by Carl Ingalls

Do you need to hear a plausible explanation for why something works before you are willing to try it out for yourself?  Or is it enough just to know that it has worked for others?

Most selling methods or processes are very logical, and they fit in very well with what most people believe about selling.  In fact, most of them are so logical and consistent with common belief, that I wonder if they were designed to be that way.  In other words, their primary justification may be that they make sense to salespeople and to sales management.

High Probability Selling was not designed to make sense.  It was designed to duplicate what the top performing salespeople actually do.  It was discovered completely through observation and careful documentation, followed by testing and measuring the results.  If “making sense” had been important, then much of what had been observed would probably have been rejected.

The people who are most successful with High Probability Selling tend to be those who learn by doing, rather than those who learn by thinking.  They are willing to try new things.  It doesn’t bother them that they don’t have a good reason why the new thing should work, as long as there is a way to try it out without risking too much.

The people who are not successful with High Probability Selling are often those who must hear a very plausible reason for why it should work, before they are able to try it out.  Sometimes they attempt to take only the parts they can make sense out of, and try to blend them in with their favorite selling method.  The results are often worse than if they had just stayed with the old method.

Most of our past marketing messages have been targeted to the first group, those who learn by doing.  Do you think we should also try to address the others, those who learn by thinking?

Do you think that we should try to provide logical explanations for why High Probability Selling works so well?