Do you really know what the most successful ones actually do?

by Jacques Werth and Carl Ingalls

Most salespeople say they will do “whatever it takes” to make a sale.  They think this means they should work longer, harder, and be more persuasive.  The vast majority of average performers believe in and practice some form of persuasive selling.  They do it the best way they know how and they work very hard at it.

However, that is not what the most successful salespeople do.  They sell very differently from the rest, and they do it with much less effort. 

We have observed and documented the practices and attitudes of hundreds of the most highly successful salespeople – the top one percent by sales volume – in twenty-three industries.  We watched and listened while they interacted with nearly two thousand prospects and customers, and we took careful notes.  We discovered that very few of them can articulate their sales processes and attitudes because they sell intuitively and “do their own thing”. 

We analyzed our notes to determine what the most highly successful salespeople actually do that the rest of the salespeople do not do.  We compiled their methods and attitudes into a process that can be taught to other salespeople.  We call this High Probability Selling. 

We have found that many of the less successful salespeople truly are not willing to do what the most successful salespeople do.  They are not willing to abandon their beliefs in persuasive selling, and adopt the practices and attitudes of the most successful salespeople. 

But some are ready for a big change.