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We at Sandler are excited to announce that our commitment to this essential strategy has been recognized: we have been named one of the Top Virtual Sales Training Companies in 2023 by Selling Power.

In this episode, we sit down with Duane Cerny, the author of Dead People’s Things, to discuss the sales lessons from selling vintage furniture and clothing. Duane explains how he decided to switch career paths from a lawyer to a business selling mid-century modern furniture when he was around the age of 30.

In this episode, we sit down with Stephanie Paul to discuss the magic of the story and how to use it to engage and influence any audience. Stephanie is an author and speaker coach who coaches executive sales teams, TEDx speakers, fundraisers, and other experts on how to become better storytellers and presenters.

Mike Montague interviews Maria Ellis, author of Redefining Entrepreneurial Success, on How to Succeed with a Healthy and Holistic Lifestyle.

Mike Montague interviews Paul Glynn on How to Succeed at Improving Your Personal Presence.

One of the most important aspects of human development is that we can be very good at learning from our experiences. Unfortunately, when it comes to sales, people don't often document their successes AND failures...

When prospecting, how often are you able to reach a decision-maker? And, even whenever you do, how often do they simply refer you to someone else?

Depending on the kinds of question you ask, you might be referred back to what we call an "order-taker", or your call will simply be ignored altogether. At Sandler, we categorize prospecting questions as either being strategic or tactical.

This year, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the book, Dave will revisit each of the original 49 Sandler Rules and give updated takes on their relevance to salespeople and sales leaders.

Mike Montague interviews Olympic Gold Medalist Garret Weber-Gale on How to Succeed at Mental Preparation.

Listen Time: 26 Minutes

Trials and demos can be an important part of your sales cycle, especially in the enterprise space. Another term for a trial or demo, is the “Monkey’s Paw,” which is a small version of your larger service or a consulting project. A successful Monkey’s Paw has three components, which are similar to a successful trial.

Just like we need food and nourishment for our physical self, so does our business.  However, while our body tells us we are hungry and it is time to eat, our business doesn’t necessarily do the same.  Therefore, it is critical that we put plans in to place to make time to ‘feed’ our business. 

Read Time: 5 Minutes

We're almost halfway through 2019, so...how is your business doing? Did you create a plan to follow for the year, and if so, have things turned out the way you wanted them to? If not, are you looking to create a plan for 2020?

In addition to following the basic principles of not presenting too early and ensuring that the presentation is delivered as one component of an effective professional sales process, there are four steps sales professionals can follow to ensure more effective presentations.

Read Time: 5 Minutes

Too often sales leaders don't look for new employees until there's a position available...which means it's pretty likely they're hiring based on their emotions...

Are your sales presentations more like a Gettysburg Address or a Gettysburg Oration? Few people know that President Lincoln was actually the secondary speaker at Gettysburg. The program for the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery, four months after the famous 1863 battle, listed Dedicatory Remarks, by the President of the United States after Oration, by Hon. Edward Everett, the main speaker. 

Todd finally learned that he had lost the large deal. He was confused and thought his demo had gone well.  A month had passed since he was told by the prospect that he had “done a good job presenting his software!”  What could have gone wrong?

In this special bonus episode, Dave Mattson talks about a common problem with sales presentations. If you wait until the end of the presentation to close, you put too much pressure on you and the prospect. Learn how to prevent this pressure and succeed at giving sales presentations.

Rule 28. A sales meeting is your sales presentation. Master the skills that support a great sales meeting. Here's the bottom line, we want our sales meetings to be great, and we know they're not. And sometimes they're not because we're running from one meeting, we thought we had about a 30-minute window to get ourselves ready for a sales meeting which turns into a three-minute window and so we show up unprepared.

Traditional sales training says present, present, present and close, close, close – convince your prospect with a compelling presentation, show him enough value, and he will surely buy.  When I first got into sales I really sweated the presentations.  I practiced them over and over; used different visual props and brochures; tried a variety of persuasive arguments; and created notebooks full of evidence favoring my product and my company.  Ultimately it became apparent that no matter how exciting or compelling my presentation was, my close rate was mostly dependent on what happened before the presentation, not during it.

Check out 4 top reasons why salespeople struggle to close.

As a leader, it’s important to continue your knowledge and training, developing new techniques to bring back to your sales team. Summer presents a great opportunity to spend some time expanding your knowledge by reading inspiring books by business leaders and entrepreneurs.

As a sales professional, it’s imperative that you too "Practice the way you want to perform."

What does that look like in your world? A pre-call plan and role-playing.

There's no denying that finding a job in this market can be tough. In fact, an average of 118 people apply for any given job opening and only 20% of those applicants are offered an interview. If you are struggling to make your resume stand out or to shine in an interview, you may be falling victim to some of the common job hunting mistakes. When it comes to tips and techniques to sell yourself in an interview, many of the tips and techniques taught by Sandler can be applied to a job search. Making a few tweaks to your process could help you land the job of your dreams

A recent Sandler Training survey revealed that nearly 70% of working Americans agree that the key to getting ahead in life is to learn how to sell yourself. What does that mean for recent graduates? Learn how to sell yourself early in your career to stay ahead and put yourself on the right career path. And there's no better time to start selling yourself then during your first professional, post-college interviews

Sandler Training spends more than 92,000 hours per year training companies and individuals how to strengthen sales, leadership and management skills.

All too frequently, salespeople schedule appointments...and then forget about them until the day before the scheduled dates. Do you? Is preparation a last-minute activity often consisting of nothing more than a quick review of the notes from the original phone conversations when the appointments were scheduled...and perhaps a review of the prospects' web sites, advertising, or marketing materials? Can you answer the following questions about your next prospect appointment

Many salespeople are too eager to make presentations – are you? They view them as opportunities to establish the value of their products or services by demonstrating their unique aspects. You can't establish value, however, until you have determined which aspects, if any, are relevant to the prospects' situations.

Salespeople invest time developing their pitch, formulating questions, and preparing responses to expected questions and objections from the prospect. They rehearse, refine, and rehearse some more.

Clients and prospects tell on a regular basis about how they spend 5 - 20 hours a week preparing proposals for business they are "hoping to get;" however, most of the time their efforts are unsuccessful. Why are we compelled to provide proposals when our 'gut' tells us we are wasting our time? Let's explore some of the reasons we feel inclined to provide proposals: The prospect asked for it. 'If I don't provide the proposal I definitely won't have a chance at getting the business.

Have you ever killed a sale by bringing up an irrelevant feature to your prospect? Something you, or probably your marketing department, thought you prospect should know about before they signed up? At Sandler, this is known as "painting seagulls in your prospect's picture." Unfortunately, your seagull can quickly turn into an albatross. Traditionally trained salespeople who sit through hours of product training before being let out in front of prospects can't wait to share all their product knowledge when they get in front of anyone, qualified prospect or not

Make a mutual decision with your prospect. Sandler trainer Danny Wood discusses Rule #16: Never ask for the order, make your prospect give up.

Sales isn't for the faint of heart. You don't just encounter negativity on a fairly frequent basis. In many cases, it is your job to sniff it out and address it immediately. Sandler Rule #3: "No Mutual Mystification," deals with an issue that often plagues sales professionals –  "happy ears."

Why should we buy from you? What makes you different than my current _______? Why should I invite you in to see me? We are already doing business with you so why should we look at this new product /service? Sound familiar? A bit tired of hearing this? Get used to it. This is simply what customers and prospects say to sales people. And we can't fault the prospect/ customer for asking the question. They don't have time to waste, and they need a good reason to spend time with salespeople who know how to sell value-whether through a meeting or to view a new product or service

The prospect said no. That's the end of the sales process, and you've somewhat succeeded in a sense that you at least got an answer. It's not a "yes," but your job is technically done now, right? According to Sandler Rule #39, you should think again.

It may be in the salesperson's best interest to stop talking from time to time. Share your product expertise after you've qualified the prospect. 

If you simply differentiate yourself as saying you're "the best" sales professional out there, then you can look forward to clients and prospects who will wander around to see if one of the millions of other "bests" out there are cheaper. This rule is simple. See what your competition does, and then make sure that what you do is incomparable. Having a unique game plan will help set you on the path to one-of-a-kind success.

I propose a ban on proposals! I find them to be an enormous waste of time as no one has ever in the history of sales purchased anything solely based on the proposal. We unwittingly taught all prospects that they simply have to ask and we will provide them with all the information they need in order to deal with their problem

Whoever said talk is cheap didn't know much about sales. Talk-too much talk, that is-can cost a lot. This is a difficult lesson for many sales professionals to learn, and that's understandable. People in sales tend to have outgoing personalities. They enjoy good conversation, and the longer they are in sales, the better they get at making small talk, establishing an emotional connection with the prospect, and driving a conversation toward the specific end of closing a sale