Do not avoid eye contact.
• Do not attempt to discuss the issues that the person is angry about until after they have completely finished expressing their anger and are calm.
• Do not react in anger, or with any other emotion.
• Wait for a pause and then say, “You seem very upset.”  Say this as an impersonal observation, in a totally neutral manner, with no hint of judgment.  Pay careful attention to your inflection, your tone of voice, and your body language.
• It is very important that you only talk about seeming upset.  Never mention the word “anger”.  Never even hint that you think the person is angry.
• Most will reply with something like, “You’re damned right I’m upset!”
• You will probably hear more angry language, but with less energy and a less threatening tone.
• Say, “You still seem upset.”  Say it in the same calm, neutral, observational manner.  If the signs of anger have not lessened at all, then say “You still seem very upset.”
• It may take several cycles, where the person expresses their anger and you say that they still seem upset, before they calm down.  Having someone listen to their anger and acknowledge it in a calm manner is calming.
• Do not talk about anger.  The person will often deny that they were angry, but just wanted to make sure you knew they were upset.

Note – This article was recently published at Ezine.com

John Bergen is a Realtor;  a good, successful Realtor who works very hard.  He meets far more prospects than the average real estate agent does.  About 40 percent of his prospects become his clients and he earns four times as much as the average agent.

Paula Stone is also a Realtor;  a good, successful Realtor who doesn’t work as hard as John.  She meets with fewer prospects than John, but still more than the average real estate agent.  Nearly 90 percent of her prospects become her clients and she earns twice as much as John.

The difference is in the type of prospect they look for.  John looks for and meets with any type of prospect.  Paula looks for only one type of prospect, the type that is ready to buy.

When asked, “What type of prospect do you want?” most Realtors say, “Just put me in front of any prospect and I will make the sale.”  In reality, most people who go into the real estate profession fail to make a decent living, and that’s because they don’t close enough business.  The ones that succeed do so either by working very hard, or by being very selective about what type of prospect they look for.

Three Types of Prospects

There are three types of prospects.  For each type, there is one sales process that is the most effective.

Matching the three types of prospects with their appropriate sales processes produces the highest closing rates for those prospects.  However, most Realtors utilize just one type of sales process and use it on every type of prospect they encounter.

A Winning Strategy

1. Determine which type of prospect you want.
2. Master the sales process that is most effective for closing that type of prospect.
3. Utilize lead generation programs designed to get appointments with that type of prospect.

John Bergen, who has mastered Consultative Selling, has a complicated and time-consuming lead generation program that is designed to get him in front of all three types of prospects.

Paula Stone, who has mastered High Probability Selling, has a simple lead generation program that is designed to get her in front of Type 3 prospects only.  People like John may say she is just a “cherry picker” or an “order taker,” but that doesn’t bother her.  If it would not bother you either, look for more information about High Probability Selling.

What kind of marketing would fit with High Probability Selling?  A lot of marketing methods are designed to persuade people to buy a product or service, and they often present a very unbalanced picture of the strengths and weaknesses of what they are pushing.  This is contrary to the way we train people to sell.

Selling and marketing are different.  However, if persuasion and telling less than the whole truth don’t work in selling as well as many people believe, then how well do they really work in marketing?

This is not a rhetorical question.  We struggle with this every day, and we really would like to know what our readers think.  Many of you have a lot of experience using our selling process, and have a deep understanding of what it means.

We do have a few ideas for marketing HPS, and we will discuss them in upcoming blog posts.  Meanwhile, we would love to hear your thoughts.

On most days there are times when you feel terrified.  One of those times is when you are scheduled to have a closed meeting with your boss.  You even dread the possibility of accidentally meeting him in a hallway.  Another is when you read things like “ERS Research says the average tenure of sales manages is now less than two years.”  You also feel terrified when you realize that you are trying to do too much and very little is actually working.

You feel frustrated because your job is to have your sales force increase sales well over quota and it is not happening.  Too few of your district managers and salespeople seem willing to be led by you.  More frustration is created when you learn that your best salespeople are not using the new CRM system, which you bought at great expense.  You can’t make them use it, because if you do they might quit and go to work for a competitor.  Even worse, their defiance may spread to the rest of the sales force and threaten your effectiveness.

You question your own competence because a higher percentage of good salespeople are leaving the company than last year.  Furthermore, your new hires are taking too long to train and too many of them seem certain to fail.

You feel thwarted when you try to get more cooperation from the marketing, production, customer service, and accounting managers.  They seem to be too busy with their own problems to care about yours.

You are starting to have doubts about your sales abilities.  You are spending a lot of time trying to close a few very big sales opportunities, and now they do not look very promising.  You feel indecisive about continuing on that course.

Your primary job function is to know what is going on in your department and manage for optimum results.  You feel negligent because you haven’t made the time to analyze the sales activities of your sales force or even read their sales forecasts.

You feel guilty because you are working too long and too hard without much in the way of tangible results.  And, your spouse is insisting that you spend more time with your family.

Through all that, you are doing your best to act competent and be competent while trying to hide your doubts and fears.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

I’m sure you’ve had a salesperson try to push you into a sale by asking something like, “You do want to make money, don’t you?”  How does that make you feel?

A few weeks ago I got a call from a salesman representing a major telephone service provider that wanted my business back.  He was eager to send me a quote so he could prove to me that he could save me money.

The next time he called, I thanked him for the quote.  I told him I had decided to stay with my current provider, which was a small local telephone service reseller.  He asked me who that was, and I told him.

And then, in a slightly derogatory tone, he asked, “Why would you want to stay with them?”

That stopped me cold.  It felt so disrespectful.  I thought about it a bit.  Then I remembered a very important principle.

I said, “I don’t do business with people who talk to me like that.  Goodbye.”

Only do business when there is mutual trust and respect.