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Randy Beres
currently VP of Sales at a large software company
How did you first become aware of Negotiating with the Savvy Software Buyer and Sandler?
Eric Balis was one of our top sales reps at Business Objects (and formerly Crystal Decisions) and was held in high regard as the best negotiator on the East Coast team. At the time, I was the Director of World Wide Sales Process and Education, and I went to Eric to find out what tools he uses and where he learned it. He pointed me to Sandler.
I had to get consensus before I rolled out anything, so we did the first negotiating training as a pilot for the sales managers. Steve came down and hit it off with everybody and got the unanimous vote that he did a great job, he understands our business, and the stuff he was teaching would be of immediate use to the team. With the buy-in from the sales leadership and managers, we subsequently rolled it out to the field.
How do you use Sandler?
It's funny, because I just took a new position as VP of sales for Sophos, which is an anti-spam, anti-virus company. I was just unloading my stuff from Crystal and I had all the evaluation forms from one of the sessions Steve did. The biggest thing that stood out for me in all the feedback forms was that with a lot of training programs, people have to go away from the training and have to think, "How am I going to use this." Steve gives you tools that you can immediately use.
Can you give an example?
Sure. One thing that Steve talked about was to use written Ultimate Contracts; putting milestones in place for a software deal to be done. In other words, if we want the deal done in this quarter, what do we have to achieve, when and who is responsible for it?
The Mobile Defense Strategy was another thing that was defined; it was just another tool that was taught in the program that people really liked.
Can you explain that Mobile Defense Plan?
It's basically a plan from a negotiation standpoint that allows you to anticipate some of the moves that the customer will make; so as the negotiation moves through the course of the sales cycle it's not a surprise. You are actually thinking, "If the customer does this, then I will do this." It allows you to think several moves ahead.
Have you ever taken any other sales courses?
Oh yeah, 20 years. Oh yeah. I'm looking at all the books on my shelf.
How does Sandler stack up against everything else you've done?
I can honestly say that I have done one negotiation training before. It was pretty basic and I don't remember anything useful from that. But with Steve's program, I absolutely walked away with things you can use to sell software today. So did everyone on the team—from senior managers and reps to the newer people in the telesales team. Even something as simple as the topic of the course, Negotiating with the Savvy Software Buyer, earns instant credibility with the sales force. It wasn't just a name of the cover on the book. When Steve started to talk, he talked about license agreements and escrow. It was clear very, very quickly that he knows our business. The usability of the material, the credibility of the instructor—people decide whether they are going to pay attention or not based on those types of things.
Can you quantify the impact of using Sandler?
Yes. Within two weeks there was one deal that we were in the middle of when we did the program. Because of the negotiating tools that we used, we ended up getting more money out of the deal than it cost us for the program. So from an ROI standpoint, It's kind of a no-brainer.
Have you ever thought about going back for further training?
Absolutely.
Would you recommend Sandler to others in your profession?
Absolutely. I would recommend Steve and that organization. They have operated in the high-tech sales business for a long time. Sales people are skeptical about sales training. The number one thing about sales training is the credibility of the trainer. Steve spoke the language and he has a very engaging personality.
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