by Jacques Werth

There are plenty of moral reasons to be honest, but there are also very pragmatic ones.  Even in selling, honesty just works better.

When I set out to determine how the top 1% of salespeople actually sell, I did not start out looking for a totally honest selling system.  My sole intention in studying Top Performers was to find out what sets them apart and why they were so successful.  The most surprising thing that I learned is that most top salespeople are scrupulously honest.  It’s just how they do business.

Most people, regardless of their profession, don’t understand the technology of honesty.  Most salespeople, however, do understand the technology of manipulation.  It’s how they learned to sell.  Convincing, persuading, and all other forms of manipulating – what most salespeople are taught – create resistance, a natural barrier to closing a sale.

Top salespeople, on the other hand, have mastered the technology of honesty.  It’s what works best.  Honesty is not just a moral ideal – it’s an imperative for successful selling and business transactions.

We don’t preach or teach morality.  I didn’t start out looking for a totally honest selling system.  It just turned out that most of the very best salespeople have mastered the technology of honesty because it’s what works best.  That’s why we teach it in High Probability Selling.