Sales training for distributors — built for margin defense, territory ownership, and renewal wins
Built for margin defense, territory ownership, and renewal wins — the work that actually decides a distributor rep’s year.
Distributor Sales Teams face challenges generic sales training was never built to solve
Most sales training programs were built for SaaS companies or inside sales teams. They don’t account for the realities of distributor sales teams — territorial reps, in-person prospecting, replacement cycles, and competitive renewal cycles.
CHALLENGE 01
Margin erodes deal by deal
Distributor reps are paid on margin but have no real method for defending it. They drop 4–6% on every quote and don’t even know they’re doing it.
CHALLENGE 02
Reps only service existing accounts
Without a prospecting muscle, reps default to babysitting their book. New business goes flat, and the territory stays the same size for years.
CHALLENGE 03
“We already have a supplier” ends meetings
Every prospect has someone. Without a real displacement framework, reps lose the conversation before discovery even starts.
CHALLENGE 04
Mix shift never happens
Reps sell what they’ve always sold. The high-margin lines you invested in stay on the shelf because no rep knows how to position them.
CHALLENGE 05
Renewals leak to lower-cost competitors
Without a deliberate retention motion, every renewal is a fresh competitive bid. Customers shop you, and you find out about it after they’ve already signed elsewhere.
CHALLENGE 06
Branch managers were top reps — not trained coaches
Most distribution sales management is “hire a top rep, hope they manage well.” The good rep becomes a mediocre manager, and the team plateaus.
Sales Bootcamp, adapted for distributor sales teams
Sales Bootcamp is 12 live classes over 12 weeks via Zoom. Cohorts capped at 10. The curriculum has three phases — the same phases your reps will run on every deal, in order: prospect, run the meeting, build the value.
Phase 1 — Prospecting for Net New Business (Classes 1–5)
The first five classes build the prospecting engine your distributor reps need to keep new business flowing — not just service existing accounts.
- Class 1 — Preparation: The Qualifying Formula & How I Prepare for a Great Week. How to plan a prospecting week before it starts. The qualifying formula reps use to know which accounts to chase and which to skip.
- Class 2 — Cold Calling on Foot: Cold Calling in Person + Objection Handling. For distributor reps, this is walking into a manufacturing plant, an industrial buyer’s facility, or a contractor’s office cold. How to do it. How to handle the gatekeeper. How to handle “we already have a supplier.”
- Class 3 — Cold Calling over the Phone: Cold Calling over the Phone + Objection Handling. Phone prospecting that doesn’t sound scripted. Objection handling for the most common responses a distributor rep hears.
- Class 4 — Becoming Fearless: Mindset, Sequences & The Numbers Game. The mindset behind consistent daily activity. Multi-channel sequences that keep your rep in front of an account until they’re ready to switch suppliers.
- Class 5 — Certification Day: Warm Calling over the Phone. Live skill check. Your rep certifies on the phone prospecting fundamentals before moving forward.
Phase 2 — Running Effective Meetings (Classes 6–8)
Three classes on running a first appointment that produces a real next step.
- Class 6 — Preparation: How to Prepare for Your Blind Date. How to walk into a first meeting prepared — research on the prospect, their current spend by category, their incumbent supplier.
- Class 7 — During the Appointment: Coming Up with the Right Questions. The discovery framework that surfaces what’s actually broken in their current supplier relationship — not just what the prospect will volunteer.
- Class 8 — Certification Day: First Appointment Simulation. Your rep runs a live mock first meeting and gets coached on what to do differently before they’re in front of a real prospect.
Phase 3 — Building Value & Differentiation (Classes 9–12)
The closing phase. How to win distributor business at full margin without dropping price.
- Class 9 — Strategy: Understanding Why Customers Buy + The Value of Comparisons. Why distribution buyers actually switch — and how to position against an incumbent.
- Class 10 — Strategy: The 5 Value-Building Pillars & Stacking Deals in Your Favor. The 5 ways to build value into a proposal so price is no longer the deciding factor.
- Class 11 — Strategy: The Total Cost of Ownership & The Near Perfect Proposal. The TCO calculation that wins distributor renewals. The proposal structure that holds margin under direct competitive comparison.
- Class 12 — Certification Day: Proposal Review & Analysis. Your rep brings a real proposal to class and gets it reviewed live — what’s working, what’s losing, what to fix.
AI tools are layered in across the program where they help your reps execute — prospect research, call prep, follow-up. Your reps don’t just learn the methodology. They leave with the modern toolkit attached.
Three tiers. One outcome — reps making more money than anyone else in their market.
TIER 1 — MOST POPULAR
Sales Bootcamp
The foundation program. Covers the complete B2B sales cycle — cold calling, territory management, discovery, value building, and closing. Every rep comes out with a written prospecting sequence and a target account list.
Best for: Companies wanting to build a complete, consistent sales process across their team. New reps and experienced reps both benefit.
Learn about Sales Bootcamp →TIER 2 — ADVANCED
Sales Spartan
For reps who have completed Bootcamp and want to go deeper. Advanced prospecting strategies, AI-powered territory planning, sophisticated deal structure, and profit improvement.
Best for: Experienced reps and Bootcamp graduates ready to operate at a higher level.
Learn about Sales Spartan →TIER 3 — LEADERSHIP
Sales Leaders Bootcamp
For the people running the team. Legendary Leadership, Mastering Your Management Process, and Coaching Your People to Success — plus a final assessment.
Best for: Sales managers, regional directors, VPs — and owners running sales themselves.
Learn about Leaders Bootcamp →
17 years. 13 President’s Club Awards. One methodology.
Derek Shebby spent 17 years as a top sales executive and director at one of California’s largest Xerox mega-dealers, winning the President’s Club Award 13 times and helping build the division from $40 million to over $100 million in annual revenue with a team of 120 salespeople.
When Derek trains your reps, he’s not teaching theory. He’s teaching exactly what he did to win 13 President’s Club Awards — and what he’s watched 30,000+ salespeople use to become the top producers in their markets.
Frequently asked questions
Will this work for our specific distribution segment?
Almost certainly yes. We’ve trained reps in agricultural distribution, office technology distribution, mailing equipment distribution, furniture distribution, and industrial supply. The methodology is segment-agnostic because the underlying sale — territorial, in-person, margin-defended, relationship-driven — is the same shape across distribution.
Our reps are paid on margin, not revenue. Does that work with the program?
Especially well. Margin-paid comp models are exactly where our value-building and margin-defense work pays back fastest. Reps see the income difference in their commission check inside 2–3 months.
Can we run this for our branch managers and our reps together?
Better to separate them. Branch managers go into Sales Leaders Bootcamp; reps go into Sales Bootcamp. Both programs reference the same underlying methodology, so the manager learns to coach the same playbook the rep is running. Run them in parallel for maximum compounding effect.
Our team is split across multiple regions. Can we still do private cohorts?
Yes — the program is fully Zoom-based, so geography doesn’t matter. We can run private cohorts with reps from 5 different regions in the same virtual room.
Do you cover the specifics of our product line?
We cover the sales process around your product line. Product-specific training is your internal job — we focus on the sales discipline that turns product knowledge into closed business at full margin.
How fast will we see results?
Activity metrics shift in weeks 2–3. Pipeline metrics shift by weeks 6–8. Margin metrics (the most lagging indicator) shift over weeks 12–20 as new deals close at higher prices and existing customers move toward higher-margin lines.
What about our most senior reps — will they sit through this?
Senior reps usually go to Sales Spartan, not Bootcamp. Spartan is the advanced tier — territory planning, current account strategy, advanced prospecting, deal-structure work.
How do I get started?
Book a 30-minute intro call with Derek. He’ll learn about your distribution model, your team, your margin and territory dynamics, and tell you honestly if this is the right fit.