The Sandler Training Hour
Join Jim and Jason Stephens for weekly insights on the Sandler Selling System, navigating the modern sales landscape, and overcoming real-world business challenges.
A Sandler Trainer is a salesperson. We lead by example and talk from experience.
Reach out to us: Jason.Stephens@sandler.com
Visit our website: https://go.sandler.com/crossroads/
Episodes
113 episodes
How to Disarm a Frustrated Client Without Making It Worse
A client comes at you upset. Maybe a deal went sideways, maybe a promise got missed, maybe they just had a hard week and you are the closest target. Your instinct is to defend, explain, or jump straight to fixing it. That instinct is the proble...
How to Stop Accommodating Prospects Who Will Not Commit
You spend ten hours qualifying a prospect; they return your calls, agree to the next meeting, never quite say yes. You tell yourself one more conversation gets them across the line. The relationship feels good, so you keep going.On this ...
How to Stop Running Your Sales Day on Autopilot
You know your sales routine has become predictable; you also know that some part of you keeps making excuses for why now is not the time to change anything.That gap is the topic of this episode. We talk about why salespeople and sales le...
Why Your Sales Team Resists Scripts (And How It's Hurting Your Close Rate)
Most salespeople will tell you they have a process. What they actually have is a set of habits that work often enough to feel like success; that is not a system. In this episode, we make the case for the sales playbook most reps resist, and we ...
Stop Pitching, Start Diagnosing: What a Hospital Stay Taught Us About Discovery Calls
Your last lost deal probably was not lost in the proposal. It was lost in the discovery call, when you heard a prospect describe a problem and assumed you already knew what they meant.Jim is back from an unexpected hiatus -- a sepsis dia...
Why Playing It Safe on Sales Calls Gets You Ghosted
Your prospect was engaged, the call felt good, and then the follow-ups went into a black hole. If that pattern keeps repeating, the problem probably is not your product; it is that you played it too safe.This week Jim is still out recove...
Why You Forget 90% of Your Sales Training in a Week
You sat through the training. You took the notes. A week later, you cannot recall half of what you learned. That is not a discipline problem; it is a memory problem, and it has a name.In this solo episode, I walk through the Ebbinghaus f...
Why Experienced Salespeople Still Need Sales Training Events
You have been doing this for years. You know the process, you know the objections, you know your product inside and out. So why would you spend a thousand dollars and a few days of travel to sit in a training room?We just got back from t...
How to Use a Daily Talk Track to Fix a Weak Point on Your Sales Assessment
Most salespeople who score low on criticism tolerance already know it. They can give you examples before you finish the sentence. The problem is that knowing does not change the default response when feedback actually arrives.In this epi...
How to Stay Top of Mind With Clients Without Being Annoying
Title: How to Stay Top of Mind With Clients Without Being AnnoyingDescription:You know you should stay in touch with clients and prospects. You also know that most of your outreach feels hollow, sporadic, forced. If ...
Why AI Can't Replace Sales Training: The Case for Emotional Competence Over Technical Skills
You've probably heard it — maybe you've even thought it yourself: "I can just pull Sandler techniques from ChatGPT. Why would I pay for training?" It's a fair question, and it's one we hear more and more. But it misses something fundamental abo...
Stop Winging It: Building a Sales Playbook That Actually Closes Deals
You fought hard to get the meeting — but once you're in the conversation, do you actually know what to do next? Most salespeople spend half the call figuring out their next move instead of executing a plan. Jim and Jason break down what a real ...
The Silent Deal Killer: Why Your Post-Sale Process Is Costing You Clients
Hook: You fought for the meeting, navigated the decision-making process, handled the objections, and got the signature. So why is the deal still at risk? The uncomfortable truth is that the period between a signed contract and the first ...
The Equality Mandate: Escaping the Subservient Sales Trap
The Myth of the Helpful ServantThe traditional sales trope is a landscape of desperation, where professionals beg for entry at closing doors and allow clients to dominate the narrative under the guise of "good customer service". W...
Avoiding "Unpaid Consulting" When Bringing Experts on the Road
Bringing a Subject Matter Expert (SME) or technical lead into a sales meeting can add immense credibility, but without the right guardrails, it often creates a "operations centric" call rather than a "sales centric" one. Technical experts often...
The Tolerance Gap: Navigating the Fear of Failure and Success
IntroMany talented professionals find themselves trapped by a "tolerance gap," where the fear of underdelivering or the subtle self-sabotage of the fear of success keeps them from turning their mastery into a thriving business. We...
The Skeptic’s Guide to Optimism: Auditing Your Attitude for Growth
Are you entering 2026 with a strategy, or just a "hope-based" mindset?Many salespeople confuse a positive mood with a winning strategy, relying on hope that things will go well rather than executing measurable activities. If you f...
The Authenticity Trap: Moving from Reactive Defense to Proactive Control
Most salespeople learn to treat an objection like a surprise attack—something they must battle with logic the moment it happens. However, this reactive approach usually leads to "salesperson ping pong," an argument where nobody wins and the pro...
The Speed of Culture: Why Sales Agility Beats a Perfect Script
You can have the perfect script and the perfect product, but if you don't have the agility to adapt to the market, you will lose the deal to the competitor who does. We often think technology is just about the tools, but it is actually about ho...
Stop "Poisoning the Well": Why You Need to Sell the Commitment, Not the Pain
Are you accidentally talking your prospects out of a good experience before they’ve even had it?In sales, we often think we are building rapport by being "honest" about the tedious parts of our process. We say things like, "Okay, now com...
Relationship Management: Gratitude That Lands, Not Just Words
In this episode, Jim and Jason explore the difference between saying thank you and expressing gratitude in a way that actually connects. Gratitude, they explain, is not just a statement—it carries emotion, intention, and meaning. When ...
Positive Outlook: Governing Your Thinking in an Uncertain Economy
In this episode, Jim and Jason explore how the information you consume directly shapes your beliefs—and how those beliefs influence every decision you make in sales, leadership, and your long-term success. Drawing on insights from an economics ...
Questioning: Listen More Than You Talk — Building Trust Through Curiosity
n this episode, Jim and Jason explore the subtle, yet powerful skill of active listening in sales—and how it distinguishes top performers from average ones. Together, they reflect on the idea that credibility isn’t about what you know...
Sales Planning and Prospecting: Evergreen vs. Time-Sensitive Outreach
In this episode, we break down a subtle but important distinction in prospecting strategy: the difference between evergreen outreach and time-sensitive messaging. Jim and Jason explore how consistent, repeatable prospecting efforts (like evergr...
Business Growth: The Case for Sales Management (Even If You’re Small)
In this episode, Jim and Jason explore the critical role of sales management—not as a title, but as a function—especially for companies transitioning from founder-led sales to team-based selling. If your team is hitting plateaus, missing follow...