Sales training and coaching
A sales team improves through practice with a coach, not through one day of slides.
Drills for the calls that matter, the routines a manager can run each week, and the hiring and onboarding that decide who gets the chance to learn them.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Sales training is the work of teaching salespeople the specific skills their deals need, and coaching is how those skills are checked and corrected afterwards. This section sets out the drills, guides and routines that do both, written for a small team with one manager or an owner.
Pick the stage of the deal where your team loses most, start with the drill for it, and add coaching and hiring pages as the team grows.
Topic 1
Sales careers and mindset.
How salespeople grow, and the habits that keep them selling after rejection.
- Sales role design and career mapGive every sales role a card, a number and a next step.
- Sales career development planEvery salesperson should know their next step and the date for it.
- Resilience and mindset practiceA lost deal should cost a rep a day, not a month.
- Everyday selling auditThe person at the counter sells more than your sales team thinks.
- Salesperson online profile auditSearch your own name before a buyer does, and fix what they would find.
Topic 2
Prospecting and meeting-booking practice.
Drills for finding good-fit prospects and getting meetings. Distinct from the sales-process sourcing and prospect-list pages: these are practice routines.
- Good fit company and person testScore the company and the person separately before you chase either.
- Buyer interview sprintTalk to nine buyers in three weeks and write down what they actually say.
- Local prospect list sprintBuild a list of thirty to fifty named prospects before you pick up the phone.
- LinkedIn prospecting tacticsTest eight LinkedIn tactics for a week and keep the two that find buyers.
- Social selling daily routineSpend thirty minutes a day in the places your buyers talk, and log what comes of it.
- Networking event prep and weak ties routinePrepare before each event, debrief after it, and reconnect with one old contact a week.
- Prospect research briefResearch only the prospects who pass a filter, and keep it to one page each.
- Top down or bottom up entry testRun a four-week test to learn whether you should start at the top or with users.
- First message formula and booking linkWrite a four-part first message and give the reader a link to book in one click.
- Multi touch follow up sequencePlan the five messages after the first call before the first call happens.
- Value proposition against win reasonsAsk the people who bought why they bought, then check your pitch says the same.
Topic 3
Qualifying conversations.
Practising discovery and qualification without interrogating.
- Discovery call practice guideRehearse the discovery call until the buyer does the talking.
- Budget questions without interrogationAsk about money last, and ask it as a question about the project.
- Qualification question ladderClimb a fixed ladder of questions on every deal before you call it live.
- Decision maker and champion mapDraw the people around the signature before the quotation goes out.
- Active listening and recap practiceRepeat what you heard, in writing, and have the buyer confirm it.
Topic 4
Objections and closing practice.
Rehearsing the end of the sale. Distinct from the sales-process objection and closing pages: these are practice drills.
- Close readiness and closing call prepScore a deal for readiness before you book the closing meeting.
- Three question close practiceFinish the last meeting with three questions that bring out the hidden no.
- One to ten scale closeAsk the buyer for a number out of ten and listen to the gap.
- Objection response practice libraryA written answer nobody has said aloud yet is not a response, it is a draft.
- Negotiation plan and trade-off menuNever give a discount; trade it for something written on your menu.
- Silence and ask drillsSay the price, then close your mouth and let the buyer speak first.
- Month-end pressure pipeline checkMonth-end discounts are a pipeline problem showing up as a pricing problem.
Topic 5
Team foundations.
The shared definitions a team needs before coaching.
- Customer job interviewsAsk recent buyers to walk you backwards from the day they paid.
- Job story and real competition mapYour biggest rival is probably the buyer's decision to do nothing.
- Buyer journey question bankA rep should know what the buyer is thinking before saying a word about the product.
- Pipeline stage exit criteriaA deal moves on when the buyer has done something, not when the rep feels good.
- Funnel gap diagnosticTrain the stage before the steepest drop, and train one behaviour at a time.
- Weekly pipeline coverage checkOnce this month's deals close, who is left for you to talk to?
- Pain persona proof playbookGive every rep one matrix that says what to know, say and show.
- Selling approach selectorTeach reps to hear the buyer's cue before they pick a pitch.
- Sales process health checkScore your sales process before you change it again.
- Four stage sales process mapDraw your sales process on one page with four stages and an owner for each.
Topic 6
Coaching the sales team.
Coaching routines a manager runs weekly and monthly.
- Coaching reality checkAsk your reps what coaching they received before you say you coach.
- Monthly one to one with numbersHold one conversation a month where the rep's own numbers set the agenda.
- Per rep funnel diagnosticFind the one stage where each rep loses deals, and fix only that.
- Call review ritualListen to real calls as a team, against the playbook, on a fixed day.
- Weekly pipeline inspectionHave a different rep lead the pipeline check each week with the same questions.
- Coach redeploy or exit decisionDecide on a weak rep with a matrix and a twelve-week plan, not a mood.
- Mastery ladder and role play assessmentRate each rep on five skills and watch them sell to a pretend buyer.
Topic 7
Hiring and onboarding sellers.
Building the early team, hiring against evidence and ramping new reps.
- Sales hiring readiness checkCheck five things are in place before you post a sales vacancy.
- Top performer profile and hiring scorecardBuild the hiring scorecard from the reps who already sell well for you.
- Skills based interview kitInterview a sales candidate by making them do a small piece of the job.
- Sales talent pipelineKeep a warm list of salespeople you would hire before you need one.
- Onboarding ramp and certificationGive each new rep three monthly targets and certify them on orders, not quizzes.
- New hire playbookWrite one short playbook that a new rep can read in the first week.
Topic 8
Training programme design.
Designing training that changes behaviour. Distinct from the sales-management training pages: these are team-level designs.
- Team skills baselineRate every salesperson on four selling skills before you book any training.
- Single behaviour training planTrain the team on one behaviour, and measure the stage of the funnel it should move.
- Learning time and certification leaderboardFix one hour a week for learning and put certification progress on a board.
- Ninety day sales improvement planPick three sales fixes, give each an owner and a number, and check on day ninety.
Before you start
Three things worth knowing about these topics.
Training that is not practised is forgotten.
A session on objections changes nothing unless the team rehearses the real objections from last month's lost deals, with someone listening.
Coaching needs numbers and a calendar.
A manager who coaches only when there is time never coaches. The routine has to sit in the diary, and it has to start from the rep's own funnel.
Hiring is the first training decision.
A weak hire costs months of coaching. A written scorecard and a milestone-based start do more than another workshop.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
Who is this section for?
Can we run this without an outside trainer?
How is this different from the sales management pages?
Do you run training yourselves?
Related sections
Separate sections, each with its own topics.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.