Testimonials

I first met Owen in a sales training session a little over 4 years ago just a few weeks after joining a new company in a new industry, Travel and Hospitality. Having been a participant in dozens of sales training initiatives over my 25-year career, where the “shot gun” delivery approach had everyone energized and thinking for a brief moment they now had the keys to sales success and would crush their sales number only to fall back on their old bad habits of trying to out-talk a prospect into a deal by applying a $25,000 solution to a $2,000 problem. The problem with delivering training in this way gives participants too much information in too short a time period and further, requires the participants to make big behavioral and mental adjustments that are very difficult to do and maintain. Further, most people don’t stick to the formula they crammed to learn for very long and as such these programs rarely deliver the desired results.

His Sales Acceleration Academy breaks all the rules of traditional sales conditioning and unpacks your professional development into multiple “acceleration” modules all designed to build on each other. In a traditional sales cycle, you generate leads, make contacts with prospects, conduct sales meetings, make your presentations, and then move to account management if you successfully convert.

You see, most sales training programs typically attempt to boil the ocean on the topic in a few hours or at best a few days, and that type of mass information download delivery never sticks for long. In order for it to stick you need to break it down into logical steps that build on each subsequent step, much like golf lessons where you learn the grip, the address, the back swing, the delivery, and the follow through. You can’t skip or cheat the system. Successful selling is exactly the same. Each stage builds on the next in a succinct way. It’s both an art and a science and in order to truly transform your approach you must start with the most fundamental and powerful elements- your beliefs as Owen would explain. This is where Owen’s session began and differentiated itself from all the other programs I’d participated in and it was at that moment when the lightbulb for me went off, there is a big mental component that must be addressed first.

After 4 years of participating in the program, we’ve graduated over 100 sales professionals who’ve gone from mediocrity to achieving more than they thought they were ever able to do, one deal at a time.

He’s not only an amazing performance coach but a friend for life. He’s a talented and gifted teacher who practices what he preaches every day and delivers his coaching in an incredibly engaging and effective manner. His methods are so universally applicable it doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned and accomplished sales professional or brand new to the art of selling, you will be a better person professionally and personally from having graduated from his Sales Acceleration Academy!

When I first met Owen, I was seeking a program that would help our bankers sell deeper into each relationship and be more intentional and more consistent in developing new prospects. At the first meeting with Owen there were several things that immediately resonated with me. First, it was clear that Owen actively practiced what he was teaching by using the lessons from the Sales Acceleration Academy in the initial interview. He used effective questioning techniques to not only identify the needs of our organization, but also to help me fully recognize and fully commit to what we needed to change in order to achieve improved results. Second, I found that his entire process was built upon understanding and meeting the needs of the client or prospect, rather than simply selling a product. This aligned well with our company’s culture of being financial advisors to our clients. Finally, his program was structured in a way to deliver the lessons of the Academy over many months. His “drip” training allowed the participants to learn, practice, and develop new habits that would continue to benefit them, and their clients, long after the lessons were complete. Over the past two years, our team has produced consecutive years of record results, driven significantly by the lessons learned in the Sales Acceleration Academy.

In addition to facilitating the lessons from the Academy and actively supporting the learning needs of our bankers, Owen has also become a trusted partner referring multiple client opportunities to our bank. This is yet another example of Owen actively using the techniques that he teaches in the program to support his own sales efforts. He took the time to understand the types of clients that are in our target market and has been very intentional in referring those clients to us through quality introductions. Owen has created significant value for our organization through both the lessons of the Sales Acceleration Academy, and by becoming a friend and trusted partner of the Bank by regularly referring new prospects to our bankers.

We increased our top line by 100% with the sales acceleration system

Van Syckle Group is innovative, encouraging, and energetic! It is impossible to have stagnant results once you start working with him. He is a leader with integrity, experience, and passion. Through his sessions beliefs will be analyzed, performance measures will be declared, and processes will be created to blaze a path to success. Along the journey, he stays by your side. Strong results are the outcome!