FAQ – Client Builder Selling vs. Sandler Training

Larry Lewis, the founder of Client Builder Sales & Marketing, started his sales training business in 1996 as a franchisee of the Sandler Sales Institute.  Like SPIN Selling and other selling systems that preceded it, the Sandler Selling System has a lot going for it.  Many of the strategies and techniques that make up the Sandler Selling system are excellent and still work today because they are grounded in fundamental rules of human behavior.

However, after David Sandler’s death in 1995, some of the strategies and tactics that make up his system began to grow stale and outdated especially with the expanded use of technologies like voice mail and the internet.  When comparing his program twenty-five years ago to some of the brand-name sales training programs that were popular at the time, David Sandler himself explained that there was nothing wrong with the selling systems and programs sold by his competition, except for one thing:  “their stuff is old.”  Unfortunately, what David once said about the competition is true of his own program today.

Like many of the marquis sales training courses currently being offered today, the strategies and tactics that make up the Sandler selling system were developed more than twenty years ago, if not earlier.  But the business world has changed dramatically in the last two decades… and many of Sandler’s “old-school” techniques no longer work today  When David Sandler developed his program the internet didn’t exist, email hadn’t been invented yet, cell phones were unheard of and voice mail was rarely used.

At Client Builder Sales and Marketing we have incorporated the very best prospecting and selling practices available today into our program.

We have incorporated the psychology of behavioral psychologists like Robert Cialdini and Neil Rackham into our program along with the selling strategies of great sales minds like the Miller-Heiman organization, Bill Brooks and Jeff Thule and lesser known sales experts like Randy Schwantz and Tom Freese.  We have also incorporated bonding and rapport skills made famous by the likes of Dale Carnegie and Napolean Hill with the fresh insights of today’s up-and-comers like Art Sobczak and Josiane Chriqui Feigon.  Mix it all together with the sales insight and experience that Larry Lewis has accumulated over the last twenty plus years and you have one of the best sales training programs you will find anywhere.

If you liked Sandler, you are going to love Client Builder Selling.

Our clients who came from Sandler frequently tell us that our program is more intuitive, easier to execute and more in-line with today’s prospecting and selling realities.  In addition, there is nothing deceptive or manipulative.  Selling is meant to be collaborative process where both parties win.  It should never be a zero-sum game in which one person wins at the expense of another. Selling is very intentional, but it should never come across as harsh or pushy in any way.

When choosing a sales training program, there are two fundamental elements that need to be evaluated.  The first element is the message.  Does their approach fit the context of what you sell and who you sell to.  The Client Builder Selling process is a selling system tailor-made for small businesses that sell solutions to problems regardless of whether those solutions come in the form of a product or a service. If you are attempting to make a transactional sale or compete solely on the basis of price we are not for you.

The second element of choosing a sales training program is the messenger. Does the sales trainer understand your business? Does he have the ability to tailor his or her approach to fit the context of what you sell? The Client Builder Selling Process can be completely customized to fit the context of what you sell and who you sell to.  It’s one of the reasons we developed our own process – so that we had control over our own intellectual property and could customize it to fit the nature of what our clients sell.

When selling you have to be yourself.  You don’t want to be David Sandler, Larry Lewis or Bob Schmidt.  We will help you to develop your own personal style within the framework of our sales process and selling strategies.

To succeed today, you need to be different.

Let’s face it, selling is a different game today.  Most prospects already know the tricks – things like calling after hours to avoid the gatekeepers, or leaving voice-mail messages that so-and-so told me to call.  That’s why so many salespeople and sales managers have become frustrated with traditional sales methods.

Teaching salespeople to be just like everybody else puts them at a competitive disadvantage.  When a salesperson is perceived to be “the same” as everyone else, they are only average, by definition, and their chances of winning are significantly diminished.  Prospects and customers usually don’t buy “average” products from “average” salespeople.

If you are going to train your sales organization, make sure to invest in something that teaches them how to be different, in order to give them back their competitive edge.  At Client Builder Sales & Marketing, we can give you that edge.

Client Builder Selling is a selling system that recognizes the realities of doing business in today’s highly competitive, hyperactive economy.  It’s a process that is honest and straightforward.  In short, it’s a selling system that works!

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