There is only one true way to sell...

Is it just me or does it seem like many sales authors/trainers come across as if their sales methods were the only true way to sell?

For instance, traditional sales training might have a place in department store retail but not in luxury boat sales. IMO, that doesn't mean one is superior and the other is inferior. Instead I think that means that depending on the situation one style does better than another. -Jolly Roger

That sounds about right. ;) -SalesGuy

Yeah, and in their books it says, "Don't knock the competition." :rolleyes: -Thomas

Before I started working at the dealership I'm at now. I interviewed with a number of potential employers. They all stressed how they would train me to sell their prodouct and get me certified. The dealership I'm at now has provided no training or talk about me getting my certification. What should I to do improve sales myself. -Damien Clark

From an author and sales trainer's perspective, let me disagree--somewhat.

Most of the other authors and trainers I know don't think their training is the only way. Most will quickly admit there are alternatives and most will refer to other authors and trainers if they don't have the right training for someone. My specialty is referral and other sophisticated lead generation methods and personal marketing, but I refer people to Wendy Weiss for cold calling and phone communication skills; Dave Anderson for auto sales training; Dave Lakhani for persuasion training; and many others. Others do the same--I know, because they refer many to me.

A perfect example is Frank Rumbauskas. Frank is the New York Times bestselling author of Never Cold Call Again. Last week his newest book, Selling Sucks: How to Stop Selling and Start Getting Prospects to Buy, was released. It discusses a number of sophisticated methods of generating high quality prospects and converting them to clients. One of his chapters is on generating referrals. It's one of his shortest chapters because he concedes that the best book on the subject and the best training on the subject is mine--so instead of repeating what I say, he advises his readers to buy my book and take my training. That's hardly viewing his training as the only training worth taking. But on his website, he makes a very strong case for buying his books and taking his training--as he should.

There are some who will claim to be the be-all and end-all of training. But those are the exception rather than the rule.

However, when marketing our training and other products, most of us do make strong statements, of course. We are selling a product, just like you are selling a product. And most, at least most of the good ones, are true believers in their training. So, if you truly believe in the value and quality of your training, why wouldn't you make strong statements? And, since most of us have endorsements and testimonials from salespeople and business leaders, we let them do the talking for us by posting their testimonials on our websites.

It's not so much the trainer who is a strong believer in his or her training that you should watch out for, but the one who is lukewarm about their training. If they aren't sold on its value, why should you be? -pmccord

Isn't Frank the author who says "cold calling doesn't work" or "cold calling is a waste of time"? -Jolly Roger

Yes, he is. Does that mean that a trainer can't have an opinion or believe that there are better ways of doing things? Of course, not.

There is a great varity of thought in the training industry. I doubt that any two trainers agree on everything. There's a trainer out there that believes everything but cold calling is a waste of time. Is he the one that's absolutely right?

I work with Frank, but I also work with Wendy Weiss, "the Queen of Cold Calling." I also work with Dave Lakhani, Joe Vitale, Randy Pennington, Jill Konrath, Dave Anderson and many others on different things. They all have their own views on training and specialize in different areas. And they all have excellent training--most of it very different, although there is a little overlap (even with Rumbauskas and Weiss).

Heck, I know several salespeople and professionals who have taken Frank's, Wendy's and my training, liked it all and incorporate it in their business. They have simply taken the best of each and made it work in their business. They haven't gotten hung up on the fact that Frank and Wendy come from very different perspectives. -pmccord

My opinion is that there isn't any one training that is absolutely right in every situation. ;co -Jolly Roger

I have found from experience that a certain mechanism exists that effectively does boost oral selling (for me I can attest that I achieved over ten times quota at a cable company, measured for six months straight - it got that high doing both horizontal and vertical selling).

The beauty of this is it's flexible enough to accommodate any sales style, personality or voice. My system is very simple (no surprise there as it must be to achieve this measure of success for myself and others) and born under telemarketing conditions (although inspired in part by outside field reps).

It should be made clear that even though I regard my method as giving the best opportunity to succeed, other ways of succeeding still exist and will work side by side with my system. But there is no question my system is basic (a fair comparison may be like doing writing without the punctuation marks, my system supplies the punctuation marks).

If you're asking, my system is Tip Top Trade Secret. -Wonderboy

I thought I read in another of your posts that you'd never received sales training. Are you sure your tip top trade secret isn't already being taught elsewhere? -Houston

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. -Wonderboy

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. -JacquesWerth

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

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. -Justyn

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. -JacquesWerth

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 -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? -Houston

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. -JacquesWerth

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 -Skip Anderson

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

Jacques do you think the reason for the turnover rate is because of salespeople pressuring the prospects? -SpeedRacer

I think that is just one of many reasons.

The most significant reasons are that most dealers don't know how to sell or how to train and manage salespeople. It's the same reason that the Insurance and Real Estate industries have huge turnover rates.

We do not recommend High Probability Selling to salespeople in the car industry because most dealers will not allow their salespeople to work the process.

Ironically, one of the top ten salespeople for Ford, back in the 1980s, used a form of HPS that he invented (he was not one of our students). Dealers used to bid to have him work for them and he gave them a maximum of a two-year contract. However, they had to agree to accommodate his selling methods. -JacquesWerth