Sandler Enterprise Selling
May 2020 – Sales Pop with Brian Sullivan
Hunker down. It’s a phrase we all knew but rarely used. Heard occasionally in the US Southeast during hurricane seasons, its Scottish origins date back to the early 1700’s. “Hunk’ring down upon the cald grass” referred to assuming a low squatting position and “sitting hunker-tottie”. So much for the history lesson and truth be told, I’m not sure I want to know any more than that!
May 2020 – Top Sales Magazine with Brian Sullivan
Of course, we've all been tested of late. And much has been written and discussed about positivity and optimism, traits that can certainly help people weather storms. But it's the power of beliefs in the real risks referred to in Lewis' quote that I'd like to focus on. And ultimately, in reference to selling.
April 16, 2020- Sales POP featuring Brian Sullivan
In turbulent times, it’s especially critical to stay connected with others, to help and to serve. While we typically think first of family and friends, our connections with clients and prospects in difficult times are important as well. In Sandler Enterprise Selling, we teach a process that adds clarity to these business connections and, given the dynamic nature of selling, it’s refreshed frequently.
February 17, 2020- Sales POP featuring Brian Sullivan
In selling to and serving major accounts, no matter how effective you are, you must face a harsh truth. Losing happens. Regardless of your focus, time and effort, you’re certain to come up short on occasion.
May 2020 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
One of my favorite quotes comes from the famous religious leader, Buddha – “What consumes your mind controls your life”. While it’s universally applicable, I’d like to focus on how it relates to selling.
September 2019 - SalesPOP by Brian Sullivan
In the world of enterprise selling, the simple fact is that losing happens. Regardless of your best efforts to maximize your likelihood of success, you will fall short on occasion. And in the midst of the grief after losing a major deal, someone will invariably say, “We should learn from this to make sure it doesn’t happen again”. A very logical idea, of course, gaining lessons learned from a loss. It’s amazing, though, that some of the most sophisticated enterprise selling organizations do a lousy job of performing post-mortems.
January 2020- SalesPOP by Brian Sullivan
In Sandler Enterprise Selling, our KARE account profiling process has developed a worldwide following since it rolled out in 2015. It’s based on the premise that in selling, we group our accounts into designations – geographic, vertical, size-related and other logical buckets. Such categorizations certainly add clarity and should, if utilized correctly, increase efficiency. Descriptive information has value but what do you really learn from these types of bundles about clients’ traits and tendencies? How do the groupings really help you win, grow and keep enterprise accounts?
September 2019 - SalesPOP by Brian Sullivan
In the world of enterprise selling, the simple fact is that losing happens. Regardless of your best efforts to maximize your likelihood of success, you will fall short on occasion. And in the midst of the grief after losing a major deal, someone will invariably say, “We should learn from this to make sure it doesn’t happen again”. A very logical idea, of course, gaining lessons learned from a loss. It’s amazing, though, that some of the most sophisticated enterprise selling organizations do a lousy job of performing post-mortems.
September 2019 - Top Sales Magazine Brian Sullivan
In the enterprise world, it's well known and widely implemented. But what about the other side of major account deals? What about the other collaborative strategy? That's right – team buying. And I reference major accounts because that's where complexity lives and thrives. For some context, consider selling to small and medium-sized businesses, where you typically have the luxury of direct contact with the actual decision–maker, often the owner of president of the firm.
August 2019 - Sales POP
With the exciting Women’s World Cup just concluded, fans had a terrific opportunity to enjoy the outstanding competition and some very competitive games. And with all the media coverage, we received detailed insights into team strategies and even how specific plays were executed. One of the Fox Sports broadcast crews which consisted of ex-players dissected a pivotal corner kick from the standpoint of the playbooks of both the offense and the defense.
July 2019- Sales POP featuring Brian Sullivan
A midsummer night’s dream. Not Shakespeare’s, though, but the sales manager’s dream of the second half of the calendar year so strong that it drives the numbers up, salvaging the year and ensuring robust performance. Dreaming aside, H1 has been filled with many positives and negatives but your sales optimism tells you that there’s plenty of time left before the ball drops in Times Square. Time to accelerate your team’s improvement. Time to close strong. Time to hit your year-end numbers. There’s still time.
June 2019 - Top Sales Magazine with Brian Sullivan
It’s summertime. Longer days and slower pace. Thoughts of vacation and holiday dance in your head as you revel in relaxation. And then, reality hits. You remember that you’re a sales manager and that summertime means simply that half of your year is gone. H1 has been filled with positives and negatives but you look ahead with a heaping dose of selling optimism, knowing that the calendar still gives you time to take actions to accelerate your team’s improvement, close strong and make your yearend numbers.
June 2019- Sales POP featuring Brian Sullivan
I hate to provide such a negative title for an article but I’m a big fan of being real, especially when it comes to selling, especially enterprise selling. We live in a task-driven world, highlighted by starts and stops, defined beginnings and defined endings. And we find comfort in the modularity of our lives, knowing when to enter and when to exit. It characterizes our days, our projects and even our lives from birth to death.
May 2019 - Top Sales Magazine Brian Sullivan
After graduating from college, I embarked on a long summer of training in the famous Professional Selling Skills (PSS) program, SPIN and other powerful Xerox material. At summer’s end, I was off to sales training’s global mecca, Xerox’s International Training Center in Leesburg VA. Upon arrival, I faced the ultimate sales test, the passing of which would earn me the right to stay for the world’s best sales training program. For the unfortunate ones, failure sent you packing, literally and immediately, back to your Xerox home branch to face shame and often termination.
November 2018 - Top Sales Magazine Brian Sullivan
They wrapped the roping around itself at the ends, creating what appeared to be clenched fists or monkey’s paws. Sailors heaved them from the decks to dockhands far below, who caught them, safely securing them. Something small, therefore, brings in something large. David Sandler, Sandler Training’s founder, related the concept to selling, helping countless sales reps win business by proposing smaller pieces of larger deals to convince prospects to take action – monkey’s paws.
May 2019 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
I hear the question often. “What is Sandler Enterprise Selling?”. But first, a broader question must be considered. “What is enterprise selling itself?”. Indeed. At Sandler, we believe strongly in pain – the great motivator. “No pain, no sale” is one of our classic quotes. And in selling, while the focus is typically on the prospect’s pain, sales teams feel acute pains as well. So, we define enterprise selling in terms of the unique pains and challenges faced by organizations selling to large enterprise accounts versus small and medium-sized businesses – SMB’s. And while many pains apply, our focus is on those we believe cause the most grief.
April 2019 – Sales Pop with Brian Sullivan
Pre-call planning. As all sales managers know, there are tons of reasons why sales reps tend to avoid it like the plague. “I don’t do scripts”, “I’m best when I’m spontaneous” or “I can spend my time much more effectively doing other things” are all in the chorus. Then there’s, “It’s just a waste of time” or “Don’t worry – I got it. I’m good!”. Behavior profiling aside, it does seem that many people drawn to selling have an aversion to pre-call planning. Of course, this isn’t true of all sales reps but even with the availability of electronic tools and apps to streamline the process, many still view planning as a waste of time. They simply don’t believe in it.
March 2019 – Sales Pop with Brian Sullivan
The statistics are compelling. Most selling organizations generate 80% of their business from 20% of their clients. Winning a new large account costs up to 20 times more than keeping a current one. And just a small increase in a company’s major client retention percentage drives even greater revenue and profit increases. On the negative side, retention rate decreases spawn long-lasting negative impacts that can be crippling.
March 2019 – Top Sales Magazine with Brian Sullivan
Interesting. At Sandler, we believe strongly in the concept of pain. One of our most iconic quotes is, “No pain, no sale”. How true. And in selling, while we typically think of pain in terms of the prospect, as sales teams, we stare down the demon as well. So, we define enterprise selling in terms of the unique pains and challenges faced by organizations selling to and serving large accounts as opposed to small and mediumsized businesses – SMB’s. And while many pains apply, our definition focuses on what we believe are the eight most harrowing.
February 2019 – Sales Pop with Brian Sullivan
In port cities, we see the massive mooring lines that securely tie huge ships to the docks. Getting those ropes down to the piers from the giant vessels was a problem that inventive sailors solved long ago by wrapping the roping around itself at the ends, creating what looked like monkey’s paws. These were heaved from the ships to the dockhands below, who caught and safely secured them. Something small, therefore, secured something big. Sandler Training’s founder, David Sandler, related the concept to selling, helping countless sales reps win business by proposing smaller pieces of larger deals to prompt prospects to act – monkey’s paws.
January 2019 – Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
We’ve all heard the compelling statistics. Most selling organizations derive 80% of their revenues from 20% of their clients - the Pareto Principle. Acquiring a new major account is up to 20 times more expensive than keeping a current one. And even a small percentage increase in a firm’s overall major client retention rate has an exponentially positive effect on revenues and profits, delivering value to all stakeholders.
January 2019 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
Team selling. We know how critical it is in the enterprise selling world. Marshaling your most important organizational assets – your people, to win enterprise deals is a survival skill. The mantra of “Everybody Sells”, when put to work in large pursuits, positions you to face one of enterprise selling’s top challenges – team buying!
December 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
We know all about value propositions, don’t we? Or do we? The term, “Proposition” is defined in the dictionary as “a statement that expresses a judgment or opinion” or a “scheme or plan of action”. Very interesting. While delivering subject matter expertise in enterprise selling is important, most would agree that listening is even more rewarding than “expressing judgments and opinions”. And “schemes”? Even the most transparent sellers would be unlikely to share with prospects any information about “scheming” to win their business.
November 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
We’re all aware of the unique challenges faced by sales teams in complex enterprise account pursuits. As opposed to opportunities with smaller accounts, enterprise deals present much more frustrating pains and complexities to selling organizations. Long sales cycles, wide buyer networks, and highly capable competitors are just a few of the obstacles that must be faced and overcome. Pursuing enterprise business is not for the faint of heart. It demands that you bring your very best effort and then execute with precision to walk away with a win.
May 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
Selling teams often struggle with analyzing enterprise wins and losses. Human nature in sales, of course, typically motivates rapid movement to the next deal and hopefully, the next win. But hope, as we all know, is not a strategy. But the most important reason that effective win-loss analysis rarely happens, if at all, isn’t about the selling psyche. It’s about the lack of practical Go/No-Go processes that dictate whether major deals should be pursued in the first place.
July 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
The question often comes up regarding defining enterprise selling versus selling into smaller accounts. Given the criticality of pain in selling, I define enterprise selling in terms of the unique pains and challenges that selling organizations face in dealing with large enterprise accounts. Long sales cycles, extensive buyer networks, and sophisticated competitors create problems not encountered with smaller accounts. But the payoff of winning a major account is a truly game-changing, transformative development.
October 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
In the complex world of enterprise selling, we focus keenly on team selling. In selling to and serving major accounts, team selling needs to be much more than just a tagline. It needs to be the way that you do business. In winning, growing and retaining large enterprise accounts, it’s an absolute survival skill.
September 2018 – Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
Value propositions. We know all about them, don’t we? Or do we? Let’s think for a moment about definitions. “Proposition” is defined in the dictionary as “a statement or assertion that expresses a judgment or opinion” or as a “scheme or plan of action, especially in a business context”.
September 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
Mindfulness. We’ve all heard the term but it’s likely that few of us have spent any quality time learning about it. Jon Kabat-Zinn is a professor of medicine at The University of Massachusetts and an expert on mindfulness. He explains it in simple terms as “paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment and nonjudgmentally”. Interesting. And even though the topic has received heightened media coverage of late, most business people remain relatively clueless about it.
August 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
In your selling year, there have likely been many positives and negatives to deal with but with a heavy dose of sales optimism, you know there’s still time to take actions to drive improvement, hit your year-end numbers and close strong. Time to build on your strengths, fortify your weaknesses, exploit your opportunities and defend against your threats. How? By taking traditional SWOT to a much more actionable level.
July 2018 – Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.”
– Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness plays a huge role in both our success and satisfaction. Many significant organizations have achieved game-changing results through mindfulness programs, for the tenets of mindfulness connect directly to enterprise selling.
June 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
The difference between selling to small and medium-sized firms and selling to enterprise accounts is similar to the difference between owning a cat and herding cats! Team selling needs to be more than just a tagline. It needs to be the way you do business.
May 2018 – Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
We all understand how important team selling is in the enterprise world. Marshaling your most important organizational assets to win enterprise deals is an absolute survival skill. And these assets are your people – your colleagues who simply must be engaged in the selling process.
May 2018 – BizTimes
Landing a large enterprise account is a big achievement, bringing with it new revenue and profit. But unlike smaller account wins, the real significance of an enterprise account victory is the huge potential for growth.
April 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
In Sandler Enterprise Selling, we flip the model. We believe in Quarterly Value Reviews and a keen focus on twin themes – value delivered and value projected. And the message? It’s not about you – it’s about the client. And how they view the value you’ve delivered and the value they expect from you in the future.
March 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
“In the dark of the night, every cat’s a leopard.” This old Indian saying provides keen insight into enterprise selling and understanding the sophisticated sales competition who come prepared in the enterprise arena. But what do we see in much of the competitive analysis done today?
March 2018 – Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
Enterprise selling is defined in terms of the unique pains and challenges that organizations face in selling to and serving large enterprise accounts. At Sandler, we believe strongly in the power of pain. Our founder, David Sandler famously said, “No pain, no sale”.
February 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
Off the Cuff Instant Interview Question:“What are some tips for doing practical market, territory and account planning?”
Brian Sullivan provides a high-level overview of a practice framework in five fundamental areas for sales planning to enterprise selling clients.
February 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
Your main decision in the initial stages is between early acceleration and early exit. And, practically speaking, there should be no gray area between the two. Stay or go?
That’s the question. But how can you know?
January 2018 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
Landing a large enterprise account is a big achievement, bringing with it new revenue and profit. But unlike smaller account wins, the real significance of an enterprise account victory is the huge potential for growth.
January 2018 – Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
This old Indian saying provides great insight into enterprise selling because it reminds us how important it is to identify and understand the information that matters most about our key competitors.
December 2017 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
Often at the start of new business relationships, the sales rep explains a customer survey will be sent. What if that survey is filled with boilerplate categories that are not important to the client, yet the client may still provide ratings. Who learns from scores that have no relevance?
November 2017 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
In selling, we bundle our accounts into categories to be more efficient in winning business. But what do these groupings tell you about the actual traits and tendencies of the accounts? How do they help you win, grow and keep major clients?
November 2017 – Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
Brian provides advice on how to prevent ruining your not-quite-yet account that could be an absolute game-changer for your entire organization.
October 2017 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
Remember, it’s not a sales win until it’s in. The deal is not done until the deal is done. Keep it cool and read Brian Sullivan’s advise on how to remain professional and poised after a win.
September 2017 - Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
Winning business with a large enterprise account is a significant achievement in that it brings with it new revenue and profit. But unlike successes with smaller accounts, Brian explains that the real significance of an enterprise win is in the potential for account growth.
August 2017 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
Brian began his sales career with Xerox. Many years before he arrived, Xerox made a huge strategic decision that shifted the success of their company at an annual rate of over 40% for the next twelve years. Brian shares, like Xerox, how important it is to engage your entire business model and team in generating ideas and crafting solutions.
June 2017 - Top Sales World interview with Brian Sullivan
Brian Sullivan, co-author of SANDLER ENTERPRISE SELLING: Winning, Growing, and Retaining Major Accounts and Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling, sat down with Top Sales Magazine’s Jonathan Farrington for a great interview about how to win, serve, and grow large, enterprise accounts.
July 2017 – Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
Brian explains the Sandler Enterprise Selling view on the Quarterly Review to effectively serve your enterprise accounts throughout the continuous selling cycle.
May 2017 – Top Sales World's 2017 Academy Session
Watch Brian Sullivan’s session, "The Challenges in Enterprise Selling and How To Overcome Them" on Top Sales World’s Academy. Please note that the 2017 Academy presentations are free to watch, however, registration is required prior to viewing.
Sandler Enterprise Selling: Winning, Growing, and Retaining Major Accounts was named one of Top Sales World's top 50 Sales Books for the second year in a row!
June 2017 - Knowlarity Blog featuring Brian Sullivan
Thinking about using a boilerplate survey to gauge client satisfaction level? Think again. Brian Sullivan explains the Sandler Enterprise Selling Client-Centric Satisfaction Tool to understand what is truly important to your client.
June 2017 – Sales POP! blog featuring Brian Sullivan
Brian Sullivan recounts a story as an adjunct professor at Loyola University Maryland that doing the right things for the right reasons can deliver business benefit at the same time.
Brian Sullivan provides his enterprise expertise on how Competitive Knowledge is Competitive Advantage.
May 8, 2017 – Built In Chicago, by Molly Each
If you’re used to selling to small and mid-sized organizations, you’re in for a surprise when entering the enterprise selling arena. Read these five tips from Sandler on how to become successful when working with Enterprise prospects and clients.
April 2017 - Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
What’s important to one client may be irrelevant to another. Read as Brian Sullivan explains the importance of customizing your client satisfaction process that is designed to increase the probability of successful delivery and account expansion.
Jonathan Farrington in conversation with Brian Sullivan
Listen to Brian Sullivan on Top Sales World's Jonathan Farrington interview series.
In this interview, Jonathan Farrington and Brian Sullivan put a spin on social selling as they talk through the difference when pursuing enterprise prospect accounts versus small and mid-sized accounts in the social arena.
January 2017 - Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
In selling, we work with logical account groupings for both clients and prospects, adding clarity and understanding to our efforts. In the animal kingdom, we group creatures into categories that provide scientific value. Learn as Brian Sullivan creates a connection through ones understanding of account differences in terms of traits and tendencies, which help build meaningful profiles for your accounts.
Brian Sullivan, co-author of Sandler Enterprise Selling: Winning, Growing and Retaining Major Accounts, recognized as one of Top Sales World's Featured Writers in 2017!
December 2016 - SellingPower Blog article by Dave Mattson
Selling is all about solving problems, and enterprise selling is about solving more complex problems for larger companies. Dave Mattson, CEO and President of Sandler Training and co-author of SANDLER ENTERPRISE SELLING: Winning, Growing, and Retaining Major Accounts, shares how to uncover customer pain points in Enterprise accounts on SellingPower’s blog.
November 2016 - Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
As sales managers, we’re often approached by one of our reps, making the case to pursue an opportunity. “It’s a big deal”, shares the rep, “It’s right in our power swing”. Or we hear, “We’re really well-positioned” and sometimes the tantalizing, “It’s ours to lose”. Brian Sullivan, Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling at Sandler Training shares how an early exit or early acceleration can both be gifts for an organization and all of its stakeholders.
September 2016 - Top Sales World with Brian Sullivan
One of the most frustrating challenges sales teams face in selling into complex enterprise accounts is long, drawn-out sales cycles. How do selling organizations overcome this frustrating challenge of time while also increasing the likelihood of success? Brian Sullivan, Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling at Sandler Training shares his knowledge in Top Sales Magazine.
August 31, 2016 – Fast Leader Podcast with Brian Sullivan
Brian Sullivan worked for an organization that would bring together an executive committee to make decisions on business they wanted to pursue. Because of all of their political agendas, the system wasn’t serving the company or customers very well. Brian joined Sandler in 2012 to develop the Sandler Enterprise Selling program, a more customer-centric approach to sales that helped them to win better deals and avoid pursuing bad ones.
TOP SALES MAGAZINE, MAY 2016 ISSUE
May 16, 2016 - Top Sales World interview with Brian Sullivan
Brian Sullivan, co-author of the recently published SANDLER ENTERPRISE SELLING: Winning, Growing, and Retaining Major Accounts book and Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling, sat down with Top Sales Magazine’s Jonathan Farrington for a great interview about the book. Brian provides and overview of Sandler Enterprise Selling and its six highly strategic stages designed to help you win, serve, and grow large, complex accounts.
July 21, 2016 - Corp! Magazine featuring Brian Sullivan
Brian Sullivan answers key questions that remain after the ‘Big Deal’ is landed in a guest Corp! Magazine article. Winning major opportunities with large, complex accounts can grow your business and propel your organization to new levels. But what do they really mean? What’s the real business sense for your firm in pursuing a major deal? And what’s the business risk?
July 13, 2016 - Docurated.com featuring Brian Sullivan
Brian Sullivan, co-author of SANDLER ENTERPRISE SELLING: Winning, Growing, and Retaining Major Accounts and Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling at Sandler, reveals on Docurated.com what obstacles today’s enterprise-level sales professionals are combating and what steps they can take to differentiate themselves and succeed in an increasingly tough atmosphere.
Of the hundreds of sales and marketing books published during the past twelve months, which ones stood out for their quality and originality?
SANDLER ENTERPRISE SELLING: Winning, Growing, and Retaining Major Accounts was named one of Top Sales World's top books!
July 2016 - Top Sales World article
Read Brian Sullivan's article as he shares the importance of cross-functional collaboration and team brainstorming. Sometimes, even the most amazing companies need a little help from their team to become a legend.
May 12, 2016 - The CEO Magazine blog
How do you build meaningful profiles of your clients and prospects? Brian Sullivan explains in his CEO Magazine blog post, you start by thinking about four types of accounts – Keep, Attain, Recapture, and Expand (KARE).
April 29, 2016 - StrategyDriven.com blog
The sales cycles can be long and drawn out when selling to large enterprise organizations. Read as Brian Sullivan reveals that positives do present themselves for selling teams that are effective and organized.
This book provides a practical six-stage approach for winning business with profitable enterprise clients, serving them effectively, and expanding the relationship over time.
April 21, 2016 - School for Startups Radio interview
Brian Sullivan was interviewed by School for Startups, which airs on Liberty Express Radio, Business Radio X, and is syndicated to 11 stations. The focus of this interview was SANDLER ENTERPRISE SELLING, which begins at 29:20 in the audio.
April 19, 2016 - Brian Sullivan Money for Lunch interview
Brian Sullivan was interviewed by Money for Lunch, which aired on BlogTalkRadio and iHeartRADIO. The focus of the interview was SANDLER ENTERPRISE SELLING, which begins at 16:00 in the audio.
Listen as some of our Sandler Enterprise Selling clients share their success stories with the program.