After Burn
The situation where the thoughts about a past event are carried forward and have a negative impact on your current behavior.

Amateur
A salesperson who possesses extensive product knowledge and reveals it during the early stages of selling interactions.

At-Leaster
A psychological position defined by the I/R Theory.
Someone who works hard just to break even.
Someone who is unwilling to stretch outside his or her comfort zone and strive for greater levels of success.

Attitude/Behavior Journal
A salesperson’s daily journal in which to record "Identity" and "Role"
goals at the beginning of the day and an end-of-day assessment of goal accomplishments and attitudes.

Auditory
A description of Primary Sensory Dominance (PSD) for someone whose preference for experiencing and processing their environment is through sounds and the spoken word.

Bonding & Rapport
The process of creating a comfortable environment within which to do business by paying attention to, listening to, and showing respect for prospects and clients.

Bracketing
A technique for zeroing in on the size of a prospect’s budget for a product or service.

Budget
The second qualifying step of the Sandler Selling System.
The amount of money (and other resources) a prospect or client is willing and able to invest to obtain a product or service.

Buyer's Remorse
Having second-thoughts or regrets about a purchase or purchase commitment.

Cookbook
A list of specific prospecting activities to be performed in a given period of time in order to achieve a defined goal for that period.

Decision
The third qualifying step in the Sandler Selling System.
The people, process, location, and timing for making a buying decision.

Dummy
A salesperson who is new to sales and possesses little product knowledge.

Dummy Curve
A graphical representation ("U" shaped curve) of the amount of commission a salesperson earns over time as he or she progresses from the "Dummy" stage to the "Amateur" stage and finally to the "Professional" stage of the selling profession.

Dummy-up Question
Information presented in the form of a question for the purpose of testing the prospect’s reaction. "I don’t suppose a split-ship option would be of much value to you, would it?" is an example.

Fulfillment
The fourth step in the Sandler Selling System.
Demonstrating or presenting to prospects in the manner, place, and time designated by them how your product or service fulfills their needs and wants and also meets their budget allocations or limitations.

Fuzzy File
A section of a prospect’s or client’s file where "warm" and "fuzzy"
information such as personal interests, birthday, hobbies, and children’s names is recorded.

I/R Theory
A behavior model that defines the interconnected nature of one’s role performance and one’s self-identify. I/R Theory defines three psychological positions: winners, at-leasters, and losers.

Kinesthetic
A description of primary sensory dominance (PSD) for someone whose preference for experiencing and processing their environment is through external experiences of touch and internal feelings of comfort or discomfort.

Loser
A psychological position defined by the I/R Theory.
Someone who does not accomplish a declared purpose.
Someone who is unlikely to try new things or do things differently; does not expect to “win” and most often doesn’t.

Matching & Mirroring
A technique for building rapport with another person by synchronizing one’s body posture and gestures, breathing rate, voice tone, and energy level with the other person.

Mind Reading
Assigning meaning to a prospect’s or customer’s statement without verifying your interpretation.

Monkey's Paw
The strategy of closing a smaller sale—typically, a component of a larger sale—as a lead-in to the larger sale. The smaller sale could also be a study or a pilot program. In all cases, an integral element of the "monkey’s paw" sale is the prospect’s commitment to complete the larger sale if pre-defined conditions of the smaller sale are met.

Mutual Mystification
A condition where the salesperson and the prospect each hold a belief about what is to happen next in the selling process, but they have not conferred with one another to verify the accuracy of their beliefs.

Negative Reverse
A "reversing" question posed in the negative such as, "You wouldn’t want a longer warranty, would you?"

Pain
The first qualifying step in the Sandler Selling System.
A condition that exists when there is a gap between what the prospect has and what the prospect wants or needs and the gap can be closed by your product or service.

Pendulum Theory
A theory that describes the three motivational positions—positive, neutral, and negative—through which a prospect "swings" back and forth during the selling process.

Post-Sell
The fifth and final step in the Sandler Selling System.
Testing the prospect’s commitment to a positive buying decision or next step in the selling process.

Primary Sensory Dominance
The sense (usually sight, sound, or touch) for which an individual has a natural preference for perceiving his or her environment.

Professional
A salesperson who possesses extensive product knowledge but refrains from revealing it during the early stages of selling interactions.

Prospect
A potential buyer for your product or service.

Prospecting
The act of performing various activities intended to identify and contact potential buyers for your product or service.

Reach-Back
The situation where the thoughts about a future event "reach back" and have a negative impact on your current behavior.

Referral
Someone identified to you as a potential user of your product or service.

Referral Tree
A network of referred persons whose origin can be traced to a single individual.

Reversing
The strategy of answering a question with a question.

Rule of 3
A rule which states that it often takes three or more "reversing"
questions to reveal the real intent of the prospect’s original question.

SMARTER
An acronym for the elements to consider when developing meaningful goals:

     Specific
     Measurable
     Attainable
     Relevant
     Time-based
     Enjoyable
     Rewarding

Seagulls
Aspects of your product or service for which the prospect has not expressed interest.

Softening Statements
Statements such as, "I’m glad you brought that up” And, "That’s an interesting question"
which precedes the salesperson’s reverses.

Stripping Line
Exhibiting a behavior to your prospect opposite to which he or she is accustomed.
Asking a "negative reverse."

Thermometer Technique
A technique employed during a presentation to determine, on a scale of zero to ten, how close the prospect is to making a positive buying decision—a ten on the scale—or how far the prospect is from that decision.

Thirty-Second Commercial
A short description of your company’s product or service from the perspective of the problems it helps one solve and/or the goals it helps one achieve.

Three-Foot Rule
A prospecting strategy that dictates that you introduce yourself to anyone who is within three feet of you when you are networking or in other appropriate environments.

Unasked Questions
A statement made by the prospect interpreted by the salesperson as a stall or objection to which he or she feels compelled to respond.

Unpaid Consulting
Educating prospects in the hopes that they will look favorably upon your product or service when there is no indication or commitment from them that they will do so.

Up-Front Contract
The concept of maintaining control and adding predictability to the selling process by obtaining the prospect’s agreement about how each succeeding step in the process will be carried out in advance of the step.
An agreement between the prospect and salesperson about an upcoming meeting which includes the time and place for the meeting, the objective of the meeting, the intended outcome of the meeting, and the role each will play in effecting that outcome.

Visual
A description of primary sensory dominance (PSD) for someone whose preference for experiencing and processing their environment is through pictures and other visual stimuli.

Wimp Junction
The point in the sales call, which usually occurs shortly after the initial contact, where the salesperson has to decide whether to take control of the process or "wimp out" and allow the prospect to take control.

Winner
A psychological position defined by the I/R Theory.
Someone who accomplishes his or her declared purpose.
Someone who is willing to take risks and try new things or do things differently; expects to "win" and most often does.

© 2009 Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.