Podcast Summary: The MOST Effective Way to Train Your Sales Team | Andy Elliott

Podcast: Andy Elliott's Elite Mindset Motivation and Sales Training
Host: Andy Elliott
Release Date: September 11, 2025

Episode Overview

Andy Elliott, CEO of The Elliott Group and renowned sales trainer, shares his signature five-step process for building elite sales teams. Drawing from experience with over 10,000 companies worldwide, Andy explains why most salespeople are underdeveloped—and reveals the concrete, actionable structure leaders must provide to maximize their team’s potential and success. This episode is a no-nonsense guide for any sales leader, owner, or salesperson seeking to reach peak performance.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Problem: Ineffective Sales Training

Salespeople are mostly trained the wrong way (00:00-01:00)
- 90% of salespeople are undertrained and underperforming due to lack of proper structure.
- “Sales teams fail because they lack structure. Write this down. What's written will be retained.” (Andy Elliott, 01:10)
The 80/20 Rule in Sales (00:55)
- 20% of the team makes 80% of the money due to effective structure; the rest flounder.

2. The Fundamental Principle: Structure is Everything

Skeleton vs. Muscle Analogy (02:05)
- The ‘skeleton’ (scripts, structure) is universal; the ‘muscle’ (personality, character) is individual.
- If every rep is improvising, “your structure, your framework, and your company sucks.” (Andy Elliott, 02:40)

Andy Elliott’s Five-Step Sales Training System

Step 1: Teach Live Appointment Setting (04:00)

Why it’s first: “Appointments are the foundation of sales. No appointments, no sales.” (Andy Elliott, 05:15)
How to train:
- Demonstrate live setting of appointments.
- Let new hires observe you, then have them do it with real-time coaching.

Step 2: Mastering the Sales Call—Live Training (08:00)

Live sales calls come only after appointment setting is mastered.
How to train:
- Sit with reps while they make real calls.
- Interrupt and correct mistakes immediately for in-the-moment learning.
- “Maybe these will be a couple crappy phone calls, but they're going to get it and they're going to understand where they're messing up on the spot.” (Andy Elliott, 12:15)
Andy’s Rule: Hire in pairs of three; two of three will generally succeed using this method (11:05).

Step 3: Daily Role Play with Leadership and Peers (15:40)

Why: This builds confidence and muscle memory—“Confidence comes from competence. And if they do things over and over, repetition is the mother of skill.” (Andy Elliott, 16:10)
Role play must be daily.
Leadership goes first—set a real, intense tone so weaknesses show up (17:15).

Step 4: Film Day – Study Real Calls and Appointments (19:10)

“This is game film for an athlete… your people that work for you, that sell, this is their adult sport.” (Andy Elliott, 20:05)
Record and watch both good and bad calls; break them down as a group for collective learning.

Step 5: Manuals, Videos, and Structured Training (22:00)

Content-first training comes last, not first.
- “Manuals and structured training are great, but they are not enough on their own. They should reinforce what they've already learned from the live training.” (Andy Elliott, 22:35)
Use resources to refine, NOT build from scratch.

Bonus: The Secret Sauce – Elite, On-the-Spot Live Training (24:20)

Nothing beats live training with real customers.
“It's where they learn to think on their feet, handle pressure, and close deals fast.” (Andy Elliott, 25:05)
Leader demonstrates live, then coaches, then lets the trainee take the reins—“Greatness is built here.” (Andy Elliott, 25:50)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Structure:
“The more structure that you have, the more successful your sales team will be, period.” (Andy Elliott, 03:10)
On Training Order:
“I never start on step two or three or four. I always start on one. And if you do this, I can show you how to develop 10 for 10 on every salesperson you hire.” (Andy Elliott, 03:15)
On Live Corrections:
“I'm not going to let them finish the call. I'm going to stop them and correct them right where they're at. Because I care about them. Their success is my responsibility.” (Andy Elliott, 13:10)
On Role Play:
“It actually makes us money to make mistakes. When there's a lesson, when there's a mistake, we grow. Only will we be successful when failure happens.” (Andy Elliott, 18:30)
On Manuals and Videos:
“Use it to refine their skills, not to build them from scratch.” (Andy Elliott, 22:50)

Timestamps for Key Segments

Sales training is broken: [00:00-03:00]
Structure, skeleton, and muscle: [02:05-03:30]
Step 1 – Live Appointments: [04:00-08:00]
Step 2 – Live Sales Calls: [08:00-14:00]
Step 3 – Daily Role Play: [15:40-19:00]
Step 4 – Film Day: [19:10-22:00]
Step 5 – Manuals & Videos: [22:00-24:20]
Secret Sauce – Live Customer Training: [24:20-end]

Final Takeaways

Andy Elliott’s five-step methodology prioritizes live, hands-on training, immediate feedback, and a structured daily environment. Manuals, videos, and theoretical content support but never replace in-the-field learning. The hallmark of elite teams is relentless, real-time correction, daily role play, and actual exposure to customer interactions under leadership guidance.

If you want to “build the deadliest sales team on planet earth,” this blueprint gives you the roadmap—provided you, as the leader, are willing to own and enforce the structure.

For more sales strategies and access to Andy’s personalized programs, Andy encourages listeners to reach out directly via the links provided in his content.

“Sales makes the world go around. Subscribe. Share the video. Like it. Drop me a comment below. Most importantly, I'll see you on a strategy call. I love you guys. God bless. I'll see you in the next video.” (Andy Elliott, 27:30)

Transcript

A (0:00)

Guys, 90% of salespeople are trained the wrong way. That's why most of them are underdeveloped in this world. And they're ineffective in sales. They don't make a lot of money, and they don't increase in sales like the dream that they were sold when they started the sales job. Everybody needs to understand this. If you are trained properly in sales in the right order, you can make unlimited amount of money. Now the question is, who's in charge? Who's in charge? And so this training is going to be the most effective way to. To train your sales team. You guys know I train over 10,000 companies around the world. I literally see every salesperson, I see every sales leader. I see the people who are in charge. I see the holes, I see why they're getting beat, and I see the ones that are killing it and crushing it. And what I've learned is the reason why there's always this 80, 20 rule in company. 80% of the people make 20% of the money. 20% of the people make 80% of the money. The reason why there's like this other unstable bottom 70% of the sales for in all these companies is because of ineffective sales training. And now that I'm going to share this video with you, how I do it, you can take it from me now, really quick before we get started. Sales teams fail because they lack structure. Write this down. What's written will be retained. I need you to understand. The sales teams fail because they lack structure. The structure is the skeleton of the company. Each. Okay, So I got 30 salespeople here, right? Each one of them have a skeleton. What is a skeleton? The skeleton is a script. The skeleton is what we say when we talk to a client. The skeleton is the same thing that we do repetitively all day long. We have this one conversation 10,000 times more than any other customer, we say this one thing. That is the freaking skeleton. Now, on the skeleton, there's a personality. We'll call that muscle. That's character. So there's character, there's personality. And all 30 of these people have a different personality and a different character. But the skeleton's the same. If you have a team and half of them are doing this, and half of them are doing this, and half of them are doing this, your structure, your framework, and your company sucks. And we're going to fix all that right now. I'm going to show you how to literally figure out how do you want everybody to sell, what produces the right result. And then how do we get everybody else to do that same thing. Are you guys ready? Okay. So sales teams fail because they lack structure. The more structure that you have, the more successful your sales team will be, period. And the key to structure, this is the key. The training in the right way and in the right order. There is an order. There are five steps that I teach. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I never start on step two or three or four. I always start on one. And if you do this, I can show you how to develop 10 for 10 on every salesperson you hire. Everybody, single time. So the step by step formula, I always say this. The right formula equals huge money and big success. If I took a salesperson and hired them in your company and they're willing to work hard, they're willing to train, the question is, could you train them to be great? If you follow these five steps, you're going to be the best in the world. Hey, guys, every day I see the comment section that people are like, andy, how can I train with you? How can I get close to you? I'm a sales leader. I'm in sales. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a business owner. I listen, if you want to coach with me, I want to help you. Look, there's a link below on this YouTube video. If you just go down below, there's a link in this YouTube video. And basically, if you click on it, all I ask for is your name and your phone number and it says, what do you want to learn from me? And by the way, it gives me permission to reach out to you. If you'll fill that out, I will personally reach out to you and we will make a game plan. Now, listen, I want to say it one more time. Let's get back to the video. If you've been watching my content, if you want a breakthrough, if you want to change your life, you want to go to another level, whether you're broke and you're trying to look for the breakthrough or you're at the top of your game and you operate from the state of madness like me, and you're just a psycho for learning. I am that coach that wants to push you hard. And so if you're ready for a breakthrough this year, go down, click on that link, fill out the information. It gives me permission to reach out to you. We're in a new era, right? And I always laugh at it. And I say, man, you give me the right to push you. I promise you, this coach is going to change your life. So go click on that link. I love you guys, I'll reach out to you myself, fill out your information, do it right now, and then let's get back to the video. Okay, guys, step one, it's going to be right here. Teach them how to make live sales appointments. Now write this down. This is where we're going to start. Step one, live. Write this down. L I V E. That means this is going to be trained live how to set what sells appointments. I didn't say sales calls sales appointments. So step one, write appointments. Okay? Now, by the way, I'm going to teach teach you why this is first, why this one's second, why this one's third, why this one's fourth, why this one's fifth, and then how to train it. So once I go through these five steps, you're going to completely know how to have a bad to the bone sales team and have them great. And you're never. And you're going to retrain your team and every person that comes in, you're going to train this way forever. And you're going to the deadliest sales team on planet earth. All right? So number one, you're going to teach them how to make live sales appointments. Now, why this is first. Why? Because appointments are the foundation of sales. Write that down. Appointments are the foundation of sales. No appointments, no sales. If your team can't notice. I said can't. If your team can't book appointments, they're never going to get in front of customers. What is the value of having a salesperson that doesn't have a customer? So that's why that's first. Secondly, how to train them. You're going to show them. What does that mean? We're not going to tell them. We're not going to be in the room saying, guys, this is hypothetically how we do it. We are going to show them how to how to set appointments live. L I V E. Now listen, let them watch you do it and then you have them do it while you coach them in real time. Okay? The appointment is the foundation of everything. If your team can't set appointments, you'll never scale. You'll never sell more. All right, now step two, this is a big one. All right? Number one's appointments. Teach them how to make live. Again, we're going live sales calls. No one does this. I spend a whole day in a room teaching them live how to set appointments. Then I teach a whole day and I show them live me, myself, how to make live sales calls. Now, why this is second is because appointments no customer. They Got to know what set appointments. And then when you have the appointments, now you need to teach them how to sell. Once they can book appointments, write this down. Once they can book appointments, they need to master the art of the call. Mastering the art of the call is the most important thing. This is going to be objections. This is going to be the flow of the conversation, and I'm going to tell you how to train it. And by the way, you'll notice I put why this a second how to train. Okay. Have them make live calls first while you listen in. So you have to be sitting right there in front of them. I'm here, they're there. Maybe I take three guys. By the way, I always hire in pairs of threes. So if you want to go hire 20 people, that's fine. I hire in pairs of three. I know two of those three are going to make it, especially if I run them through this process. Okay, so I'm going to listen in while they're making the calls and then I'm going to correct them on the spot. So when JJ's like, yeah, you know, I don't know. I think this is. I'll be like, stop. Don't say that. I'll be like, I'm correcting them on the spot. Right when they hit that, I'm there and I'll tell them I'm not going to let them finish the call. I'm going to stop them and correct them right where they're at. Now, by the way, maybe these will be a couple crappy phone calls, but they're going to get it and they're going to understand where they're messing up on the spot. I'm right there in their face because I care about them. Their success is my responsibility. I'm in charge. Okay? Now once I have them make the live calls, I correct them on the spot and then I show them how to handle objections and I control the conversation. There's five steps to this. Step one, it is a live training. L I V E it is you. It is the best person in the company and is sitting in a room all day with them, teaching them to set appointments the right way. You are doing it, and then you're having them do it, and then when they do it, you're correcting them. Once you got the appointments down, we got booked appointments. Now we move to the sales call, making sure they understand the flow of the conversation. Making sure they got that skeleton, they got that script dialed in. And making sure they know how to overcome objections. You're doing it and then you're doing it and correcting them. Live on the spot all day long. Now let's move on to step three, role play with leadership and each other. That's going to be step three. And by the way, why it's critical, why this is important. Role play is where they build confidence and muscle memory. You got to build up their confidence. Confidence comes from competence. And if they do things over and over, repetition is the mother of skill. They get good at it. They only get good at it during role play. Okay? And by the way, remember this? It's where they can learn to make mistakes. Are your new salespeople going to make mistakes? Yes or no? Do you want them to make them on live clients or do you want to make sure that they do and they make these mistakes without losing deals? Confidence and muscle memory is super important. Remember this. The more they do something, the better they're going to get at it. The more that they don't need to think when they're doing it. It just starts to become a machine. They become machine like now. It's where they make mistakes without losing deals. This is a safe place to make a mistake. Okay? And how to train it. This is easy. Role play daily. What did I say? Once a week? No, daily. Every single day that they're in the office, every single day that they're going to be on the phones, we're going to call that a day that they need to role play. Leadership should role play with them first. Someone has to set the tone for the role play. By the way, I'm going to skip up here. Make it intense and make it real. That's the leadership's job. You got to set the tone for how we're going to role play in this room. I'm not going to be easy on people. I want to see what people got to say. I want to understand where their weaknesses are. And that's where we fix them in role play. Because it doesn't cost us a dollar. It actually makes us money to make mistakes. When there's a lesson, when there's a mistake, we grow. Only will we be successful when failure happens. Okay? And so I said leadership should role play with them first, and then we have to role play with other people. And that's why at the top, step three is role play with leadership and each other. But leadership has to step in and do it first and set the tone for how the role play is going to go and make it real, make it intense. All right, Step four. I love this One. This is film day. This is where they get to see what really works and what doesn't work. All right? Study prior sales calls and appointments. I study both of them. How we're making appointments, how we're making the sales calls, and why this is important. Why is this number four? Because watching real. Everybody say the word real. R, E, A, L. Watching real. Not hypothetical, but real. Calls and appointments. Let them see what works and what doesn't. It's like. Like film for athletes. It is game film for an athlete. Your people that work for you, that sell. This is their adult sport. They're sales athletes. Okay? This is how you make them great. So how to train it, Very simple. Record the best calls and appointments and also throw in a bad one here and there. Okay? Say, guys, I want to show you what not to do. I always show them what to do. But it's also good sometimes to reverse engineer. Hey, this is what we don't want to do. By the way, Eddie, I love you. I'm not calling you out here, but you had a call and there was something you did, and I think you knew you made this mistake. But I want to share it with the room. Not only is it going to help you get better, but it's going to help us all get better. Nobody judges each other during game day, film day. What we do is that we get better. We're in here to get better. That's why we watch the film. Okay, so record the calls you make. Sure you got to be recording your calls. And then most importantly, have your team watch them. Watch this. You ready? Break them down and learn from them. So watch. Break down, learn. Let's go to step five. Teach them through manuals, videos, and structured training. Let me show you this. The reason why step five is last is for a reason why it's last. Manuals and structured training, which means anything else, okay, Other than the first four, why this is last. Your videos, your training systems, your manuals, your playbook, whatever you have, there's a reason why that's very last. Okay? Manuals and structure training are great, but they are not enough on their own. They should reinforce what they've already learned from the live training. Now how to train it. It's very simple. Go through manuals and other training after this is after. That's when we release those products. After they've had all the live training, after they've done the role play, after they've watched the game film, Then go through the manuals and the stuff that you have, the training videos. The system let them get on that stuff after they've had live experience, use it to refine their skills, not to build them from scratch. And I'm going to share a bonus with you. The secret sauce is what I call it. And by the way, only the greats do this. If you have a sales boss, you have a sales leader, you're in a great sales organization. If they're amazing and you're killing it, it's probably because something was done with you. And this is the secret sauce right here, okay? And I put secret sauce because it's the secret, okay? Nothing beats live training with real R E A L customers. It's where they learn to think on their feet. Write this down. They got to learn to think on their feet. They got to learn to handle pressure, and they got to learn how to close deals fast. You have to be able to be with them so they can understand how to think quickly, right? Maneuver through conversations, right? Like this is where they learn. This is where they learn the fastest. They learn quicker in the field than any than anywhere else. But they have to be with someone. They have to be with the leader. So live training beats everything. It's where they learn to think on their feet, handle pressure, close deals fast. Take them into live sales, let them watch you do it first, you're doing it first. Then coach them along the way, and then let them do it. And then this is where the secret sauce greatness is built. Listen, if you want to build the best team in the world, if you follow in your company my five step methodology. Number one, I've built one of the greatest sales teams on planet earth and I build them in other companies. But the person who's in charge has to decide what program are we going to follow, how are we going to run. And by the way, I would love to help you. If you run a sales team, if you run an organization, if you have a giant company or you're thinking about starting one on your own, if your company has anything, any way, shape or form have to do with sales guys, there's a link below. It says train one on one with me. Set up a 15 minute strategy call. It's very simple. Okay? Just go down to the description box, click on it. Set up a 15 minute call with me, tell me what you're doing, tell me where you're at and tell me where you want to go. Just explain your situation to me for a minute. If I can help you, we'll crush it. And by the way, I appreciate you. Maybe you guys know a leader in the space who isn't killing it, growing like crazy. Share this video with them. Subscribe I make videos all the time. But by the way, this training is great. But the real training, the real blueprint, the game plan, the system, the way that we run, we put that together on the strategy call. This stuff's made you think about, like, what do I need to do? Where do I want to be? Am I growing fast enough? Okay, what are my holes in my game? If I was going to kick my own ass, what would I do? How would someone take me out? How do I take everyone else out? Right? That's why I teach you guys this stuff. I love sales. Sales and leadership will make you rich. Sales makes the world go around. Subscribe. Share the video like it. Drop me a comment below. Most importantly, I'll see you on a strategy call. I love you guys. God bless. I'll see you in the next video.