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Quote In the three years we've been working together, my sales team has grown from salespersons to sales professionals. Our entire organization is now on the same page, and speaks the same language. They are able to identify the problems to overcome, and now have the tools to succeed and exceed their sales goals. Quote

- Howard C. Alper, Alper Services LLC

Sandler Sales Blog

Are your people getting their 4.33?

- Jody Williamson - 05/15/12

In a recent Aberdeen group study, it was revealed that the average salesperson at a Best of Class sales force spends 4.33 hours per month in some form training. The study looked at 678 companies and put them into 3 categories; Best of Class (Top 20%), Average (Middle 50%) and Laggards (Lower 30%). On average Best of Class sales forces had 77% of salespeople meeting or exceeding budget vs. 38% of the Average and 26% of the Laggards. Read more>>

Permission to Ask Questions

 - Jim Mattei - 05/01/12

The other night I walked into my house from a long day and greeted my wife with a barrage of questions. “Who’s picking up our son from school tomorrow? Are you going to workout tonight? Did you already eat dinner?” By the third question she snapped at me, “ I DON’T KNOW!!!! What’s with all the questions?” Read more >>

No One Likes a Bully

  - Jill Kirshenbaum 04/17/12

When a prospect asks, “How do you compare to XYZ Co?” how do you respond? Many sales people struggle here as they get revved up to respond, with cheeks flushed and out comes everything your competition doesn’t do, won’t do, don’t support, won’t say, they might even go beyond that! Typically, followed by what the sales person feels they need to say to convince the prospect of regarding how their company does it better, in service and quality and even lower prices! Read more>>

The Blue Angels Never "Wing It"

- John Martin - 04/12/12

About 12 years ago, friends of mine were thrilled to learn that that their son, a Marine aviator had been selected for a two year duty in the Blue Angels, the prestigious Naval exhibition team. Known for their precision flying and jaw-dropping execution, the Blue Angel are without argument; world-class. Over the next two years I came to learn about the Blue Angels culture through my friends. Read more>>

No Music With My Coffee

- Jody Williamson - 03/27/2012

In a recent interview, Howard Schultz, Starbuck’s founder, said “It’s all about the experience”. The reason Starbucks can charge $5 for an espresso drink is because of the unique experience. Take away the music and you change the experience and it’s just a cup of coffee. And a cup of coffee is a commodity. Read more>>

Parental vs. Permission

- Jody Williamson - 03/20/2012

Many times a salesperson will ask a lower level decision maker a question like “Would it be OK if I also talked to your boss to get their input on this project?” Of course the prospect views this as a threat and is programmed to say “No, that’s OK, I know what we are looking for. The mistake made here is that the salesperson is asking for permission and by default falls into the prospect’s system. Read more>>

Simplify and Execute

- John Martin - 03/12/12

There’s an old saw that says “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth over-doing”. We see it today in numerous areas of our lives in the rampant over-scheduling for ourselves and our kids. Multi-taking is no longer occasional based on a situational need, it’s a constant ever-present pressure in our lives. Read more>>

Is Your Competition On The Inside?

- Jody Williamson - 02/29/2012

One of the questions your salespeople should be asking early in the sales process is “Who are you talking to for solutions besides our company?”. This question is a no brainer. Of course we would want to know if they are talking to our competition before we move to the proposal phase because it may affect how we go to that step. It may even mean that we stop the process and regroup or close the file. Read more>>

Turnover Is Good

- Jody Williamson - 02/13/2012

What if a team like the Chicago Bears was to make a statement like “don’t worry about your performance, you’ll always have a spot on the team as long as you just show up.” ? Do you think the player would play as hard. Do you think they would give it their all? Read more>>

 

70 Years Old and Still Relevant

- Jody Williamson - 02/07/2012

Of the thousands of albums created every year, Rolling Stone magazine annually narrows it down to the top 50. Of course, the younger artists always dominate.Yet lurking at #3 this year is Paul Simon’s “So Beautiful or So What”, which Rolling Stone feels is his best album since Graceland was released 25 years ago. Read more>>

Journaling Can Double Your Income

 - Jill Kirshenbaum - 01/23/2012

Our brains are more powerful than any muscle in our body. Many of us work on our body image, thru the clothes we wear or the exercises we do to feel good. So why not exercise our brains to have the same effect? Read more>>

Don't Set Goals, Set Vows

 - Jody Williamson - 01/20/12

This time of year, most people I speak with are setting goals. I rarely have anyone argue with the validity of setting goals….but those same people will either still not set goals or will set them and then not do what it takes to achieve them. Read More>>

Prospecting as a Condition of Employment

 - John Martin - 01/05/12

One of my clients recently told me that because of a large new opportunity he was managing his prospecting activities for the next couple of month have effectively gone “on hold”.It won’t pay commissions for a minimum of 6 months, maybe much longer, that’s the bad news. Read More>>

Sell Today Educate Tomorrow

 - Jim Mattei - 01/04/12

When your sales people come back from a call after presenting a perfect, logical case for investing in your product or service and they get a “think it over”, don’t be surprised. That’s a logical ending to an intellectual process. Read More>>

Are your People Content or Committed?

 - Jody Williamson - 12/20/2011

How many of your salespeople are content and in comfort zones? With the aggressive sales goals that most companies have going into 2012, having a team of content salespeople will not work. The latest research shows that unconditional commitment is a requirement in today’s competitive selling environment. Which of your salespeople should be cut from the team because they are coasting? Read More>>

Cold Call Reality

 - Jim Mattei - 11/07/2011

At our office each of us are required to do 15,000 cold calls in the first 2 years. That is 40 a day. This takes about 1.5 hours if you have the phone numbers ready. You will talk to about 6-8 owners a day. Of those 1-2 will have some interest in what you do.  I asked my colleague what other behavior could net you 30-40 conversations with business owners a week? Read More>>

Effective Selling is Learned

 - John Martin - 10/24/2011

I read a quote the other day from French impressionist painter Edgar Degas. He said “Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do”.  If you’ve ever picked up a paint brush, a palette and a piece of canvas thinking “how hard can this be” you soon found out, it isn’t easy.  The end results look amateurish and the activity is humbling. It’s not that big of a leap to say that “Selling is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do”. Read More>>

Desire in Sales Success

 - Jody Williamson - 10/20/2011

I was watching Matt Forte rush for 123 yards in the Bears vs. Vikings game Monday night.  Forte is making $600,000 in the final year of his rookie contract and is looking to renegotiate.  Who can blame him when he looks at the seven year, $100 million contract that Adrian Peterson signed with the Vikings last month.  Worse yet, Forte rushed for more yards vs. Peterson on Monday.  In fact, Forte has 908 of the Bear’s 1967  total yards this season, 46 % of the Bear’s offense. Read More>>

Why Questions During Sales Calls

 - Jill Kirshenbaum - 10/20/2011

For about a year now, my inquisitive 4 year old has been asking me a lot of great questions, but none are so  thought provoking than when he asks “why”.  ‘Why does the hot sun, not feel so hot in the winter?’, ‘Why don’t the needles in the pine tree change colors in the fall?’, ‘Why does milk go bad’, ‘Why is this toilet paper softer than that one?’  The one-answer- response is no longer good enough (even if, what I believe was a good attempt at answering). We get into full conversations, involving the family, sometimes, we might even ‘phone a friend’ for the answer.  The purity of the question of ‘why’ comes from my little guy just not knowing what the answer is.  He is not assuming what the answer should be.  Read More>>