Development

Join us for an enlightening episode as Josh Shirley delves into the intricacies of selling SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions. Josh emphasizes the nuances of selling SaaS, highlighting the crucial differences from selling tangible products or services. 

This week, we have an insightful conversation with Hannah Ajikawo as we explore the fundamental stages of awareness, consideration, decision, and post-purchase, shedding light on the complexities beyond the traditional "funnel" analogy.

Join Mike Montague and Dr. Eli Jones in highlighting how commonalities can lead to a more collaborative and engaged workforce on this How to Succeed episode.

We’re all taught at some point that we need to ask for a Call to Action (CTA)– a request that the person we’re talking to commit to do something. And usually, we make that request. But how effectively?

Join us on the latest How to Succeed podcast as we dive into the ever-evolving world of AI and sales with Jordan Ledwein.

The “forecast” from the salesperson is not based on any meaningful data. It’s more of a guess. Often, what sales leaders hear is best translated as, “See, I’m a closer!” Or, if a deal collapses, as, “Look, it wasn’t my fault.”

Join Mike Montague, Mike Myers, and Colum Lundt as they delve into the intricacies of coaching strategies tailored for today's remote sales teams.

Join Mike Montague and Grant Baldwin of The Speaker Lab as they unravel the essentials of powerful speaking techniques, from presentation preparation to landing speaking gigs.

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.

So, you're thinking of building your own sales training program? Let's talk about the numbers and logistics of putting it all together.

In this episode, we will get into the art of effective leadership with Larry Van Sant, a seasoned Sandler trainer based in Frederick, Maryland.

Emily Reggia, Sandler's enterprise marketing manager, joins us at Inbound to share her expertise and insights on keeping the customer at the heart of our business.

The rise of collaborative learning has brought the next evolution of the Sandler Selling System, and we are excited to introduce it through a more dynamic and interactive learning environment we call the Sales Development Series.

Sandler has been driving the conversation around sales intelligence this year to provide insights into how AI can revolutionize sales techniques, boost efficiency, and reshape the future.

Are you ready to revolutionize your approach to sales training? Lisa Ellis, the Head of Product at Sandler, joins the podcast to explore the transformative power of collaborative learning in modern education and sales training.

Sales and marketing alignment: leaders talk about it. They say it’s what they want. They notice when it’s not happening. But they don’t always offer a clear explanation of what sales and marketing alignment really is.

In this episode, Tom Scarda, franchise coach and advisor at the Franchise Academy, shares his insights on how to succeed at owning a franchise.

Jamie Crosbie discusses the importance of concentrating on the will to succeed, especially when focusing on candidates in the middle level of the sales talent spectrum.

Price increases: they happen. Let’s face it, they’re part of business. But communicating about them effectively with buyers isn’t always something salespeople are given a lot of guidance on. 

In this episode, Herb Cogliano, an experienced executive business coach who has helped numerous midmarket businesses achieve exponential growth, shares his insights and strategies on how to scale up your business to the next level.

Discover the transformational power of intentional inclusion in our enlightening conversation with Dr. Nika White, founder of Nika White Consulting and author of Inclusion Uncomplicated.

In this episode, Jordan Ledwein will join us to share the most effective way in revolutionizing the sales industry by harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence and cutting-edge sales technology.

This week we welcome Martine Kalaw, author of The ABCs of Diversity: A Manager's Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the New Workplace. Tap into your organization’s full potential through understanding and strategic implementation of the best DEI Practices.

In this episode, we sit down with Jennifer Smith, CEO and founder of Scribe, an automatic process documentation software. We discuss how people should go beyond simply looking at revenue when tracking sales success and instead focus on three levels.

To sell effectively to the modern buyer, we need to identify and set aside all the head trash that keeps us from engaging effectively, and often, to uncover new opportunities.

In this episode, Dr. Benjamin Hardy will show you how to create the life you want by being your future self now! He'll explain why it's so important to have clarity on what you want and how to actually achieve it.

There are four predictable steps that impact all major purchase decisions. Do you know what they are?

In this episode, Gerry Weinberg from Detroit talks about how to survive an economic recession. He shares his experience as a Sandler trainer and explains how downturns can actually be opportunities for businesses. 

How do we break the cycle and set goals that stick? Here are seven powerful goal-setting tips we share with our clients that turn "resolutions" into results. 

It is far easier to sell at your listed price than most salespeople realize – even during a time of economic uncertainty. Here are three steps you can take today that will make selling without discounting second nature, no matter what else is going on in your market.

Employee engagement is key to the success of any organization. Listen to the podcast to learn the secret to getting your team on board and engaged in their work!

Many business leaders make costly errors as they put together their plan for the year to come – errors that make it harder than it should be for their teams to implement the plan and attain the goals it identifies. Here are five of the most expensive mistakes we see. Avoid all five, and you will write a better business plan!

Here are three proven, painless strategies for starting and completing the right plan for the coming year – a plan that will help you make the best possible decisions over the next twelve months and keep your business humming.

In order to be successful, it is important to have a positive outlook and to be realistic. In this podcast, we will have Kaysi Curtin discuss how to thrive in uncertainty.

Eliot, a 10-year sales veteran, was having major issues with creating rapport during his sales calls. He felt certain that he was properly executing the first two steps of the Sandler Selling System, which establish strong communication and set clear expectations, but he reported that his prospects nevertheless remained “aloof” and “detached.”

In the 2022 Sales Mastery study, researchers Barry Trailer and Jim Dickie examine the latest in sales challenges. Their findings uncover actionable solutions any organization can implement to improve processes and up success rates.

What do you do when a buyer or a prospective buyer says something aggressive or confrontational? What’s your very first instinct? How often do you act on that instinct? What happens when you do?

How many times have you thought a sale was closed only to have the prospect call you, or leave you a voicemail, text, or email message, cancelling or delaying the order? All that hard work … and at the eleventh hour the prospect backs out of the deal. Another commission killed by buyer’s remorse!

Learning to embrace failure has to be one of the toughest lessons in sales. It seems counterintuitive to a lot of people. Winning at anything – including selling for a living – might look like the opposite of failure. Actually, though, that’s a major misconception. Failure is what makes winning possible.

Today, September 22, we celebrate American Business Women’s Day, a day set aside to honor the accomplishments of business women across the nation. Here is a powerful true story from Lorraine Ferguson’s book The Unapologetic Saleswoman that illuminates: distinguishing role from identity.

There is no one-size-fits all sales coaching model. There are only approaches that have been shown to be successful in particular situations. As the coach, you must identify each individual salesperson’s personal “success code” – and use that code to unlock the salesperson’s potential for success. Here are five tips that have been proven to help sales leaders unlock that code.

Diane, a recent sales hire, got an email from her manager, Luis, suggesting that he accompany her on an initial sales call with a prospect – and then debrief with her on what he’d observed. Diane replied that she thought that was a great idea.
After the meeting with the prospect was over, Luis jotted down some notes. He shared them during his coaching meeting with Diane the next day. “One of the things I noticed about your meeting with Francine,” Luis said, “was that you immediately answered her question about delivery-time windows. How did you feel about how that part of the discussion went?”

There are eight possible sources of leverage that are present in every negotiating situation. We want to understand and maximize all eight sources.

Mike Montague interviews Todd Hockenberry, author of Inbound Organization and a HubSpot partner, on How to Succeed at Becoming an Inbound Organization.

The salesperson who claims to “like” prospecting hasn’t ever done it. How can anyone “like” a process that produces such an arena for rejection? When salespeople say they like prospecting, what they might mean is this: “I don’t mind paying the price of prospecting to reach my objectives.”

Mike Montague interviews Brian Glibkowski, author of Answer Intelligence and creator of AQ, on How to Succeed at Answer Intelligence.

Eliza, a new sales hire, had posted an abysmally low closing ratio in her first 60 days on the job. She was spending most of her time with prospects who ended up picking her brain for advice and information…and then disappearing. Frank, her manager, asked her during a coaching session why she thought that was happening. “I guess I’m not all that great at presenting yet,” Eliza said. “Do you have any suggestions on how I could improve in that area?”

Average or Excellent?

Average salespeople continue to do what they have always done. They exhibit the same patterns of behavior and employ the same strategies and tactics over and over again, regardless of the results they achieve. They don’t stop to consider that the plan that worked for them one, or two, or five years ago may feel familiar, but won’t necessarily deliver optimum results today.

Onboarding sales talent has never been more important, given the tightness of the current labor market. Yet the most effective, proven best practices for shortening the runway to success for new hires remain largely unknown and unimplemented.

The Sandler Summit is a powerful two-day hybrid event where successful business professionals across all industries learn, collaborate, and network.

Mike Montague interviews Danny Wood, Sandler trainer from New Jersey on How to Succeed at Burning Bridges. Learn how to get from where you are to where you want to be by getting committed and becoming the person you need to be to reach your goals.

You’re a business owner. That’s a wonderful thing! But stop and think for a moment. Is that all you are?

Mike Montague interviews Sharina Perry, CEO and Inventor of Utopia Plastix, on How to Succeed at Supply Chain Management.

Mike Montague interviews Kris Kelso on How to Succeed at Overcoming the Imposter. Get ready to learn how to silence your inner critic and lead and sell with confidence.

Mike Montague interviews Sophia Stone on How to Succeed at Experiential Learning.

Many mentors (and mentees) resist asking an all-important question about the sales leader’s role: “Where are things most likely to go wrong?” And the answer is: “Wherever people are assuming that they already have all the answers.”

A big part of the sales leader’s job is to determine the measurable behaviors that will lead to success for a given salesperson, and to evaluate the numbers that connect to those behaviors.

To celebrate episode #500 and over 2 million total downloads, we flip the tables to get Mike Montague’s top lessons learned from hosting the show!

Mike Montague interviews Dre “DreAllDay” Baldwin on How to Succeed at Working on Your Game.

Mike Montague interviews Alan Stein Jr. on How to Succeed at Raising Your Game. Performance coach Alan Stein Jr. shares the secret principles used by world-class performers that will help you improve your productivity and achieve higher levels of success.

Mike Montague interviews Beth Weissenberger on How to Succeed at Personal Integrity.

Spring is here. It’s brighter later. It’s getting warmer. It’s a time for growing things. While planning our Summer harvest, let’s consider 10 Laws for Planting Seeds of Personal and Professional Growth.

Mike Montague interviews Josh Linkner on How to Succeed at Big Little Breakthroughs. In this episode:

Mike Montague interviews Antarctic Mike on How to Succeed at Meeting New People.

Mike Montague interviews Dave Mattson on How to Succeed at Scaling Sales Success.

Every year, in early January, the local gym is packed full of New Year’s fitness converts. And every year, In February, at that same gym, only the dedicated remain. What makes the difference? What do the people in the second group have that most of the people in the first mindset do not have?

There’s been a lot of discussion in recent months about exactly what the road to recovery looks like, doesn’t look like, or should look like. And there are a multitude of competing opinions on this subject.

George Carlin did a bit once about words that included the phrase, “it’s the context that makes them good or bad.” The bit *hasn’t* aged well, but his words are prescient when it comes to techniques learned in training.

In the world of Sandler selling, “Pain” is a compelling emotional reason to do something different.

The global sales space has been completely transformed over the last year with a virtual selling environment prevailing for almost all sales organizations. Sandler’s research reveals that 71.4% of participating sales managers and sales leadership report that their sales process has changed as a result of transitioning to remote commercial trading. Unfortunately, 63.2% don’t have a plan.

You don’t need us to tell you that we’re all working from a distance these days. Thanks to COVID, professional salespeople are, for the most part, not seeing buyers in person.

Mike Montague interviews Cassie Kramer on How to Succeed at Keeping Your Financial House in Order.

Ask any sales leader whether they want to build a high-performing team, and the immediate answer will be “Yes.” But what are the specific best practices that support this goal? Here are three that we have seen in organizations that are thriving in 2021.

Mike Montague interviews Randy Seidl on How to Succeed at Being Part of a Sales Community.

Mike Montague interviews Akshay Nanavati, best-selling author of Fearvana, on How to Succeed at Finding Bliss.

Michelle Prince is the best-selling author of her first book, “Winning In Life Now” and is a highly sought after Zig Ziglar Motivational Speaker.

Mike Montague interviews Wade Rowan, Sandler trainer from Chattanooga, on How to Succeed at Identifying Your Personal Advantage.

Mike Montague interviews Alea Homison on How to Succeed at Organization-Wide Effectiveness Using Sandler.  

Short on time? No problem. Here is our 120-second overview of three critical areas where we are seeing the most productive sales leaders set their teams up for success in 2021.

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 Keith Kong on How to Succeed at Doing the Impossible.

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.

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 Antonio Garrido on How to Succeed at Ride-Along Coaching. Get a FREE chapter of Antonio’s book here.

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.

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 Sharlene Douthit on How to Succeed at Giving Good Feedback.

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.

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 Jason Campbell, Host of Impact at Work and Superhumans at Work, a Mindvalley Podcast. Author of Upcoming book on Selling with Love, on How to Succeed at Selling with Love

Mike Montague interviews best-selling author, Nir Eyal, on How to Succeed at Being Indistractable.

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.

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 Dr. Mark Goulston, podcaster, speaker, and author of Just Listen, on How to Succeed at Selling More by Listening More.

The old distinction between “field sales” and “inside sales” is an increasingly irrelevant one. Today, the most effective and productive sales teams see themselves as remote sales professionals.

We live in an era when virtual selling has, in many industries, all but eclipsed face-to-face, in-person selling.

Mike Montague interviews Oksana Esberard, author of Next Level You and mental health advocate, on How to Succeed and Stay Mentally Healthy.

Mike Montague interviews Mark Hayward on How to Succeed at Having a Side Hustle. 

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.

Everyone loves a good quiz and the Sandler Research Center has a tricky question for any business leader responsible for customer success or net revenue retention.

Here is the reality – if you want to emerge stronger from this crisis environment and into the recovery, you’ve got to be spending this time “watching the tape.” That means, analyzing what you’re doing and identifying what you need to change to do better.

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.

For as long as there have been salespeople, there has been data to analyze about the process they use to bring in business.

The results of the Sandler Research Center survey The Essential Components for Sustaining Overachieving Sales Performance are out.

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.

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 Brian Jackson on How to Succeed at Active Fundraising.

In today’s current market conditions, leaders need to accept that the success of their teams and their companies will rely heavily on striking a collaborative, coordinated balance between creative strategic thinking and effective implementation.

Mike Montague Interviews Laura Janusik on How to Succeed at Listening intelligence.

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 Dr. Benjamin Hardy on How to Succeed at Understanding Your Personality.

Back in the 1930s, in the wake of the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression, there was a social phenomenon in the United States known as the “Hoover Garden,” sometimes called a “Depression Garden.”

Mike Montague interviews Clint Babcock on his new book and How to Succeed at Negotiating from the Inside Out.

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 Pete Oliver on How to Succeed at Vision-Based Execution.

David Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training and 6-time Author, talks about his Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek best-selling book, The Sandler Rules: 49 Timeless Selling Principles and How to Apply Them.

Mike Montague interviews Hamish Knox on How to Succeed When the Sale Goes Sideways.

I believe we should start by simply acknowledging the reality that telling our employees that we have a learning culture does not mean that we actually have a learning culture in our organization.

“The Critical Elements of Proactive Client Retention” is the most recent Sandler Research Center survey project, which closed to survey participants on May 31. We are now performing data analysis and will soon publish our complete findings. In advance of that report, I’ve followed, with great interest, the results from a single question asked among the 25 questions of the survey and want to share the findings.

Mike Montague interviews Doug Cohen on How to Succeed at Using Body Language in the Sales Process. 

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 George McGehrin on How to Succeed at Finding a New Job. George is the president of the McGehrin Group, an executive headhunter and recruiting firm. 

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.

Over the years, we’ve worked with a lot of fantastic and skilled salespeople who really work at their craft.

Mike Montague interviews Jason Caywood, Sandler trainer from Salt Lake City, on How to Succeed at Understanding IR Theory.

David Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training and 6-time Author, talks about his Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek best-selling book, The Sandler Rules: 49 Timeless Selling Principles and How to Apply Them.

Mike Montague interviews Clint Babcock on How to Succeed at Three Hidden Traits of Successful Salespeople.

How do your prospects feel after sitting across from you in a sales call?  Maybe the answer doesn’t come instantly to you. That’s OK. Here’s another question: Ever been to therapy? Don’t worry, it’s a rhetorical question… but it’s OK if you have. A career in sales can certainly lead to an occasional need for a therapist! 

Training Industry, one of the most trusted and respected sources of information on the business of learning, recently selected Sandler Training as one of the top 20 sales training companies. This selection marks the eleventh consecutive year that Sandler Training has been so honored.

Mike Montague interviews Sandra Crozier-McKee on How to Succeed at Emotional Intelligence.

Mike Montague interviews Terri Trespicio on How to Succeed at Finding Your Voice and Your Audience.

Mike Montague interviews Bob Burg on How to Succeed at Being a Go-Giver.

We learned a lot from each other at this year’s event. Here are my three big takeaways from the 2020 Sandler Annual Sales & Leadership Summit.

In today’s world, artificial intelligence (AI) is getting more powerful and more prominent in the sales process. What does that mean for professional salespeople? There used to be an occupation called “switchboard operator” – now there isn’t. Fifty years from now, will there no longer be an occupation called “professional salesperson”?

Setting clear expectations is an important part of any sales leader’s working day. Unfortunately, it’s something that doesn’t always happen as effectively or as consistently as we might like. Here are five simple steps you can take to get better at this critical part of the job.

If you’re a sales leader, you are tasked with striking a delicate balance. Your job is not to sell for the members of your team – selling is what you hire, train, and retain good salespeople to do, after all. Yet your job is to help shape the business development strategies that make the most sense for your business, for the salespeople who report to you, and of course for your customers.

Brian Sullivan interviews Oksana Esberard about Mindfulness in Selling.

Leadership is more than learning the characteristics and habits of effective leaders. Truly effective leaders ensure the organization has clear direction and an infrastructure which will enhance the probability of the organization successfully achieving their vision.

One of the main goals of an L&D strategy is to improve employees’ performance. Your training sessions must result in a motivated and resourceful staff, one able to close more sales. But how do you create a strategy that actually improves employee’s performance?

As a sales leader, you're measured by your team’s performance. Ultimately, you're judged based on their ability to generate revenues sufficient to meet or exceed your corporate goals. So no matter how good you may have once been as a seller, it’s important to understand that selling is not your job now … and you can't expect to generate enough revenue to meet your team’s quotas simply by acting as a player-coach.

Mike Montague interviews Jaclyn Schiff on How to Succeed at Podcast Marketing In this episode:

David Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training and 6-time Author, talks about his Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek best-selling book, The Sandler Rules: 49 Timeless Selling Principles and How to Apply Them.

Mike Montague interviews Jamie Bolak, former Sandler trainer and current marketing consultant, on How to Succeed at Creating a Vision Board

Ilise Benun is the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, the go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better projects with bigger budgets, through which she offers business coaching to small groups and 1:1.

Have you ever wondered why a once-promising new hire is performing far below your initial expectations? From one perspective, what’s happening here is pretty simple: the person you hired is not the person you interviewed. The dynamic at work in an interview situation is similar to the dynamic at work on a first date./blog/how-succeed-onboarding-new-hires-podcast

Mike Montague interviews Haley Haggerty on How to Succeed at Rethinking the Sales Profession.

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 has been involved with Sandler for over 20 years as a client, certified trainer, VP of online learning, and now global head of content.

As 2019 draws to a close, it makes sense to survey the landscape and take note of the ideas and innovations that are most likely to affect markets, and sales teams, in the year to come. With that in mind, here are five emerging trends we at Sandler believe sales professionals should be on the watch for in the year 2020.

Mike Montague interviews his co-instructor for the online goal-setting workshop, Amy Woodall, on How to Succeed at Setting Goals.

Give our podcast a listen to learn the right steps you need to take in order to create a sales playbook for your team.

Mike Montague interviews Tony Altham, Executive Director at BNI in the UK, on How to Succeed at Business Networking.

Dave Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training, interviews Chris Underwood, the most recent winner of CBS’s Survivor, on how he used Sandler sales techniques to win the show and win more deals. Chris attends Sandler Training in Chicago.

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Discover the secrets and benefits of coaching top performers within your sales organization from Tom Ziglar.

Mike Montague interviews Scott Perry on How to Succeed at Being Creative on Purpose. In this episode learn: What does being creative on purpose mean? Are YOU creative? Four principles to be creative on purpose.

There’s a wise saying popularly attributed to baseball legend Yogi Berra: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Here’s how I unpack that wisdom: We have to know what our goals are, and we also have to know the specific behaviors that support those goals… otherwise, we may end up supporting someone else’s plan, rather than our own. With that sobering thought in mind, consider this list of five behaviors that are essential the achievement of any worthwhile personal goal.

Mike Montague interviews Karl Schaphorst on how to succeed at being a purpose-driven salesperson In this episode:

• What it means to be a purpose-driven salesperson
• Attitudes to adopt and avoid
• Embrace pain and suffering

In his book Blink, author Malcolm Gladwell contends that people make their best and most accurate decisions in the first two seconds of facing a situation—in other words, in the blink of an eye. It seems inherently suspect, though, this notion that people can make correct decisions quickly. Is it? You were probably taught from an early age that haste makes waste; don’t judge a book by its cover; and look before you leap.

Selling for a living in the twenty-first century requires coming to terms with a dizzying array of interconnected, hard-to-anticipate changes in the areas of technology, marketplace trends, and client agendas. Falling behind in any one of these areas means losing relevance and with it, your competitive edge.

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Listen Time: 11 Minutes

The aggressive, sustainable growth so many company leaders seek, but few can actually point to, lies in moving yourself and your organization into a growth-driven sales culture. The following three steps are essential preliminaries to that shift.

Read Time: 6 Minutes

Collectively over the years I've heard every excuse as to why people don't need to track metrics. "You don't understand I'm just too busy to track that type of thing," or "what is that really going to do for me in the long run."  Well, in the long run, if you truly understand what the outcomes are statistically every time you pick up the phone or attend a networking event, couldn't you predict the future?  Wouldn’t that make life a little less stressful?

Read Time: 6 Minutes

Here are five simple ways we can improve the quality of our communication with the people who are currently buying from us and expand and deepen those relationships over time.

Read Time: 8 Minutes

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Listen Time: 7 Minutes

I love sales!  It is a career where you, the sales professional, determine your income based on how skillful you execute the duty.  It has a feel of independence, ownership and entrepreneurship and it can be extremely rewarding.  Professional selling is regarded as one of the top earning careers on the face of the planet.  Note to you business owners out there: If your salespeople are making more money than you, don’t be jealous, be excited because they are building your business and increasing its value!

Read Time: 5 MInutes

An interview with Chris O’Connel on How to Succeed in Starting Out in Sales.

Listen Time: 23 Minutes

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Listen Time: 8 Minutes

In sales, we all bundle our accounts, clients and prospects, into logical groupings to add clarity and understanding to our efforts. We use vertical categories, assembling together our healthcare, consumer products, technology accounts, and others. We also differentiate by geography, adding efficiency in territory management by bundling accounts based on physical locations. 

Read Time: 10 Minutes

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

Listen Time: 26 Minutes

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Listen Time: 11 Minutes

Retail champions, the subject of my book RETAIL SUCCESS IN AN ONLINE WORLD, outlines not only how to connect with customers face-to-face but also a long-term engagement strategy for after the customer leaves the store. 

Read Time: 6 Minutes

As a sales trainer, I get a lot of pushback about the word “pain.” Many of my clients reason that there are many other motives to explain why people buy. There have been multiple instances where they were offended by the very word “pain” and its negative connotation and then asked if we can call it something else instead. 

Read Time: 4 Minutes 

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Listen Time: 10 Minutes

In the business world it’s often been said, “Our strongest asset is our people.” But how often is it stated that they are also your greatest weakness? Every business can benefit from a reality check. If you use a systematic strategy for developing the people in your key roles, that reality will likely reveal the valuable human assets on your team.

Read Time: 6 Minutes

Tim Priebe, Founder of T&S Online Marketing, talks about how to integrate Sandler into your marketing and shows you the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful at marketing the Sandler way. Get the best practices for marketing collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 30 Minutes

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Listen Time: 11 MInutes

In the past couple of decades, our workplaces have gone from the office to mostly virtual spaces. We get our jobs done and we communicate in the cloud. However, we still struggle with the same issues in communication which we had decades ago. Here are a few effective ways to overcome communication barriers in the workplace which you can apply right now.

Read Time: 5 Minutes

Learn how to build a better day. Whether it is yourself or your sales team, Jim Ayraud will help you learn the best practices for sales accountability and building new behavior habits.

Listen Time: 23 Minutes

People have many fears. Obviously, there are natural fears which have helped us to survive as a species but let’s leave them to scientists. This time, I would like to review the work-related one: the fear of change.

Read Time: 6 Minutes

Chris Duffey, Author and Strategic Development Manager at Adobe, talks about Artificial Intelligence and the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful in a world with AI. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 24 Minutes

Hamish Knox, Sandler trainer from Calgary and two-time author, shares and audio blog about how to share your vision for the future of your team through questions. He talks about the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful in sales management. 

Listen Time: 5 Minutes

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

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Greg Skloot is President and COO at Crystal, an online app that can tell you anyone's DISC personality before you meet them. Greg and his team at Crystal are a new strategic partner of Sandler Training, and he will tell you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to tailor your sales pitch to your prospect's personality.

Listen Time: 24 Minutes

This is a special bonus episode, a look back at this year’s Sandler Summit and one of our opening keynotes by Andy McCredie. He is a Sandler trainer from the UK and did a killer hour-long talk on closing the sale. The full talk is available in Sandler Online. Here are some quick tips on How to Succeed at Closing more Sales.

Listen Time: 11 Minutes

Cal Thomas, Sandler trainer, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful at sticking with your goals and achieving them. Get the best practices for goal setting collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 24 Minutes

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Listen Time: 12 Minutes

Most salespeople who need to prospect for a living will tell you that it’s a very proactive, immediate results-driven exercise that can be uncomfortable at times. Hard to disagree with that. This is a topic that we get involved with far too often as it’s a common point of frustration for many business owners and sales leaders regarding their selling culture.

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As sales leaders, we need to accept that we will ultimately be judged on our ability to hire and retain people who are both willing and able to do the job of selling. If either of those elements is missing in a sales hire that happens on our watch, we’re not doing our job.

Read Time: 5 Minutes

Hamish Knox, Sandler trainer and two-time author, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful at selling across the executive level. Get the best practices collected from around the world for using your executives to sell to the prospect's.

<Listen Time: 28 Minutes

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Listen Time: 12 Minutes

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. 

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Brian Sullivan, VP of Sandler Enterprise Selling, speaks with Steve Moritz, thirty year veteran of the technology industry and CEO of Moritz Consulting Group about  Consulting Services: Putting the client first in sales and delivery.

Listen Time: 40 Minutes

It's common for people to mistake sales management for sales coaching. In fact, these are two very different roles. The table highlights some of the most notable differences.

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Rick McDermott, Sandler trainer, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful in sales. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

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I’m often asked to identify a single “blind spot” that keeps leaders from growing their businesses aggressively. There are actually a number of these … but one that’s particularly common is the failure to collect best practices and assemble them in a regularly updated “playbook.”

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Geof Bowie, Sandler trainer, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful at achieving a flow state in sales. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 21 Minutes

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Listen Time: 8 Minutes

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Listen Time: 12 Minutes

This special bonus episode takes you back about 25 years to a training session with our founder, David H. Sander. He talks about why a selling system is so important to your career, even if you don't pick his...

Listen Time: 9 Minutes

The hot labor market is stressing hiring managers and their organizations like no other job cycle in the last 20 years. Despite the mounting pressure of filling an open role, organizations that remain true to their hiring standards will win in the long term.

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Joel Kaczmarek, Sandler trainer, shows you how to succeed at gratitude loop with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful in sales. Get the best practices collected from around the world for being more grateful and happy with your success.

Listen Time: 28 Minutes

David Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training and 6-Time Best-Selling Author, talks about his fifth book, Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders. The book is on sale here, as well as, the companion video course.

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SMART Goal Setting with Mike Crandall: Mike Crandall, Sandler Trainer from OK, and Mike Montague, VP of Online Learning discuss SMART goal setting strategies.

Watch Time: 56 Minutes

Erin Pheil, Founder of the Mindfix Group out of Denver, talks about how to succeed at overcoming common head trash issues in sales with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful. Get the best practices collected from around the world for overcoming these mental roadblocks.

Listen Time: 31 Minutes

This year, on Fridays, Dave Mattson talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

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Learn how the insights and our real-time messaging works on the Sales Accountability platform.

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Welcome to the How to Succeed podcast, the show that helps you get to the top and stay there... This is How to Succeed at setting yourself up for a breakthrough.

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This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

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People sometimes ask me whether there is a single, simple principle that will help everyone in the organization to learn and grow and improve over time, regardless of an individual’s position or level of experience. There is. But it may come as a surprise to you: embracing failure and embracing it quickly.

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When our clients are elephant hunting or are selling in the enterprise space, we encourage them to engage their executives in peer-to-peer selling to their counterparts at prospect organizations.

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If you are a Sandler client, and you’ve never attended a Summit, let me share four powerful reasons to consider joining us in Florida March 20-22.

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This bonus episode is brought to you by the Sandler Annual Sales and Leadership Summit in Orlando, FL March 20th-22nd. To join our trainers from around the world and about a thousand of your high-performing colleagues, go to here for more information. 

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Learn how to overcome self-limiting beliefs with Antonio Garrido.

Watch Time: 56 Minutes

Most of us who lead teams and organizations readily acknowledge that we should be doing more to invest in the personal and professional development of the people who report to us. We have a lot of responsibilities, we get busy, and, all too often, we don’t take action on this essential priority.

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Jim Ayraud, Sandler trainer and co-creator of www.SalesAccountability.com, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful at maximizing your time invested. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 29 Minutes

The first month of the year is a classic time for sales professionals to focus with intensity on identifying and fulfilling their most important personal and organizational goals. We’ve noticed, though, that the goal setting behavior of an organization’s leaders during the month of January tends to have the biggest bottom-line impact on the year as a whole.

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2019 is shaping up to be a very exciting year at Sandler, especially because of four important new strategic alliances we’ve formed. In this post, I want to look briefly at all four of the organizations with whom we’ve formed strategic partnerships with (Ziglar, Inc., Top Sales World, Grovo, and Evernote), and why each partnership is important.

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Consider these three, often overlooked, reasons to remember how critical Q1 is to your business’s growth. Each reason represents a specific opportunity for your organization to start strong and make the very most of 2019.

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This bonus episode is brought to you by the Sandler Annual Sales and Leadership Summit in Orlando, FL March 20th-22nd. To join our trainers from around the world and about a thousand of your high-performing colleagues, go here for more information. Tickets are limited.

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Brent Chapman, CIO of RoundPoint Mortgage and speaker and upcoming author, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful in building a winning company culture. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 29 Minutes

Gerry Weinberg, a Sandler trainer from Detriot, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful in connecting with your clients through advanced bonding and rapport tactics. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

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Happy New Year!

Not only is it important to set goals for the New Year, but it also makes sense to take some time to reflect on the successes and setbacks from 2018. Below are four suggestions on how leaders can use insights and learnings from the year just past to shape their organizational growth plan for 2019.

Dave Mattson, President and CEO at Sandler, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful in sales. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

Hap Klopp, Founder and former CEO of The North Face and author of multiple books, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful in the the face of digital disruption. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 30 Minutes

Bill Bartlett, Sandler trainer and author, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful in branding your personal presence. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

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The end of the year is upon us! And contrary to popular belief, this is not necessarily a “dead” time in terms of business development and relationship-building for salespeople. Here are four simple strategies you can use right away to ramp up your prospecting performance during the holiday season.

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The second decade of the twenty-first century is approaching its finish line. As it does, sales as a profession is going through a period of extraordinary change. In this post, we will look at some of the biggest changes on the horizon for salespeople.

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Kevin Leung, Sandler client and Salesperson of the Years, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful in sales. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 20 Minutes

Antonio Garrido, Sandler trainer and author of Asking Questions the Sandler Way, joins us to talk about the attitude, behaviors, and techniques of building better habits. Learn how to find and replace negative habits with better ones that lead to more success and better productivity. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

The approach of a new calendar year can be one of those times leaders begin asking themselves author Jim Collins’s famous question, “Have we got the right people in the right seats on the bus?” It’s a good question for any time of year, of course … but since the turn of the calendar can often deliver a sense of new purpose and focus for both teams and leaders, the period leading up to January 1 can indeed be a great time to reassess your organization’s personnel strategies.

Clint Babcock, Sandler trainer from Tampa, joins us to talk about the attitude, behaviors, and techniques of negotiations. Learn how to find, understand and use sources of leverage in your sales negotiations. Learn the advantages and disadvantages of salespeople in final negotiations.

Many women ask me about the best ways to break down the barriers faced by female sales professionals. Here’s my answer: the critical step is recognizing that how we perceive ourselves before, during, and after our sales conversations will always have the most dramatic impact on our ability to break down the barriers we encounter. 

Amy Woodall, Sandler trainer from Indianapolis and host of our online course for Dealing with Difficult People and Situations, shares her thoughts about how to handle challenging situations in business.

Dan Stalp, Sandler trainer from Kansas City, joins us to talk about the attitude, behaviors, and techniques to help get out of your own way and stop beating yourself up. This is a tough subject, but sometimes, the biggest obstacle to success is ourselves. Learn how to succeed by not bullying yourself.

Mike Crandall joins us to talk about the attitude, behaviors and techniques of transitioning the ownership of your business to the next generation of leaders. This is always a tough subject, but the future is coming and how you plan now will determine how bright that future will be. Learn how to succeed at transitioning your business to the next generation.

David Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler, shares his thoughts about using the Thermometer Close. Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of top performers, who can gauge the pace and progress of their presentation with this simple Sandler technique.

David H Sandler, our belated founder, shares his thoughts  why to choose sales as a career and how people are motivated. Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of top performers, who have a reason to succeed.

Lori Logue, Manager of Customer Success at Evernote, talks about how Evernote business can help you share notes with Salesforce and collaborate across the sales and delivery teams. Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of successful notetaking in business.

JB Andrews, Sandler trainer, shares his thoughts about personal and professional growth and how to get outside your comfort zone. Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of top performers, who get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Dave Mattson shares his thoughts about the new Leadership for Organizational Excellence training program by Sandler. Learn the structure and methodology to create real, lasting, positive change in your organization.

Dean Langfit, Sandler trainer from Akron, OH, talks about how to motivate, hold accountable, and coach your team. Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of today's top managers.

Mike Montague, VP of Online Learning, shares his thoughts about success in a new audio blog. These demotivational lessons are designed to show you how to succeed without motivation. This podcast is all about taking personal responsibility for your own success and taking action.

Dave Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler, shares his best practices for honing your talk tracks. Learn how to write, practice, and deliver your talk tracks for each part of the sales call.

Wednesday mornings are tough enough without our most annoying client calling in with the usual simple problem to which he is over-reacting. We sigh and answer the phone — all while making the facial gestures of a person eating oysters for the first time in their life.

Most managers we talk to would quickly agree with Drucker’s observation, and with the related proposition that their team’s capacity to learn, grow, and adapt is one of the organization’s most important assets. Yet very few of these managers have taken the time to discuss and develop a personalized learning and development plan for the team members who report to them.

Dave Mattson shares his thoughts on sales leadership and how to build a culture of continuous improvement through role play. This Selling the Sandler Way take is a great listen before your next sales meeting.

What if Sandler Training wasn’t about sales, management or customer service? What if it wasn’t even about communication skills or learning how to succeed? What would it be about?

A lack of confidence when interacting with potential buyers is a sure way to sabotage a sales discussion. Here are four ways salespeople can improve upon their interpersonal skills and become more confident when dealing with prospects.

Tina Phillips joins the podcast for the first time to talk about improving your listening skills in sales and in your personal life. Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of great listeners, and learn how to incorporate them into your conversations. 

There's been a lot written in recent years about making the health of your employees an organizational priority, and that’s as it should be. An individual employee’s wellness correlates directly to that employee’s quality of life, to their overall job satisfaction, and, of course, to their productivity.

Learn how to quiet the inner fears and overcome your own self-limiting beliefs. Rochelle Carrington, Sandler Trainer from New York City and featured speaker at the Sandler Summit talks about how to get out of your own way and get moving towards your goals.

Learn how to keep a healthy and sustainable sales funnel. Ken Guest is a Sandler trainer and author of Selling in Manufacturing and Logistics. He talks about how to clear out the junk, keep deals moving, and close more sales with a healthy pipeline.

Learn how to find a mentor and make the most of the relationship. Nema talks about the right relationship and how to grow together in the mentor-mentee dynamic.

In this special episode, we take a listen into a live role play with David Sandler, the founder of Sandler Training. The recording took place in the early 1990's but the lessons are still applicable today. Do you find yourself talking too much and solving prospect's problems without getting paid first? This episode will help you take control of the sales call and teach you how to deal with competitors.

Learn how to improve your communication in any situation. Dave Hiatt, talks about his new book, From the Board Room to the Living Room: Communicate with Skill for Positive Outcomes, and how to improve your attitude, behavior, and techniques in communication. Learn how to use Sandler's sales skills and rapport techniques in your everyday life.

Learn how to bring up the subject of money and break through the baggage around it. Whether there is tension in you or the prospect, bringing up the budget can raise some uncomfortable feelings. Lauren Valentine will help you learn how to think and talk about money in an adult manner to help you succeed in sales.

Learn how to rewrite negative beliefs and clear out the head trash that might be holding you back. In this special bonus episode, Mike Montague shares an original article from David H. Sandler, the creator of the Sandler Selling System. It's time to spring clean that head trash and start fresh.

You’ve experienced a “donkey moment” during an argument. The other person metaphorically digs in their heels, they physically lean back and probably cross their arms. These moments are wimp junctions. Wimp out and your conflict likely escalates to a lose-lose ending. Take the “un-wimpy” path and your conflict deescalates with greater possibilities of a win-win resolution.

Learn how to improve your attitude, behavior, and technique to improve your personal performance. Anneli Thomspon from England talks about how to maximize your personal efforts in whatever you are trying to accomplish this year.

Inside salespeople who find themselves behind quota may assign their performance problems to any number of factors beyond their control: the economy, the competition, the weather. But the reality is that the single most common reason for this problem lies in something they do control: their choice to use, or not to use, a cookbook.

Let’s be honest. Training and development initiatives meant to help sales teams succeed often go wrong.

If you want a better team, become a better manager. Dave Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training interview John Rosso, Sandler author and David H. Sandler award-winner, about effective sales leadership. What are the roles of a good leader?

We’re all motivated by different things. Some people may be motivated by money, while others may be motivated by feeling valued. And then there are some who are fired up purely by internal pride and self-affirmation. Wherever you draw your energy from, and whatever you feel your purpose is, it shapes the way you approach your business, and ultimately accelerates or undermines your success.

Today’s sales professionals find themselves facing unprecedented, and often uncomfortable, change. More and more salespeople have larger territories than they used to have, and are responsible for selling a wider range of products and services than they’ve ever sold. They've got a lot to do, and they usually have less time in which to do it than they had last year.

Communication is important to a growing business and sales team, but that’s only part of the equation. Employee development is another key aspect for continued growth and success. While this topic is often incorporated into business plans, it’s commonly overlooked and bypassed in pursuit of other priorities. Below are four reasons why employee development should be at the top of the list.

I never thought of the late, great baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra as much of an expert on sales and sales management. Then I came across this memorable quote attributed to the legendary Yankee catcher and manager: “If you don't know where you're going, you'll wind up somewhere else.”

At its core, Sandler is a sales and management training company. We aim to provide valuable insight and applicable strategies and tactics to allow our clients to be more successful in their businesses. Therefore, we’re always excited to share those who have partnered with us on their journey to success.

Dr. Cathy Ferguson, 2-time gold medalist swimmer in the 1964 Olympic Games and CEO of Girl Scouts of Central California South, talks about the success principles needed in the pool and the boardroom!

Dave Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training, talks to Tom Niesen about selling the Sandler way and the four different hats that sales leaders have to wear. Learn why each is crucial to your team's success.

Customer relationships are the lifeblood of any sellers’ career. The ability to attract clients, build rapport, and start sales conversations ultimately determines the level of success that a salesperson will enjoy. You can be an extreme specialist who knows all the tricks of the trade, but without supplementing your knowledge with interpersonal communication skills, you’ll fail to connect with your clients or prospects on a deeper level. Building rapport is essential to turn yourself from a transactional seller into a trusted partner. Below I’ve outlined four ways to strengthen your bond with clients.

Matthew Newberger joins us to talk about our recently revised No Guts No Gain program and how to deal with the games and powerplays people make. Whether it is for negotiation, co-worker relationships, or in your personal life, it is important to be able to identify, deal with, and remove yourself from the games people play.

Dave Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training, interviews John Rosso, a Sandler Trainer, about how to transition from the Pain step to the Budget step using the investment triangle. This is a special episode of the Selling the Sandler Way series.

In this special audio blog, Mike Montague, our VP of Online Learning and Development, talks about how we structured five different types of online learning into Sandler Online. You will learn how each type is different and how they can help you get to the next level.

People have a comfort zone in which they prefer to operate. They may occasionally venture outside the boundary of their comfort zone, but typically only for brief periods.

Episode 100 brings a very special guest!  Mark Schulman is currently the drummer for PINK, and he has played with Foreigner, Billy Idol, Beyonce' & Cher. He is also a celebrity keynote speaker and author of Conquering Life's Stage Fright  that provides three simple concepts to boost attitude and performance for through compelling stories about working with world-class artists.

A few years ago, we published a blog detailing how to maintain progress towards your new year’s resolutions. With the start of 2018 upon us, it’s a good time to revisit these tips and see how else we can help drive you to success.In the blog post, Dave shared the importance of holding yourself accountable, partnering up for solidarity, turning your goals into a competition, finding a mentor to support you, and effectively executing your sales process.
While all of these tips are important, I want to share a few other insights that I’ve gained over my years as a Sandler trainer.

Susan Sykes talks about the attitude, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful and improve your self-concept. Learn whether attitude or behavior plays a bigger part in your self-esteem and what to do about it.

In my career, I’ve been both a mentor and a mentee. I know how important both sides of this relationship are, and what elements are necessary to be successful from both perspectives. Earlier in my career, I went through many mentors and felt that some were more beneficial to my growth than others. Below I have outlined five questions you should ask to ensure you begin a successful relationship with a mentor.

It’s the first week of January. In your rearview mirror, you had a great sales year in 2017. Ahead of you is a brand-new chapter, full of possibility and promise. While it’s important to celebrate your recent successes and create a plan to be even better this year, don’t get ahead of yourself. All too often, salespeople get complacent after having a great fourth  quarter,  and take their foot off the gas as the new year rolls in. Starting small and avoiding common missteps is the best way to ensure success for yourself and your team.

Welcome to Selling the Sandler Way, with your host Dave Mattson, the president and CEO of Sandler Training. He is a five-time bestselling author, speaker, trainer, and consultant to hundreds of international organizations. In this show, he talks to other Sandler trainers about the Sandler selling system.

The end of the sales year is a time for reflecting, preparing, and, in some cases, a bit of rushing. As you race to meet or exceed the lofty goals you set for the year, a skill that ties into all three of these areas is overcoming objections. As you follow up with prospects and clients leading into the new year, it’s important to be prepared for their excuses and challenges, and ready to respond to them. Below are four ways to prepare for objections that you can put into practice today.

John Baldoni is the author of 12 books, including Lead with Purpose. He is also an executive coach and educator. You can find his work at JohnBaldoni.com.

Dianna Booher is the author of 47 books, including Communicate Like A Leader, and founder of Booher Research. The How to Succeed Podcast is a public and free podcast from Sandler Training, the worldwide leader in sales, management, and customer service training for individuals all the way up to Fortune 500 companies with over 250 locations around the globe.

The How to Succeed Podcast is a public and free podcast from Sandler Training, the worldwide leader in sales, management, and customer service training for individuals all the way up to Fortune 500 companies with over 250 locations around the globe.

Today’s sales professionals find themselves facing unprecedented, and often uncomfortable, change. More and more salespeople have larger territories than they used to have,  and are responsible for selling a wider range of products and services than they’ve ever sold. They've got a lot to do, and they usually have less time in which to do it than they had last year.

The How to Succeed Podcast is a public and free podcast from Sandler Training, the worldwide leader in sales, management, and customer service training for individuals all the way up to Fortune 500 companies with over 250 locations around the globe.

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.

When you’re growing a small business, it’s important to put an emphasis on best utilizing the tools at your disposal. Regardless of your industry or experience, one of those tools should be social media. While there are endless uses for social media and I have previously discussed social selling tactics, below I have identified five tips that you can bring back to your business and begin to implement today for social media marketing.

Welcome to Selling the Sandler Way, with your host Dave Mattson, the president and CEO of Sandler Training. He is a five-time bestselling author, speaker, trainer, and consultant to hundreds of international organizations. In this show, he talks to other Sandler trainers about the Sandler selling system.

Welcome to Selling the Sandler Way, with your host Dave Mattson, the president and CEO of Sandler Training. He is a five-time bestselling author, speaker, trainer, and consultant to hundreds of international organizations. In this show, he talks to other Sandler trainers about the Sandler selling system.

Rule number 21. Empower your people to succeed without you. Coaching creates wisdom. Now think about that for a second. Coaching is one of the four hats of leadership and you're going to spend anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of your time as a coach.

We just finished watching the first total eclipse of the sun since 1979. It got dark, it got cool, and it looked fascinating through the eclipse glasses. Which got me thinking, an eclipse is a blockage. It doesn’t let the sun come through to the earth.

Rule #19: Train Your Team. Make sure they get the skills necessary to do the job. Listen leaders, training is one of the four hats of leadership. You're going to spend anywhere from 20 to 30% of your time in your training function. Now, do I train less or more if I have experienced people? Of course, that's why you have a 20 to 30% swing. The more experienced people that you have, maybe the less that you have to train in some of the basic stuff.

Day in and day out, sellers are inundated with sales tips, new technologies, and industry updates. It’s easy to get caught up in the newest trends and forget about the basics. Today, I’ve outlined five simple tasks that salespeople can perform to improve their daily efficiency and make them more effective.

Antonio Garrido, Sandler trainer, and new author of Asking Questions the Sandler Way joins us to talk about the best sales questions. You will learn his favorite questions, the right attitude for asking questions, and why you should be asking more and better questions in the first place.

Students of the Sandler methodology quickly learn that selling is not about lists of compelling features and benefits; it’s not about clever closes or flashy literature and expensive marketing collateral. It’s not about hogging all the airtime in the meeting, nor is it about forcing our own agenda into the buying process. It’s not about jazzy presentations or brow-beating the other guy into submission.

Lauren Valentine, a Sandler trainer from Albany, talks about her best practices for shortening your sales cycle and closing deals faster. Whether you are looking for a one-call close or have a long cycle that needs to be quicker, Lauren shares her attitudes, behaviors, and techniques for moving deals through the pipeline quickly.

Rule #15: People work harder for their reasons than they do yours. Motivate the individual to hit the corporate goal. Here's what this means. We all have kids, and when you want a kid to play an instrument because you love the instrument and you want them to be successful, you push, push, push. If they don't have the passion, confidence, and conviction that that's what they want to do, they end up not doing it. You spend a lot of time and energy having them live through your eyes, and the same thing holds true with corporate goals.

In this episode of Selling the Sandler Way, Dave Mattson, the President and CEO of Sandler Training explores the Sandler Selling Philosophies behind the Sandler Selling System with Chuck Polin, a Sandler Trainer.

Compensating the sales team is one of the toughest things to get right in your business. If you pay them too little, good salespeople will leave for better opportunities. Pay them too much, and they get complacent and stop growing revenue. To inspire and motivate top performing salespeople, you must use the Goldilocks Principle and get the compensation package “just right.” Let’s look at the pros and cons of some popular options.

Rule 12: Manage individuals; lead a team. There's no substitute for personal attention. Listen, every human wants to be paid attention to. Everyone wants this one-on-one connection. They want eye contact, they want one-on-one time, they want you to pay attention. This is true at home. Kids want your attention. They want you to ask questions. They want you to understand the deal. 

Rule #10: Treat the job interview as a sales call, which means it's your job to disqualify.

John Storm, Founder of the Brainstorm Network, joins us to talk about how to get the most out of a brainstorming session. Whether ideation or innovation is your goal, you need to know the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of an effective brainstorming session.

Frequently people ask me how do I get better? How do I grow? How do I improve? Which are all good questions – and if you don’t ask yourself these questions – you should!

Rule #9: Don't get smoked in the interview. Search for the right candidate. What's don't get smoked in the interview mean? Well, sometimes the best sales call that a salesperson would make is on you, during the interview.   

The challenge of feeling comfortable and in control in your first “real job,” is almost as difficult as getting the job itself. The prospect of integrating yourself into the smoothly-running machine of a corporate workplace can be daunting and intimidating. While there’s nothing that will alleviate these fears and tensions overnight, there are a few ways to combat these feelings of anxiety and worry. Examine the four points enumerated below to gain a better perspective on how to successfully navigate the first stage of your career.

Today we're talking about the top sales challenges that we face as individual sales producers. We have different types of people who listen to the show. Certainly short selling cycles, long selling cycles, transactional consultative. It's all over the board. Some do sales and service and some just do sales. At the end of the day, we all have challenges and a lot of these challenges that we have fallen into some general areas.

As a leader, there’s a constant pressure to ensure your leadership approach stays up-to-date. Every year, the culture of the office deviates slightly from the year prior and the way that individuals want to learn and be led,  shifts. Sometimes these changes are drastic, and other times they are slight. No matter the degree of change, it’s imperative that you are cognizant of the shift and are prepared to be a great resource to everyone who looks to you for guidance and mentorship.

In this episode of Selling the Sandler Way, Dave Mattson, the President and CEO of Sandler Training explores the top sales challenges and how to overcome them with Mike Ross, a Sandler Trainer.

There are several significant challenges that sales representatives and sales teams face in selling into complex enterprise accounts. One of the most daunting is that enterprise sales cycles can be long and drawn out. Months and years can pass while pursuing an opportunity with an enterprise organization. And as the time passes, the doubt, uncertainty, risks, and costs add up. And this draining of resources goes beyond the financial.  The human assets applied to an enterprise pursuit and the overall energy of the selling organization are also casualties over time.

Gabe Larson, Director of the InsideSales.com Labs and host of the Sales Acceleration podcast, joins us for a special conversation about the end of the month. Gabe's team has just released new information about the best and worst practices of sales teams at the end of the month. Learn what to do and what not to do to make the most of the last few days of the quota period.

We are proud to introduce a new Sandler podcast, Selling the Sandler Way with host Dave Mattson, the  President and CEO of Sandler Training. He is a five-time bestselling author, speaker, trainer, and consultant to hundreds of international organizations. In this show, he talks to other Sandler trainers about the Sandler Selling System. Listen to episode one in which Dave discusses the psychology behind the sale with Sandler Trainer, Pat Heidrich.

Rule #5: Eliminate miscommunication. What was said? What was heard? Check before you respond. You know, every person has three recorders that were taping since they were born. We have a Parent, an Adult and a Child. Three roles that we still have today if you think about it. But these tape recorders were starting and stopping at different times. And it affects how you interact with your team and how your team interacts with their sales force, even today.

Welcome to the "How to Succeed Podcast." The show that shows you how to get to the top and stay there. This is "How to Succeed at Preventing Objections."  The show is brought to you by Sandler Training. The worldwide leader in sales, management and customer service training. For more information on Sandler Training, including free wi-papers, webinars and more, visit Sandler.com and look under the resources tab.  I'm your host Mike Montague and my guest this week is Joe Ippolito He is a Sandler trainer from Boston. And we're gonna talk to him about how to succeed at preventing objections. Joe, welcome to the show. Tell me a little bit about objections and why you picked this for a topic and who should be paying attention today?

Welcome to the How to Succeed Podcast, the show that helps you get to the top and stay there. This is how to succeed at patient care. The show is brought to you by Sandler, the worldwide leader in sales, management and customer service training. For more information on Sandler, visit Sandler.com. I'm your host, Mike Montague, and my guest this week is Donna Bak. She is a Sandler trainer from Connecticut and brand new author of the new Sandler book, "Patient Care The Sandler Way". We're going to talk to her about how to succeed at patient care. Donna, welcome to the show. Tell me a little bit about patient care and who should be listening today.

Rule #4: Become a servant leader. Put the needs of your team first. In today's world, often times we've got to make sure that with all the things going on we're ultimately judged based on is our team producing? You're the leader. Senior Execs aren't looking around saying; "Hey, person number one, person number three." No. They look at you and say; "Is your team producing?"

I'm often asked by managers, "How do I motivate my people?" While I always appreciate the question, it's the wrong question to ask. The reason being is that if we must motivate our people as managers, we're working too hard. The reality is that the best people don't need motivation. Inspiration yes, but not motivation.

Holding your people accountable is simple. In working with sales leaders around the world, accountability isn’t easy because those leaders possess one of three self-limiting beliefs that cripple their accountability program.

At this point, if you have yet to begin thinking about offering a summer internship, you’re probably behind. That’s okay though, we’re here to help. Below are 5 great ways to maximize the value of a summer internship for both you and those you hire. 

Wow, what an amazing first year for the How to Succeed Podcast! Thank you so much for helping to make it as a success. The podcast was launched last April with 5 episodes and quickly hit the charts in the new and notable section in iTunes. Now, with over 60 shows in the can, we can truly say that we are helping people get to their best and stay there. The show has received over 90,000 total downloads, and it is now averaging over 15,000 per month. We have had listeners in 92 countries.

In 1963, psychologist Bruce Tuckman termed the four primary stages of team development as; forming, storming, norming, and performing. Tuckman deemed that these phases must be traversed naturally for a team to grow, find solutions, plan work, and deliver results. While a lot has changed in the world of business and team building over the past 50 years, Tuckman’s model for group development has continued to ring true. To illustrate and modernize the motivation behind each phase, let’s examine both inspiring and unimpressive examples of each as we work our way through Tuckman’s ideology.

In working with thousands of salespeople and sales managers, a consistent area of concern they have is to improve on their stall and objection handling skills. When prospects say things like “we’re not quite ready,” “your price is too high,” “were staying where we are,” “you do the same thing my current supplier does,” I could go on.

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.

While a sales conference can reignite your fire and provide an abundance of new insights and tools, it can also be a chaotic experience. The better prepared you are to hunt for useful insights, information and connections, the more you’ll come away with. Some of the most common frustrations surrounding conferences include coping with speakers and panels who don’t fully cover a topic, finding time to network and even gaining insight from talks that don’t seem immediately relevant.

Role play is one of the best methods for developing your people, but salespeople loath role play and managers shy away from it, because it often becomes an exercise that leaves participants frustrated. Putting role play through the lens of David Sandler’s Success Triangle – attitude, behavior, and technique – both managers and salespeople could role play more effectively and increase both their role performance, outlook, and technique.

You’ve thought it out, gotten motivated and set a lofty goal for your sales and performance this year – so you are all set, right? Not so fast; setting the goals is just the beginning. Careful planning now can help you beat the odds when it comes to your sales goals and ensure you have the successful year you are planning for. Setting the right goals for the New Year is a great start. In a recent post, we covered the best way to set obtainable goals that are SMARTER – using a specific format designed to ensure your goals are measurable and attainable. Whether you use this system or take a different approach, the things you do in the first quarter will have a big impact on your outcome at the end of the year.  

This year's theme is Vision Driven Success. It is two days packed with non-stop training on sales, management or enterprise-level selling. Each trainer will bring real-world tactics, strategies, and ground-level tools that you can immediately implement in your business. 

What does it take to be an effective leader? Do the skills that make you an effective manager—planning, organization, and communication—make you an effective leader? Or, does it take something else—something more?

You have an inventory to take, a phone call to make, and a report to write. But instead of diving in and getting the tasks completed, you put them off. “I’ll get to them soon,” you tell yourself. But your definition of “soon” and Webster’s definition have little in common. Can you relate to these situations…or perhaps other recurring situations of similar thought and behavior?

Most people who spend a little time searching on the Internet or in a bookstore can quickly find a guide on how to write a business plan. However, just following these templates doesn’t guarantee that the business plan produce will be successful or even good. A successful business plan needs quite a bit more to actually be useful and even more to be functional and successful. As the elements come together, if done correctly, the most important component of success will come from the business owner and leadership versus the company itself.

Stress reactions have also been shown to be beneficial in business situations — in small doses. A recent study even states that short periods of stress can increase a person’s cognitive functions, resulting in brain power improvements. As long as we’re able to channel stress to solve problems, the body’s stress reactions can help us focus, get more done, and think more clearly.

The business world is not immune to change. Companies grow, and they shrink in size. They expand their market reach, sometimes, and contract it at other times. They introduce new products and services and discontinue products and services. And, they change the ways in which they create, promote, price, and deliver their products and services.

As organizations grow, they realize that there are numerous different ways to define success. A new business, for example, will be immensely satisfied the first year the operation returns a profit. On the other hand, a more established company may expect to see a specified rate of growth year over year. Defining what success means to you and establishing goals based upon these criteria can be an important step in monitoring your business’s development and making productive decisions based on the criteria that matter the most to you.

Like any new generation, there are differences in how Millennials interact with those around them, and what their expectations are in the workplace. What intuitive business leaders are noticing, however, is that there are tremendous benefits that members of this generation bring to the workforce. Their unique generational experiences and the skills they have gained can help them, and the organizations that hire them, excel.

People buy emotionally; we’ve all heard that. But what does it mean? It means that people make buying decisions emotionally; they justify these decisions intellectually. To further understand this concept, it helps to know who is making the decisions and who is justifying the decisions. 

Sales success depends on building a solid, growing client base. The first impression you make while prospecting for new clients can make or break your ability to secure new business. You only have seven seconds to make your first impression with a client. Here's how to make those seven seconds count!

Imagine that there are four sales professionals standing in front of you, all of them with records of success. On paper, they all look outstanding. One of them is going to end up closing a six-figure sale with your company today. After watching their body language for a few minutes before presentations start, you can already tell that you're not likely to work with salespersons #1 and #3. These two people won't make eye contact; in fact, they seem to work hard to avoid it.

The DISC model is based on your behavior. It clarifies how you prefer to do things based on two factors. Are you more extroverted or introverted? And, are you more people or task oriented? Based on those preferences, you end up with four possible behavioral styles.

Words are only a small portion of how we communicate with one another. Yet the value of other forms of communication is often overlooked. Learn more about four different types of communication, and how using them effectively can improve performance, morale, teamwork and success in your business.

As sales managers, we’re all familiar with the conversation. One of your sales reps is making the case to pursue an opportunity and you question why. “It’s a big deal” is the response, “It’s right in our power swing”. Or perhaps, with candor entering the room, “I really need to win this”. And these are all reasons, of course. But what do they really mean? What’s the real business sense for your firm in pursuing the deal? And what’s the business risk?

What makes “excellent” salespeople excellent? What differentiates them from “average” salespeople? Is it attitude? Is it skill? Could it simply be luck? Are there identifiable characteristics that define excellent salespeople and set them apart from the rest of the pack?

Clients, vendors, sales representatives, and products fill up most of your time, leaving few minutes each day to organize yourself and clear the clutter from your desk or mind. January is “get organized month,” but busy sales representatives and managers can’t devote an entire day to administrative tasks without losing potential profits. Here are seven ways you can create organization to drive success in ten-minute increments any day of the year.

Every salesperson needs to learn how to adapt to these changes and continue to grow in their field of knowledge. Here are a few reasons why continuous training and development are the only way to survive the changing landscape of the sales industry.  

All salespeople with a small amount of experience have a 30-second commercial (a.k.a elevator pitch, popcorn introduction, etc.) down pat. And that's the problem.

Getting the most out of LinkedIn can be a difficult endeavor. To help you succeed in building an informative and powerful profile, we have compiled a list of the 23 most important personal branding tips to use on this social networking website. Follow these helpful rules to stay relevant and create a lasting impression on LinkedIn.

The traditional corporate structure in the workplace is ready for a change. With Millennials entering the workforce, there is a resounding call for a structural shakeup. These young professionals have a lot to say and they want to have their voices heard. Successful companies are noticing this. Instead of paying attention to only GPA's, they are looking for critical thinking and problem-solving skills in new hires.

It's a fact: most organizations need a killer sales force. Business development, marketing, must-have products or services – these are all essential to meaningful revenue growth. But your sales team is the heart of production. Your salespeople are the ones championing your offer and driving precious profit. Your team should be the best it can. Period. But how do you build a successful sales team? Buckle up, because it's no easy task. As long as you follow these seven essential steps, however, you'll have a team of sales all-stars under your belt.

Are lawyers also salespeople? If you asked one of them directly, they'd likely scrunch up their face as if they'd just heard an awful verdict from the bench. But the truth is in this day and age the legal profession is as competitive as any other (if not more so) for new business. Why do you think that every non-profit board contains at least one lawyer. It's likely just not out of the goodness of their collective hearts

Quick poll: When was the last time you stepped foot in your bank? From drive-through bank windows to more recent banking amenities like online banking and mobile apps, banks have practically been encouraging customers to stay away for years. Along with the conveniences for the customers, banks benefitted from less overhead and an increased focus on compliance. So after years of being told there's no need to come inside, it was as if everyone saw the light and stopped entering their bricks-and-mortar bank. Problem solved, right? Not so fast

The most common complaint we hear from the heads of professional services firms (lawyers, accountants, engineers, marketing or PR agencies) is that their people are technically brilliant, but have a serious aversion to business development. Totally understandable considering the training the majority of professionals receive relates directly to delivering services they provide (e.g. how to conduct a better audit or how to create a crisis communications plan)

People from all walks of life can be technically brilliant and do a great job if someone would "just give them the project." Many consultants become consultants because they believe they can provide a better product or service and make more money than if they stayed working for a company.  It's great to dream big and recognize your aspirations however I run into more and more of these "technically brilliant" people who look me in the face and tell me they do not sell, so why would they need sales training? This leads to an interesting discussion as to where they get their business from.

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.