| The United Professional Sales Association (UPSA) Compliance Program is designed to measure and enforce compliance with the universal sales standard defined in UPSA’s Compendium of Professional Selling and ethical code. The program's objective is to encourage all market participants to adhere to the standards necessary to preserve the reliability the universal sales framework--and therefore drive their business further.
The compliance review process addresses the assessment, investigation, evaluation, and reporting of technology performance necessary to measure compliance with UPSA standards.
A ‘technology” is defined as any seminar, training, program, system, technology, book, tape, or other tactical “how-to” program or enabler that can be mapped to the Compendium of Professional Selling.
The compliance enforcement process evaluates the submitted technologies and issues and manages UPSA Compliance Codes based on the technology attaining at least 90% compliance to UPSA’s standards.
If a technology attains 90% compliance, the compliance process culminates in the award of an UPSA Compliance Code as well as a certificate. Any technology submitted for assessment will receive a report of the assessment.
Maintaining the reliability and consistency of training technologies of sales professionals is necessary, both to ensure a robust competitive marketplace for sales professionals and to protect the pertinent stakeholders of buyers, corporate officers, and others impacted by sale.
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(available for immediate download)
With the increase in competition in the global business environment, the demand for higher professionalism of sales people has increased. As a result, there is a growing desire to transfer large amounts of data and knowledge and therefore synchronize between buyer and seller organizations. Failure to comply with UPSA compliance or the code of ethics could place markets and end-user customers at risk and jeopardize the security of the sales profession as a whole.
The UPSA compliance assessment process is focused on evaluating technology for compliance to the Compendium of Professional Selling (CoPS). A technology is defined as any seminar, training, book, tape, or other tactical “how-to” program or enabler that maps to the CoPS.
The assessment process begins once an individual or corporation (organization) submits its technology for review to the Standards Committee Chair (standards@upsa-intl.org) as well as executing a mutual non-disclosure agreement for the protection of the Association as well as the company submitting the technology.
The Standards Committee Chair designates an assessment facilitator to perform the compliance assessment. There are two ways to complete the assessment:
- In-person delivery: In order to facilitate the assessment, the submitting organization may actually deliver their technology in the exact manner they deliver the technology to their clients (for example seminars, teachings, or classes). The assessed company would be required to pay for travel and expenses (as well as a 50.00 a day per diem) for each assessor. This method allows for the assessor to ask any questions and review documentation at the location, and then return to write the compliance report. A hard-copy of all materials must be submitted at least 30 days prior to assessment date for archival purposes in the United Professional Sales Association vault or lock box.
- Hard-copy delivery: The submitting organization delivers all documentation, handouts, teaching materials, books, folders, slides, etc in hard copy format to the Association. The association will then submit any questions or need for clarification in writing to the assessed company.
No gifts, special treatment, or donations are allowed before, during, or after the assessment process in accordance with the UPSA Ethical code.
Once the assessment has been completed the assessor submits the results to the Standards Committee Chair for the review and approval of results of the assessment and notification to the submitting organization.
Compliance: If the results of the assessment indicate compliance the submitting organization will be issued a Certificate of Compliance and corresponding compliance code. The organization may use the UPSA Certified Compliant logo as well as use approved marketing copy for the purposes of creating and advertising compliance to the CoPS.
Non-Compliance: If the results of the assessment indicate non-compliance the submitting organization will be notified in writing as to the deficiencies that resulted in a failure to comply. If the submitting organization wishes to re-submit, they may do so for a $500.00 USD re-submit fee. The submitting organization may re-submit as many times as necessary until compliance is reached. Fees: The submitting organization may resubmit a technology for assessment at any time.
Assessment Fee $2,500 (USD)
Voluntary Re-Assessment Fee $1,500 (USD)
Involuntary Assessment Fee $5,000 (USD)
Re-Submit to comply with initial assessment suggestions $500.00 (USD)
The UPSA compliance review process is focused on maintaining the integrity of the UPSA compliance program and standards rather than on levying enforcement sanctions and penalties for non-compliance. UPSA sanctions each company’s technology for the term of the version or model number. Any change to submitting company’s technology or any change to the UPSA Compendium of Professional Selling requires reassessment. Each company is responsible for reviewing the UPSA standard for changes and reporting those changes in writing to the standards committee chair as it pertains to its technologies. Version numbers or edition numbers of the technology must be submitted with the assessment in order to manage this process. Any new editions or versions would require re-assessment under “voluntary re-assessment” procedures.
The UPSA compliance Re-Assessment process is separate from the review process. The results of the compliance reviews are forwarded to the standards committee, which administers awards for achieving compliance and determines when, if ever, the technology should be re-assessed.
Once a technology is assessed as 90% compliant to the UPSA Standard, and is awarded an UPSA Compliance Code, an enforcement program should be set up at the assessed company to include continuing their designation and compliance as well as processes for re-assessment as necessary. This process would identify any revisions to the technology that would require re-assessment. This process would also identify any major revisions to the Compendium of Professional Selling (a change in edition is an example of a major revision. For example, the 2nd edition to the 3rd edition would require re-assessment).
The UPSA Standards Committee relies heavily on assessed companies to enforce the UPSA standards for the affected technology within their own companies. It is suggested that those individuals managing or delivering the assessed technology become Certified and Registered Sales Professionals (CRSP) or Certified and Registered Sales Trainers (CRST) as well as maintain currency with any changes to the UPSA standards.
The UPSA Standards Committee reserves the right to change and/or cancel the UPSA Compliance Program at any time.
All companies who provide their seminars, workbooks, tapes, books, technologies or other programs may have their product or service analyzed in-depth against UPSA’s publicly available Compendium of Professional Selling. Because the contents of the document are based on the universal framework of sales, those who take advantage of the compliance program will receive the universal “stamp of approval” that their training is compliant with international sales standards.
Get a copy of the Compendium of Professional Selling (available for immediate download)
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Compliance