Built by a sales manager who got tired of training that didn't stick

I've worked in the trades for about 20 years, and I've run a sales team for a lot of them. In that time, one thing never changed.

We'd hire someone good. We'd walk them through the sales process, the SOPs and the way we do things. They'd nod, take notes, maybe leave with a binder. Then we'd send them out, alone, into a customer's home with a problem in front of them and a decision to make.

A week later, most of that training was gone. Not because they didn't care, but because nobody remembers everything from a classroom day. So they called me, or a lead, or they guessed. The guessing is where jobs, margins and customers get lost.

Being the manager wasn't any easier. I answered the same ten questions every week. I knew ride-alongs were the best coaching I could give, but there was never enough time to get in the truck with everyone. The people who needed it most often got it least.

And when someone's numbers slipped, all I had to go on was the numbers. A low close rate tells you something is wrong. It doesn't tell you what.

The software we paid for tracked jobs and sales, but nothing that helped me build better people. So I built it.

One place for your whole team

UpSwing is a blank canvas for the way your company works. You put in what matters to your team, and everyone can find it when they need it. Most companies use it for things like:

• Sales: your sales process, your sales training, your playbooks and anything else your reps need on a call.
• Service: your procedures, your job checklists, your tech training, and the code books and specs you rely on.
• Managers: your training decks, ready to present at the morning meeting, plus the documents you use to run training and coaching.
• Everyone: your policies, your team directory, your important numbers and a home page with your company news.

You decide what goes in and who sees it. A rep sees what applies to sales and a tech sees what applies to service. On a job, tap the job type and everything you've tagged for it comes up at once.

The hard part isn't the first 30 days

Getting a new hire up to speed is the easy part. UpSwing gives them a 30-day plan that runs itself.

The hard part is everything after: keeping a five-year tech sharp, rolling out a new process, and making sure the training from March is still showing up in June. That's where most training quietly dies. UpSwing keeps it alive:

• Assign training and see it get done. Pick a course, pick the people, set a due date. See who finished and who's behind, without chasing anyone. Courses that need renewing every year reopen on their own.
• A weekly refresher. Every Monday, each person gets a few quick questions from what they've already learned, weighted toward what they've missed before. Five minutes a week keeps it from fading.
• Questions get answered once, right on the training, so the whole team sees the answer.

Coach what's actually wrong

This is the part I wish I'd had for the last 20 years.

Your KPIs tell you who's struggling. UpSwing tells you why. Every quiz shows exactly which questions each person missed, and which questions your whole team keeps missing. So instead of "your close rate is down, let's ride together," you walk in knowing: "You're solid on the inspection, but you're missing the financing questions." Or: "Three of you are stuck on the same step, so that's Thursday's meeting."

Ride-alongs work the same way. You can't ride with everyone every week, so make every ride count. Score cards rate each step, track each person over time, and flag the steps the whole team is weakest on. Your lead techs and reps can run ride-alongs too, so coaching doesn't wait on your calendar.

And every Monday you get a short summary: who's on track, who's behind, what's being missed and where your coaching time will matter most.

Training and sales numbers, side by side

UpSwing comes with a sales dashboard built for the way home services teams actually sell. Enter jobs as they close and everyone sees where they stand against goal for the week, month and year.

Set yearly goals once and the dashboard spreads them across your busy and slow seasons. Show any rep what an extra point of close rate or a bigger average sale would do to their number. Put the board on the shop TV and let it run.

Because training and sales live in the same place, you can finally connect the two. You'll see whether the rep who finished the course is closing more, and spot who needs coaching before the numbers drop, not after.

Make it yours

Every company does things differently, so UpSwing doesn't make you change how you work.

• Your look: your logo, your colors and your fonts, with a home page you design yourself.
• Your training: upload your own PDFs, videos and slide decks, build your own courses and quizzes, and organize it all your way. UpSwing gives you the tools; the know-how is yours.
• Your numbers: track any KPI you care about, with goals for each one, by team or by person.
• Your setup: turn parts on or off to match how your company runs.

To your team, it looks and feels like your company's app, because it is.

Why it matters

Training shouldn't be a one-time event, and coaching shouldn't be a guess. The best teams in this trade aren't the ones with the biggest binder. They're the ones where everyone does it the right way, every time, because the right way is easy to find and someone knows exactly where to help.

That's what UpSwing is for: a better day for the person in the field, and a clear plan for the person leading them.

Jake WetherbeeFounder, UpSwing