Merely put your web URL in your signature.

When they eventually ask a question about your business, answer only their question. Do not educate them; do not say more than is necessary to answer their question; do not attempt to sell them; do not be passionate or enthusiastic about your business.

If they ask three questions (this could be over several weeks or months), when you answer the third question, add “You have asked several questions about My Business. Are you just curious, or is xxx something you want?”

Then the fun begins.

I appreciate your thoughts. Prompted by your comment, and by comments from others, I am leaning toward presenting something like a roadmap, something that identifies paths and where they go.

I also appreciate your suggestion about presenting options. It gave me something concrete to think about, and more importantly, something to sense my reactions against.

I hesitate to tell a reader or potential customer that they have only 3 options, and then present a list that seems to contain only the options that benefit me. Providing a limited list of options may not be pushing, but it is a lot like steering.

Carl Ingalls

We don’t have much to say about prospecting by email. We’ve heard from a few people who have adapted some of the basic ideas of HighProb, and they tell us they are successful with it.

Email seems like a very machine-like way of prospecting, and misses the advantages of personal contact. We have a lot to say about how important this personal contact is.

Carl Ingalls

What sort of a “why” answer are you looking for? Do you mean the Simon Sinek sort of Why, which is about what drives us? Do you mean the justification sort of why, some logical reasoning designed to convince someone? Do you mean a why of understanding, so that we can get what’s going on in the World? Or do you just need something to make the unbelievable a little bit easier to believe?

I might be able to help with one or two of these.

Carl Ingalls

The High Probability Selling Forum was closed in 2009 due to technical problems. Also, dealing with the spammers had become extremely time-consuming. So when it crashed, we did not attempt to restore it. There may be new options available to us now, and we may reconsider the question of supporting an online HPS Forum. If we do, we will announce it on our blog. Thank you very much for your comment.

Carl Ingalls

Thank you very much for your feedback. Greatly appreciated.

My main business is also highly conversational. I am a consultant in a technical field, and most of my consultation is done by phone and email.

Like you, I have also always been very confident in my business and sales conversations, and never considered that my communication could be improved enough to make a difference.

And then I encountered HPS, and began to think about why the process works in the peculiar way that it does. I began experimenting with the manner in which I delivered my consulting advice (given that the sale had already been made). I soon discovered that there was plenty of room for improvement in an area that I hadn’t even considered.

I can’t speak for you or your situation. However, there must be others out there like me, confident in what we are doing, who may also discover that what we thought was working well enough can still be made a lot better.

Carl Ingalls