1. The Natural Buying Cycle.  
2. The fact that selling is a numbers game.

The “Natural Buying Cycle” was developed through much research and analysis of what people go through while making major purchase decisions. The cycle, which on average takes four to six weeks, is as follows:

1. Attention – A subject grabs your eye.  
2. Interest – You begin letting information about this subject past your subconscious information filters.  
3. Desire – You gradually move to the “I want this” stage, and start collecting ammunition to support a purchase decision.  
4. Conviction – You make the conscious decision that you want, need, can afford and are willing to buy.  
5. Action – You buy.

Traditional salesmanship is constructed to manipulate people through this cycle quickly. The problem with this tactic is that there is nothing natural about manipulating someone through the Natural Buying Cycle. In fact, the mere attempt to manipulate someone through this cycle completely alters the cycle itself, which destroys the very theory upon which traditional selling is based.

And, we all know the result – sales resistance.

The numbers-game theory of traditional sales is that a small percentage of your potential customer base can be manipulated through the buying cycle, despite the presence of sales resistance. So, the more people you have the chance to manipulate, the higher your sales will climb. This is why traditional marketing and prospecting are designed to “make the appointment” at all costs. Salespeople figure that, once they’re in front of a prospect, they have the opportunity to convince the prospect to buy now.

The sad truth is that this numbers theory is accurate. If it weren’t, traditional sales wouldn’t work at all. But, think about how this plays out in terms of the salesperson’s investment in one prospect. A salesperson can spend an enormous amount of time, energy and money delivering the company’s complete marketing and sales message to a single prospect, and there are far more prospects than can ever be reached with the complete message. But, unless the salesperson delivers the entire pitch to each prospect, he or she won’t know whether the current prospect is “the one.”

I recently received a prospecting call from a local technology training company. The woman took about a minute of my time to explain all the benefits of her company’s program. At the end of her pitch, I told her I didn’t believe in certifications and did not want her training.

First, I must admit that I can sometimes be a bit sadistic with telephone prospectors who attempt to manipulate me, especially when they don’t take “No” for an answer. This particular woman spent another five minutes or so attempting to convince me that I should become a certified systems engineer, so that I could improve my business. In the end, I said, “The fact is, I’m probably the lowest-probability prospect you’ll call today, and every minute you spend on the phone with me is a waste of your time and mine.” Her statement just before she hung up the phone in a huff was:

“Well, I’m sure I’ll be able to convince someone else to take this training!”

Because of this enormous investment in every prospect, salespeople develop an emotional stake in each outcome. This is why most suffer personal anguish when they don’t make a sale, and why traditional sales training includes heavy doses of motivational training. It’s also why more than 90 percent of those who practice traditional sales leave the profession within two years.

A Service Professional’s Dilemma

In these meetings, they ask many questions, offer advice and generate ideas. This is their way of demonstrating their abilities, in the hopes of increasing their chances of getting the business.

Typically, such a meeting ends with the service professional’s committing to the preparation and delivery of a proposal, contract, presentation, etc., and the prospect’s committing to the review of it for comparison with other proposals, contracts, presentations, etc.

The problem with this approach is that it’s terribly inefficient. After all, it can take several days, or even weeks, to prepare and deliver what is promised. And statistically, most service professionals who use this method secure only one engagement in five. Because of this time investment, service professionals develop a deep emotional investment in each project. This often results in a strong feeling of rejection when they are not chosen for the project, and is the reason most service professionals hate the fact that, to stay in business, they must sell.

This feeling of rejection and gross inefficiency is why things must change.

The High-Efficiency Alternative

Just like traditional selling, Honest Selling is based on the Natural Buying Cycle and on pure numbers. But, unlike traditional selling, it also fills the service professional’s basic need to be honest with prospects, and desire to avoid wasting a lot of time.

Using Honest Selling, you don’t use traditional salesmanship – trying to find the people who can be manipulated – and you don’t prepare proposals and hope. Instead, you spend your time finding prospects who have reached the ends of their buying cycles naturally.

Let’s assume for a moment that you have a service that is valuable, and that people will pay for it. At any moment in time, a percentage of your potential customer base has reached the end of its Natural Buying Cycle naturally and is ready to buy. It is simply more efficient to find those prospects than to spend time with prospects who are in the early stages of their buying cycles. You do this by disqualifying the people who aren't ready to buy as quickly as you can.

The Kiss Of Death Sales Call

The first step toward streamlining your disqualification of prospects is to recognize when a prospect is only interested in what you are offering.

Remember the first two phases of the Natural Buying Cycle? Attention and interest are stages 1 and 2, and are also the stages that monopolize the majority of the four- to six-week Natural Buying Cycle. Even more important to note is that most people who pay attention to and then develop an interest in a subject never move to the desire phase (stage 3) of the cycle.

For instance, I’ve been interested in hobby aircraft for 30 years, yet I’ve never purchased a single thing related to that subject, and I probably never will. Of course, if you’re a hobby aircraft salesperson, I’d be glad to sit with you for hours discussing every aspect of the subject.

A primary rule of Honest Selling is that you go on sales calls with only people who have reached the desire phase of their buying cycles – they want the product you sell, the service you offer or the result you produce. How can you tell if they’re at this stage? Ask them questions and listen to what they say.

Dealing With Interest

The biggest time-waster you'll encounter in selling is going on sales calls with prospects who are only interested. That, however, does not mean that interested prospects have no value. They can, in fact, provide enormous value if you have a plan to leverage the relationships you create with them.

I typically classify interested prospects into two groups, and treat each a bit differently.

1. The first group is composed of the "I'm interested by not ready to meet" people. With this group, I offer to send them marketing material on a regular basis, but only material that adds no additional expense to my bottom line.
    
   In the internet age, this material comes in the form of discussion lists, electronic newsletters, my Weekly Tips, and so forth.  
2. The second group is composed of the "I really want to hear about this, but probably can't afford to hire you" folks. For this group, I have a standing offer:
    
   "Buy me lunch and I'll brainstorm with you for an hour about your business issues."

With the first group, I drip marketing for days, weeks, perhaps years, until some finally want the results I produce. Out of this process comes referrals, testimonials and references that turn into business elsewhere.

With the second group, after providing a ton of value for a $10 meal, I ask for referrals, introductions to media sources, and so on, so that the relationship I created is leveraged.

Results

Marketing, prospecting and appointments have one single focus – efficiency. When it comes to going on a sales call, your mission in life is to disqualify prospects who are only interested as quickly as humanly possible, so you can find the prospects who are ready to buy.

For everyone else, you implement a plan to keep your name and message on their minds until they are ready to buy.

Honesty is the key. Be honest with your prospects, and:

• You’ll save enormous amounts of time.  
• You’ll have no need to overcome objections.  
• You’ll never need closing techniques.  
• You’ll get better short- and long-term results.  
• You’ll build great relationships during the sales process, regardless of whether a sale is actually made.

Honest Selling allows you to find new business quickly, without losing your professionalism.