Considering that over 60 percent of first-time salespeople struggle during their first year on the job, aspiring sales professionals may want to consider signing up for a sales training program.
Sales training programs are designed to teach the fundamental skills that set sales professionals up for success. These programs may cover selling techniques, client relationships, teamwork exercises, technical product knowledge and CRM systems.
What Is a Sales Training Program?
A sales training program is a course, workshop or series of courses that teach relevant tools, techniques and skills to current or aspiring sales professionals. A program can be in-person or virtual, and some offer a badge or certification upon completion.
While companies may have their own sales onboarding processes, these only provide short-lived solutions. In fact, sales professionals forget 84 percent of what they learned in a training program after 90 days. Taking sales training programs and courses is the best way to help sales professionals reinforce their knowledge, bolster their confidence, enhance their performance and produce greater financial success for their teams and companies.
Sales training programs, courses and bootcamps may vary in their topics, career development services, costs, locations and designs for individuals or groups. Companies should weigh these factors when searching for a course or program for their sales teams.
Thankfully, there are lots of options available. Take a look below at some of the top sales training programs, courses and bootcamps. They may just lead to a promising career in sales.
Top Sales Training Programs And Courses To Know
- SV Academy
- Sales Bootcamp
- Vendition
- Victory Lap
- Austin Sales Academy
- Re:WORK TRAINING
- Uvaro
- Northwestern University’s “The Art of Sales”
- Udemy’s Sales Machine Course
- HubSpot Academy’s Inbound Sales Certification Course
Sales Training Bootcamps
SV Academy’s Tech Sales Training Program
Location: Online
Length: Four weeks full-time; eight weeks part-time
Cost: $9,990 (with flexible payment options)
SV Academy’s fellowship aims to prepare students for the new sales landscape, in which more companies transition to tech or launch software products. The program gives students the tools they need to thrive in entry-level sales development roles before placing them into the job. Participants are also matched with an employer and given six months of coaching. The academy offers flexible payment plans to keep its program accessible to students and newer professionals.
Sales Bootcamp
Location: Online
Length: One week
Cost: Free
Not every job in tech is an engineering job, but you wouldn’t know that from the training and internships companies provide. CEO James Nielsen launched Sales Bootcamp to help bridge the experience gap between new graduates and junior sales roles. Students can enroll in a free one-week online training bootcamp that will teach them the fundamentals of sales. Upon graduation, students can apply for a Vendition sales apprenticeship.
Vendition’s Sales Apprenticeship Program
Location: Online
Length: 12 weeks
Cost: Free
Once a student graduates Sales Bootcamp, they can enroll in Vendition’s 12-month sales apprenticeship program with a partner company that will pay them $9,000 over the course of the program. The company’s apprenticeship model includes on-the-job training with supplemental education, and leads to a job at the end. It’s designed to help graduates land their first jobs in sales and comes at no cost to the student. Program alumni have landed gigs at Box, Google, Salesforce and more.
Victory Lap's Sales Training Program
Location: Online
Length: Five weeks
Cost: $5,889 (with flexible payment options)
Victory Lap’s foundation lies in two statistics that define the sales workforce: Only 4 percent of colleges offer sales education, while 50 percent of college graduates end up in a sales role. Victory Lap strives to bridge that gap through a training program that explores foundational sales skills like prospecting, effective sales communication and sales role-playing with coaches. Notably, successful participants gain access to a post-program peer community and materials to use in the field.
Austin Sales Academy
Location: Online
Length: Eight weeks
Cost: $200 per month
Austin Sales Academy allows applicants to chat with its sales graduates, team personnel and industry leaders to decide if sales is right for them. If they’re interested, students can then sign up for the eight-week online training intensive that provides personalized coaching, sales assignments and role-playing to prepare for the job. While the program has connections to Austin tech companies, students can take the course from anywhere.
re:WORK TRAINING’s Tech Sales Program
Location: Online
Length: Eight weeks
Cost: Free
With roots in Chicago, Re:WORK TRAINING is a sales bootcamp that strives to make the tech workforce reflect the diversity of the city. Re:work’s program provides free sales training for candidates living in underrepresented communities. With no education minimum, the program encourages unemployed, underemployed and out-of-school job seekers to apply. Enrolled candidates will go through eight weeks of sales training and receive job placement support, as well as continued coaching and mentorship, upon graduation.
Uvaro’s Tech Sales Foundations Course
Location: Online
Length: 12 weeks
Cost: $6,000 or $250 per month over 24 months
Uvaro provides a 12-week tech sales foundations course that specializes in preparing people from all backgrounds for careers in technical sales. The program can be done in daily two-hour chunks from Monday to Friday. Students connect with an instructor and classmates online while they watch videos, participate in discussions and attend lessons. The course teaches students basic sales skills, along with how to navigate CRMs like Salesforce and how to develop a career after graduation.
Prehired’s Software Sales Training Program
Location: Online
Length: 12 weeks
Cost: $30,000 (not paid until after graduate gets a job)
Prehired’s sales bootcamp aims to prepare candidates for software sales jobs. Divided over 16 modules, the bootcamp teaches students how to navigate tricky software features and land deals through its “Science-Based Sales” curriculum. Modules cover everything from how to use Salesforce to sales psychology and landing a job. Members can complete coursework on their own time and receive additional support through live sessions with a mentor.
Individual Sales Training Modules and Workshops
Northwestern’s “The Art of Sales” Specialization
Location: Online
Length: Four months
Cost: Free (with a Coursera account)
For salespeople, “The Art of Sales,” a program offered by Northwestern University, stands out as a comprehensive training for beginners. Led by Sales Engine’s CEO Craig Wortmann, the specialization series requires no sales background and includes four courses that explore prospecting, connecting with sales prospects, pitching and closing deals, and building a toolkit for sales processes. At the end, users receive a certificate of completion.
Patrick Dang’s “Sales Machine” Sales Training Course
Location: Online
Length: Self-paced
Cost: $18.99
Online learning platform Udemy’s Sales Machine course is often mentioned in discussions about the best online sales training programs. Designed for both current sales professionals and people interested in B2B sales, the course explores the fundamentals of selling a product and closing a deal. Students receive three hours of training videos and eight downloadable resources. The videos explore building rapport with a customer, how to become a stronger listener and how to turn skeptics into buyers, among other skills.
HubSpot Academy’s Inbound Sales Certification Course
Location: Online
Length: Self-paced
Cost: Free
Figuring out the intricacies of inbound sales can be challenging. Where outbound sales requires perseverance through cold calling and outreach, inbound demands targeting the right prospects, earning their attention through helpful resources, and persuasion. Developed by the CRM platform HubSpot’s online training team, the Inbound Sales course is designed for sales reps interested in developing those skills. The course is free, includes five lessons and takes three hours to complete.
General Assembly’s Sales and Business Development Bootcamp
Location: New York; London
Length: Two days
Cost: Free
General Assembly specializes in data bootcamps and engineering courses, but it also offers a two-day sales workshop. The program caters to entrepreneurs, small-business owners and anyone interested in the sales profession, providing guidance on the sales lifecycle, how to develop a prospect pipeline, pitching and how to hit quota. All that’s required for the course is to bring a laptop and a readiness to discuss your company or product.
Northwestern’s High-Impact Sales Strategy Workshop
Location: Chicago
Length: Three days
Cost: $8,150
Taught by the faculty of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, the High Impact Sales Strategy workshop is designed to help sales executives and senior leaders pivot sales strategies to grow revenue. The three-day class takes leaders through the process of establishing growth priorities, designing a team to capitalize on strategic advantages and a discussion on how to implement the new strategy.
Team Sales Training Programs
Sales Assembly’s Membership-Based Sales Training
Location: Chicago
Length: Depends on the training
Cost: Plans range from $30,000 per year to $75,000 per year
For sales leaders at fast-growing tech companies, it can be difficult to pivot into the next phase of a company’s growth. Processes change, strategies formalize and data enters the picture. Sales Assembly provides a membership service designed to help sales leaders make that leap and grow their teams. In addition to access to a community of sales executives, the organization offers training for all team members, sales enablement certification programs and leadership development.
JB Sales' Team Sales Training Course
Location: Online
Length: Submit request for more details
Cost: Submit request for more details
To tackle the issue of sales reps missing their quotas, John Barrow founded his sales training company JB Sales. The company offers a range of resources for sales professionals, including team-based training courses. Companies can choose between three courses that cover topics like how to develop an effective contact strategy, how to close deals and how to improve in the area of customer success. According to JB Sales, over 500,000 sales reps have been trained with these courses.
Todd Caponi’s Team Sales Workshops
Location: Chicago; Online
Length: 90 to 120 minutes
Cost: Contact for more details
It may sound counterintuitive, but embracing your company’s flaws in a sale can be the key to building trust and closing a deal. Todd Caponi tried that strategy out while working as the chief revenue officer for the customer ratings and reviews solutions platform PowerReviews, and its success inspired his book, The Transparency Sale, and his workshops. Caponi offers on-site and virtual workshops to help sales teams hone this strategy and approach, reviewing the buyer journey, messaging, negotiations and other sales topics.
The Brooks Group’s IMPACT Sales Training Program
Location: Online; Anywhere
Length: Submit request for more info
Cost: Submit request for more info
Designed for inside sales representatives, The Brooks Group’s IMPACT strategy training program, provides a framework for approaching sales interactions. Sales reps round out their knowledge by strengthening their communication skills and problem-solving skills. Companies that sign up receive a customizable program with a Brooks Group sales professional, personal assessments, workbooks and access to a mobile app to reinforce tips and lessons learned.
Richardson’s Sales Training Solutions
Location: Online; Anywhere
Length: Contact for more details
Cost: Contact for more details
Richardson provides tailored sales training to corporate sales teams. Founded in 1978, the company offers more than 20 modules of in-person or online sales training that include sales coaching, consultative sales, storytelling and more. Its training methodology involves role-playing and learn-by-doing exercises to create a relevant experience for each team. Although Richardson is based in Philadelphia, its courses are available to customers everywhere.
SalesWise Academy’s Sales Training Program
Location: Online; Anywhere
Length: Depends on the training
Cost: Contact company for more info
SalesWise Academy’s training program focuses on teaching technical sales strategies and developing a sales culture. The program works with B2B sales development teams and emphasizes a format where leaders train alongside team members. Lessons contain role-playing exercises, and they are designed to be consumed in bite-size segments in the form of a podcast. SalesWise Academy also provides ongoing coaching support to help leaders integrate one-on-one coaching into their team culture.
Winning by Design’s Sales Training Solutions
Location: Online
Length: 8 to 10 hours
Cost: Contact for more details
Winning by Design provides training for sales reps, customer success managers, sales managers and remote sales teams. For companies diving into remote sales for the first time, its training explores tips on how to develop an action plan, setting up a remote environment, how to run an online demo and more. Before beginning training, Winning by Design goes through a process of diagnosing areas that need improvement and designing the right framework for each client. Companies can then have their sales teams undergo a slate of sales courses, including Selling for Impact and Prospecting for Impact.
Mastering Technical Sales
Location: Online
Length: 90 minutes or 18 months
Cost: Contact for more details
It can take years to master the art of a smooth technical demo and being able to troubleshoot on the spot. John Care and Aron Bolig, authors of the training book, Mastering Technical Sales, have created a curriculum to help pre-sales engineering teams improve their presentation skills and close deals. The company offers a 90-minute micro-workshop for companies, along with an 18-month development program.
