In my continuing series on the Sandler Rules, let’s talk about Sandler rule number twenty, “The bottom line of professional selling is going to the bank.”
As a salesperson what is your goal?
Is it to build good relationships with clients? Is it to establish yourself as a partner in my client’s success? Is it to help my prospect discover the truth?
Technically yes, but ultimately, that is not your goal.
Your goal is to close the sale, aka “go to the bank.”
Those smaller goals can all help you to achieve your ultimate goal, but you should not get sidetracked. And sadly, there are a lot of things that can get you sidetracked.
One of the biggest things that I get caught up on is what the prospect thinks of me as a person (and that’s because in the DISC profile I am an i). But in the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t really matter.
Will what they think of me as a person help me sell to them? No. What will matter is how I bond and rapport with them and if I can help them to solve their problems.
Another common roadblock is time. A lot of salespeople will continue to pursue a prospect for too long. How do you know when too long is?
For instance, our sales cycle at the Troy location of Sandler Training by EAM Consulting Group is 21 days.
Now, if someone is taking double the time to close the deal, it might be time for me to step in and end it. The reason that salespeople don’t do this is because they feel like they have invested time in this prospect and don’t want their time to be a waste.
My thought is this: wouldn’t you rather end the relationship now if they aren’t going to say yes anyway?
Another thing I think of when I hear the phrase “wasted time” is that it’s not wasted if you learned something from it. You can use what you learned from this prospect to improve your sales process and get the next prospect to the bank.
If you learn anything through this post, I hope it’s this: Close the deal and go to the bank.
