Shift90 Blog

No one wants sales training. Especially your salespeople!

Written by Mark Gibson | Jul 28, 2025 4:19:00 PM
July 23, 2025

Say “sales training” in a room full of salespeople, and watch the energy disappear. It’s not because they don’t want to get better.

It’s because they’ve been through too much training that did nothing to help them sell. The phrase triggers a reflex. Not from laziness — from experience.

They’ve sat through too many sessions focused on product slides, process compliance, and pipeline updates that help leadership — not the customer.

So they nod, smile, and forget it all the moment they’re back in the field.

🎯 Salespeople don’t need training. They need activation.

They want insight that helps them win deals. Practice they can use in real conversations. Coaching that builds confidence — not checklists.

Instead of asking what sales training sessions they should run at the next kickoff or QBR...

GTM leaders need to ask a better quality question:

How can we activate our teams to perform more effectively in front of buyers?

That question changes everything.

Not by rehashing ’90s frameworks like Solution Selling, BANT, SPIN, or MEDDPICC.

Not with recycled slides on how to “uncover pain”.

And not with qualification scripts your buyers learned to dodge years ago.

Activation starts with one overlooked source: your best customers.

Inside every won deal is a goldmine of buyer truth.

  • What triggered the decision to act?
  • What friction nearly derailed it?
  • What made your solution the safe bet — and why?

This does not mean extracting happy testimonials. It’s about decoding how buyers really make decisions.

We call them Switch Interviews, and they’re the foundation of every Shift90 engagement.

From that customer interview, we extract insight, we design messaging, sales conversations, and activation workshops that stick.

Not theory. Not frameworks.

Real practice. Real scenarios. Real shifts in sales behaviour.

Teams who adopt this approach see shorter sales cycles, higher close rates, and better deal quality — because they’re speaking the buyer’s language from the first call.

If your next sales “training” doesn’t start here, you’re wasting time - and your money.

✅ Start with buyer truth

✅ Build conversations around it

✅ Practice until it’s natural

✅ Coach until it sticks

That’s not training.

That’s how you reignite growth.

“Want to see what this looks like in action? Comment ACTIVATE and I’ll show you.”