Success

This week, elevate your customer service strategy with insights from Karl Schaphorst. Discover the pivotal role customer care plays in driving business success beyond reactive support.

Uncover the "four elements of sales success": prospecting, creating an ideal client wish list, achieving clarity and confidence in the sales process, and mastering effective negotiation techniques.

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.

In this new episode of our podcast, we're honored to have the incredible Robin Green, a seasoned Sandler trainer from Richmond, VA.

From forging connections that defy the limits of the transaction to infuse every interaction with the magic of storytelling, Will Guidara unravels the threads of thought that have woven his path to success.

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.

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.

Let’s explore the intricacies of mastering Sandler tactics skillfully and understanding the tactics triangle with the seasoned Sandler trainer, Jim Dunn, hailing from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Join Sandler and Holly Hunt in recognizing the importance of resilience, empowerment, and belonging to help drive professional success.

Listen to this episode to learn how to succeed at repeatedly uncovering your buyers' pain points by adopting the "doctor" mindset and mastering the pain funnel process.

Tune in to this episode to discover the benefits of AI coaching in unlocking your full potential with Meg Price, co-founder and director of Noa Coach. Find out how AI can provide guidance and support in your personal and professional growth.

In this episode, Dr. Nika White talks about intentional inclusion in the workplace. He believes that intentional inclusion means being proactive and strategic to create an inclusive environment, not just passively waiting for it to happen.

In this episode, Tom Albert, founder, and CEO of MeasuredRisk, discusses how understanding supply chain risk can be relevant in these fields. In addition, he also delves into the importance of inspiring others in leadership and sales.

Jay Schwedelson discusses the world of effective email marketing and importance of an impactful subject line for the power it holds on your emails.

Astonishing advances in information technology have made big headlines recently- are good salespeople now, or will they ever be, irrelevant?

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.

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.

In this episode of the "How to Succeed" podcast, bilingual sales trainer Jorge Saunders joins to discuss the principles of selling in Spanish in North America.

In this episode, Megan Miller, who is an intentional expert, speaks on the podcast about intentional selling, offering advice on how sales professionals can stay on top of their game in the midst of chaos.

Looking for a way to create an engaging and effective product demo? Look no further than a story-led demo! In this episode of the How to Succeed Podcast, Nick Capozzi will join us to discuss the power of story-led demos and how they can help you succeed.

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.

In this episode, we sit down with Phil Johnson, the founder of the Master of Business Leadership program, to discuss the importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) and how influential it is to drive revenue, productivity, and profitability.

Discover invaluable insight on finding your ideal job role, developing appropriate attitudes for success, and setting achievable goals that will help you make an impact in today's competitive world!

The intensity of this time of year can make selling for a living feel a bit like the playoff season! Here’s three proven strategies you and your team can use to close more sales opportunities, set the right end-of-the-year game plan, and make the final “inning” of your team’s fiscal year pay off.

Cal Thomas joined us to reveal the secrets of controlling sales conversations with questions.

Mike Montague interviews James Abraham, Sandler coach from Israel, on How to Succeed at Magic Sales Leadership.

Mike Montague interviews Mike Cunningham, national sales manager at Gill Athletics, Sandler client, and podcaster, on How to Succeed at Podcasting for Business. 

Designed for salespeople, sales managers, and sales leaders of all levels, from small businesses to enterprise sales organizations looking to ramp up their selling and leadership skills.

Mike Montague interviews Alon Alroy, co-founder of Bizzabo and author of Event Success, on How to Succeed at Events.

Mike Montague interviews Erik Meier on How to Succeed at Advanced Questioning Strategies.

Here are three simple things you can do, starting today, that will immediately upgrade your 30-second commercial.

Kevin Roth, internationally recognized folk singer, guides individuals and groups in the discovery of what really matters to them, how to accomplish their goals, and how handling stress is an essential factor in a healthy life.

Mike Montague interviews Aaron Montgomery on How to Succeed at Suspending Your Disbelief. Aaron wrote Suspend Your Belief to help others learn the importance that every experience is an opportunity to grow, learn, and share and that by sharing your knowledge you can help others on the way too.

Mike Montague interviews Shelly O’Donovan on How to Succeed at Non-Verbal Communication. With over 20 years of experience as a proven leader in the public policy arena, she has gathered experience and expertise in government relations, public policy, lobbying, grassroots advocacy, legislative and regulatory processes, and policymaker engagement. 

The world has changed in countless ways since early 2020, and that means sales coaching has to adapt. How do you maintain a strong coaching regimen with salespeople who are spending some or all of their working day out of the office?

Mike Montague interviews Kristen Cox, a former government official and management expert, on How to Succeed at Making Real Progress. Kristen is a co-author of Stop Decorating the Fish.

Mike Montague interviews John Glennon on How to Succeed at Customer Success. 

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

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

Mike Montague interviews Jordan Mullet on How to Succeed at Starting a Journal.

Mike Montague, director of community engagement at Sandler, interviews Brian Moran, best-selling author, on How to Succeed at the 12 Week Year.

Mike Montague interviews Karen Meracle on How to Succeed at Performance Planning.

Mike Montague interviews Mike Crandall, Sandler trainer from Oklahoma, on How to Succeed at Understanding Motivation. Mike is the author of Motivational Management the Sandler Way.

Mike Montague interviews Rebecca Heiss on How to Succeed at Fearing Less.

Here’s a big question for sales leaders: How do you transfer the level of success that one team in your organization is delivering…so that everyone else on the sales side can find a way to deliver at the same level?

In Sandler, we have identified three elements that are required for success in selling we call it B.A.T.

Mike Montague interviews Alison Escalante on How to Succeed Under Pressure.

In an enterprise sale, where there are lots of moving parts, things can get complicated. Here are four best practices we share with our clients.

Mike Montague interviews Ruth Gotian on How to Succeed at High Achievement.

Mike Montague interviews John Davis on How to Succeed at Hacking the Fear Response.

Keeping a client is typically ten times cheaper and easier than finding a new one. Here are five powerful behaviors you can build into your account plan to support better, more profitable, and more loyal business relationships.

When you’re in the middle of a prospecting discussion – that is, when you’re initiating the first real-time voice-to-voice engagement with a possible buyer – what is your goal?

Mike Montague interviews Shawn Nason on How to Succeed at Radical Relationships.

Mike Montague interviews Dr. Oleg Konovalov on How to Succeed at Creating a Compelling Vision.

“Please just send me a better proposal, and when you do, give me your bottom line. I don’t have time to go back and forth. Just get me your best number.”

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

Mike Montague interviews Steve Sims on How to Succeed at Making Things Happen.

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?

Mike Montague interviews Luanne Whitmarsh, Executive Director of the Association for the Rehabilitation of the Brain Injured, on How to Succeed at Fund Development for Non-profits.

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

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

For sales professionals, 2020 may be remembered as the Year of Holding on to Clients.

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 John Livesay on How to Succeed at Better Selling Through Storytelling.

Mike Montague interviews Anneli Thomson, Sandler trainer and member of Team Great Britain in the triathlon, on How to Succeed at Gold Medal Selling. 

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.

Mike Montague Interviews Bill Cates on How to Succeed with Radical Relevance

Although the current unemployment rate has spiked up in many areas, hiring a productive salesperson can still be a huge challenge.

During any crisis our instinct is to focus on the recent past, the ‘Old Normal’ and the immediate impact of the crisis itself. This fails to take into account the fact that the future is highly unlikely to be a return to business as usual but rather, a “New Normal.”

And, while wins might be harder to come by during the pandemic, there are plenty of lessons to be learned. Here are a few that relate to business development and your sales team.

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 David Brown on How to Succeed with the Sales Software of the Future.

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

Thanks to the global pandemic, salespeople across the country and around the world are now coming to terms with a sobering reality.

There’s been a lot of interest in recent months in the topic of sales enablement. What is it? Why does it matter? How does it work? And how can it benefit your organization?

In the complex world of enterprise accounts, team selling is the name of the game. When it comes to winning, selling to, growing, and serving major accounts, team selling needs to be much more than just a tag line. It needs to be the way you do business.

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

Hope, the saying goes, is not a strategy. Wise words! But are you perhaps relying on hope a bit too much after you and your team lose a major account?

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

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

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.

Mike Montague interviews Kevin Kremerer on How to Succeed at Sales Management Without Selling.

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

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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.

Listen Time: 8 Minutes

Sandler V.P. of Online Learning, Mike Montague, interviews Matt Pletzer on How to Succeed in Succession Planning.

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

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

Listen Time: 26 Minutes

This is a special bonus episode, a look back at this year’s Sandler Summit and one of our opening keynotes by Glenn Mattson, Sandler trainer from New York City, talking about success.

Listen Time: 9 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

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

Clint Babcock, Sandler trainer, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to beat the competition. Get the best practices for locking out the competition and winning in a competitive space, 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: 14 Minutes

Welcome to Selling the Sandler Way podcast. Hosts from Sandler Training will discuss impactful information about trending topics and strategic selling. In this episode, Brian Sullivan, VP of Enterprise Selling talks with Marcus Cauchi and Dave Davies about Channel Selling in the Enterprise World.

Listen Time: 43 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

Wendy Gates Corbet, President of Refresher Training, speaker, and former global board member of ATD (Association for Talent Development), shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful at creating and delivering training programs in your organization. Get the best practices for training collected from around the world.

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: 12 Minutes

David Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training and 6-Time Best-Selling Author, talks about his new seventh book, The Success Cadence.

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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.

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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.

Listen Time: 12 Minutes

John Rosso, Sandler trainer, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful at closing complex sales and navigating enterprise decision processes. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 26 Minutes

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.

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Troy Elmore, Sandler trainer, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful at dealing with the competition and selling a crowded marketplace. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 21 Minutes

Greg Nanigian, Sandler trainer, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful at find your prospect's pain, a compelling, emotional reason to change. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 31 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

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

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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In enterprise selling, there is a heavy focus on business value. Watch to see how Brian Sullivan, VP of Sandler Enterprise Selling, addresses this challenge through the Sandler Enterprise Selling Program.

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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.

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Watch Brian Sullivan, Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling, describe how the Sandler Enterprise Selling Program addresses one of the most common enterprise sales challenges, extended sales cycles.

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Tina Phillips, Sandler trainer, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful at using your Sandler techniques and tools in a personal or professional crisis. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

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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.

Listen Time: 12 Minutes

Watch Brian Sullivan, Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling, explain how the Sandler Enterprise Selling Program addresses the idea of sophisticated competition – a challenge that, while present in the simple selling arena, is extremely prominent in enterprise selling.

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Jason Nierman, Founder and President at Accelerated Advising, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful at forming strategic partnerships for business development. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

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: 10 Minutes

Welcome to Selling the Sandler Way podcast. Hosts from Sandler Training will discuss impactful information about trending topics and strategic selling.

Listen Time: 28 Minutes

Clint Babcock, Sandler trainer, shows you how to succeed with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful when you have been ghosted by your prospect. Get the best practices collected from around the world.

Listen Time: 27 Minutes

In this episode, Brian Sullivan, VP of Sandler Enterprise Selling, speaks with Paul Sandford, Managing Director of Sandler’s North Hampshire’s business operations in the U.K. Paul’s career includes successful sales and sales management positions at SAP, Success Factors, Concur Technologies, Open Text and Basware. 

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: 8 Minutes

In enterprise selling, making decisions becomes a much more complex endeavor. Watch Brian Sullivan, Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling describe how the Sandler Enterprise Selling Program addresses this common enterprise sales challenge.

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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

Joe Ippolito, Sandler trainer from Boston, shows you how to succeed at building a winning sales team with the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques needed to be more successful in management. Get the best practices collected from around the world for recruiting, hiring and onboarding top sales talent.

Listen Time: 25 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.

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Learn how the Sandler Enterprise Selling program addresses the idea of cross-functional sales teams with Brian Sullivan, Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling.

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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

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 avoiding the dangers of success.

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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.

Listen Time: 18 Minutes

One important principle that resonates with all the other elements of the Sandler system is “Follow Through.”

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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David Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training, talks about how to rehearse your pitch with a prospect so they can sell your solution internally. If you can't be in an internal meeting, the next best thing is to have a white knight fighting on your behalf. Learn the best practices collected from over a thousand Sandler employees around the world.

Al Simon, Sandler trainer, joins us to talk about the attitude, behaviors, and techniques of sales interactions. Learn the advantages and best practices of having a system for salespeople to follow and knowing your own sales gates. Learn how to lead and control the sales interaction and teach your buyer how to make the right decision.

Dan Huddock, a long-time Sandler trainer, joins us to talk about the attitude, behaviors, and techniques for breaking a slump. Learn how to stop negative spirals and start positive ratches that get you going in the right direction!

Ken Seawell, Sandler trainer from Detroit, joins us to talk about the attitude, behaviors, and techniques and what binds them together. Learn the best practices of successful salespeople and entrepreneurs from around the world.

The programmed patterns that we have transcend our roles in life. It's not something that you only do at work; this happens at home too. Contemplate a situation which causes you to react regularly in the same way:

What's the situation, what do I think about it, how does that make me feel, and what do I do.

We've adapted patterns, or scripts, for dealing with stressful situations and this began in childhood. Since we learn them under stress, we adhere rigidly to them. This means that we might notice the patterns we follow in ourselves or our people more under stress. The reality, we can't coach anyone to train anything if we don't know its origin. If its rooted in behavior associated with programming then it will be more difficult to change than if it is simply a problem from a lack of process.

Thought produces feeling. Feeling produces action. Action produces belief. A new programming that we write for ourselves requires confronting and understanding the truth. If you need help with coaching yourself or your team check out my reminder lists on take aways for managing your emotions and your teams behaviors.

Summer Solomonsen is CLO at Grovo, Sandler's new Microlearning partner. Grovo and Sandler have partnered to deliver the world-famous Sandler Selling System in Grovo's proven Microlearning format. Sandler will also be offering Grovo's massive Microlearning collections for leadership, management, modern compliance, and professional skills as part of our online offerings.

Eric Warner talks about the attitude, behaviors, and techniques that drive client success. Learn how to improve your client retention, drive more cross-sells and upsells, and grow your business by helping your clients succeed.

Brian Sullivan, VP of Enterprise Selling, and Mike Montague, VP of Online Learning discuss the challenges of selling into large organizations and how to overcome them in this Facebook Live session.

Learn the best practices for effective management and leadership from Caroline Robinson and Mike Montague.

Mike Montague shares his thoughts on business development in this special bonus episode. Learn the problems and challenges of traditional marketing, advertising, and sales approaches, and what to do about it. You will discover how to add people and opportunities to your sales and marketing funnels without peddling, pushing or price-cutting. Why resort to gimmicks, when you can be a professional business developer?

Jon Denn, Vistage Chair from Boston and author of Drumbeat Business Productivity, joins us to talk about the attitude, behaviors, and techniques of being more productive. Learn how to avoid distractions, be disciplined, and get more done. Learn how to great a steady drumbeat of productivity.

Pat McManamon, a longtime Sandler trainer from Jacksonville, FL, explores how to be more intentional in your sales management. Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of top leaders for managing salespeople. 

Even if you are unfamiliar with the law, you’ve felt its influence. This law states itself plainly, “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” When I was preparing to leave for a two week trip this year I found it amazing how much I could get done on the day before the trip. It rang true with the corollary that, “if you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do.”

Parkinson’s Law influences our productivity and if we don’t manage our time we will allow our duties to expand to fit the time we have available. Have you found yourself struggling with your daily duties? Has this led to frustration and caused you to be more reactive rather than proactive? Are you concerned that this lack of time is leading to anxiety in your work life? Read my blog on best practices of time management and time blocking and reach out if you’re ready to have a conversation about what you can do to reduce stress and increase productivity and growth.

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.

Learn how to create a sales culture with Matthew Pletzer, Sandler trainer, and Mike Montague, VP of Online Learning at Sandler to talk about creating a sales culture and how that differs from company culture.

Get valuable insights on forward-thinking marketing concepts from Pam Didner, author of Global Content Marketing. Take a dive deep into effective engagement with your customers and connecting your marketing strategy with your sales team.

Dale Bierce, Sandler trainer from Sacramento, CA, talks about the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques sales managers and leaders should have towards sales forecasting. Is your sales pipeline predictable and reliable? Learn how to succeed in knowing what is coming from Sales.

Lorraine Ferguson, Sandler trainer from Albany, NY and author of the new Sandler book, The Unapologetic Saleswoman, shares her thoughts about being a strong, confident woman in the sales profession. Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of top female sales performers, and uncover the challenge and benefits of saleswomen. 

David Mattson, Sandler's President and CEO, shares his thoughts about gauging the prospect's motivation and interest. Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of top performers, who can uncover and qualify the prospect's reasons for doing business.

Learn the best practices for prospecting with Mike Montague and Sean Coyle.

We took another look back in our vintage audio vault and found this gem from David H Sandler, our belated founder, on how to manage your time and your priorities in the sales profession. Managers and salespeople should give this a listen and ask themselves hard questions about how and where they spend their time.

Personal standards lay down the foundation for performance in your life. Your standards for yourself are on display for the public, and whether we like it or not, our standards are part of what sends subliminal messages to others about how we feel about ourselves, others, our life, and events as they transpire.

Within the first 30 seconds of meeting someone, we create a narrative about who they are based on what they are wearing, how they communicate, and how they move and hold their body. The messaging we allow to send out is relative to the standards we uphold for ourselves; standards are a set of guidelines on how you will conduct yourself and temper or expand your expectations on the future.

Do you live with a sense of urgency, but constantly find that either the urgency is not shared with others or it’s built out of traps from past experience where you have experienced disappointment related to your expectations? Check in with your operating principles and read my blog post on setting your own standard for excellence if you’re ready to see more improvement and mobility in the status quo.

Learn how to close the sale or close the file with John Rosso and Mike Montague. 

Initiating change is difficult, oft times dangerous to handle; it carries with it doubts for success but is a vital part of any organization. With the rate of change in technology, innovation, and various new modes of business to business and business to consumer exchanges, companies are constantly facing the need to reorganize. This disruption to the status quo creates a threat to jobs and an anxious feeling for the entire team.

But because this disruption exists on the periphery, the change necessary to take advantage of innovation is put off until the gap has grown to the point where it must be addressed, or a significant investment is made to bring outside help in to solve what has been ignored. Selecting a strategy that works for your organization requires a strong understanding of the strengths of your team and a plan to deal with the expected causes for resistance your organization might face.

Read my blog on some of the necessary steps you might take to ensure your organization’s success and what competencies you should look for in your team—most importantly how to find them and harness them.

Sandler trainers and new authors, Marcus Cauchi and David Davies, join us to talk about selling through retails, distributors, reps, and other third parties. Whether you are currently using other channels to sell your products or services or you are exploring new channels, you should listen to these two experts and read their new Sandler book.

Hi,

Imagine yourself at a networking event: what do you say? Someone walks up to me and asks who I am, here’s my pitch (tweaked based on any information I can find in the small talk leading up to the question which most millennials think is malicious).

I’m Jim with Sandler Training and I help successful business owners who are frustrated by their salesforces’ prospecting that seems more reactive than proactive. Or, if they’re worried that their sales team wastes a majority of their time on unpaid consulting which helps drive down the overall industry value and commoditizes their offering. Sometimes, they’re just experts in their field, who are realizing that their field is not management and they’re looking for strategies to bolster their effectiveness and help build a team that will meet their growth vision and company goals. I don’t suppose any of these three issues are worth us having a conversation?

Your 30-Second Commercial is built from a variety of tactics that don’t present what you do, but rather offer third party narratives that invite the person you’re speaking with to place themselves in the scenario. Think about your elevator pitch. Compare the two: how effective is yours? What strategies do you use that make yours effective? What do you see in mine?

Read this article on how to build an effective 30 Second Commercial and reach out if you want to have a conversation about any of the issues mentioned.

Dave Mattson does another Selling the Sandler Way audio tip. This time he shares his thoughts and secrets to dealing with price concessions and other negotiation tactics from buyers during the sales process. Learn how to succeed at negotiating concessions to your proposal.

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.

The worst time to shop for groceries is when you’re hungry, and the worst time to start hiring is when you need help. A hiring pipeline is an important threshold that some businesses never attain, but you can make the hiring process easier and more objective with a few tools and some strategy.

 In my latest blog post I go over some keys to the hiring process that we use, important filter thresholds, and an in-depth look at the Devine Inventory which we use to hire, onboard, and train employees, owners, and dedicated learners. Follow this link and read some strategies for best hiring practice then write back if you need help with implementation.

Learn how to engage and partner with gatekeepers to get to more decision-makers. Sean Coyle is Sandler's prospecting expert and host of the online course. In this episode, Sean talks about the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of top sellers and how they interact with gatekeepers and admins. 

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.

Your relationships with the team matter a whole lot more than your job title … and those relationships depend on you serving the team. So be sure you put the needs of your team first!

New or young in the profession of sales, we’re all capable of conducting a seminar on how to manipulate salespeople. This is a cultural past time. We learn it from the generations that come before us and it is an accepted and expected interaction. Knowing this and having experienced it; what do you think a seminar on how to manipulate salespeople would consist of?

Check out the list of issues we commonly hear sales professionals mention when referring to abuse from prospects. Are any familiar to you? Did I miss any? Is your company’s sales system sophisticated enough to overcome the prospects strategy to manipulate your team? Reach out and let me know what your expectations would be on this seminar.

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.

The way that we treat our clients is with mutual respect and concern for the longevity and success of the relationships. Why then do we sometimes feel free to treat our coworkers as less than? Often the largest conflicts in business arise within departments and inside of the office. These conflicts can color relationships, cause long-term issues, and even lead to mistakes and problems with clients.

The importance in separating your Role from your Identity is to create an emotional firewall to help you achieve success; seeing this firewall for other people can help mitigate some of the lackluster encounters we have that lead to issues. Read through a recap on I/R Theory and why you should own it and some of the common complaints that we hear our clients share about their coworkers. Make sure when it comes to office conflict, you’re offering a solution, not fueling the fire.

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.

Learn how to find the science and systems in the soft skills of selling. Karl Schaphorst discusses the latest and best practices for the sales profession. Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques behind the science of selling. 

Learn how to improve your attitude, behavior, and technique in active listening. Frank Moore talks about paying attention, paraphrasing, and other best practices for engaging conversations. 

When we talk about Transactional Analysis (TA) in our classes, we focus primarily on the ego states of the Parent and the Adult. The Parent is split between the Nurturing Parent and the Critical Parent. The Nurturing Parent is the instinct to empathize without indulgence and offer solutions, to help someone feel heard and validate their experience. The Critical is the instinctive habit of providing unsolicited advice out of the present. Statements such as, “You should do this…You should have done that…What were you thinking?”

When we are engaging in conversation we rotate between ego states, typically triggered by the nature of our relationship with the other and the content of the conversation. When it comes to your constituents, your prospects, or your family, what is your predominant ego state? Read my blog on a quick synopsis of TA and let me know where you see yourself and whether that serves you well.

Learn how to hold salespeople accountable for their behaviors. Whether it is yourself or your sales team, Hamish Knox and Haley Ayraud will help you learn the best practices for sales accountability and building new habits.

Learn how to confirm your agreements, get referrals, and deal with the competition in this important episode. Troy Elmore talks about how to finish an appointment or sale. Learn the best practices for confirming agreements and determining what should happen next.

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.

David Sandler left us with a lot of rules about Behavior, Attitude, and Technique. In our success triangle we see these three components as integral to experiencing consistency when taking action and successful implementation. These rules are short and sweet and if you've got five minutes, you should read them.

Let me know which speaks loudest to you at Jim.Stephens@sandler.com

What derails your meetings? Often when I talk to managers or owners one of the road blocks to successful growth is building a management team within a large organization that is competent and productive. Competencies grow, but productivity is determined at the onset of the conversation.

The technique to ensure a sales discussion goes positively is the same technique that can drive a successful meeting with your constituents. If you find yourself typically trapped in meetings that end up unproductive, feeling anxious about your next team meeting, or concerned that your meetings are liable to end up with no clear objective, you may find value in reading up on our up-front contract, how you can use it, and what it can do for you.

If you have questions on how you can use this tool in your organization give me a call or send me a reply and I’d be happy to go over it with you.

Turnover is a serious issue with unemployment rate so low. Too often we lose focus on retention of employees when we’re having perpetual issues with hiring and do not look for solutions in hopes of finding the right employee.

A well-established company has an onboarding and offboarding process that ensures we learn lessons from the employees we let go and set everyone who joins our organization up for a successful venture. If you currently have issues with hiring, letting go, or retaining employees I encourage you to read my blog on five strategies to ensure your next hire is a fit and your next termination has a built-in system to learn from the relationship.

Learn how to get to the top and stay there. Jody Williamson, long-time Sandler trainer, speaker, and author, joins us to talk about the future of selling and the dangers of success. What you do after you find success is just as important as what you do on the way up...

One of the most challenging aspects of a successful career in sales management is knowing when to let your foot off the gas, assess you and your team’s status, and regroup before hopping back into the fast lane. While difficult, this is an imperative skill for a sales leader to possess. 

To answer the common question, “Why should I invest more time in coaching my sales team?” we must first define what we mean by “coaching.”

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.

If you were independently wealthy and did not need the business of others then when it came to building business relationships, how would you act? Likely, you’d spend a lot of time qualifying the relationship. You’d give yourself permission to ask questions to discover whether you were exploring an ideal fit or if there were warning signs that the engagement might fall well short of the ideal.

Every day I profess some version of this to myself in an affirmation. I am independently wealthy, and I don’t need the business. Understand, though, that the thing which I am outlying to affirm for myself is the very language that sabotages my efforts when qualifying a relationship. To profess is to carry the chance of insincerity and to use a negative statement is to remind my brain that the opposite might likely be true. Which is that I may in fact need the business. So how do we break out of this double bind and use language to affirm beliefs?

Read my article this week on the value of believing vs. affirming and better strategies to know what is valuable for you and your business.

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

Pete Oliver and Dave Mattson talk about executing the Sandler budget step and how to talk about money on the sales call. This Selling the Sandler Way episode is all about how to break our bad budget habits, and effectively talk about money in the right way at the right time of the sales process.

We’re programmed to buy in a certain way and we’re programmed to sell in a certain way. Sellers qualify based on the ability to use a good, rather than any actual qualification. Are you qualified to get your carpets cleans? The question is, do you have a home or carpets? People who are technically qualified get pushed into a state where they’re looking at solutions.

Salespeople are problem-solvers and fixers who want to present their goods as opposed to investigate the ability for a buyer to want or use these goods. Buyers naturally gain an advantage in this area in that they begin getting really good information on solutions and ideas to solve their issue with free information. The salesperson is doing this to get their needs met and to feel optimistic about their job but are being trapped into doing unpaid consulting which is engaged with no commitment by the buyer. Often times, sellers don’t realize they create unequal business stature and are willing to be abused in hopes that they are chosen at the end of an engagement.

Most people underestimate the power of first impressions. We often don’t think of who we might bump into or what role that person you just met could have in your future. If you knew that you were meeting someone who was going to loan you a quarter of a million dollars or invest in your firm, what extra preparations would you make to insure that you don’t blow the opportunity?

You may have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day – and it is. But here, it takes on an entirely new meaning. To ensure sales success, you should always start your day with B.A.G.E.L.S.

Managers are given the opportunity to lead, supervise, mentor, and motivate others, and their ability to do so makes a huge impact on our company’s overall success. But, typically we find that first-time managers are often thrown into their new role with little to no management training.

This can lead to poor management, high turnover rates, workplace stress, and declines in employee productivity. No one sets out to be a poor manager. In fact, many managers may not even realize they are doing anything wrong. When we recognize it, though, we need to act quickly and decisively to determine whether or not we want to help build success or look for a new individual for the role.

Sandler’s strategic management training for developing manager’s is a great bi-monthly class that I host to help organizations develop their management teams—however, if you’re interested in the twelve signs that your new managers may need training read this.

Most of us are good listeners, the people we talk to just never know it. They don’t know it because we don’t engage in a proactive manner which ensures they feel heard. Often when conflict arises, we try to listen, but because the individual we engage doesn’t feel heard, their defensive gates remain firmly shut and we can’t find resolution.

Typically, defensive gates to communication are brought up out of response to a situation similar out of the past. It is a preprogrammed reaction against a historical precedent that we have to fight against. To do this we have to illustrate and explain how the present and ourselves are significantly different from the past and past experience.

So how do we make sure that the other party knows that we are not only listening, but that we understand what they are saying? When breaking down communication there are a few key strategies which will help your counterpart feel heard and ensure you can get to a resolution, read more on how to be heard and help others feel heard.

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.

When I was rejected for a job at McDonald’s I faced an existential crisis over the fact that I was unemployed and likely unemployable. I went from being a handy-man to a painter and out of that built a construction business. Somewhere down the line, with 40 employees, I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I spent most of my time firefighting and being over-protective of my business to the point that I believed I was the only one who could solve the problems of my business.

Upon this discovery I set out on a series of goal setting determining where I wanted my life to go. I wanted to expand and grow my business and I wanted to spend time getting to know my children and being a part of my own family. These goals were at odds, as I was spending more than 80 hours a week working and getting to know my children’s most comfortable sleeping positions.

When my oldest son was 9 and my oldest daughter was 14, I have very little recollections about their experiences over the next four years. I had built so many commitments to clients and prospects that I neglected my commitments to my family. I needed help and bought a Sandler franchise to get training by the promise that, while I could not guarantee a monetary return in a month, I could get control over my schedule and see my family. If you’re interested in some of my story read my transparent blog on the actions I took to take ownership of my life.

The beauty of a sales career is that you’re able to get out what you put in. With relatively uncapped earning potential, the harder you work, the more successful you will be. The drawback to this element is that you’re never “off the clock” when you’re working in sales. It can be difficult to maintain an appropriate work-life balance, especially early on in your career, when you’re working to improve your practice.

So how have you done so far in the first quarter? How’s your business model or plan look?

This selling the Sandler way episode is all about using stories in your sales process. Dave Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training, interviews Sean Coyle, one of our corporate trainers and prospecting experts about how to use third-party stories to engage your prospects emotionally in the sale.

This year, we are combining the Selling the Sandler Way podcast series with this show, and adding some special audio blog episodes. On Fridays, Dave Mattson, our President and CEO, will interview Sandler trainers about how to succeed in sales and sales leadership. This first episode is all about getting back to the basics of selling the Sandler way.

Improving your efficiency or effectiveness is only as good as your method of determining and evaluating success. It’s easy to earn a win here or there, but repeated success over a long period of time can only be done through hard work, analysis, and reinforcement. Below, I have outlined five ways to gauge the success of your team, how you got there, and what to do to keep it up.

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.

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.

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.

If you were to go to the dictionary and look up the definition of the word “Success,” you’d be likely to find something like this:​ SUCCESS (n): the accomplishment of a desired aim or purpose.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A good business relationship whether it is buyer/seller or manager/employee is based on the assumption that both parties have an interest in doing things to accomplish the same goal.  The first step in persuading someone to do what you want or need them to do is to establish and Adult-to-Adult relationship with the other person. 

One of the most exciting things that you can experience is growth, especially when it comes to bringing more people onto the team! Here are a couple tips that you can use to make sure you are giving them a great chance at success!

How do you battle against the fear of success and the fear of failure?

Have you ever been in a confrontational situation good or bad and been unable to say anything?

The key to having it all is simply this, allow yourself to not be perfect in your roles.

How many times have you faced a task and the first thought that came to mind was something like “I can’t…,” “That will never work…,” “What’s the point of…,” or “I’m afraid that…”?  More times than you’d care to admit, perhaps? Each time you entertain a negative thought about your ability to achieve a goal, solve a problem, or deal with any situation, you’re poisoning your own well—filling your subconscious with negative unproductive thoughts that it eventually accepts as FACTS, despite the lack of any evidence as such. 

Rule 14: Risk failure to achieve growth. I-10's learn from failure. Wow, I'll tell you what. This rule is action packed with Sandler philosophies and tactics. First of all, we have to embrace failure. Everyone's going to fail. You failed when you were a kid learning how to ride a bike. We fail in all the different roles that we have throughout the day.

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 Michael Norton, EVP of Global Accounts at Sandler Trainer.

Sheila Musgrove is the national best-selling author of Hired!: How To Get The Zippy Gig. Insider Secrets From A Top Recruiter. She is also the founder and CEO of TAG Recruitment Group in Canada. She shares some amazing best practices for resumes and job interviews as well as what recruiters and hiring managers are really looking for in top candidates.

Sheila Musgrove is the national best-selling author of Hired!: How To Get The Zippy Gig. Insider Secrets From A Top Recruiter. She is also the founder and CEO of TAG Recruitment Group in Canada. She shares some amazing best practices for resumes and job interviews as well as what recruiters and hiring managers are really looking for in top candidates.

Rule #11: Mange behavior, not results. Create a cookbook or a recipe for success. You know, many sales leaders and sales managers, they manage numbers, not behavior. Think about that for a second. How many of us are knee deep into spreadsheets every single day?   

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 Paul Lanigan, a Sandler Trainer.

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 Roger Wentworth, a Sandler Trainer.

Josh Seibert is a long-time Sandler Trainer and our latest author. He joins us to talk about the lessons from his new book, Winning Through Failing. He shares why failure is a critical part of success, not the opposite of success. Learn how to set the stage for failure and use it to grow faster and expand your comfort zone.

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 Selling Girl Scout Cookies. The show is brought to you by Sandler Training the worldwide leader and sales management and customer service training. For more information on Sandler Training, including white papers, webinars, and more, visit Sandler.com.

Welcome to a special program presented by Sandler Training. Today's show is designed to deal with the hardest situation that you as a salesperson are experiencing, or you as a leader, or some of the most common issues that you're facing day to day. It's really the stuff that gives you stress. What we're going to talk about today are some tactics and strategies to help you progress either your sale from one step to the next, or your organization, your company. We've got two different types of groups listening today. We've got leaders/managers, and we also have some sales professionals. We're going to go back and forth throughout the day. Regardless, if you've got to progress your organization or progress your sale, I think being stuck—as an example, in the sales process—is not a healthy place to be.

It’s already the second quarter; is it too late to discuss sales mistakes to avoid in 2017?  Or lessons learned in 2016?  It matters not what month or year it is, for some sales lessons are timeless, and furthermore, we need to revisit them on a regular basis.

Developing a championship caliber sales team should be the goal of any sales leader. All champions, whether it is the Cubs, Patriots or newly crowned, Tarheels, are focused on doing their individual roles as well as possible, committed to the on-going improvement of themselves and the team, the culture sets high expectations, and the teams win. As difficult as this may be to accomplish for your sales team, it is not as hard as you think if you can implement these four championship elements.

Last week, Sandler Training hosted the world’s top leadership, management, and sales professionals at a summit in Orlando Florida. More than 1,200 people joined Sandler in the sun to learn about sales and leadership, share best practices, and further our knowledge of how to succeed.  The conference was incredible. From the opening video eliciting goosebumps to the #SandlerSummit trending nationally on Twitter with over 3.5 Million views, the room was electric. I have come away with so many notes and action items, but I have highlighted the top 3 lessons learned from last week.

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.

It’s not uncommon for a new hire to start out strong.  But after the initial excitement and enthusiasm for the new job fades, the behavior, performance, and “numbers” follow suit.

What do the first seven seconds of meeting you say about you, your work ethic, and your ability to be successful? Every fiber you zip, shrug, or button into tells a story about you. Smart business people understand this and use it to craft a strong personal brand. While you don't need to wear a business suit every day of your life, unless you are in a super-professional industry, it's critical to selectively choose your clothing. 

If you are not focused on keeping the customers you have and gaining more, then you will never succeed in sales to the level you thought possible.

As the weather heats up, many companies begin to look with dread upon the impending summer slowdown. For brands unprepared for the upcoming lull, it can be a challenge to keep the company moving forward and productive during the summer months. With people in and out of the door due to vacations and time off, it can feel impossible to get anything done.

Even though leadership styles vary as widely as hair color, we can all agree that strong leadership is vital to a thriving, progressing company. The obstacle is knowing whether or not your company has strong, motivating leaders. Are your leaders respected? Do they recognize talent? Can they see the big picture? The answers to these questions are key indicators to your venture's long-term viability.

Sandler Training released a new public and free podcast last week called, “How to Succeed.” It is an inside look at the attitudes, behavior, and techniques necessary to succeed at anything. Host, Mike Montague interviews Sandler trainers, authors, and experts about how to succeed at absolutely anything. You will learn how to get to the top and stay there!

Anyone can become a salesperson. There’s no real barrier to entry and no barrier to continuing a career in sales. As with most professions, anyone can become a “subject matter expert,” but that does not automatically make that person a good salesperson.

Management success lies in being able to pull your employees together so that they work as members of a seamless, successful, powerful team that is more than the sum of its parts. How can you guide your employees into forming this kind of team? Let’s examine some of the ways in which we can take lessons from the most successful college basketball teams in the country, and tuck their skills into your own management toolbox.

The Monday morning blues do not have to be a part of your work environment, and cultivating a positive atmosphere around your organization can be a fantastic way to drive the business forward. In the spirit of March and 'expect success' month, here is what all professionals should know about the power of positive thinking in the workplace.

We know from some extensive research on goal setting that most people make a New Year’s wish instead of a resolution. Proper goal setting requires commitment to your dreams. It gives you a road map to follow, allowing you to focus your efforts on the right thing at the right time, and holding you accountable for progress. If you are committed to succeeding in 2016 and want to do something about it, then follow these 6 steps to a perfect goal setting plan for this year and the rest of your life.

The 2014 Sandler Client Summit was another huge success, especially on social media. Attendees were quick to post insights learned from the speakers, share photos, retweet, favorite, "like" and expand their current list of LinkedIn connections through new contacts made at the #SandlerSummit. 

Going against the grain, Sandler Training switched up the agenda from previous years and started Day 2 with separate breakout sessions for clients and trainers. And despite the packed agenda from Day 1 and continued fun out on the town, the energy was palpable early Friday morning.

Eager to learn and ready to network, clients and trainers attending the 2014 Sandler Summit were blown away by the sales training insights, tips, stats and best practices shared throughout the sessions. Read to see a few of our favorite moments... 

Dave kicked off the Sandler Summit, bright and early, to an eager crowd waiting to hear what's in store for Sandler this year, ranging from enhanced sales training programs to book launches. He quizzed the group on sales statistics, shared tips to improve behaviors, told stories about how his attitudes about motivation were formed and then focused on techniques and tactics. Here are a few highlights from Sandler's top leader's opening remarks: •Three things you need to do today to become a "Behaviorist": clarity, frequency and consistency

A few years ago Sandler Training made the decision to host an annual event that brings together trainers and clients from around the world for two days of intensive training. With high-energy keynote speakers, wisdom from Sandler leaders and the option to attend breakout sessions of your choice, the 2014 Sandler Client Summit is looking to be another successful and insightful professional getaway.

This is the time of year that a lot of people start talking about setting goals. In reality, goal-setting and goal evaluation should be an ongoing process, a process that takes place all year long. But it is true that the end of one year and the beginning of another offers a good opportunity for salespeople to take stock, evaluate what has just happened over the past twelve months, and start planning for what needs to happen next. There's more to goal-setting than just accepting quotas!

A recent study by the Aberdeen Group showed that Best-In-Class companies, who used Sandler Training, had almost 50% more salespeople hitting quota than those companies who did not. When I meet with owners, CEOs, and sales managers, they often ask me why Sandler Training is different from the sales training they have seen or invested in before.