Level up your sales process with the 7 best sales courses

The sales landscape is always changing, whether it’s due to new competitors entering the market, shifting customer preferences or new technologies. Sales courses can be an invaluable investment to hone your sales skills and keep your team on top of the game.

With hundreds of sales courses to choose from, it can be difficult to find one that matches your focus, budget and needs.

We’ve put together this list featuring seven of the best sales courses with a range of budgets, themes and formats to match any organization. We’ll also explain what to keep your eye out for when choosing the best sales course.

1. Best beginner course: Northwestern’s The Art of Sales

If you’re looking for sales training courses for beginners to build your soft skills, The Art of Sales: Mastering the Selling Process Specialization is one of the most popular course collections hosted by Coursera. Produced by Craig Wortmann of Northwestern University, the specialization program dives into four distinct courses to make you a more effective salesperson.

What’s included

Here’s what you’ll learn in this course.

• Course 1: Customer Segmentation and Prospecting. The first course introduces salespeople to a new approach to achieve high-performance sales. This covers sales fundamentals, including how to have effective sales conversations.

• Course 2: Connecting with Sales Prospects. The second course dives deeper into the selling process, including how to have a large impact on prospects, what to focus on in your sales meetings and how to anticipate any objections to your sale.

• Course 3: Sales Pitch and Closing. The third course builds on how salespeople can increase their confidence and communication skills to develop the perfect sales pitch. It then introduces tactics for closing a sale and how salespeople can develop their personal brand to increase their effectiveness individually and for their clients.

• Course 4: Building a Toolkit for Your Sales Process. The final course reviews and synthesizes the information from the first three courses and guides salespeople through how to create their own toolkit and personalized approach to sales.

How much does this course cost and how long does it take?

With a seven-day trial, you can access the course for free and interact with all video lectures, course readings and forums. That said, you cannot receive a certificate of completion without paying. It’s $49 per month to subscribe and a subscription gives you access to tests and the ability to earn a final certificate.

Coursera claims the course takes the average learner around six months to complete, meaning it could cost around $300. It’s also possible to enroll in any of the four courses individually and you don’t need to complete all of them in order.

How this online sales course will make you a better salesperson

The Art of Sales is an introductory course designed to take you from a beginner to a competent salesperson. You will learn how to find and qualify the right customer, pitch, respond to objections effectively, craft a sales narrative and ultimately land sales.

2. To learn the Sandler Selling System: Sandler Training

Sandler offers several courses as well as yearly in-person seminars and widely renowned educational books. Each course builds on the Sandler Selling System, a popular sales methodology specializing in qualifying a buyer’s pain points and decision-making process.

Key courses from Sandler Training

Sandler provides training solutions across various sales skills, including management training, sales training, professional development and sales tech. Their most popular sales courses include:

• Sandler Sales Foundations. This is the 10-part introductory course that introduces salespeople to the Sandler Selling System. The course expands on using the System to establish rapport, have effective conversations, ask better questions and understand the buyer’s motivations inside and out.

• Sandler Sales Mastery. The Sales Mastery course follows on from Sales Foundations, building on how the Sandler Selling System can be used to enhance a sales approach. The course includes 16 high-level lessons with group exercises, case studies, role-playing and stacks of online resources and tools.

• Negotiating Mastery. Designed for sales leaders, owners and managers, the Negotiating Mastery sales training course focuses on maximizing negotiation effectiveness in complex deals and enterprise selling.

• Enterprise Selling. A comprehensive course on how to win and grow major enterprise accounts, Enterprise Selling focuses on applying Sandler’s System to longer sales cycles, complex team approaches and higher stakes selling.

How much do these courses cost and how long will they take?

The cost of Sandler Training will vary depending on the type of training and how many people will be involved. While costs are available on request, you can likely expect the cost to be in the mid-to-high thousands of dollars.

The length of each course varies depending on need, though they often last several months at a minimum (with a few hours weekly commitment).

How Sandler Training will make you a better salesperson

Sandler Training has courses for salespeople at every career level, but they are best suited (and most leveraged by) those with limited experience.

Sandler is different because they believe sales training is an ongoing process. They argue that relevant knowledge and selling skills can’t be mastered by reading a book or attending a weekend seminar. Instead, they focus on long-term sales education and mentoring.

As one of the oldest and most well-known sales methodologies, Sandler Training is almost guaranteed to give you valuable takeaways you can apply to level up your success in sales.

3. To learn relationship selling: Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie, author of the bestselling book How to Win Friends and Influence People, began teaching people how to speak in public effectively in 1912. Since then, Dale Carnegie (the company) has become one of the top sales training organizations in the world.

What’s included and what you’ll learn

Dale Carnegie offers several in-person and live online seminars and courses available at various price points and focuses on concepts varying from high-impact presentations to effective human relations. The two main courses are:

• Dale Carnegie Sales Training: Winning with Relationship Selling. This course covers how to build a genuine relationship with a customer, both in-person and online. The primary goal is to demonstrate relationship-centered sales strategies to build trust, offer solutions and eliminate objections.

• Virtual Selling: How to Build Relationships Online. The Virtual Selling course is designed to help salespeople whose jobs are mostly online. This online sales training focuses on developing the skills required to make an impression in virtual meetings and how to build a trusted online presence.

How much do these courses cost and how long will they take?

The standard Dale Carnegie Sales Training program takes place over eight separate sessions that you can schedule in-person, live online or both. The cost varies by the length and location of the course, but you can expect it to be in the low-to-mid thousands.

For example, the Virtual Selling course is held live online and costs $1,995 per person for five three-hour sessions.

How the Dale Carnegie courses will make you a better salesperson

Dale Carnegie’s award-winning sales training programs are delivered by highly trained, successful salespeople. The courses will help you to communicate your company’s value, create long-term relationships, drive increased customer satisfaction and loyalty and lower the cost of sales.

These courses are designed for salespeople at any stage of their career who are looking to build their skills in relationship selling (a sales strategy that focuses on building strong, personal connections with prospects to build trust and foster loyalty).

4. For inside, field and call center reps: ASLAN Sales Training

ASLAN began when the founders, Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris, realized that traditional sales methodologies failed to address the novel challenges of inside sales and selling over the phone. ASLAN takes the approach of serving the customer by being transparent, caring and proactive in sales.

What’s included and what you’ll learn

ASLAN offers training in four fields: Inside sales, call center sales, field sales and sales leadership. For each of these, ASLAN provides training using their proprietary “Other-Centered” approach that aims to meet customer needs rather than manipulate them into a decision.

• Inside and field sales. ASLAN offers courses for account managers and business development representatives in inside or field sales. The Account Manager program teaches them how to eliminate buyer resistance and create a holistic solution for customers. The Business Development Rep course teaches reps valuable prospecting strategies and how to reach and influence key decision-makers.

• Call center sales. ASLAN’s Experience+ program trains call center reps to reframe their role to exceed customer expectations by being proactive, conversational and transparent. They also offer the INTelegence and Telegence courses for inbound and outbound selling, respectively, building on specific sales call skills like cold calling.

• Sales management. ASLAN provides a multi-part sales management course called the Catalyst program. This begins as a two-day Catalyst workshop where leaders learn to apply the Other-Centered Approach to their teams to become a sales manager everyone wants to work for. This leads to the Catalyst Certification, which involves long-term follow-ups and coaching sessions.

How much do these courses cost and how long will they take?

For each of ASLAN’s courses, the prices vary depending on the number of reps to be trained, the location and the course in question. To get a quote, contact ASLAN.

In terms of duration, most of ASLAN’s courses are two-day, instructor-led programs.

How ASLAN Sales Training will make you a better salesperson

ASLAN’s unique approach to sales training first helps you build a sales rep development plan specific to your organization. After this, a combination of instructor-led workshops, online resources and ongoing support are used to transform your sales approach.

This Other-Centered Approach will help you reduce customer resistance, leverage relationships to access key decision-makers and apply a strategic process to managing your accounts.

5. For all-purpose training material: RAIN Group

RAIN Group is a global, industry-leading sales training company that has won several awards for its work. Their field-tested online sales training programs are built from insights garnered from the RAIN Group Center for Sales Research. RAIN’s approach is to develop a tailored training course that targets the main obstacles your organization is likely to face in sales.

Key courses from the RAIN Group

The RAIN Group has more than ten training programs aimed at different facets of sales, from consultative selling to sales management courses.

• Foundations of Consultative Selling. Their fundamental sales course, Foundations of Consultative Selling introduces strategies, key techniques and sales tactics that are crucial to successful selling. This course has over 70 modules that are included depending on your organization’s needs. Once the consultative selling course is completed, RAIN provides coaching and long-term strategies for ensuring the content sticks.

• Sales Management Training. Like the Foundations course, RAIN’s sales management course takes a modular, customized approach to training managers in optimal sales leadership. This course gives managers the skills to keep their team motivated and accountable and help them exceed their sales goals.

How much do these courses cost and how long will they take?

RAIN tailors each course to the company being trained, so the length and cost of the course can vary quite significantly. Each course comprises in-person or online classroom sessions, online resources and application coaching.

The price of RAIN Sales Training is only available on request and will depend entirely on the size of your team and your needs.

How RAIN Sales Training will make you a better salesperson

For each course, the modular RAIN curriculum covers the sales process from beginning to end. This means that you will get a 360-degree understanding of sales in your position, whether you’re a sales representative or manager.

RAIN’s courses are particularly appropriate for beginner and intermediate salespeople of average quality, although they have higher-level courses that target those with more experience.

6. Best for SaaS sales: JB Sales

John Barrows founded JB Sales to provide academic and dynamic sales training for individuals and teams. JB Sales has a different approach than some of the other trainers on this list. While the company offers courses in the more traditional style, they also have a subscription service that provides ongoing content and access to an online sales community.

Key courses from JB Sales

JB Sales has three courses. Each of these is broadly targeted at the three parts of the sales process: filling the sales funnel, closing the deal and achieving long-term customer success.

• Filling the Funnel. Available for both individuals and sales teams, Filling the Funnel is focused on outbound prospecting with new accounts. There are ten steps in this course, beginning with how to target, research and understand your prospects. The course then dives into how to create effective messages across different channels, and finally how to implement inbound sales strategies to generate leads.

• Driving to Close. This course covers the entire sales cycle for new and existing accounts, focusing on how to handle objections and enhance interactions with customers and prospects. The Driving to Close course then finishes with specific techniques and strategies for closing deals.

• Driving Results for Customer Success. JB Sales’ final course, Driving Results, is focused on strategies for upselling and growing existing accounts. It has a similar structure to Driving to Close but adds more detail to long-term customer relationships and account expansion.

How much do these courses cost and how long will they take?

Each of JB Sale’s courses takes place as either three two-hour remote sessions over a one-to-two-week period or as a one-day onsite classroom. Before the training begins, JB Sales provides access to their content and exercises to prepare. Once the training is complete, they follow up with a one-hour remote meeting. Prices are available on request.

Individuals can also purchase JB Sales’ OnDemand subscription for $365 per year. This grants access to their sales courses online (so you can take them at your own pace) as well as content and an inclusive network of sales pros.

How JB Sales training will make you a better salesperson

JB Sales provides onsite training, role-playing, lectures, live discussions, video content and various actionable exercises to improve your approach to filling the sales funnel, closing more sales and growing accounts.

With the added access to a growing network of like-minded salespeople, JB Sales Training is an excellent source of information, ideas and inspiration.

7. For CRM integration: Pipedrive

Here at Pipedrive, we began the Pipedrive Academy to help those in sales and marketing build skills and enhance their approach with the effective use of sales software like customer relationship managers (CRMs).

What’s included and what you will learn

We’ve combined a series of content into courses aimed at developing your sales pipeline and skillfully handling objections.

• Sales Pipeline Academy. This is a 12-part series condensing over a decade’s worth of sales pipeline knowledge into an easily accessible course. The Sales Pipeline Academy will teach you how to generate more deals, develop and optimize a sales pipeline and close sales with actionable tips. This course includes a 50-page ebook and a two-week email course.

• Overcoming Objections. Learn how to prepare for and handle sales objections in a six-part video tutorial. The Overcoming Objections course covers how to quickly qualify your prospects and how to react to many common objections to effectively close more sales.

How much do these courses cost?

The Pipedrive Academy content is completely free of cost.

How these online courses will level up your sales process

Whether you’re an individual salesperson, a small business or a large brand, effective sales software can help you forecast sales, fill your pipeline with leads, automate the sales process and provide actionable insights. Our courses will teach you how to use Pipedrive to maximize your efficiency and close more deals.

What to look for in a sales course

Courses on selling can be a significant investment. A great course will kickstart your sales team and drive serious returns on your investment, but an ineffective course will be an expensive disappointment. This is why it’s important to consider which training course is right for you and your team.

Here are the major things to look out for in a sales training company:

• A proven record. The first thing you should look for is whether or not the sales training company has a good reputation. If they don’t have publicly available performance data, ask them to demonstrate the results they were able to provide other clients. They should be able to show you historical sales performance data and client testimonials that prove their process works.

• The right focus. Many courses hone in on a specific subsection of sales. When choosing your training program, make sure you know precisely what you need to learn, how relevant the training is to your role and whether the course will provide you with skills you don’t already have. Likewise, choose a course that matches where you are in your sales journey.

• Flexibility and accessibility. Duration, location and format are all critical elements of a sales course. Most organizations won’t be able to fly out 30 salespeople to another part of the country for a two-week program. Choosing customizable, hybrid online and in-person training will grant you the flexibility you need to get the most out of it, especially if you have a large or distributed team that’s hard to organize.

• Budget. Take your time to consider your overall training budget and your likely ROI when choosing a training company. Many training options are expensive, especially if attending in person. Yet, if you pay $2,000 for training and land a $6,000 client because of your new strategies, you’ve tripled your investment.

• Taster content. With so many sales methodologies out there, it’s vital to get a feel for a training company’s approach before forking out for a course. Many training companies will offer video content, blogs, books and free taster courses to get a feel for their approach. By using this “try before you buy” approach, you minimize the risk of making a bad investment.

Final thoughts

In sales, great courses will take you and your team to the next level, helping you attain better win rates, happier customers and higher revenue. However, choosing the right course for you and your team isn’t always easy.

Investigate each course thoroughly to ensure that it matches your needs and budget and is delivered by a reputable company with a history that speaks for itself. While training can be a significant investment, the ROI of a great course will justify the cost.