Where are your residential and commercial salespeople, selling technicians, and phone selling/call center employees receiving instruction and coaching on critical topics like Goal Setting … Buyer Temperaments … Off-season Appointment Setting … Likeability … Over-Talking Prospects … Active Listening … Avoiding Weasel Words … Prospect Apathy …, etc.?

I realize you don’t have the time or the resources to accomplish this, so why not let me help. I’ve done the heavy lifting for managers/business owners like you, after spending nearly 50 years in the world of selling (Yes, I took my first selling job in 1972!) Look at my version of DIY sales training.

Doug's Book

I put all this together in 2012 by writing and publishing Sell is NOT a Four Letter Word, to help salespeople improve their performance.

For your purposes these are Sales Training Lesson Plans. 116 concise topics, 274 total pages (2½ pages per topic avg.). Each one is short, relevant, common sense, and in understandable plain English.

This is the salesperson piece of the DIY sales training puzzle.

Leader GuideFor you, the manager, I developed a Leader Guide, containing one page of open questions for each of the 116 topics in the book, in an old-school 3-ring binder.

These questions will form the backbone of your short (I recommend 30 minute) sales meetings and will guide discussions of each topic (with very little preparation). This format invites participation and involvement of your team members so that sales training is no longer a “lecture” from you, but is now a weekly team event.

At the end of each lesson is a Skill Check, an application activity for your folks to “show what they know” because it’s not training unless the participants do it!

Leader Guide Details

Wondering what the Leader Guide & Lesson Plans look like? Here’s a screenshot of the Table of Contents for the six segments in Chapter 1. (Click on screenshot to view all 216 topics of LG)
Leader Guide Table of Contents Chapter 1

And here is an example of a page from the Leader Guide. These are the discussion questions for segment 55 on eliminating Weasel Words when selling.

 Here is the Financial Investment

First, each sales employee needs their own personal copy of the sales training lesson plans (my book) @$16 each. Second, you (the manager) need a Leader Guide @ $69. With these materials I provide FREE SHIPPING anywhere in the U.S.

Additionally, I want you to know that I stand behind these materials with a no hassle money back guarantee. (Since 2012 nobody has ever exercised it, but it’s there in case you are the first.)

Simple Steps To Begin Your DIY Sales Training Sessions

sales training four steps

  1. Determine skill focus needed for first sales meeting (from Leader Guide contents). Assign that book segment for reps to read prior to meeting. (Chronological order of book unimportant)
  2. Using corresponding topic in Leader Guide, conduct sales meeting by asking questions provided in order to generate discussion. Customize with specific examples from your business.
  3. Perform Skill Check at conclusion of meeting to ensure they “got it.”
  4. Assign topic for next meeting based on skill focus needed (repeat step 1)

With 116 topics, even if you have sales meetings every week, this material provides you fresh topics for over 2 years!

3 Benefits of Using These Materials with Your Folks

INEXPENSIVE

As an example, let’s say you have 6 people who sell (2 sales & 4 techs); your investment would only be $165 ($69 LG + $96 for 6 books). That’s a great value considering how expensive most training programs are nowadays.

NO PREP/PLANNING

No more scratching your head searching for a relevant topic or materials to train on to improve performance. The Skill Focus column in the LG Table of Contents will highlight the “pain” and identify the lesson that will address it. BOOM! Just follow the “Yellow Brick Road” by asking the questions provided for you on that page of the Leader Guide and customize the answers to fit your company culture.

RELEVANT

The face-to-face skills I discuss are rarely emphasized in sales training programs. Based on my  experience I know how critical it is for salespeople to be knowledgeable in these communication skill sets. A quick look at the Contents of Sell is NOT a Four Letter Word should confirm this observation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of companies are using these materials for sales training?

Pest control (commercial & residential), HVAC, Quick oil change/lube, Security systems & alarms, Information Technology, Environmental services.

Is this training material really as relevant as you say?

Absolutely! But don’t take my word for it. James Bingham, a DM with American LubeFast says, “Your material really speaks to our guys like no other sales training material ever has. Most of the time it seems like you wrote it specifically for our industry.”

Can this approach possibly be as user-friendly as you advertise?

Again, read what an actual customer says. Jay Carpenter, Chief Business Developer of technology sales at Invision Technologies swears by it. “Doug, your sales training approach is a dream come true for me, as I stay as busy as a one-armed painter most of the time. All I need to do is recognize where the sales folks are falling short and then pick a lesson that covers that skill focus for them to read prior to our weekly meeting. When I open my Leader Guide to that lesson and ask the first question on the page, an instant discussion ALWAYS begins. It’s like magic; I just ensure they leave the meeting with a new perspective that will help them improve.”

Do companies use the Leader Guide any differently than you explained it here?

As a matter of fact; yes. For variety sake, I recommend occasionally providing the questions up front when assigning the lesson, especially when covering topics that might require more thought before answering. Additionally I like “peer learning.” Providing the questions in advance gives the manager an opportunity to assign specific questions to specific reps who you know will have a lot to add due to their experience and success level.

My Personal Invitation To You Whether You Buy Or Not

I invite you to subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Selling Point which is my gift to you. With it, you receive a BONUS consisting of an audio recording from a live statewide blue collar franchise group where I spoke on Improving Your Communication Skills. You will also have access to my vault of past Selling Point issues, dating back six years. You will absolutely be able to use and apply many of these sales, customer service, and sales management posts hatched from my HP keyboard.

Still not quite sure this is for you? Watch this short video.