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Quote "It seems as though I'm batting 1000 since joining the Sandler President's Club. Initially, I joined Sandler for one reason: to make more sales. Although I'm relatively new to financial product sales, I have already noticed increased productivity in the short time since James and I began working together. I'm still able to recall the utter shock on my face the first time I followed Sandler's selling model. The meeting was flowing along and before I even mentioned a fee, the prospect began to fill out a check, looked up, and asked for an amount to place in the box. Excuse me? Thankfully, the utter shock caused my mouth to open and I was able to spout out the fee; yet, I was stunned. The point: Sandler works and will boost your sales. More importantly however, James, through The President's Club, trains you to become an effective communicator. I call him regularly with questions and run scenarios by him before and after meetings. He's accessible, knowledgeable, and practical; clearly a fantastic communicator and resource to have. The process is self-reinforcing. Sales come from effective communication; James is an effective communicator; James teaches us to effectively communicate; we effectively communicate to prospects; prospects buy and we make sales. The process has worked several times for me and I've been in the program for 9 weeks. Who knows, maybe batting 1000 a year from now isn't out of the park." Quote

Timothy Jones, Financial Planner -- August 2010

Sandler Sales Tips

 


    Control Your Fears With Up-Front Contracts - Read more...
What scares you about the selling process? Which part of the selling process causes you the most stress? Whatever it is (and maybe it's nothing at all), deal with it by using Sandler's Up-Front Contract.

Cold Calling is not a Selling Activity - Read more...
Ask salespeople to list their least favorite selling activities, and you can count on “prospecting” being at the top of the list. And, the least favorite of all prospecting activities is unquestionably making cold calls.

Why You Need a Sales Process for Your Salespeople - Read more...
Steve is frustrated that his salespeople are having difficulty understanding how to sell his products and/or services. Steve owns a relatively new company and hired 4 salespeople. He provided them with a week of “sales training” which consisted of mostly detailed information relating their product and service. Four weeks later all 4 salespeople had either quit or were let go. The cost of this turnover was estimated at approximately $115K per salesperson.

Sales Templates – A Tool for Onboarding New Salespeople - Read more...
How can having a sales template benefit your business?

The Top 5 Times You Must Ask for a Referral - Read more...
One of the questions we get a lot from our President’s Club Members at Sandler Training Seattle is “When is the best time to ask for a referral?” The short answer is – Always. Why? Because the best way to grow sales and stop having to make cold calls is to build your referral tree.

5 Keys to Hiring a Winning Sales Team - Read more...
CEO’s and sales managers often ask, “I wish I had a stronger team of people selling for us. What’s the Sandler secret to hiring winners?”

3 Reasons to Talk Budget Up Front - Read more...
This week’s Sandler Training Seattle President’s Club focused on the importance of talking about the prospect’s budget up front. Most salespeople wait until the end of their presentation to bring up price or other money issues.

Top 7 Things to Consider When Designing Sales Compensation - Read more...
Are you concerned about whether your sales compensation program is designed for optimum revenue attainment? You aren’t alone. Many of the business owners and sales managers we work with at Sandler Training Seattle share those concerns. Following are my top 7 things to consider when designing an effective sales compensation plan.

Decision-Making Process: The Why and the Who - Read more...
Everyone is a decision-maker until it's time to make a decision is a common Sandler Training saying. During the Decision-Making Process, the buyer is deciding to buy or not to buy and you as the seller is trying to qualify or disqualify whether it would be a good fit to work together. These decisions in theory are straight forward - black and white, but in reality, there is a lot of gray in between.

To Get Prospects to a Buying Decision…Shoot for the Stars! - Read more...
How do you know when you’re talking to the real decision-maker? You’ve finished your sales presentation. Your prospect is 100% satisfied with every solution you’ve presented. You go for the close, and suddenly the prospect, who assured you she was the decision-maker, has to run it by someone else.

Shoot for the Stars - Read more...
How do you know when you’re talking to the real decision-maker? You’ve finished your sales presentation. Your prospect is 100% satisfied with every solution you’ve presented. You go for the close, and suddenly the prospect, who assured you she was the decision-maker, has to run it by someone else.

How Do You Hire the Best Employees - Read more...
Have you ever considered what it costs your small business when you make a bad hiring decision? Most companies never consider the cost of a bad hire in terms of business disruption, opportunity cost, and lower morale. Most small business owners wing the interview and hire people based on their gut feeling.

All Prospects Lie All the Time - Read more...
“All prospects lie all the time” is one of my favorite Sandler sayings. It often triggers resistance from people new to the Sandler Selling System. After all, we want to believe in the inherent goodness of mankind, and it’s a sin to lie, right? Of course, when I ask people about their own buying behavior, it becomes clear that misleading on purpose (i.e. lying) is always part of the process.

A Personal Account to Understanding Thyself - Read more...
Self-discovery, self-reflection, digging into the depths of your soul is important to make your brain and your heart healthier. Making time to understand yourself in its current state through these various forms...

What's Your Attitude? - Read more...
Success in selling is the result of the interplay between three critical dimensions – attitude, behavior and technique – that function like the legs of a stool. Remove one or more, and the stool (sale) collapses.

Transactional Analysis - A Tool for Improving Self-Awareness in Sales - Read more...
In Monday’s President’s Club foundations class, we talked about the human relations model of Transactional Analysis (TA) and how it relates to success in sales. That sales professionals must have a good understanding of people is not a new concept. But, what does “good with people” look like in practice?

What Makes a Great Salesperson? - Read more...
Having been in sales for over 25 years with experience as both an entrepreneur and sales executive, I am intrigued by what people think makes a great salesperson. When I talk to salespeople and business owners about this, some tell me it’s having the ability to communicate persuasively, some emphasize personal charm and charisma, and for other’s it’s that special person who won’t take “no” for an answer.

Afraid to Cold Call? Get Permission to Interrupt - Read more...
One of the main reasons salespeople hate to cold call is because they fear interrupting people at work. After all, no one likes being interrupted at work or home by a telemarketer. Let’s face it. From the prospect’s perspective, the person on the other end of the line has just interrupted his day. He doesn’t know who this person is or what the call is about.

Are You Really Listening? - Read more...
Simply hearing the words that are being said to you is not the only thing involved in listening. Here are tips on how to truly involve yourself in the listening process.

4 Keys to Bond & Rapport With Prospects - Read more...
Given the fact that people tend to do business with people they know, like and trust, what is the best way to build rapport with a prospect? Most salespeople think bonding and rapport is accomplished in some cursory chit-chat about a common interest discovered at the beginning of the sales call.

Sales Tactic: Don't Be a Hero in a Group - Ever! - Read more...
Anthony was really on a roll with his presentation to the committee. As he spoke, he looked around the table and decided, based on facial expressions, statements, and body language, that nine of the ten members liked what they were hearing.

5 Negative Networking Personalities to Avoid - Read more...
Is your networking “not working”? If so, it could be you are exhibiting one of the following five negative networking personality types.

Refine Your Sales Process with a Sales Template - Read more...
A sales template is defined as the step by step set of interactions you want your prospect to go through because it will give you (the salesperson) a clear competitive advantage or otherwise increase the chances of you winning the business.

Happy New Ears! - Read more...
A common death trap salespeople get themselves into is having “happy ears,” meaning they tend to hear what they want to hear. In actuality, what they (the salesperson) heard does not reflect the real intent of what the prospect said.

Compensation Programs - Read more...
Are you concerned about whether your sales compensation program is designed for optimum revenue attainment? You aren’t alone.

The Sales Book That Changed My Life - Read more...
People often ask me what sales book has most influenced my life. Without a doubt, the answer is “You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar, by David Sandler.”

Prospects Lie - Read more...
“All prospects lie all the time” is one of my favorite Sandler sayings. It often triggers resistance from people new to the Sandler Selling System.

Overcoming Price Objections with Assumptive Questions - Read more...
“What should I do when a prospect tells me, ‘Max with the truck can do the work for $500,’ when I know my starting price is $1,000?” asked Terry, one of our President’s Club members. The answer : Use an assumptive question to overcome price objections.

Conquer the Art of Professional Selling - Read more...
In the book “You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar” David Sandler compares learning how to sell professionally with learning how to ride a bike. “People don’t learn how to sell at a seminar,” writes Sandler. “To conquer the art of professional selling, you need to learn a system. You need to master techniques

5 Keys to Great Bond & Rapport - Read more...
Given the fact that people tend to do business with people they know, like and trust, what is the best way to build rapport with a prospect?

What Makes a Great Salesperson? - Read more...
Having been in sales for over 25 years with experience as both an entrepreneur and sales executive, I am intrigued by what people think makes a great salesperson.

GROW YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH REFERRALS - Read more...
Growing your business through referrals is about more than asking everyone you encounter “who do you know…?” When done correctly, building a referral business involves creating a Target List, defining your Ideal Customer Profile, contacting your Target List and asking for Personal Introductions.

Secrets from Top Closers - Read more...
What is it that separates those who “can” close and those who “can’t”? It’s an interesting question with a myriad of possible answers. Can you start doing something different today to become one of the best?

Money Pitfalls - Read more...
As a professional, your reluctance to be perceived as a “salesperson” may cause you to have trouble being up-front about money issues. This can cost you money...

Mastering the Complex Sale - Read more...
Every sale is not a good sale About 25% of all sales calls are bad calls in one way or another. They either leave the customer disappointed or the seller with excess costs and diminished returns.

Beware of the Nibbler - Read more...
If you’ve been in sales for any length of time, it’s highly likely that you’ve had a run-in with at least one “nibbler”. You know, those people who nibble at the deal you just made.

Asking the Tough Questions That Need to be Asked - Read more...
With the year more than halfway over, the pressure is on once again to achieve your revenue goals. How are you going to get your existing clients to buy more? If you lost any accounts last year, how will you make up for the loss?

Assumptions Can Kill the Sale - Read more...
In today’s marketplace where there is more access to information, more knowledge about pricing and competition, and more choices for your customers, all professional salespeople need to make all the right moves to build their business. First things first – make no assumptions! Assumptions like the ones that follow.

Increase Your Bottom-line by Evaluating What You Have - Read more...
So many sales training programs are unsuccessful. A typical company can spend tens of thousands of dollars to put an entire sales force through the latest, hottest training program touted to increase the bottom line.

The Power of One - Read more...
One can seem like a very small number, but it can have tremendous impact on your revenues. Make one more cold call every day One extra call a day equals 260 calls in a year. How many meetings could you set up with this number of calls and how many of those meetings could turn into sales?

Top Three Temptation of Successful Salespeople - Read more...
In sales, as in life, the enemy of great is good. The reason so few salespeople ever become great is because they get good and they stop. They stop learning, changing, and stretching. They cease doing many of the things that made them successful in the first place. The key to avoiding the temptations is awareness – go over these with your team so they can be aware of the pitfalls that will prevent them from getting to the next level.

Why People Don't Buy - Read more...
Prospects and customers don’t buy for literally hundreds of personal reasons, but most of them tend to not buy for the following reasons:

23 Excuses for Not Hitting Quota - Read more...
Whether quotas are arrived at through meticulous calculation or by throwing darts at a dartboard, one thing is for certain: a sales rep will have an excuse for why he/she didn't reach it. Sometimes the reasons are legitimate, sometimes they aren't. But at all times, the sales rep should be given the proper tools, training, and motivation to ensure they have the best chance of making that quota. Read the excuses and determine if you're giving or have been given all that is needed to succeed.