“Most technicians don't resist getting better. They resist what they think sales training means,” said Brian Burton, co-host of the Waste No Day podcast.

That perception is often rooted in what technicians have seen selling look like in practice. Burton noted that some have watched customers get pressured into decisions, or seen large tickets celebrated without enough attention paid to whether the recommendation was actually right for the customer. As a result, asking a technician to improve their “sales” skills can sound less like professional development, and more like a request to prioritize revenue.

Burton argues that good technicians are already selling, even if they would never describe it that way. Explaining a safety concern, walking a homeowner through the long-term implications of a repair or recommending one solution over another all require a technician to communicate value.

The challenge for contractors, then, may not be convincing technicians to become salespeople. It may be showing them that better sales training can simply make them better communicators.

Where Contractors Go Wrong

So, where’s the disconnect?

“The biggest mistake contractors make is introducing sales training as a revenue fix instead of a customer communication fix,” according to Burton.

For example, telling technicians that the company needs to increase its average ticket can immediately frame the training around generating more revenue from customers. Instead, Burton recommends focusing the conversation on opportunities technicians may be missing to educate customers, explain their options and help them make informed decisions.

How the training itself is presented matters, too.

Introducing scripts before technicians understand the reasoning behind them can make interactions feel forced. Likewise, introducing training only when sales numbers fall can make professional development feel like punishment, rather than an ongoing effort to improve.

“If you want buy in, you have to connect the training to the technician's identity,” Burton said. “Most of them want to be seen as trusted professionals. Show them that better communication helps them become that, and they'll listen.”

From Selling to Serving

That shift also requires contractors to be clear about what they're asking technicians to do in the home.

“The technician's job isn't to sell something the customer doesn't need,” Burton said. “The technician's job is to find what's going on, explain it clearly, and recommend the best path forward. That's service.” Rather than training technicians to search for additional products or services to sell, Burton recommends teaching them to identify things that matter to the customer.

That starts with a thorough inspection, but it also requires asking questions and listening. What's important to the homeowner? What problem are they trying to solve? What concerns do they have about comfort, safety or long-term costs?

Once technicians understand those priorities, they can explain what they found, why it matters and what options are available.

“The key is tying the recommendation back to the customer's home, concern, safety, comfort, or long term cost,” Burton said. “If a technician can say, ‘I'm recommending this because of what I found and because of what you told me matters to you,’ that feels like service.” Giving customers all of their options is an important part of that process. Burton noted that technicians can sometimes default to offering the least expensive repair because they don't want to have an uncomfortable conversation about a more costly alternative.

But, the cheapest option isn't necessarily the best solution. If equipment is unsafe, inefficient, failing or likely to create another problem in the near future, Burton argues that customers deserve to have that information.

That doesn't mean pushing every customer toward the most expensive option. Instead, technicians should provide enough information for customers to understand the differences and make their own decisions.

“Serving the customer means telling the truth clearly, kindly, and completely,” Burton said. “That's the heart of it.”

Leadership Sets the Tone

Getting technicians to see sales training differently isn't solely their responsibility. Burton says that owners and managers play a significant role in determining whether the training becomes part of the company's culture. Technicians notice what leadership emphasizes and rewards. 

“Technicians watch what leaders celebrate,” Burton said. “If leaders only celebrate revenue, the team will assume that's all the company cares about.” Instead, managers can recognize strong inspections, customer education, ethical recommendations and clear communication alongside financial performance.

They can also change the questions they ask after a service call. Rather than focusing only on the size of the ticket, Burton recommends asking what mattered to the customer, what the technician discovered, whether risks were clearly explained, what options were provided and whether the customer understood the differences.

Training also needs to extend beyond an occasional seminar.

“For sales training to become part of the culture, it has to be coached consistently,” Burton said. “It can't be one class, one binder, and one meeting.” That means reinforcing the same principles through ride-alongs, call reviews, morning meetings, role-playing and one-on-one conversations.

Rebuilding Technician Trust

For contractors whose technicians have already tuned out their current sales approach, Burton recommends starting with something simple: listening.

“The first step is to stop defending the current approach long enough to listen,” he said.

Ask technicians what makes them uncomfortable, where they believe customers react poorly, what parts of the process work and what feels forced. More importantly, leadership needs to act on the answers.

From there, contractors can reframe training around communication instead of closing sales and reconsider how they measure technician performance. Burton recommends looking beyond average ticket to measures such as customer reviews, callbacks, option presentation and whether technicians consistently follow the company's process.

Coaching should also reflect situations technicians actually encounter. Ride with them, listen to calls and role-play difficult conversations, including how to respond when a homeowner says a recommendation costs too much or that they need time to think.

Finally, Burton says technicians need to know they're allowed to be honest. If something doesn't need to be recommended, don't recommend it. If a repair is the best option, tell the customer. And when a larger investment really is the better long-term solution, technicians should feel comfortable explaining why.

“Trust comes back when the team believes leadership wants the customer served well, not just sold hard,” Burton said. “Once technicians believe that, they're a lot more open to learning how to communicate better.”