Sales Training for Small Business Owners. Because the Owner Is Still the Best Salesperson.
In most small businesses, the owner closes the deals. Nobody else knows the product as well, and nobody else feels it as much when a quote goes quiet. Chris Sund runs in-person sales training for owners and the few people who sell beside them, built on his LOCKS framework, so the business stops depending on the owner’s instincts alone.
Small Business Selling Is a Different Job
Corporate sales training assumes a sales manager, a CRM someone actually updates and a pipeline big enough to play the odds. A small business has an owner with a phone, a stack of quotes and no time. This program is built for that reality. If you lead a full sales team inside a larger company, the Sales Training Workshop is the better fit.
The Owner Is the Closer
The business grows as fast as the owner can sell. The training helps owners sell on purpose, not on instinct, so they can teach it to someone else.
Every Lost Deal Hurts
A few lost quotes can decide a month. Owners learn to diagnose why a deal stalled instead of dropping the price to save it.
The First Sales Hire
Handing selling to someone else is where many owners get stuck. A shared framework gives the owner and the new seller the same language.
No Time for Theory
Owners bring their own quotes and conversations. Everything practiced in the room is used on the next call.
LOCKS for Owner-Led Sales
A deal closes like a combination lock: every tumbler has to turn. LOCKS names all five, so when a customer says they need to think about it, the owner knows which one to go back to. More in How to Close More Deals.
Love the Product
The customer has to want what you offer, tied to the problem they described in their own words.
Own Belief
The customer has to believe it will work for them. Doubt about their own situation is not a price problem.
Confidence in You
Trust in you and your business to show up and stand behind the work. For a small business, this is often the edge over a bigger competitor.
Kickoff Plan
A clear picture of what happens the day after yes: who calls, when work starts, what the first week looks like.
Stakes
What waiting is costing the customer. When a quote sits unanswered, this is usually the tumbler that has not turned.
For the objection that shows up when a tumbler sticks, the training pairs LOCKS with the LAARC method: Listen, Acknowledge, Ask, Respond, Confirm.
Chris Learned Sales Before Healthcare
Before healthcare, Chris spent ten years in the restaurant and beverage industry, finishing as head of sales and marketing for a brewery. The brewery was on the shelf at every major store except one, the biggest retailer in the country. Every manager he asked said the same thing: one buyer decides. So he called that buyer, and kept calling.
When the buyer finally picked up, he did not soften it: “To me, your product is paper clips.” Chris did not argue about the beer. He explained that it was a top seller everywhere else, and that its loyal fans were already driving to the competition to buy it. The buyer’s reply: “Get me your best sellers, every store, and I want a display.” Persistence got the call. Showing the buyer what no was costing him closed the deal. That is the S in LOCKS, and it is the lesson every small business owner can use against a bigger competitor.
- Why a stalled quote is usually missing one of five conditions
- How to show a customer the cost of waiting without pressure
- Handling price pushback without defaulting to a discount
- Follow-up that earns the next conversation instead of burning it
- A simple way to teach your first sales hire how you sell
- One stalled deal each owner commits to reopening that week
Formats for Owners and Small Teams
Every session is in person and customized after a planning call. The outlines below are suggestions.
Keynote or Breakout
For an owner summit, chamber event or association meeting. LOCKS and the brewery story, with one deal every owner can reopen that week.
Half-Day Workshop
- LOCKS taught with owner examples
- Each owner diagnoses two or three of their own stalled quotes
- LAARC practiced in pairs on real objections
- A follow-up plan for the coming week
Full-Day Workshop
- Everything in the half day, with more practice
- Handing selling to your first hires with a shared framework
- Hiring salespeople for traits, not just experience
- Using AI for follow-ups and proposals, from Take Back Your Time with AI
What Sales Audiences Say
Chris has taught objection handling at the emPower Breakfast and delivered You Are Capable of More: Sales at the Definitive Healthcare sales kickoff. Read all testimonials.
Having Chris Sund as a Sarpy County Empower Breakfast speaker was a breath of fresh air. He was amazing — brought up all the things that make us all a little crazy and gave us new ways of handling objections. Definitely a great start to a day. I would always be happy to recommend Chris.
Having just started a new role in Business Development, the timing of Chris’s session on Handling Objections was perfect. Chris is a great storyteller — the Lucky Bucket story illustrates how persistence and research can help you win. The focus on “the pause” and how we speak resonated deeply. How you talk matters — and though simple, it’s powerful.
Chris would be an incredible addition to any live audience. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Chris speak a few times now, including at our company’s Sales Kickoff in front of 800+ people — which he crushed. Each time he finds a unique way to connect with his audience on both a personal and professional level, keeping everyone engaged and attentive.
Programs for Small Business Sales Training
Combine them around what the owners in the room need most.
You Are Capable of More: Sales
The flagship sales program, built on LOCKS and the habits of people who keep raising their own ceiling.
How to Handle Objections
The moment a customer pushes back, worked through with LAARC.
Winning the Talent Battle
For owners hiring their first salespeople and competing with bigger employers for good people.
AI for Small Business Owners
Practical AI for quotes, follow-ups and proposals, so owners get selling time back.
Who Books This Training
Related pages: Sales Training Workshop · Small Business Conference Speaker · Entrepreneur & Small Business Speaker · Family Business Speaker · Leadership Workshop Facilitator · Frontline & Middle Manager Speaker · Emerging Leaders Speaker · Leadership Keynote Speaker · Supervisor Leadership Training
What Owners Ask
Who is this sales training for?
Small business owners who still close most of the deals themselves, and the few people they have asked to sell alongside them: a first sales hire, an office manager who answers the quote requests, a partner who handles the big accounts. It also works for chambers, associations and owner groups that want to offer practical sales training to their member businesses.
How is this different from Chris’s Sales Training Workshop?
The Sales Training Workshop is built for sales teams inside larger organizations, often as a kickoff breakout, with reps working a full pipeline. This program is built for owners: the person who sells, delivers and sends the invoice. It focuses on the handful of conversations that decide whether a small business grows, and on handing some of that selling to the first people an owner hires.
What is the LOCKS framework?
LOCKS is Chris’s sales framework: Love the Product, Own Belief, Confidence in You, Kickoff Plan and Stakes. A deal closes like a combination lock, so all five have to be true for the buyer before they say yes. Owners use it to find out why a quote went quiet. The full breakdown is on the LOCKS framework page, and How to Close More Deals walks through each letter.
Is this available online or as an ongoing coaching program?
No. Chris delivers it in person only, as a keynote, a breakout, or a half-day or full-day workshop. There is no virtual version and no multi-week program. The agendas on this page are suggestions, and each session is customized for the group.
Can a chamber or association host this for its member businesses?
Yes. One format that works well is a half-day workshop hosted by a chamber, association or owner group, with owners bringing one or two of their people. Chris can also open with a keynote at a member event and run the workshop the same day. See chamber of commerce speaking.
You Are Capable of More
The bestselling book behind the training, an Amazon Bestseller and the How-To category winner at the 2026 Paris Book Festival. For an owner, its core idea is personal: the gap between this year and what the business could do is mostly habits and belief.
A copy for each person who sells with you keeps the whole team working from the same ideas. Bulk pricing is available.
An Operator Who Still Sells
Chris is President & COO of Uniti Med and GQR Healthcare and COO of Nebula. He helped build Uniti Med from a startup and grow it 10x in revenue in two years, earning #3 on the Inc. Regionals list of the fastest-growing companies in the Midwest, along with a Fortune Best Workplaces award and Best Places to Work recognition across multiple programs. The sales habits he teaches are the ones his own teams run.
He is the bestselling author of You Are Capable of More, an Amazon Bestseller and winner of the How-To category at the 2026 Paris Book Festival. He writes for Inc. and Forbes, is a member of the Forbes Business Council, and has appeared on WOWT, 10/11, WFLA Bloom, KXAN Studio 512, KCTV5, WOI and Dakota News Now.
Stages I Have Spoken On
Where Sales Audiences Have Heard Chris
Objection-handling sessions, sales kickoffs and business audiences where Chris has spoken.
emPower BreakfastHandling ObjectionsDefinitive Healthcare SKOBoston, MA · 800+ sellersGreater Omaha ChamberYP Leadership WorkshopLeadingAge IllinoisPublished the LAARC MethodMICA Fall Business MeetingsTake Back Your Time with AIPOWER Conference2026Also: The LOCKS Framework · The LAARC Method · See all speaking engagements →
Bring Sales Training to Your Business
Tell Chris who sells in your business, what you sell and where deals are stalling. You’ll get a fast, straight answer on fit, format and availability.
Check AvailabilityResponse within one business day · Speaker kit, bio & headshots