Rating: 
Summary: HPS From an HPS Trainer and User
Review: A Review From Someone Who Has Used and Trained HPS
Reviewer: Neil Myers from Yonkers, NY United States
Let me nail my colors to the mast: I am a senior trainer with HPS and I've used HPS in the real world. Unlike some other competitors, who write reviews posing as "unbiased" reviewers I will admit that I believe HPS to be the best selling system out there. That is why I train it. I am biased because I believe it is the best.
It is unlikely that you will be able to transform your selling just by reading the book. There are key advances and elaborations that you only get on the training course. However, the book is a great primer and sets the tone for the course. It also outlines the selling philosphy.HPS is largely misunderstood by its critics and feared by its competitors. Our PhD reviewer has no understanding at all that HPS comes from an utterly different sales paradigm. He is trying to fit its message within his own limited understanding. Jacques Werth discovered, by painstaking research, over more than 20 years, that the top 1% of sales people do not for the most part, sell like the rest. HPS is based upon how the top performers do what they do, not based on a series of outdated myths or a re-hash of old selling fantasies and legends. Basically Werth found that trying to persuade "interested" people to buy is an inefficient way of selling in the current age. HPS sells without using persuasion. The arm chair theorists cannot accept this. Many of our highly successful students know otherwise. Unlike some "expert" reviewers, Jacques Werth put his money where his mouth is by using HPS to turn around failing companies, which he did in many industries, many times. Now, if you are going to make your living by turning failure into success you better make make sure your methods work. HPS does and that is why JW became a rich man. His best students are doing pretty well also. HPS is a purely pragmatic series of methods and practices based on an utterly different concept of sales from the conventional one. HPS methods work and we have many statistics to prove they work, in the real world, but I will admit they are not in the book. Wagner is a competitor of HPS and has copied many elements of it. However, he has a fundamental misunderstanding of HPS prospecting (and other aspects of HPS too) because basically he has never done it for any extended period of time. Wagner is a tinkerer and has difficulty following a system. HPS is learned by doing, not by theorizing. He thinks our methods are "robotic" because of his lack of experience in using them for himself. He also confuses selling and marketing a common failing in the world of sales theorists. If you are a salesperson or manager and you listen to these wrong headed and fundamentally ignorant reviewers you may dismiss a method that if properly adopted, will increase your sales, closing ratios, profitability and as a bonus make you feel like an ethical and honorable individual in your role as a salesperson. HPS has a website and forum where you can ask questions: www.highprobsell.com Hope to see you there. Neil Myers Unabashed HPS Trainer
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother unless you're ready to take the course too.
Review: Do not bother with this book unless you plan to drop around $500 on a workshop where you'll actually learn how to do what is described -- this is actually stated inside the book both at the beginning and the end. And if you are thinking about taking the course, you should know that High Probability Selling is almost exculsively a hunter process. It's designed specifically for people who are willing to do high-volume cold-calling (four hours of dialing a day) to find and secure business. So if you aren't behaviorally suited to brainless, repetitive tasks, I'd think long and hard before jumping on board with these concepts. As for the techniques, for the most part they are sound in both theory and real-world application. But it's much harder to make work than the book would lead you to believe, so talk to other graduates before taking the leap.
Rating:
Summary: Don't be a sleazy salesman!!
Review: Don't you hate the feeling of being a sleazy salesman when you are trying to sell? Well you don't have to ever have that feeling again after reading this book. This my #1 recomended book for selling! I loved it and re-read passages of it every day. This book shows you that you never have to 'persuade or convince' anyone to be successful in selling. The format is a little off-beat, but good. And the content... is just wonderful. Forget everything that you know about selling. Learn to sell with this book, and you'll be a better person, and will never have the sleazy feeling when selling again!!
Rating: 
Summary: Straightforward and Efficient
Review: High Probability Selling is one of the more unique sales books both in its presentation and content. The book uses a conversational format between different "characters" to explain a variety of selling concepts. The basic premise of the authors is that "traditional" selling techniques of the past were focused on getting the prospect to buy through whatever means necessary - convincing, persuading or even pressuring. According to Werth and Ruben, the paradigm shifts with High Probability Selling from "getting the prospect to buy to determining whether there is a mutually acceptable basis for doing business and, if not, to go your separate ways."
The basic philosophy of the authors is that you should only spend time, money, and effort on prospects where there is a high probability for a sale. They contend that most sellers waste a lot of time on too many of the wrong prospects, which leaves less time to spend on good selling opportunities. Instead of looking at every prospect as a potential sale, therefore, you should initially look for opportunities to "disqualify" prospects early and often. The result, they claim, will be less resistance by prospects, less rejection for you and more time spent on high quality prospects, thus resulting in more sales.
In the final analysis, High Probability Selling, offers a straightforward, efficient way to sell that is neither dishonest or manipulative. For those sellers who frequently prospect or "cold call" over the phone, the prospecting section offers a more unique approach to traditional selling that may result in less call reluctance/rejection and perhaps less resistance on the part of the prospect. This selling methodology, however, seems to be better suited for those sellers who have a large number of prospects and less complex sales. Sellers who sell in major account situations with only a few prospects, high-ticket items, long sales cycles or multiple buyers, would most likely find this selling process quite difficult to apply.
Robert Reed
President
TrustBuild
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent - Succint - Well delivered - Engaging - Amazing
Review: I read a few chapters on line and WOW! This book captures the science of making "supply and demand" happens - no frills, no nonsense, just the clear steps of maximizing the "supply and demand" throughput. If you're a sales person, it should be a handbook. If you are not, it could change the way you communicate with the people close to you. Selling is an art of communication. The science of selling, dressed up as an obvious and simple protocol in this book, can elevate selling to a high art of precision and expediency.
Rating: 
Summary: Same old re-cycled BS- How dumb do they think we are?
Review: If I had a list of the worst, this book would rank near the top. Not at the top, mind you, but near. First, it claims to be radically new, a "re-invention" of selling. Then, you read after a few pages about paradigms (same old BS, usually got wrong by hacks like this- don't these guys ever trace the source of the pretentious words they use? The originator of the term "paradigm" wished he'd never coined the term.) After being treated to re-cycled misinformation about paradigms, we're treated to trivialized definitions of selling. The section on prospecting, if folowed to the letter, would be career-ending for most salespeople. No matter, then, that what follows is the author's baseless claims about what selling is, what it should be, how it should be done, and on and on. Evidence, you ask? Forget that. These are claims, words only. "Traditional" selling (the author's definition) is ineffective, old-fashioned and lowers self-esteem. I could go on. But, this one's not worth it. As a sales trainer and coach of many years, take my word for it. There are many, many better books. If you want a book that will elevate your professional sales skills try Spin selling or books by Brian Tracy and Tony Parinello. If you are struggling with prospecting, try the book on call reluctance by Dudley and Goodson. If you want to attend a course consider the Miller Heiman offereings. High Probability Selling was obviously written to enhance the author's seminar enrollments. It's not for us. The only thing High Probability about it, is the money you will lose if you buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not that simple
Review: The book moves along covering a fictional story in which every thing just falls in place. Sales just isn't that way. I was very disappointed in the book. SPIN is still the book and process. High Prob will get you into alot of trouable and cost you business.
Rating:
Summary: Great concepts
Review: This book is an absolute must for salespeople. The concepts presented turn the traditional 'sales cycle' on its head and creates an environment free of pressure and manipulation for both the salesperson and the prospect. The only thing that held me back from giving 5 stars (or more if I could) was the way the book was written - I think the 'dialogue'/role play approach could be refined to present the ideas more clearly.
Rating:
Summary: How to sell less in record time
Review: This book is emblematic of the species of book that will never make my suggested reading list. It's utterly self-serving. High Probability Selling is poorly written, using an affective and very boring narrative story format that seems unaware that sales people have minds and can think and have to deal with complex problems in real world settings. The authors are not shy about broadcasting their opinions but offer no objective backup. It is anecdotal only and totally devoid of any verifiable evidence. If you are content to settle for someone's interpretation of their sales experiences with no further proof, you will probably like this book. Modern sales people demand more. But my biggest difficulty with High Probability Selling is that it is quite simply wrong. The theme should be called "selective prospecting". As such, it's is a badly disguised rollback to the old way of managing sales problems that research psychologists like Dudley ang Goodson catalogued years ago as "characterological approaches". That's all the claims, like Werth's, that sales problems are always the result of flawed sales people burdened by bad training, bad techniques and weak commitment. These of course, are easily fixed by buying Werth's books, CDs and workshops. High Probability Selling seems unaware and unbothered by any serious research or advancements in the sales area. His advice to only call on selective prospects is costly and unprofessional. Whether you sell medical equipment, financial services or cosmetics, professional sales people should be willing and able to contact all prospects residing in their markets. Werth is clearly not Rackman, or Miller & Heiman. Excellent books by Neil Rackman and Miller & Heiman and Dudley & Goodson are unarguably worth your time and money. They will boost your earnings. High Probability Selling won't. Just one example of the advice offered by Werth illustrates why. Prospecting should be selective, Werth says. Only call on people who won't reject you and then you won't fear rejection. I don't know a single salesperson who has reached high production figures who made it following that kind of misinformation. As Dudley and Goodson write, you don't get over prospecting reluctance by selectively excluding who to call on. That's self-destructive, like blaming the freeway where your car overheated and then refusing to drive there anymore! Yet that's an example of the mental slop served up in High Probability Selling. Sales people deserve better. Much better.
Rating:
Summary: Great Stuff but..."think before you act on this material."
Review: This is great for situations where the customer knows what their needs and wants are and can act on them. It also is great for establishing clear rules of engagement with customers. It is direct and to-the-point. The material is POORLY delivered yet can be understood with multiple reads and with some in-depth thought. No doubt that this stuff will get you off your knees and prevent you from begging, BUT it is not SPIN or Solution Selling, this stuff will not work if you customer does not know or realize his needs. Is there value in creating needs? This is not "creating demand," it is setting up clear roads to enganement beyond building up the pain to act on their needs, and doing it in a respectful way. This is great for closing on demand, NOT for creating demand, which is what solution selling is all about. This book has changed the way I sell for the better, I now choose either to "create a need," "walk away," or "close on their needs." One must think before they act on this material.
| 
