You Can’t Teach A Kid To Ride A Bike
At A Seminar by David Sandler
Book Review Rating – 5 Stars
In 1995 when I started my self employed adventure, a former boss of mine who had ploughed the same path told me to read a book about sales training every year.
Since then, I’ve read plenty of sales books and listened to sales training CDs and watched sales DVDs.
You Can’t Teach A Kid To Ride A Bike At A Seminar by David Sandler with John Hayes PhD is the most different and the most memorable but it might not be the best.
As far as I am concerned, this is a must read book for you to establish how far you are prepared to go to manipulate a customer to get the money. There’s something here that makes me feel very queasy because it’s asking me to be someone I’m not.
At the same time, this is a “no manipulation” manipulative selling system. It’s dressed up in a way to appear as if you’re not really that interested in selling to the potential customer and he or she must convince you that the deal is right.
The Sales Person Fights Back
If you’re sick of acting like an unpaid consultant who feels used and abused by potential customers who take everything you know and use it to get a better deal from your competitors, then you should read this book.
If the idea of using a closing system to engineer a Yes decision to buy from the customer makes you feel sick, then this book is for you.
The Base Of The Selling System
David Sandler uses the Sandler Submarine to give you control over your selling process and to take away the buyer’s control of their buying process.
The idea is like a submarine filling up with water, once the step is passed, there is no going back. The door is closed and the airlock is shut tight.
The steps are:
- Bonding and rapport
- Get an up-front contract
- Find the pain
- Budget
- Qualify the decision making ability of your prospect
- Match your solution to the pain and get the order
- Stop the risk of the prospect having buyer’s remorse.
Some parts of the system are very similar to other selling systems. Most tell you to establish rapport and to find the pain of the problem.
Other aspects of this system are very different.
Like the idea of lagging behind the prospective buyer’s enthusiasm for your product. The idea is that instead of trying to push the buying to say Yes, you let the buyer pull you.
Feeling Good As A Sales Person
The book devotes considerable time to help you cope with rejection and to separate out the You that is a great person and the You that has to sell to earn a living.
This is a nice change from the “sales is a numbers game, if you’re not prepared for the grind and the rejections, get out of the game” style of approach you’ll see in some books.
The Book Is The Entry Point Into The Expensive World Of Sandler Coaching
Did you notice the strange title?
You Can’t Teach A Kid To Ride A Bike At A Seminar
The message is that you can’t learn sales at a seminar or by reading a book.
- You need constant reinforcement.
- You learn the system.
- You practice it with your coach and fellow students.
- You try it in the real world.
- You go over your experiences with your coach and fellow students.
- And you keep cycling around.
As a coach, I’ve got some sympathy with this idea although I believe that working with a coach should help you move to independence and not sell you into a life of dependence and addiction.
I should also add that Sandler is a franchise so you’ll be taking coaching from your local area franchisee.
Overall Rating For You Can’t Teach A Kid To Ride A Bike At A Seminar by David Sandler – 5 Stars
There is a great deal to like in this book and that’s why I rate it as a 5 Star must read book..
Step by step, it makes a lot of sense.
I particularly like the idea of the upfront contract and aiming for a quick NO if the buyer isn’t interested at all. The more qualifying you do and the more it’s based on honest communication, the better.
The situation where you are not trusting the buyer and the buyer is not trusting you doesn’t seem to be a good place to get a deal that’s good for both parties.
Because I don’t do selling as a living, I don’t get as worked up about buyers lying and manipulating as the book does. I guess I’ve felt lied to and manipulated by more sales people than by buyers.
I always try to add value in every contact I have with a potential customer. Partly that’s because I’m a nice chap and I like to be helpful. It’s also because I sell an intangible service I believe providing free advice helps make what I can do, much more tangible and believable. It’s part of establishing my own credibility.
I mentioned earlier that the combination of the steps from A to Z make me feel queasy and just as Sandler talks about a salesman being called out on the Impending Event close (the price goes up on Monday), I feel that if the buyer picks up too much of a Sandler flavour in your selling, you’re probably in trouble.
I regards this book as a must read for anyone who wants to sell professionally and that will include many business owners who have the Sales Director role.
It will challenge what you think and know about selling. Do you want to be conventional or unconventional. Do you want to seize control or the process overtly or covertly? Do you want to help the prospect to buy?
There is also an excellent David Sandler audio training set available from Nightingale Conant called Close The Deal. David Sandler is an engaging speaker and it’s funny to hear him tell stories and to share his selling techniques.
I’ve written about this final point before, there isn’t one best selling system that’s right for everyone but there is one that’s right for you and which matches your values, beliefs and the type of sales situations you find yourself in.
That could be Sandler, it could by Ari Galper. I like the way Mitch Axelrod approaches sales.
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