How I Built a DIY 'Sales Coach' for $25/Month Using AI

The Confession

I'll be honest with you: I am not a good salesperson.

• I have trouble listening
• I monologue over people instead of asking questions
• I talk too fast
• I get too technical
• I don't ask for the sale often enough

I'm pretty sure I check every box on the list of things you can do wrong in sales.

But I'm getting better. And the only reason I'm getting better is because I finally learned how to study my own mistakes—something that, before AI, was nearly impossible to do in sales. Here's how I do it for about $25 a month.

The Game Tape Concept

The only way to get better is to know exactly what happened.

The best football players watch game tape. The best golfers analyze their swing frame by frame. The best baseball players break down every at-bat and practice relentlessly.

The problem with sales is this: when you mess up a call, you don't really know exactly where you messed up. The conversation moves too fast. You're in the moment. And by the time it's over, you only remember the general feeling—not the specific words, pauses, or missed opportunities.

The data backs this up. Research by Gong.io, analyzing over 1 million recorded sales calls, found that top-performing salespeople talk 43% of the time and listen 57% — while bottom performers talk 72% of the time. Most salespeople think they're listening more than they actually are, because the feeling of "being present" in the moment doesn't translate to accurate self-assessment afterward.

Unlike athletes, salespeople don't have a natural way to rewind and study their performance. At least, we didn't—until now.

The AI Unlock: From Note-Taker to Coach

During Covid, I started recording all of my Zoom calls and using AI note-takers during conversations.

Initially, the note-takers were great because they would compile a list of action items, allowing me to focus on the call rather than scribbling notes. (Honestly, I'm a horrible note-taker anyway. I'd walk away from 45-minute calls with maybe three weak bullet points.)

But here's the key insight: Note-takers are for memory. ChatGPT is for coaching.

AI adoption in the trades is accelerating. A 2024 survey by Contracting Business found that 61% of HVAC contractors have used ChatGPT or a similar tool at least once for business purposes — but fewer than 12% use it systematically for sales or operations improvement. The gap between "I've tried it" and "I use it to get better" is where the competitive advantage lives.

When I started doing more sales calls, I continued recording the conversations. But when ChatGPT came out, I realized I could take those transcripts and analyze them on a much deeper level.

The Workflow: Your Step-by-Step Guide

Here's exactly how I built my $25/month AI sales coach:

Step 1: Record Your Customer Conversations
Get yourself a Plaud Note Pin or similar recording device. It's a small pin you can clip to your shirt or wear on your wrist. It records your conversations with customers—whether you're in their kitchen presenting options, on a service call, or meeting face-to-face anywhere. It automatically transcribes everything.

Step 2: Export Transcripts to PDF
After each conversation, export the transcript. I save them in a folder organized by week or type of call (service calls, sales presentations, follow-ups).

Step 3: Batch Upload 10 Conversations to ChatGPT
Once I have about 10 similar conversations, I upload all the PDFs into ChatGPT.

Step 4: Use This Prompt
Copy the prompt below and paste it into ChatGPT along with your transcripts. This is the "Master Sales Coach" prompt I use—it works whether you're selling HVAC systems, roofing, plumbing, solar, or any in-home service:

Role: You are a world-class Sales Coach and Revenue Intelligence expert specializing in in-home services. You have trained top closers in trades like HVAC, roofing, plumbing, and solar. I am uploading transcripts from my recent in-home sales appointments.

Goal: I need you to brutally analyze my performance. Do not be polite; be objective and critical. My goal is to identify my blind spots so I can increase my closing rate in the home.

Please analyze the attached transcripts for the following 4 specific areas:

1. The Monologue Detector (Talk-to-Listen Ratio)
- Identify sections where I speak for too long without asking a checking question.
- Estimate my talk time vs. the homeowner's talk time.
- Highlight any specific moments where I interrupted the homeowner.

2. The "Trade Talk" Trap
- Identify moments where I used technical industry language (specs, code requirements, complex mechanics) that might confuse a homeowner.
- Action: Rewrite one of those technical explanations into a simple, kitchen-table analogy I could use instead.

3. Missed Buying Signals & The Close
- Did the homeowner ask a question or make a statement that showed interest (a buying signal) that I ignored or talked over?
- Did I clearly ask for the sale? If not, identify the exact moment in the conversation where I should have asked for the business, and write out exactly what I should have said.

4. Discovery & Comfort
- Am I asking "Yes/No" questions or "Open-Ended" questions to understand their needs?
- List 3 questions I should have asked to better understand their pain points or budget, but didn't.

Output format:
Please give me a bulleted Executive Summary of my top 3 weaknesses across these appointments, followed by specific "Before and After" examples using quotes from the transcripts.

The possibilities for feedback are endless. This prompt covers the big four areas: talk-to-listen ratio, technical jargon, missed buying signals, and discovery questions. The AI will find patterns you'd never catch on your own—and give you specific "before and after" examples from your actual conversations.

Why the Plaud Note Pin Works So Well

If you're a technician or in-home salesperson, you're not sitting at a desk on Zoom calls. You're in customers' homes, in their garages, in their basements. You need something that works in the field.

The Plaud Note Pin is small, unobtrusive, and records hours of conversation. It transcribes automatically and even has built-in AI feedback within the app. You can review your conversations on the drive to your next call.

It's the missing piece for anyone doing face-to-face customer interactions.

You Don't Need Your Company to Buy This

Here's the thing: you don't need to wait for your company to champion this or approve a budget. This is a personal development tool. I pay for ChatGPT myself. I bought my own Plaud Note Pin. It costs me about $25 a month total.

The ROI math is straightforward. The average HVAC system replacement in the U.S. was priced at $7,000–$12,500 in 2024, according to data from HomeAdvisor's cost guide. If this system helps you close one additional replacement per month — by identifying the specific moment you're losing the sale — you will have paid for 10+ years of the subscription in a single transaction. The question is not whether $25/month is affordable. The question is whether you are willing to do the work of reviewing your own calls.

Think about it—if this helps you close even one more job per month, you've paid for years of the subscription in a single commission check. This is an investment in yourself, not a company expense request.

The Bottom Line

Honestly, I haven't figured out any other way to improve at sales than to know exactly what the number one thing you need to work on is.

You can read all the books. You can attend all the workshops. But until you see your own patterns—the way you interrupt, the questions you dodge, the pauses you fill with rambling—you're just guessing at what to fix.

Record. Transcribe. Analyze. Repeat.

That's the hack. Hope it helps.