There is only one true way to sell...

Formally speaking I've never received sales training (which probably is a good thing in my case because I would then be prejudiced blocking me from making my discoveries). I'm widely read from sales books and, if you haven't guessed, I check the internet heavily.

I'm sure that what I found out isn't being taught elsewhere (another idea which I independently
thought of, but with minor modification, is given by another salesperson in his book regarding rebuttals has been widely ignored - if it had been followed, there wouldn't be a Federal DNC List thereby saving billions of dollars from being lost and adding billions of dollars more besides).

I can tell you that my system is basic, subtle, yet definite and has resulted through serendipity, being analytical and bisociative (check Arthur Koestler) and much research, study and testing.
Again I'm saying that while this system can't be improved on, that doesn't preclude other ways of improving your selling.

I agree. I have never seen a sales system that works in all environments.

In High Probability Selling, we discourage people from participating in our sales training who sell many different products and services. Here are a few examples.
Cars, except fleet sales
Retail sales, except high value products of $5,000+ per sale
Network Marketing
Home Improvements
Door-to-Door Selling

We caution that enroll in our training courses, that they will not be able to successfully combine other sales systems or sales techniques with the High Probability Selling process.

What is it about car sales that is different enough from fleet sales to be included in your list of examples?

What's interesting is that fundamentally, most (if not all) of the books and seminars out there are the same. Selling is about putting a process behind human nature and emotion, so how many ways can you really put it? I find value in every book I read but I can't help but think that they are all just another flavor of the same concepts. Authors seem to slice and dice the fundamentals and repackage them into the latest "system".

That said, I think that there are different ways to manage different types of sales. The things I do on a daily basis wouldn't work in retail. That is, the process is very different. But when you boil it down it's fundamentally all the same.

I think Mahan Khlasa got closest to the mark when he said that by simply being 100% committed to helping your customers succeed, the system (among other things) is irrelevant.

It is obvious that Justyn has not read "High Probability Selling." If he did, he might do his best to squeeze its concepts into the old "needs selling" paradigm - where most trainers are advocating the same old methods under new disguises.

If being highly successful in sales merely required "...simply being 100% committed to helping your customers succeed," most salespeople would just do that. Then, the supply of excellent salespeople would be far greater than the demand.

That would drive earnings so low, that good salespeople would have to find a different line of work.

I don't doubt that Justyn is a very successful salesperson. I do doubt that he could effectively teach people to do what he does.

I observed 312 of the top salespeople at work on three continents. Hardly any of them could accurately described what they did when they were selling. That is why almost all of the Best Sales Practices research projects by major companies are failing.

I realize that my remarks may have indicated I was knocking authors and speakers. That's not the case (as I am an author myself). As I mentioned I get a lot of value from just about everything I read. I do however feel that most books knock on the door of teaching the traits of a successful salesperson.

It's not extremely difficult to teach people how to do the 'things' successful salespeople do, it's much harder to teach the creativity and instinct behind those actions. Two identical salespeople who are wired differently can have vastly different results doing the same things.

Benchmarking top performers is a solid practice and should continue. However a lot of companies make the mistake of benchmarking the things that are easy to quantify (activity) and miss the fact that there are attributes of a successful sales rep that are very difficult to identify and measure (especially using screening tests).

Just my humble opinions, disagreement encouraged.

Justyn

I'm not sure you saw the question I posted before Jacques. What is it about car sales that is different enough from fleet sales to be included in your list of examples?

The biggest problem we have with car sales is that almost all dealers operate their agencies as if it is still circa 1965. They are so anxious to close everyone who walks in the door, that they have too many salespeople who feel the need to pressure every prospect.

When I owned a car agency, I taught our salespeople to qualify their ups. If they disqualified a prospect within five minutes, they got back on the front of the line. Thus, they only spent time with prospects who were ready willing and able to buy.

Prospects felt no pressure and would roam freely until they left or decided they wanted the attention of a salesperson. A high percentage of those who left came back later and bought from us.

Our agency did a lot more business, our profits were higher and our salespeople earned more than agencies who did business the way most agencies did then and still do now.

I don't find that many, perhaps even most, car salespeople today pressure the prospect. I think the most successful car salespeople are beginning to focus on quality selling paradigms rather than pressure. At least that's my experience as a trainer and also as a consumer.

There are those in every field who rely on pressure, but I find those people are diminishing in quantity as they find it no longer makes good business sense to use that approach.

Skip Anderson

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So, why does the average car agency still have a turnover rate of its salespeople of over 50 percent per year?