Our Nebraska & Iowa Team

Karl Schaphorst is the President and Owner of Sandler Sales and Management Training in Omaha, Nebraska. Karl has been a sales professional for the past twenty-five years. An Omaha native, he graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering and from there, was hired by Trane. Karl eventually moved back to Omaha with Trane to begin what turned out to be a successful career in sales. He served as account manager, account executive, sales manager, and general sales manager fulfilling a twenty year career. He became familiar with the Sandler Sales System while serving as Trane’s general sales manager and installed, trained and coached his direct reports on Sandler. He saw firsthand the positive impact of Sandler on his people, on the business and on himself. In January of 2010, Karl left Trane, left the HVAC industry after twenty years of service because he believed so strongly that Sandler works and that other businesses will want what Sandler brings. For nearly 10 years now, Karl has been training sales professionals exclusively. Karl comes to Sandler Training with a strong background in sales and a firm belief that the Sandler System works.

"Cliff Hanks has been a sales professional for just over 20 years. Born in California, he spent his first 29 years there where he received his degree from San Joaquin Delta College majoring in computer science. He then moved to the Seattle area where for 16 years, he worked mostly in the mortgage lending industry as well as being a sales recruiter & trainer for Allstate. In April of 2017, he and his family moved to the Des Moines, Iowa area, as this is where his wife was born and raised. He sold digital marketing services in Iowa for two years before meeting Karl Schaphorst of Sandler Training. “I got so excited about the Sandler methodology, I felt like I was reborn in sales! I had always been a fairly good salesman, but never felt like I had arrived. It always felt like I was desperately missing some key ""ingredients."" After finding Sandler, I realized I was missing a professionally structured, proven process to follow. Finally after 20 years of doing good in sales, I now have the confidence to sell at a very high level, a professional level. Sandler makes selling fun again!”"

Sandy Shupe is the Executive Assistant/Office Manager at Karl Schaphorst and Associates. Sandy graduated with a BS in Elementary Education from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Prior to joining the Sandler team, she worked at Outlook Nebraska in the role of inside sales/customer service. For ten years prior to joining Outlook Nebraska, she was a 1st, 2nd and 3rd-grade teacher.