Jody Williamson

The upfront contract is one of those genius elements of the Sandler Selling System. In the Sandler submarine it's the second step after bonding and rapport, and we typically think of the upfront contract at the beginning of a meeting. I don’t want to take away from the importance of using the UFC here. Today I want to talk about upfront contracts not being JUST upfront.

Today I want to talk about the concept of ‘no coasting’, especially as a top sales professional in Chicago. It’s one of the main rules from my book The Contrarian Salesperson, but this article today is written specifically for sales managers. Next week I will publish a blog that focuses on this concept from the salespersons perspective.

Today I wanted to briefly discuss DISC, but with a different spin on it. You know DISC already. We go into it in depth during our Chicago and Northbrook area all-intensive 3 Day Boot Camp.

As a sales manager, one of your primary roles is to coach.

For a second, think of the great coaches over time. John Wooden, arguably the greatest basketball coach of all time. Butch Harmon is a current coach in golf who coaches Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. You name, Butch’s coached them. Back to the Chicago Bulls, many years ago when they won all the championships. Phil Jackson. Even Tony La Russa in baseball and the Cardinals.

I want to talk a little bit about creating value in every interaction you have with your prospects and clients. Imagine your phone was ringing and you could see the caller ID. When you looked at your phone you could either make a decision that you WANT TO talk to the person calling, or that you don’t want to talk to the person calling. I know your guilty of this. You've done it, I’ve done it, everyone has.

Last week I posted a blog that touched on the subject of selling adult-to-adult. This was mainly written to be digested from the salesperson’s perspective. But as a sales manager, I want to reinforce this topic from a management perspective.

Do you find yourself acting like a child in sales? Or maybe not you, but you know someone in Chicago or Northbrook who falls into the child role in sales. By that I mean the ‘traditional buyer/seller dance’.

Have you ever thought about what the cost is to hire a mediocre or bad salesperson?
I want to touch on that today. I've found that many managers underestimate what a bad sales hire costs.
Here's a common scenario, you might have seen it happen.

An unusual question for you today: How sold are YOU on what you sell?

In my book, "The Contrarian Salesperson," I talk about the principle of traditional selling versus contrarian selling. We're going to have some more videos coming where I do a deeper dive into this. But for today, big picture, I want you to think about your approach to selling. The traditional approach invites a certain response from prospects, clients and customers.