Mark Foley, VP of Sales, Sandler Enterprise

The Elite Seller is to the sales profession what the Navy SEAL is to military operations, or the Hall of Fame inductee is to a given sporting discipline. These individuals rise above their peers due to a unique blend of talent, expertise, and relentless commitment. They represent a small fraction of the sales force, and their success is rooted in intrinsic motivation, well-honed skills, and disciplined execution. These are the top-tier sales professionals who demonstrate unparalleled skill, adaptability, and results-driven performance – the ones who reliably deliver at high-impact, high-stakes moments.

Much like becoming an elite professional athlete, ballerina, or chef, achieving this level of excellence requires extraordinary time, effort, and dedication – not to mention significant mentorship and coaching support. What follows are some thoughts on the traits, skills, and training strategies necessary to cultivate Elite Sellers, and the delicate interplay between innate talents and learned competencies of which sales leaders must be made aware, based on Sandler’s cumulative experience coaching and developing over 30,000 sellers annually.

Are Elite Sellers Born or Made?

Becoming an Elite Seller means leveraging both innate talents and learned competencies:

Innate Talents: These personality-driven traits, such as ambition, discipline, and learning agility, often serve as the foundation for elite performance. People either have them or they don’t.

Learned Competencies: These include technical sales skills, customer engagement strategies, and situational adaptability, abilities that are cultivated through structured training, deliberate practice, and ongoing coaching.

So, the best answer to the question of whether Elite Sellers are born or made is – Yes. Certain innate talents must be there. At the same time, learned skill acquisition is non-negotiable.

In this sense the development of an Elite Seller is exactly the same as the development an aspiring athlete into an Olympic champion or a dedicated culinary student into a Michelin-starred superstar chef.

What Are the Key Attributes of an Elite Seller?

Elite Sellers consistently bring to the table the following attributes. Note that the first group of attributes falls into the category of “born with,” and the second group falls into the category of “learned over time.”

Talents (Innate Characteristics)

Motivation & Ambition: A relentless drive to succeed underpinned by focus and discipline.

Resourcefulness: The ability to adapt, solve problems, and think on their feet.

Accountability: A willingness to own their actions and results.

Competencies (Learned Skills/Tactics)

Company-Specific, Market-Specific, Person-Specific Messaging. Building buyer trust through tailored, engaging communication.

Creating/Securing Appropriate Next Steps and Fulfilling Sales Process Exit Criteria. Taking control of conversations while fostering buyer comfort and openness. Guiding conversations rather than guiding them.

Pain Diagnosis. Conducting thorough discovery to identify pain points and quantify their impact.

Delivering Personal Value. Demonstrating and delivering value from early on in the relationship through insightful recommendations and tactful challenges.

Keeping It Real. Aligning buyer objectives with realistic timelines and actionable steps.

Being the Grownup in the Room. Managing objections, decision criteria, and stakeholder dynamics with poise.

What I just shared with you may be considered the 30,000-foot view of the Competencies terrain. Closer to ground level, critical skills Elite Sellers master and refine over time include:

• Establishing mutual agreements with buyers on meeting purpose and outcomes.
• Confidently navigating challenging group settings or one-on-one discussions.
• Driving the buyer’s understanding of the cost of inaction versus the value of a solution.
• Proactively addressing potential obstacles, such as procurement or legal hurdles.
• Closing sales as a seamless outcome of a well-executed process.

What Are the Core Functions of the Elite Seller?

Elite Sellers excel across the entire sales funnel, seamlessly managing every phase of the buyer’s journey. Their role includes the following core functions:

• Building rapport and chemistry with diverse buyers.
• Conducting in-depth discovery to uncover client pain points.
• Driving conversations that reveal value-based solutions.
• Consistently and effectively managing challenges related to timelines, decision criteria, and stakeholder alignment.
• Closing deals as the natural culmination of a well-executed process (not as a result of “closing tricks.”)

Their adaptability and precision in performing these functions mirror the artistry of a prima ballerina performing a complex routine or a master chef orchestrating a multi-course meal.

Elite Sellers are not created overnight any more than elite chefs, athletes, scientists, or musicians are created overnight. Just like those who sacrifice and struggle to achieve elite status in other professions, their journey requires:

• Rigorous Training: Regular skill development sessions tailored to real-world scenarios.
• Ongoing Coaching: Focused reviews of calls and deals to refine techniques.
• Deliberate Practice: Continuous reinforcement of best practices.

Like any other form of mastery, sales mastery demands exceptional dedication and effort.

Opportunities for sellers to engage directly with buyers are increasingly rare, underscoring the need for elite execution in every interaction. Organizations must invest in identifying and developing their Elite Sellers to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. With the right combination of innate talent, structured training, and disciplined practice, the odds are that someone on your team can rise to elite status—delivering extraordinary value to buyers and achieving unparalleled results.

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David Mattson

The game has changed.

Team selling in the business-to-business environment used to be an occasional thing, a weapon we saved for special, complex, high-stakes situations. Now, if we expect our team to succeed, it’s standard operating procedure.

Why? Because today’s B-to-B buyers are making most of their decisions collaboratively, as part of a flexible, data-sensitive, constantly-adapting team. Even in situations where one person is technically responsible for a purchase, that individual is connected to a network of communication platforms that enable internal players to affect how, when, and why any purchase is finalized. Think about it: Isn’t that how we decide what to buy for our organization? By interacting with the various stakeholders, hearing what they have to say, and reviewing the best data available?

That’s exactly what our buyers are doing.

Today’s connected B-to-B buyers are more cautious, which means selling cycles are often stretching out for longer than we might like. We know that. But what we may not have realized is that, as a practical matter, there is typically no longer any single “decision maker” — which is how we may be used to thinking about selling. Instead, there’s an ongoing internal conversation involving lots of people, a conversation about the best possible buying decision.

If we expect to be part of that conversation, we will want to start from the premise that today’s B-to-B buyers buy in packs. And that means we need to sell in packs.

This is a paradigm shift for many sellers. We may be more comfortable with the old paradigm: the one-on-one (me talking to a decision maker) or one-on-two model (me talking to a decision maker and an influencer). In this model, moving an opportunity through our sales process was kind of like a job interview. Sometimes we were being interviewed by one person. Sometimes we were being interviewed by two people. But however the interviews played out, those one or two people were the ones we needed to interact with if we wanted the job.

Even though we got used to that dynamic, and made that paradigm work for a long time … that’s not the game that’s being played today.

Recently, we finalized a project with a new client; the final contract required no fewer than thirteen signatures from the buying side. Meaning; Thirteen human beings had to sign off on the idea that we’d be working together. That’s not something we can make happen under the one-on-one or one-on-two paradigm.

With that fact in mind, consider these three non-negotiable realities of business-to-business selling in the current environment, and the three adjustments we can make to thrive in that environment.

• Cross-functional teams are bringing deep levels of expertise to every major purchase decision. Experts on the buying team know a lot about a narrow topic; they’re specialists. The typical salesperson, a generalist, knows a little bit about a whole bunch of stuff. It’s unrealistic to expect that salesperson to hold their own in that conversation. Our job: break down our silos and get our own content experts involved in the discussion, whether or not they’re salespeople.
• Buying teams comprise buyers and influencers with widely varying levels of stature and authority. Meaning: we should probably expect their senior executives to weigh in. We should expect them to be hard to reach, too. One salesperson with limited tenure and organizational authority isn’t going to be part of the conversation. In some situations, our own senior people can help us to move an opportunity forward.
• Each individual on the buying team presents both a distinct behavioral footprint and a predictable personal take on what does and doesn’t matter about a given purchase. Understanding the DISC style of every influencer on the purchase decision, and aligning our communication accordingly, was once a pipe dream. Today’s AI technology makes it a practical, achievable deliverable – but only if we use the tools and deploy our selling team based on the data that the best technology puts in front of us.

We may give ourselves plausible-sounding reasons for ignoring these realities, or pretend that the adjustments outlined above are not relevant to our world. We may think involving others in our sales process could give them the opportunity to blow up a deal, and we may have some cherished anecdote that supports this (self-fulfilling) narrative. We may think we can handle any and every aspect of the buyer journey better than someone on our team could. We may simply feel more comfortable doing what is already familiar to us.

That’s all head trash. The reality is that it is only teams that adapt to the current realities of selling in the B-to-B space will survive. Our first and most important adaptation is: Recognize this is no longer a job interview. It’s us making our case to a jury. The way a jury works in the real world – our world — is pretty simple:  one juror with a reasonable doubt can determine the verdict.

We tell our clients: Know your jury. Do everything you can to make sure each member of your jury has every reason to lean into your case … and no reason to lean away from it.

David Mattson is Executive Chairman of Sandler. For more on deploying team selling effectively in your market, connect with Sandler.

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Alana Nicol

Daniel Negreanu does nothing by accident.

Negreanu is, arguably, the greatest poker player of all time. He’s won seven World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) championship titles. His total winnings, at last count, added up to roughly six million dollars. Maybe we should call him the Six Million Dollar Man. Whatever we call him, though, what we want to be sure we bear in mind is that he didn’t win all that money because he was lucky.

Like every other elite professional gambler, Negreanu has a process. He teaches an online MasterClass course that details that process; I am here to tell you that I got a lot out of that course. Not because I’m a gambler – I have zero poker face – but because I’m a sales professional, and because his course is a powerful reminder of a fundamental selling rule that’s more important today, in the age of AI, than it ever was: Don’t do anything that isn’t backed up by the data. Because if the data doesn’t back up your game, your game doesn’t work.

What’s Your Game Plan?

Another name for “doesn’t work” is “dysfunctional.” Unfortunately, a lot of sales teams are still playing a game plan that they think is a “sales process,” but is actually something very different: sales team dysfunction.

Hear me out. Negreanu uses statistics and data analysis to create a system that helps him understand and respond to every possible combination he could come up against during a poker game. He also has a system for reading his opponent on an emotional level – but that system itself is not emotional. It’s based in results and outcomes he can count and verify over time.  Those systems complement and reinforce each other, and combine to form a repeatable process that works. How does he know it works? He wins. He secures revenue.

Every single decision that Negreanu makes at the poker table is based on data, on a well-defined, constantly re-evaluated, data-driven process. That makes sense, right? So let me invite you to and your team to consider the possibility that there may be an important lesson here for sales professionals. Let me challenge you, for just a moment, to think critically for a minute about your data. What, exactly, is the data that your team uses when it’s working deals through your process? Is there data? And if your answer is “Yes”—how do you know?

Whether you track your deals using something low-tech like Excel, or with a tool that’s more cutting-edge – a CRM like HubSpot, or SalesForce say – I want to suggest that you’ve got a professional responsibility to answer questions like this objectively. Not with emotion. With verifiable data.

With that responsibility in mind, I’d like you to consider taking on the following thought exercise: rate the quality of the data that your team is using to make decisions on a scale of one to ten.

One means this: “We use the 1-800-WING-IT method,”

Ten means this: “Listen — because we’re talking about very, very good, verifiable data that we put in consistently, with zero resistance from the team, data we constantly update, data that delivers outcomes we regularly check against reality – because of all that, our sales process can forecast results so accurately that I personally feel comfortable betting my paycheck on it. I would do that right now.”

That’s the scale. So: Where does your sales process fall? Take a moment right now to think about that. Come up with a number.

The Reality Check

Most people we talk to use this challenge as an opportunity be honest with themselves and their team – as a reality check. Usually, after a long and thoughtful silence, the numbers they share with us come in at six or lower. Sometimes way lower.

I am here to tell you that six on a scale of ten would not work for Daniel Negreanu. And it won’t work for you or your team.

Six or lower on this scale is dysfunction. And again, all I mean by that is: The game plan doesn’t work. It doesn’t perform optimally. It doesn’t deliver the results it should. It doesn’t do the job.

Our sales process must help us make good decisions, and we can’t possibly make good decisions without good data. That’s reality. So right now, I’m going to share with you three questions you can use to improve your sales process. Getting to the point where you can answer YES to each of these questions will get you closer to what I call the Professional Poker Champion level – which comes in at nine or higher on the scale I just shared with you.

Question One: Is Your Process Staged to Match What Really Happens When Someone Buys from You?

A functional sales process is realistically staged. That means it identifies all the major real-world steps that an opportunity must go through to close.

In its very simplest form, meaning a transactional sales process without a whole lot of moving parts, the staging might look like this:

• Prospect
• Qualified Prospect
• Verbal Commitment to Buy

That’s the bare-bones version, and it’s only likely to be useful to someone who is selling to a single decision maker with no one else influencing the purchase decision. That’s an increasingly rare scenario. Most of the people we work with have more stages to work through and more people influencing those stages.

The point is, each organization with a sales team needs a process that fits that team like a glove. For that to happen, the stages in that process need to reflect, for each member of the team, what happens in an actual buyer journey that results in a decision to buy. By the way, the more complex the sales process is, the more essential it is to align the process closely with that buyer journey. We always want to meet buyers where they are.

Some teams have three or four steps; some have six;  some have more. Typically, the longer the sales cycle is, the more steps there are.

Question Two: How Are the Steps Weighted and Validated?

After we know what the steps are, we want to weight each of them based on the level of confidence we have that an opportunity at a given stage will close.

Let’s use as an example the extremely simple, transactional sales process I shared with you a moment ago. An opportunity that’s in the first step, Prospect, might desrve 10% or less confidence that we’re going to win, because we don’t even know what we don’t know at that point.

By contrast, what’s the likelihood that we’re going to receive the revenue from someone who gives us a Verbal Commitment to Buy? For a lot of teams we work with, that number comes in at about ninety percent.

If you’re using a CRM like HubSpot, you’ve probably noticed that it comes with percentages built into the system. The percentages show up automatically as you build out the stages. That’s fine – as long as the data gets validated.

The fact that we put the label of “10%” or “90%” on the stage does not mean we can assume that that’s what’s happening. It’s our job to compare the estimate with what’s taking place out in the real world, and then adjust accordingly. This is an ongoing process, and it’s something a lot of teams skip. Daniel Negreanu wouldn’t skip this step!

If we go back and look what really is true and see how our deals are closing, the stages and the weights we assign to them will all have verifiable, statistical reality.  And since that’s what we want, we make a point of aligning our stages with reality. How often? That depends on the team, but it’s likely, in my experience, to happen somewhere between monthly and quarterly.

Question Three: What Are the Exit Criteria?

The third question is all about the conditions that enable an opportunity to move from one stage to the next.

We’ve got a responsibility to define, in an absolutely crystal-clear, documented way, the precise criteria for exit from each and every stage in our sales process. What’s the information that we need to have before something moves out of Prospect and into Qualified Prospect? What do we need to have done before that can happen? What does the prospect need to have done? We need to get all of that down in black and white for each stage. If the criteria aren’t met, the opportunity does not move forward. Period.

We need to ask ourselves: How well defined are those criteria? And how standardized are they for everyone on our team? How well are all the members of the team observing and using the criteria? And here’s the thing. If people don’t know what the criteria are, if we don’t talk about them on a regular basis, it’s a pretty good bet people won’t be thinking about them and won’t be using them.

In large measure, this third question is the one that most depends on the quality of the leadership. If we’ve identified the stages, and we’ve weighted and validated them properly, but our team has no consistency in terms of what people know about the exit criteria, or how they can go about fulfilling those criteria, that’s a problem for us, as leaders, to solve.  And by the way, this is a big part of the value we at Sandler add to sales teams: helping teams and their leaders get on the same page in terms of what the exit criteria are and how to make sure they’re fulfilled before an opportunity moves forward in the process.

The Takeaway

Once you can answer all three of these questions … once you have a viable, data-driven process, and you implement it at the team and the individual level … good things will start to happen. They won’t happen by accident. They won’t happen because people got lucky. They’ll happen because you followed Daniel Negreanu’s lead by working the numbers, creating systems that work in a statistically verifiable way, and incorporating those systems within a sales process that gets deployed consistently.

For help in turning a dysfunctional game plan into one that works, meaning a sales process that’s tailored to your world to consistently deliver the financial results you and your team deserve, why not contact us? We may not be great poker players. But we do know how to help teams set up and execute a sales process that works.

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What’s the biggest stereotype people who don’t sell for a living have about the “typical salesperson”?

Remarkably, it’s still the one-dimensional shmoozer that movies, television, and other storytelling outlets latched on to sixty years ago. Pushy. Fast-talking. Fixated on closing the deal. Not always completely honest. Big on connections and contacts and the so-called “old boy network.” Heavily reliant on social bonding – by taking the client out to dinner, to a ballgame, or to the golf course.  Less reliant on things like being vulnerable, asking questions, making clear future commitments, and keeping those commitments.

Think about it. Even today, whenever you see someone “being a salesperson” on a TV show, in a movie, or in fiction, that’s still what you’re likely to encounter. Someone who lies, shades the truth, and salivates for the deal. Someone who fires off memorized, manipulative “closing techniques.” When was the last time you saw, in popular entertainment, any salesperson taking the time to pose a question to a buyer they don’t already think they knew the answer to? Telling a buyer the truth when doing so meant they lost the deal? Expressing genuine human interest in a prospective buyer without any ulterior motive?

I can’t think of one example.

What Can We Learn from the Stereotype?

So: Why did that stereotype take root in the first place? Why does it still have such a powerful hold on the popular imagination?

I think it’s because that stereotype was based in reality. A lot of people who sold for a living were (and, let’s be honest, still are) pushy, fast-talking, fixated on closing the deal, focused only on the contract, etcetera. That’s why this negative image of what we do for a living caught on in the popular imagination. Many, many, many people tried to sell for a living in this “old school” way, and they kept it up for a long time. Scriptwriters, among others, noticed.

I raise all this because I think it’s important to look closely at whether there’s anything we can actually learn as sales professionals from the “old school” model, any relevant reality at all behind the iconic “pushy-salesperson” stereotype.

And when we take the time to examine that stereotype, what we discover is that there is quite a lot of useful stuff to be found lurking behind it. Relationship-building does matter. A lot. Real-time social bonding matters, too. A lot. Introductions from people the buyer or influencer knows and trusts matter. Networking matters. Connection about non-work-related stuff matters. All of those things matter.  There’s nothing wrong with taking a client out to a ballgame or going golfing. There’s nothing wrong with focusing on the relationship and deepening it over time with cool activities and interactions that are designed to allow us to connect, purely as human beings, with the buyer. Those activities and connections really are incredibly important. They’re just not the entire job description.

The ”Data-Driven” Salesperson

Here’s another big question for you: What are the most successful salespeople doing today that they weren’t doing, say, three years ago?

In other words, what are the best-performing salespeople doing in the era of AI, in the era of data-analytics, the era of remote selling, the era of the buyer-empowered customer journey? What best practices are making a difference now that might not even have been on our radar screen before the pandemic hit?

Here’s what we’re seeing: The most effective sellers never imagine they’ve learned it all. They’re open to, and curious about, new platforms and new tactics. These elite sellers operate in a digital-first landscape, a working world where enabling technologies, relentless upskilling, and customer-centricity reign supreme. They leverage advanced CRM systems, massive, constantly updated databases, artificial intelligence, and data analytics expertly – all so they can personalize their approach. They don’t recite generic scripts or send out blind email blasts to thousands, or tens of thousands, of people. They use advanced information tools to sculpt outreach messaging and follow-up messaging that is authentic to them — and deeply, deeply customized to the individual recipient.

These salespeople understand that today’s buyers are barraged by spam, and that they have massive amounts of information at their disposal. These salespeople anticipate customer questions and needs, and they deliver tailored responses. And yes, these salespeople build relationships over time. Just not always in the way people used to think of salespeople building relationships. They create, and sustain, contact and engagement via a vast array of digital tools and resources that enable them to engage with prospects across various channels and touchpoints  –consistently and seamlessly.

There is then, an “old school” approach to selling. And a newer, “data-driven” approach. And my point is: in order to succeed as a sales professional, we need to be sure we are both willing and able to use what works from both outlooks.

The “old school” mentality may have over-relied now and then on the ability of rapport, connections, influence, and relationships to solve all the problems salespeople might encounter. And the “data-first” mentality, taken to its extreme, runs the risk of turning salespeople into marketers — by minimizing or overlooking entirely the non-negotiable importance of the human-to-human (meaning face-to-face or voice-to-voice) connections that launch and sustain all our important relationships. Maybe a golf game is in order! Or, who knows, a shared (appropriate!) Spotify playlist. It’s up to you.

Here’s the takeaway. When it comes to interacting effectively with the large (and growing) cast of characters who influence buying decisions within a buying organization, today’s most productive sales performers harness both the power of data and the power of personal connections.  They connect the dots, using cutting-edge tools to invest both time and effort in building rapport, nurture relationships over time, and earn the trust, good will, and loyalty of their clients. They use the best of the “old school” and the best of the “data-driven” school.

If you’d like to talk about how your team could do a better job of connecting those dots, let’s connect.

• Someone who fires offmemorized, manipulative “closing techniques.”
• And my point is: in order to succeed as a sales professional,

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Sofia Rodriguez

Imagine my surprise. The last place I expected to encounter core Sandler principles was The Bear – the addictive, bingeable FX comedy-drama series about an emotionally troubled chef trying to turn his family’s sandwich shop into a Michelin-star restaurant.

Yet that’s what happened. I got a Sandler reinforcement session I never expected from the “Yes, chef” guy. One particular line he delivered in this show jumped out at me instantly as the most concise, compelling summary I’d ever heard of what we at Sandler call I/R Theory, or Identity/Role Theory.

A few words of explanation are in order here before we move on. First, you don’t have to have seen even a single episode of this series for what I’m about to share to make sense. Second, if you’re planning to watch The Bear, or you have not yet made it through all the show’s episodes, you can relax, because I’m not going to give away any big spoilers. And finally, you should know that won’t be sharing the scene in question with you verbatim, because, frankly, the language is a little rough for a publication like this. Let’s just say that this scene’s big takeaway line can be rephrased (almost) as effectively and memorably when we put it like this: Stuff happens.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s the setting for the exchange that jumped out at me: two chefs (yes, that’s what they call themselves, even though this is a sandwich joint) are on break outside the restaurant. The more experienced chef, Carmy, is talking to the newcomer, Marcus, about a mistake Marcus just made that overloaded the restaurant’s fusebox and caused the electricity to go out. Carmy’s not being aggressive or overbearing; he’s being appropriately direct about what happened and he’s helping Marcus think about what he could have done differently. Basically, Carmy’s being a good coach.

We can tell Marcus appreciates this approach, because he accepts the coaching. He explains why he made the choices he did, he expresses authentic regret at having caused a problem, and, finally, he makes a promise that, deep down, he must know he can’t keep. But Marcus wants to look good in front of the boss … and maybe, just maybe, Marcus has bought into a less-than-useful narrative somewhere along the line, a narrative in which he sees himself as the issue whenever there’s a problem.  So he makes this promise to Carmy. He promises not to make any more mistakes.

At which point we hear Carmy’s response, which is, as I’ve said, something I have to rephrase to make it appropriate for a business article:

“Sure you will. You’ll make mistakes. But not because you’re you. Because stuff happens.”

Wow. That’s all of I/R theory, right there, in two seconds.

“I” stands for our identity, meaning our self-concept, our sense of self-worth. “R” stands for the various roles we play: chef, son, baseball fan, salesperson, whatever. We will play countless roles over the course of a lifetime, some of which we will perform well in, and some of which we won’t. And here’s the thing: Other people may rate our performance in those roles as great, or lousy, or somewhere in between. And we may rate our own performance within a role as great, or lousy or somewhere in between. But who we are is not up for discussion.

Who we are is not determined by what we do. If we convince ourselves otherwise, into thinking that a mistake happens because of who we are as opposed to because of what we do, we’re needlessly limiting ourselves. And we’re also limiting our ability to grow, learn, and contribute.

Sandler teaches us that we can only perform as well in our roles as we see ourselves conceptually. Our concept of identity always affects how we perform in our roles…but we never want to allow our role performance to affect our sense of identity. Our ongoing challenge as human beings is to see ourselves as we really are: as 10 on a scale of 10.

We all have the potential to be something amazing, to make a dramatic positive difference in someone’s life, to make a life-changing impact.  We’re all here to be something great, to contribute something great. And the world doesn’t get anything from us playing small. Yet we suffer, because we’ve been conditioned to believe that we’re not 10 on a scale of 10. That we’re a six. Or even a two. We’ve bought into the fiction that we ourselves are the problem when a problem shows up in life. And that’s not true. It’s a story we tell ourselves, a movie we choose to play on the wall of our minds.

If we’re not careful, we can get addicted to that kind of movie. If we’re not careful, we can get addicted to looking for evidence that we really are two on a scale of ten. If we’re not careful, we can get lost replayig familiar movies, narratives, and experiences that keep us feeling small, keep us navigating well-worn paths, keep us well inside our comfort zone … and conceal who we truly are and what we’re truly capable of.

Yes: we will make mistakes if we make a habit of changing our patterns of awareness and behavior, if we keep searching out new perspectives, if we stop complaining so much, if we take more chances, if we fail more often, if we learn more lessons about ourselves and the world we live in. Mistakes are definitely going to show up if we do those things. But not because we’re who we are. They’ll show up because stuff happens while we’re learning how best to perform within a given role. And, at the same time, learning more about ourselves.

I think oftentimes, as human beings, we’re trying to change what we see on the screen, instead of trying to change the film that gets loaded into the projector. We’re letting what we’ve chosen to project onto the screen of our minds tell us who we are. And it’s telling us that we’re not enough. But we are.

Ten on a scale of ten is who we really are, even on a day when … stuff happens. We are always that engaged, aware, creative, inspired, ten-out-of-ten person. We’ve always been that person. We just made choices that led to us not noticing that that person is who we really are. But we can make different choices at any moment, including this one.

Here’s the big lesson that Sandler has taught me, and that The Bear has now reinforced for me. If we are brave enough to set aside the narratives that don’t support us, brave enough to open ourselves up to our own true potential, brave enough to fail, brave enough to embrace who we really are and what we are really capable of learning and contributing, brave enough to commit ourselves, over and over again, to a life of growth … we may just surprise ourselves and others.

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You are not alone.

No matter where your sales team is hitting roadblocks, sales performance improvement can feel like a monumental task, and it can be difficult to know where to start.

Well, it begins by creating a step-by-step action plan that will:

• Identify the specific areas where your sales team is falling short
• Establish realistic and measurable sales goals to get your sales team back on track
• Define the next steps your sellers must take to improve performance

Let’s outline this action plan together.

1. Identify Root Causes of Poor Sales Performance

Before building an action plan to improve poor sales performance, it’s crucial to diagnose the root causes. Poor sales numbers and behaviors can stem from a variety of factors such as lack of product knowledge, poor lead qualification, or even low motivation.

If you’re wondering how to deal with poor sales performance, we recommend setting aside time to meet with your team to gather insights and data to assess where the challenges lie.

Consider some of the questions below when reflecting on issues:

• Are your sales reps following the sales process effectively?
• Are there gaps in training or product knowledge?
• Is the sales pipeline lacking qualified leads?
• Are external factors, like economic conditions, affecting buyer behavior?

Once you have pinpointed the contributing factors, you can design a more targeted action plan to improve poor sales performance.

2. Set Clear, Measureable Goals

To effectively guide your team out of underperformance, establish specific goals that will drive their efforts. Vague goals like “sell more” will not do the trick!

Your action plan to improve poor sales performance needs to focus on measurable outcomes that you can revisit on a weekly basis.

Define what success looks like and set benchmarks for tracking progress.

Consider some of the examples below in your goal setting:

• Increase the number of qualified leads by 20% over the next quarter
• Improve conversion rates by 10% within the next three months
• Reduce the sales cycle from 45 days to 30 days by improving follow-up efficiency

Always remember, having clear, measurable targets gives your sales reps something concrete to work toward and allows you to monitor improvement.

3. Provide Targeted Training & Ongoing Support

Once you have set your goals, it is time to build the skills of the sales team so they can meet them.

Tailored training and resources are a critical part of any action plan to improve poor sales performance. Sales reps may need a refresher on the sales processes, products, or techniques to engage prospects more effectively.

Some ways that you can coach and provide support for your team include:

• Organizing workshops or role-playing sessions to refine key selling skills
• Offering one-on-one sales performance coaching for struggling team members
• Using real-time data to deliver feedback on specific skills gaps

Providing continuous coaching and reinforcing a learning culture within the team will empower sales reps to overcome their current hurdles.

4. Monitor Progress & Continuously Adjust

An action plan to improve poor sales performance is not static. Growth is never linear or “one and done”. As you implement your plan, you will need to monitor progress closely and be ready to make adjustments.

Review performance metrics on a frequent basis to see if your team is meeting the goals that you have set. If not, identify why and tweak your approach accordingly!

We recommend scheduling weekly or bi-weekly check-ins to discuss individual progress and team performance. These meetings will help maintain momentum and accountability while allowing you to address any emerging issues early.

If certain tactics aren’t working, don’t hesitate to pivot—whether that means adjusting your training efforts, altering the goals, or even redistributing leads.

What’s Next?

Sales slumps are challenging, but with a well-thought-out action plan to improve poor sales performance, sales leaders can turn underperformance into opportunity. When implemented effectively, this process not only enhances short-term results but also fosters long-term growth and resilience in your sales organization.

If your sales team is facing challenges and you need more support, we would love to connect with you and learn more – Start your Sandler journey today >>

The post Turnaround Strategy: Craft an Action Plan for Poor Sales Performance appeared first on Sandler.

Have you ever noticed how most issues that cause major problems in your world could have been solved faster, or avoided entirely, if there had just been solid communication up front? Have you ever wondered why that communication doesn’t happen?

These are questions of deep interest to anyone whose goal is to make the sales team – or, frankly, any team — more resilient, productive, and successful. Effective leadership, after all, is all about lifting people up, as opposed to beating them down. But let’s face it: it’s hard for us to lift someone up when we’re communicating at cross purposes with them about the situation they’re facing.

I’m speaking purely as a pragmatist here. I’m talking about what works, and what doesn’t, in human relationships. If we don’t know what’s going on in someone else’s world, then we can’t expect to lead very effectively in that relationship – and by extension, we can’t expect to lead a team effectively, or to lead an organization effectively. Why not? Because teams are composed of individuals.

And if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re going to have to admit that there are plenty of situations where we don’t really know much about what’s going on in an individual team member’s world, or we don’t see their world as they do. For whatever reason, our communication with that person isn’t great. And sometimes, when we try to work with that team member to solve a problem, we end up making the communication even worse.

So: Why is that?

I believe the best answer to this question is much, much simpler than a lot of us imagine. The answer comes to us from the discipline of psychology. You don’t have to have an advanced degree to understand this answer: it’s just one word: drama.

WHAT IS DRAMA?

Is drama the same as being outrageous? Is it the simple act of entertaining others? Is it showing up with some extreme emotional response to a problem? What exactly are we talking about here?

According to Transactional Analysis, an enduring and influential movement in psychotherapy, all these popular understandings of the word “drama” fall short.

Transactional Analysis tells us about a definition of “drama” that’s a lot more useful for leaders (and everyone else). This definition was formalized by psychiatrist Stephen Karpman in the late 1960s. According to Karpman, drama is dysfunctional communication — nothing more and nothing less.

There’s nothing to be frightened of in that formal-sounding word “dysfunctional.” All we are talking about here is “communication that doesn’t work” – communication that doesn’t solve problems, doesn’t reveal what’s important, doesn’t deliver the outcomes we need to deliver if we expect to remove obstacles to performance, learn about ourselves and others, and grow as human beings.

THE THREE BIG REASONS COMMUNICATION FAILS 

According to Karpman, there are three big reasons human communication becomes dysfunctional. Karpman labels those reasons as follows: Persecutor mindset, Victim mindset, and Rescuer mindset. 

Taken together, these three mindsets form a famous social model of human interaction known as Karpman’s Drama Triangle.

Karpman’s three labels are important because they shine a bright spotlight on the specific headspaces that keep us from communicating authentically with each other. These three labels remind us of the three recurring actors in the long-running human drama of dysfunction – by which I mean the ongoing drama of communication strategies that just don’t work, because they don’t help us learn anything meaningful about a person or a situation.

For decades, these three labels have been indispensable to therapists responsible for helping patients understand behavior and communication patterns that make situations worse, not better. Yet each of Karpman’s definitions should probably come with a special warning for leaders. That warning might read as follows: Odds are, YOU are in one of these mindsets RIGHT NOW. 

That’s the hard truth each of us face. And that hard truth points us toward the most important thing for us to fix at any given workplace discussion: our own drama. That’s what matters. Not anything anyone else is doing. Our mindset. Our way of looking at any given problem. That’s what will transform communication on our team. Nothing else.

THE ONLY WAY TO WIN THE DRAMA GAME

Karpman, a psychotherapist, designed his model for other psychotherapists, so they could use it during therapy sessions. As leaders, though, we need to understand something experienced psychotherapists may grasp a bit more easily and intuitively than we do: Most human beings lapse into these three mindsets, and sometimes jump from one to another, with astonishing speed, typically without even realizing that’s what they’re doing. And in conversation, each mindset can perpetuate the other two, resulting in a dysfunctional communication cycle.

We’re not therapists. It’s not our job to or identify complex emotional problems or treat mental illness.  But as sales leaders, we can help ourselves and our teams by understanding Karpman’s simple core takeaway regarding dysfunctional communication. Karpman’s big takeaway about the Drama Triangle is: The only way to win the Drama Triangle game is to make a conscious choice not to play … and then to defend that choice in both word and deed.  The martial arts star Bruce Lee made much the same point when he was asked about the best way to avoid a punch. His answer: “Be somewhere else.”

That’s a choice. And a choice like that starts, as the song says, with the person in the mirror.

It’s true: sometimes, people barely communicate. The reason they don’t communicate well is usually drama. And every time we bring drama to the table, we make the quality of workplace communication worse and set a dysfunctional example for those who look to us for leadership.

Here’s the reality: Like everyone else, you and I spend a whole lot more time in the Drama Triangle than we’re eager to admit to ourselves or to others.  If we’re serious about improving communication on our team, we can start by admitting that drama in the workplace happens a lot — and that we ourselves are often the reason it happens.

GETTING REAL ABOUT THE DRAMA TRIANGLE

Any time there’s a problem to be solved or an interpersonal conflict to navigate, shifting into one of the points on the Drama Triangle is our automatic default setting. Meaning: that mindset has become our instant reaction to conflict or stress. That mindset has become something that’s programmed deep in our nervous system. The shift I’m talking about is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s part of the human condition. The big question is, what are we going to do about it?  How can we learn to recognize drama and disengage from it?

If any of what I’ve shared so far resonates with you, you may want to take fifteen minutes or so to answer the following questions in writing.

I’d like to ask you to start by thinking about all the times you’ve seen or heard people complaining about a situation without taking any responsibility for any aspect of what was going on. Whatever it was, it just happened to them – unfairly. Can you picture that? Most leaders can.

Now that you remember how often that happens, you’re ready for …

QUESTION ONE: Over the past 48 hours, in my written or verbal communication, have I complained about something — anything — to another human being, without offering a possible solution to that challenge? Yes, “just blowing off steam” counts.

If so, when and how did this happen? Please try to list as many examples, in writing, as you can. 

Next, I’d like you to think of any times when you’ve seen someone “jump in” to “help” another team member — and even though they had good intentions, they made the problem worse. Can you think of any times that you had to undo what that “helper” had done – when fixing the damage they’d caused took more time than fixing the original problem would have taken you? Once you’ve recalled at least one situation like this, you’ll be ready for …

QUESTION TWO: Over the past 48 hours, in my written or verbal communication, have I tried to earn “brownie points” with another human being by offering to right some (perceived) wrong in their world… for them? By being the “helper,” throwing on my Superman cape, and claiming that I could fix the problem for them? As opposed to helping them find their own solution and learn from their own mistakes?

If so, when and how did this happen? Again, please list as many examples as you can . 

Now, let me ask you this: Can you think of someone you’ve worked with (or for!) who always needed to be on offense? Who was quick to jump to the blame game? Most of us can. Once you have thought of such a person, you’ll be ready to answer …

QUESTION THREE: Over the past 48 hours, in my written or verbal communication, have I gone into Critical Parent mode to assign blame to another human being, either to their face or via a third party?  In Transactional Analysis, the phrase “Critical Parent” refers to a state where an individual behaves in a judgmental, controlling, or authoritative manner, often mirroring the attitudes and behaviors of boundary-enforcing parental figures. In this mode, we may lay down rules, criticize, or impose their standards on others, often without empathy or consideration for their feelings. Every time we use the word “should” to describe what someone else ought to do, for example, we’re in Critical Parent mode.

If so, when and how did this happen? Here again, please write down as many specific examples as possible.

WHAT’S YOUR DEFAULT POSITION?

Welcome back.

If you had the most examples in the first category, it’s a good bet your default position on the Drama Triangle is the Victim mindset. You’ve probably seen this mindset in your own team members. For instance, let’s say someone on your team doesn’t make enough calls to other departments to cross-sell. When you try to talk to them about this, they say things like, “I wasn’t hired to do that,” or, “They never have time.” All their agency, all their initiative, has somehow vanished. Things happen to them, not because of them. Now here’s the question: Is there perhaps a similar pattern of victimization to look at in your own problem-solving responses?

If most of your examples showed up in the second category, your default position may be the Rescuer mindset. Here again, you’ve likely seen this dynamic play out on your own team. Is there someone on staff who’s so eager to prove how smart, how well connected, and how competent they are that they quickly gobble up what could be “teaching moments” for less experienced employees? The rescuer on your team could also be someone who jumps in when another team member is being called out for a lack of business-development behavior. Or it could be the person who “can’t” fulfill their own business-development behavior targets, because they were “helping” someone else with a proposal or with busy work. So: Is there something you might be able learn about setting aside your own Superman cape from this person’s default Drama Triangle setting?

If the third category was where most of your examples showed up, your default position is likely the Persecutor mindset. Is there someone on your team – perhaps a top performer – who hasn’t yet mastered the art of compassionate communication with colleagues, support people, and/or people who work in other departments? Who goes on the attack without knowing the details? Maybe stop and ask yourself what kind of example you’re setting for that contributor.

Here’s the point. Even if we don’t think of ourselves as a Persecutor, Victim, or Rescuer — which we probably don’t —we each have a favorite corner of the Drama Triangle that we retreat to.

That’s because we’re human. We’re the stars of our own show, the protagonist, the “good guy,” so we don’t always recognize what’s happening in the moment. Recognizing drama takes practice. But guess what? Drama has a way of happening, and messing up communication, whether we recognize it in the moment or not. That’s reality.

Fortunately, we can learn to win the Drama Triangle game any and every time it arises. All we have to do is get a little better, day by day, at deciding not to play. Once we make that decision, we make grownup communication possible, in the workplace and everywhere else.

The post Sandler Hot Take: DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA (And What Sales Leaders Can Do About It) appeared first on Sandler.

David Mattson
Every business challenge we face as leaders connects to a fundamental human resource challenge: How to retain mission-critical talent.

Contrary to popular belief, mission-critical talent isn’t just our employees, although retaining productive hires is obviously a major strategic imperative. An imperative that’s equally important, though, and one that’s far more likely to be overlooked, is that of retaining the most creative, productive, and efficient channel partners. Channel partners are (for instance) value-added resellers, independent sales agents, franchisees, distributors, and system integrators. Partners such as these have a huge impact on our ability to fulfill our organizational mission (in the long term) and deliver value sufficient to achieve or exceed financial targets (in both the short and the long term).

Consistently high turnover of our best and brightest means attaining mission-critical goals becomes difficult or impossible.

Technology has not and will not solve this cultural problem. It persists in every major industry. In fact, what we see in the marketplace now is that the challenge of retaining the right people for extended periods is now more pressing than ever.
Here are seven organizational keys we’ve developed, tested, and shared to help ourselves and our clients do a better job of retaining key players over time. Each key can be expressed in the form of a question for leadership.

1. Do We Let Only Excellence in the Door?
Every employee, and every channel partner, is a brand ambassador for our company. No exceptions.
Even an employee or channel partner who has no direct contact with end users impacts the quality of an end user’s experience. The interactions our people initiate and take part in, whether on their best or worst days, will shape our brand in the marketplace. Therefore, it’s crucial that we have the very best people representing our company at every level.
Accepting this principle means making careful evaluation of every hiring decision a core cultural value. It means thinking differently about hiring and onboarding. And it means posing, as often as necessary, one simple question: Is this person an excellent representative of our internal values AND the value we deliver externally?

2. Do We Engage?
Our leadership is only as strong as our most recent personal interaction with employees and channel partners. Specifically, our teams are only as strong as our most recent personal interaction with that team’s leader. Many senior leaders do make continuous engagement with direct reports and other employees part of the leadership culture … yet forget to apply the same principle to channel-partner relationships.
A common misconception is that establishing a channel is a one-time effort. However, just like a parent’s job when raising children, this relationship requires ongoing attention and adaptation. Each stage of the channel or employee lifecycle demands a different approach. Regular engagement and support are essential to maintain productivity and alignment with your company’s goals.
The better we as leaders are at engagement, the better we will become at managing by relationships, not just policy.

3. Is Our Communication Multi-Modal?
Consistent and varied communication is vital to retaining key players.
At Sandler, we employ multiple modalities—audio messages, videos, texts, face-to-face meetings, regional gatherings, and town halls. This multi-faceted approach ensures that everyone finds it easy to stay informed and engaged, regardless of their preferred communication style or platform preferences.

4. Are There Clear Economic Growth Paths?
Transparency in defining what success looks like and how best to achieve it is crucial to retaining both established and emerging talent.
Annual performance/salary reviews are just the beginning. Whether we’re talking about new employees, seasoned employees, or channel partners, we have a responsibility to outline the path to success, clarify the steps, and make access to the right resources easy. This will foster motivation and commitment. Career paths are never just about memorizing product features; they are about getting better over time at solving problems and adding value.

5. How Is Our Conflict Resolution?
Conflicts are inevitable. How we handle them can make or break a relationship. It is up to us to build and model a transparent conflict resolution process that deepens trust,
Addressing issues head-on with a clear, open communication process is absolutely critical … and the cultural value of ensuring that our people feel heard and understood always starts with the person in the mirror.

6. Are We Metrics-Focused?
We set clear, measurable goals for success. We track and discuss progress toward those goals. We know our metrics must be transparent and understood by all. We review and adjust goals as needed.
Clear metrics provide a roadmap for success, create deeper engagement and buy-in among our key players, and allow for timely course corrections.

7. Are We Committed to Ongoing Learning and Self-Actualization?
People want to grow and be challenged, so we provide opportunities for continuous learning and professional development, recognize their achievements, and encourage them to push their boundaries. This helps prevent stagnation and keeps people motivated. Motivated people tend to stick around!

Long-term retention is closely tied to personal growth and fulfillment. That means allowing our people to take on new challenges that matter to them as individuals. This will vary by person: It could mean empowering someone to write a book, or create new programs, products, or services, or pursue personal goals that don’t necessarily connect directly to work. A commitment to self-actualization not only keeps people engaged but also aligns their personal aspirations with the company’s objectives. And yes, it’s just as important for channel partners as it is for employees.

The Bottom Line
These seven keys help foster long-term productivity and loyalty. Ideally, we want a situation where all the top contributors keep on contributing until retirement. Is that achievable? Who knows. Is it the direction we want our organizations to move toward? Yes. Can we get closer to that outcome by posing these questions consistently, as leaders, for ourselves and others? Absolutely.

Discover the Sandler Franchising Difference
The seven keys to retaining mission-critical talent outlined here are not just theoretical concepts; they are the cornerstone of our approach at Sandler Franchising. Our franchisees are empowered with these proven strategies, ensuring their success and the success of their teams.
If you’re looking to join a network that prioritizes excellence, engagement, clear communication, growth, conflict resolution, metrics, and ongoing learning, then Sandler Franchising might be the right place for you.

Ready to take the next step?
Explore the opportunities with Sandler Franchising and see how you can be part of a community that values and nurtures top talent. https://www.sandler.com/franchising/

The post Seven Keys to Retaining Mission-Critical Talent, Experience, and Tribal Wisdom (And No, That’s Not Just Employees) appeared first on Sandler.

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

• that to survive and thrive in the B-to-B space during the present phase of human history, sales professionals require more than one point of contact within all but the smallest prospective accounts;
• that selling one-on-one is, in most markets, a recipe for disaster and competitive disadvantage;
• that technology will soon be handling not some but all transactional, low-relationship purchases in the B-to-B space;
• that, in navigating multiple points of contact within an account, the most effective sales professionals cultivate meaningful relationships with special internal contacts – people on the inside who are both willing and able to provide critical intelligence and support.

Full disclosure: If you are uncertain about, or disagree with, any of what you just read, this article may not be of much use to you.

What follows is all about confirming those special contacts within the buying account: the people who understand, and are willing to share with us, both their buying journey (which we need to grasp from their point of view, not ours)  and the full cast of characters likely to influence the eventual  purchase decision. Let’s call these special people champions.

One of the biggest challenges I see salespeople facing today is imagining they’ve connected with a champion, when in fact the person they’ve connected with is someone very different: a coach.

A champion wants to work with your organization and is willing to invest their social and political capital on your behalf.

A coach may want you to win, and is an internal ally, but isn’t yet willing to stick their neck out for you.

Coaches often provide intelligence, they can be extremely helpful, and they may love your work … but none of that makes them champions.

The agenda you propose for a conversation with a coach is going to be very different from the agenda you propose for a conversation with a champion! Unfortunately, a lot of salespeople get confused about which of these two players they’re dealing with.

Coaches may say things like this:

“I think this makes a lot of sense. Let me go talk to the committee, and I ‘ll let you know where things stand.” (Instead of inviting you in.)

“I really love what you’re doing here. Let me get back to you.”

“I’ll talk to senior leadership and see if there’s a way to make this happen.”

Disable those “happy ears” for a moment, and you’ll notice that all those statements are consciously noncommittal. They leave the person some wiggle room. Champions don’t do that.

Champions say things like this:

“We’re going to need to talk to so-and-so.”

“Here’s what we should do next.”

“What we’re still missing is …”

“So-and-so may be against this, so we’ll have to figure out the right way to approach them.”

See the difference?

Classic tipoff: If your contact is framing things exclusively in terms of “I” as opposed to “we” (“we” meaning you and your contact working as a team), it’s a pretty good bet you’re talking to a coach, not a champion.

If you’re in any doubt at all about whether you’re dealing with a coach or a champion, here are two powerful question sequences you may want to consider using the next time you talk to this person.

QUESTION SEQUENCE ONE: Early in the relationship

• Jim, I get the feeling, just based on what I’ve learned about you and your organization so far, that if you personally don’t think a solution to this issue from our side makes sense — if you don’t feel personally comfortable with it, I mean — it’s probably not going to happen here at your company. Is that a fair assessment?
• Assuming Jim says “Yes” to this: Okay, that’s good to know. So, if you don’t mind me asking… as you see it, what’s the one problem that, if I give you the right plan for solving it, is most likely to make you feel like letting the rest of your team know that you feel this solution could make sense?

If Jim cannot come up with any scenario under which he would endorse your solution and recommend it to others, he is not a champion.

QUESTION SEQUENCE TWO: After you’ve discussed a possible solution in depth

• Jim, let me ask you this. And I know you’ve been clear with me that ultimately, there’s a committee and Shanice heads that committee, because it comes out of her budget. Clearly she’s in charge of it, but I know you do a lot of due diligence, too. And I think we’ve worked hard with you and your team over the last few weeks. I guess my question for you is: If Shanice and the committee weren’t involved — of course they are, but speaking hypothetically, if they weren’t, if it were just your decision–what would you do? Would you be saying, listen, send me the agreement, I’ll sign it, let’s do the paperwork and put together the implementation team? (Important: Anything other than a “Yes” answer here means you are talking to a coach, not a champion. Plan accordingly; invest your time strategically; look for clear future commitments.)
• Assuming Jim says “Yes” to this question: Okay, that’s great to hear. Can I make a suggestion as to what we found to be the most helpful at this point in the process? Would that be okay? (Jim agrees.) What we’ve found to be most helpful at this point is we schedule a meeting with you, me and Shanice, because in that meeting, we both have a role, right? Your role as the insider, you’re the only one that understands the key requirements, what you need, the kind of staffing and resources necessary — I can’t do that. Me, as the partner who is creating the solution, I’m the only one that can walk through timing, staffing on our side, contract language, pricing terms, conditions. Obviously, we both have a role to play at this point. So: what’s the best way to get that set up?”

Notice: We don’t ask Jim whether he’ll set the meeting with Shanice up. We ask what the best way to get it set up right now is. Because that’s what happens in our process.

To maximize the efficient use of time for both buyer and seller, you will want to invest a significant chunk of your time, energy, resources, and attention on champions, and you will want to avoid mistaking coaches for champions. That means setting aside your “happy ears” for good, so you can understand exactly who you’re dealing with.

The post Sandler Hot Take: Is Your Main Contact a Coach … or a Champion? appeared first on Sandler.