Sales training with Ian Ross
Read theconversation.Change theoutcome.
Understand what drives a buyer’s decision. Work through familiar selling situations, practise your response and prepare for your next call.
Host of Close More Sales
One connected selling system.
Applied to 9 sales environments.
Prepare for your next conversation.
Written lessons, practice cases and field tools.
The moment that changes a call
The buyer said it.
Did you hear
what mattered?
A request is a starting point. Follow the buyer’s words to find what the next move needs to address.
The buyer
“We need better reporting. I don’t want to be the escalation desk anymore.”
Fictional Tech Sales example.
Choose a next move
Open a question to see what it reveals. Both can be useful.
“When a manager sees an exception in today’s report, what happens next?”See the buyer’s responseClose the response
The buyer’s response
“They can already see who owns it. They send it to me because they don’t know what they can approve themselves.”
Approval uncertainty
This Direct question investigates the buyer’s Mechanism Belief. Visibility is available; decision authority may be the missing mechanism. The demo now needs a decision boundary, not simply another report.
“You said you don’t want to be the escalation desk. What would you want the managers to handle without you?”See the buyer’s responseClose the response
The buyer’s response
“Routine exceptions. I want to trust their judgment instead of checking every choice—but I’m accountable if they approve the wrong thing.”
Accountability concern
This Loose-Thread Pull uses the buyer’s own phrase. Their desired relief and role matter, but the operational boundary still needs to be defined. Both opening questions can be useful; they reveal different information.
Follow the buyer’s replies, adjust your next move and keep a useful call plan.
How this changes the demonstration
The buyer’s own reasoning
The question that
changes the demo.
A feature request is useful information. The reason behind it tells you what a demonstration needs to address.
One continuation: clarify approval authority
“They can already see who owns it. They send it to me because they don’t know what they can approve themselves.”
“Which decisions can they make today, and where does the rule become unclear?”
The buyer answers
“They can approve a one-day delay. Anything longer comes to me. Different teams read that rule differently.”
Listen for the criterion
Use the buyer’s answer to choose what to show. Ask what the demonstration resolves and what still needs checking.
Take it into your next call
Buyer’s requirement → expected change → relevant proof → buyer’s conclusion.
- The buyer’s rule
- “They can approve a one-day delay. Anything longer comes to me.”
- What to prepare
- Configure one ordinary exception and one escalation. Show the rule, routing and history. State that the team must supply its own approval policy.
- Next question
- “If we walk one exception through that rule, what would you need to inspect before judging whether this works?”
Each course takes you from explanation to examples, practice, feedback and field tools.
Step inside the coursePodcasts & guest appearances
Hear the approach.
See it in conversation.
Conversations with hosts and sales communities. Watch Ian explain, question and work through the ideas.
Guest · with Steve Trang
Real Estate Disruptors
Sales Secrets That You’ve Never Heard Of
Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)
Guest conversation
PropertyRadar
What sales teams need beyond a script
Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)
Guest conversation
Rafael Cortez
Sales mastery, frameworks and mindset
Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)
Speaker · CG LIVE
Collective Genius
Persuasion without charisma
Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)Coaching & team training
What clients say.
Experiences from earlier sales coaching and team training with Ian Ross.
After 20 years in sales, I thought I'd seen every framework. Ian's methods caused a complete paradigm shift for our team.
Team training
Retraining the entire sales team
Read the full account
After 20 years in sales, I thought I'd seen every framework. Ian's methods caused a complete paradigm shift for our team. At Unwind Land Co. we retrained our entire sales organization on the VIVID model, and went from averaging 8 deals per quarter to over 40. That's 400%+ year over year. Most "gurus" only know their niche. Ian's system works because it maps the psychology underneath every conversation, regardless of what you're selling.
Ian's sales training helped me buy more houses at a deeper discount.
Property negotiations
A better question in a competitive deal
Read the full account
Ian's sales training helped me buy more houses at a deeper discount. He helped me reframe a question which resulted in me buying a house for less money than other offers the seller had on the table.
I've gone from being a setter making $5K a month to now, four months later, closing inbound with a full calendar at around $20K a month.
Sales development
Moving from setter to inbound closer
Read the full account
I've gone from being a setter making $5K a month to now, four months later, closing inbound with a full calendar at around $20K a month. If that's not a return on your investment, I don't know what it is.
Selling
Operating
SystemA connected architecture
for the sales conversation.Read Chapter 1
The thesis behind the training
Turn sales instinct
into a system
you can practise.
The VIVID Selling Operating System makes the choices beneath a good conversation teachable. Seven connected layers take you from preparing yourself to understanding the buyer, presenting relevant proof and reviewing your decisions.
Its revealing paradigm runs through the courses: help buyers articulate what matters and reach a conclusion they can own.
Book in progress · Read the selected excerpt free.
Inside Layer 3 / The Diagnostic Engine
What’s behind
the buyer’s request?
Where this fits in the VIVID method
The Four Layers of Value sit inside VIVID’s Diagnostic Engine. Explore what the buyer needs, how they think change happens, and what that change means to them.
One software-buying conversation, four things to listen for. Select a layer, then reveal how you could respond.
Follow the buyer’s words deeper only when they invite it.
LAYER 01 / 04
Surface criteria
What do they say they need? Establish the requirements in their words.
THE BUYER SAYS
“We need to see which handoffs are stuck.”
Explore the next move
YOU COULD ASK
“Which handoff do you need to see, and when?”
WHAT CHANGES IN YOUR DEMO
Show the specific handoff they named. Check whether the information arrives in time to be useful.
LAYER 02 / 04
Mechanism belief
How do they believe a change will create the outcome they want?
THE BUYER SAYS
“If managers spot a delay sooner, they can act before Friday.”
Explore the next move
YOU COULD ASK
“What would they do differently once they saw it?”
WHAT CHANGES IN YOUR DEMO
Walk through the action a manager would take. A visible delay only helps if someone can act on it.
LAYER 03 / 04
Felt outcome
What would that change feel like in their working day?
THE BUYER SAYS
“I’d like Friday reviews to feel less like a scramble.”
Explore the next move
YOU COULD ASK
“What makes those reviews a scramble now?”
WHAT CHANGES IN YOUR DEMO
Use their Friday review as the setting. Ask whether the example addresses the part they find difficult.
LAYER 04 / 04
Identity
When they raise it, what does this mean for the role they want to play?
THE BUYER SAYS
“I want to be someone the team trusts to flag a problem early.”
Explore the next move
YOU COULD ASK
“When you say “trusts”, what would that look like to your team?”
WHAT CHANGES IN YOUR DEMO
Connect the example to the responsibility they described. Explore this layer when the buyer brings it up.
Fictional teaching example. Follow what the buyer tells you; you don’t need to reach every layer in every conversation.
Find your application
Your buyers. Your conversations.
Your course.
Choose your industry. Try a conversation from the course.
VIVID industry course $297
Real Estate Investors
Understand the seller’s situation before shaping an offer and agreeing on the next step.
“I need to talk with my spouse before deciding.”
Each course is sold separately. Compare all courses
Work across more than one industry?
The complete 9-course library · $497 · 365 days of access.
Each individual course includes 365 days of access.
The person behind the method
Meet Ian Ross.
Creator of VIVID Selling OS.
Host of Close More Sales.
The book, courses and tools bring VIVID into the situations sellers face every day. Hear Ian teach, explore a worked example and decide whether the approach fits how you want to sell.
Meet Ian and explore his workClose More SalesHear Ian discuss selling with guests.Listen to the podcast ↗
Host / The OutputHear Ian explain the approach.Watch the episode on YouTube ↗
Put it into practice
Practise a conversation
before the call.
Try the method in a sales situation. Then choose the course that fits the work you do.