Sales training and coaching · Training programme design
Rate every salesperson on four selling skills before you book any training.
A team skills baseline rates each salesperson from one to five on prospecting, outreach, qualifying and closing, once by themselves and once by the manager. The gap between the two is read in a private one-to-one. The page ends with a heatmap and one named training priority per person.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A team skills baseline rates each salesperson from one to five on prospecting, outreach, qualifying and closing, once by themselves and once by the manager. The gap between the two is read in a private one-to-one. The page ends with a heatmap and one named training priority per person.
A solar installer in Nashik books a one-day sales training for all eight reps. The trainer spends the morning on cold calling, which three of the team already do well, and the afternoon on closing, which only one of them struggles with. The owner pays the fee and sees no change in the order book.
A baseline stops that. Before any training, you rate each person from one to five on four skills: finding prospects, writing or making the first approach, qualifying whether the enquiry is real, and handling objections to close. Each rep rates themselves. The manager rates them separately, using deals they remember or can check in the CRM.
You put the two ratings side by side. Where the rep says five and the manager says two, you have a conversation to have. Where both say two, you have a training topic. You end with a heatmap of the team and one named priority for each person.
The owner or sales head runs the exercise, about fifteen minutes per rep plus half an hour to review. It comes before the single behaviour training plan, which turns one weak spot into a programme, and it feeds the mastery ladder.
Where this sits
Topic 8 of 8 in sales training and coaching: training programme design. Designing training that changes behaviour. Distinct from the sales-management training pages: these are team-level designs.
- The topic before
- Hiring and onboarding sellers
If you want this done for you
My salespeople do not follow up, do not handle objections and do not close.
The work
What this is actually like.
“People rate themselves for the boss”
In a team where the owner is called sir, self-ratings drift upward to show confidence or downward to show modesty. Tell every rep before they fill the sheet that it decides which training they get and has no link to pay or appraisal. Then keep that promise.
“The manager's rating needs evidence”
"Weak at closing" is an impression. Pick three recent deals per rep and note where each stalled: not enough prospects, no proper first message, wrong person, price, or silence after the quote. The stall point is the evidence.
“The average hides the problem”
A team average of three out of five looks fine when it is made of five reps at five and five at one. Read the heatmap by person and by skill. The training you design for the average helps nobody.
“Not every gap is a training gap”
If a rep scores low on prospecting because the territory has no leads, a course will not help. Ask whether the gap is skill, tools, territory or motivation before you commit time and money.
What we do
What you end up with.
The documents this topic produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The rating guide
A page for each of the four skills describing what a one and a five look like, written with examples from your own sales. Both rep and manager use the same page.
Result: Finished when a rep reading it can place themselves without asking what the words mean.
The two sets of ratings
A table with each rep's self-score and the manager's score for each skill, filled separately and compared afterwards.
Result: Finished when no one has seen the other set before filling their own.
The heatmap
People down the side, four skills across, cells coloured by the manager score, with a mark where the self-score differs by two or more.
Result: Finished when the weakest skill for the whole team is visible in five seconds.
The one-to-one notes
For each rep, the one skill they will train first, the reason in a sentence, and the date of the next rating.
Result: Finished when each rep has agreed the priority aloud.
The re-rating date
A date about ninety days later to rate again, so the sheet becomes a trend.
Result: Finished when the date is in everyone's diary.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
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.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Can we do this with a team of two?
What if a rep takes the result badly?
Should we rate more than four skills?
How is this different from the mastery ladder?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this topic further.
The rest of training programme design
Or read all of sales training and coaching.
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.