The Sandler Rules is a book written by David Mattson, CEO and partner of Sandler Systems, Inc. which is “an international training and consulting organization headquartered in the United States.” His book discusses 49 sales “rules” written in a paradoxical, humorous way. Through using irony and catchy titles, he develops a system to help salespeople remember how “every prospect lies”, to “not spill their candy in the lobby” and how to “never answer an unasked question”. With easy to read jargon, and interesting content this book is definitely a recommended read for any person interested in sales or personal business development. The following are three rules that I found most helpful when reading Sandler’s Book.
My favorite, and most remembered Sandler rule is:
No Mutual Mystification
This is, the concept that as salespeople, we choose what we want the prospect to be saying, rather than what they are actually saying. Whether this means we ignore the prospect’s concerns, cling to small phrase that suggests the prospect may be interested, or maybe that the prospect is not interested, Mutual Mystification suggests that both the seller and the buyer can be mislead by each other! This specifically interested me because I know that often, I hear what I want to. The most emphasized concept in this class is “listen” and I believe that in sales, unless you are listening, no sales will be made.
The second rule that impacted me the most was:
You have to learn to fail to win.
Although I believe that failing is only hard for me, it is no secret that failing is hard for everyone. No one likes to fail, however whenever we do fail, we can either learn from our failures, or choose to operate the same way we failed before…and fail again. In sales, when a salesman fails, it is crucial that he takes what he has learned and apply this to the next call or sales opportunity. In this way, failing can be thought of as a learning experience, rather than an ego-crushing one.
The final rule that had the greatest impact on me was:
Never Answer an Unasked Question
This rule happens to get me into trouble all the time. Just the other day, I was pitching my idea to a class and I went completely overboard. I decided that I was going to answer all sorts of un-asked questions and content in my presentation and that this would be a good idea. After getting ripped to shreds for my ideas and receiving feedback that I had not anticipated, I soon realized that I had given away too much information way too early. Rather than stick to the topic, I forged ahead too quickly and was met with confusion and hesitation. In the same way, it is ok for a salesperson to not answer a question they have not been asked. Instead of giving away too much information, receiving a clear question from a customer is a much safer, direct route to follow.
Sandler’s Rules are a great way to become a better salesperson and smarter question answerer all around. I thoroughly enjoy this book and look forward to reading more throughout the rest of the semester.
BoweryJE22
I like the three choices you made out of The Sandler Rules, particularly, I like your second choice. I like it because it is my single largest pet peeve to watch those I am surrounded by complain about mediocrity in their lives. All men have the power within themselves to change their entire lives. There have been millionaires who started life in poverty and geniuses who lived their entire childhood being called unintelligent. The problem is that most men allow fear to paralyze them until the opportunity to improve life has passed them by.
Mattson’s writing has been incredibly enjoyable. One thing that I found particularly interesting was applying some of these concepts to the job/interning process. Often as candidates, we can fall into the mutual mystification trap. I’ve tried to address this by asking direct, clarifying questions so as to remove any ambiguity. I think the other two apply as well and are important considerations.