Program Review: NASP Sales Certification Program

A 45-Day Journey to Your Best Professional Self

The way I would describe the CPSP program is this: “It’s a 45-Day Journey towards your professional best.”

Vision… Belief… Habits… These three things are at the core of a very unusual, emotionally intense and profoundly effective program.

The CPSP sales coaching program has but one objective: To guide you into successfully re-wiring your brain on: who you are, who you are being and who you are becoming. What’s amazing is that this re-wiring, this re-booting — over 45 days — seems subtle. Subtle…if you think nuclear bombs are subtle, then well yeah…

There’s nothing subtle about the CPSP sales coaching program. In the first week the program gets in your face — up close, guiding you right at the heart of things, essentially asking: “What do you believe is true about your professional life?” and perhaps more importantly, by having you sit down and create a vision for your professional life, it asked: “What beliefs MUST you have to make what you want in your professional life possible?”

Going through the program — at nearly the half-century mark was both challenging and profound. I’ve been through personal development programs before — I even spend about a 100 hours a year in various internet and video-based training programs professionally — this program cuts to the quick — rather than passively sit back and take in the information — you’re ask to go up to the attic (your brain) and with the brightest flashlight ever conceived by mankind (Cycle of Performance; Categories of Deception and other CPSP models) take a close look at what’s there.

This was difficult, because there’s no hiding. No more excuses, delusions, fantasies…no more hiding behind blame, guilt or shame — just the calming revelation that this is who you are — without judgment, and this is just the starting point… “OK,” I say to myself, “but wait, this is a course about sales training. What’s up with that?”

In NASP’s world (and in this program) — sales isn’t a dirty little cuss word. Here, selling is something noble, something that happens naturally to all of us in our daily interactions in life. It’s noble and it’s natural because selling is really just influencing. So instead of pitching and closing, your communicating, connecting and guiding the prospect towards something that creates mutual value — for yourself (a sale) and the prospect (a purchase that solves a problem or creates an opportunity).

I decided early-on to use my experience going through the CPSP program to not only gain additional sale & influence skills, but to also serve as way of rebooting my entire professional life. The goal was to develop — within 45 days — a clear and achievable path that would transform me from an elite business consultant to a successful “first-time” fund manager of a private equity fund. I figured, if I was going to completely re-wire/re-boot my brain (attitude, beliefs, focus, etc.) I might as well take advantage of this.

This turned out to be a very good decision…

My vision became my professional road map. The models that I was exposed to was used to not only manage through my emotional states (from freaked-out to utter elation and back again) but also to help me build an identity “blueprint” for what it means to be a highly-successful first-time fund manager.

Communicating from the Sovereign Archetype became my leading “voice” I used the sales & influence training (the skills & strategies portion of the course) to actively engage in conversations with not only the people I wanted to join me on the project, but also with several mentors and role-models. Speaking from the place of certainty and quite conviction (absolute belief) I found had a profound effect on everyone I spoke with about the idea. On several occasions, I could see the effect of the changes occurring in me had on them — some even verbally expressed amazement. Not a single person I spoke with doubted I could achieve the vision. This in itself was an amazing revelation — we really do tend to imagine the worse. The reality was always better than imagined — Always…

The results are still forming and they are all positive, amazing and too many to describe in an article. However, trust me on this – If you do the work, are willing to take a little bit of risk, and approach the program with complete commitment — it will utterly transform your life.