Sales reps can only be as good as their management team — this guide will provide a list of recommended training programs and online courses for sales leaders. 

Sales Leadership: The Backbone of a Successful Sales Organization

At its core, a sales leader's responsibilities differ from a salesperson or frontline sales manager. 

You might expect sales managers to manage the sales process while salespeople are responsible for day to day execution — but even at the strategic level, the most effective leaders are always seeking to be the best they can possibly be. 

This is what defines a sales leader: an executive who connects the big picture to everyday tasks and leads the team toward success. 

To make sure the sales team is consistently hitting their sales goals, sales leaders create and refine sales playbooks, implement the sales strategies and incorporate feedback, hire, and coach salespeople to get the best out of them, adapt and communicate with teams to keep the morale high. 

👉Recommended: How Great Sales Managers Crush Their First 90 Days 🚀

Must-Have Leadership Skills for Sales Management

Here are some leadership skills that a sales leader must exhibit:

• Effective communication and decision-making, especially in difficult situations
• Laser sharp focus on targets, deadlines, and all the metrics in between
• Coaching and development program implementation to help every salesperson thrive
• Mastery of sales process and sales cycle 
• Deep understanding of the entire business and future directions

Mastering the Fundamentals of Sales Training

As you might have already realized, not all the skills listed above come naturally to a person. That's why companies look into sales training courses to help sales leaders master the fundamentals. 

Here are key concepts that you can expect to enhance with sales training:

• Sales methodology and sales skills enhancement
• Interactive and in-person training sessions led by instructors
• Role-playing as an actionable and effective sales method
• Understanding the best sales practices and their application

Building Competencies through Sales Management Training Programs

The takeaways or the difference created by sales management training should reflect on the key competencies. This includes:

• Developing and implementing a comprehensive playbook for sales professionals
• Leadership development for future sales managers
• Understanding the dynamics of the sales force and sales team members

Pclub’s Instructor-Led Courses for Sales Leaders & Teams

Now that's out of the way, let's focus on the best courses available for sales leaders and their teams. Remember that there’s no “one course fits all” because the challenges you face will be different from others. 

1. Mutual Success Plan Mastery by Nate Nasrella

If you're in sales, you might have heard of Nate Nasrella. If not, he's the guy who created the champion development strategy to sell without even being present in the room. His Mutual Success Plan Mastery is a no-frills mini course to help salespeople cope with growing complexities. 

Pricing: $77

What's inside:

Six cleverly organized modules to create and implement mutual success plans while thinking like a project manager.

• Part 1: Introduction to mutual success plans
• Part 2: What Are Mutual Success Plans & Becoming a Detailed Seller
• Part 3: Five Steps to a Buyer-Centric Success Plan
• Part 4: Work Like an Exec AND a Project Manager
• Part 5: Example Mutual Success Plan (TEMPLATE INCLUDED)
• Part 6: Conclusion

2. Selling With Champions by Nate Nasrella

Nate's Selling With Champions is THE course to find, rate, and test champions who'll do the heavy lifting for you. This is a comprehensive course that will also help you build business cases that work and navigate through high-stakes conversations. No wonder it's one of the most popular ones in Pclub. 

Price: $497 (true value: $5000)

What's inside:

• Part 1: Stack the Deck in Your Favor
• Part 2: The Baseball Card Approach to Rating Champions
• Part 3: A Field Guide for Building & Testing Champions
• Part 4: Finding Footholds & Scripting Your Route
• Part 5: Building a Bulletproof Business Case
• Part 6: Example Business Case Teardowns (And Buildups)
• Part 7: Exec Readouts & High-Stakes Conversations

3. Conquer the Cold Call by Trent Dressel

If your sales team is getting cold feet during cold calls, Trent Dressel’s Conquer the Cold Call is the ideal course to try out in Pclub. Trent shows you the exact scripts, strategies, and tools he used to drive $300k annually by the age of 26—all through SaaS cold calls. 

Price: $103

What's inside:

• Part 1: The B2B Cold Calling Script
• Part 2: REAL Cold Call Examples
• Part 3: Cold Call Moneyball
• Part 4: Objection Handling
• Part 5: Your Voicemail Strategy
• Part 6: Sequence or Cadence Strategy
• Part 7: Cold Calling Principles
• Part 8: Pipeline Generation and a Point System Framework
• Part 9: Find More Leads with LinkedIn Sales Navigator

4. Release The Funds

When it comes to selling to CFOs directly, confidence is the key. In this masterclass, I teach you the trips, tricks, and strategies that make CFOs “release the funds”. From CFO mindset and flawless business cases to CFO access, champions, and value realizations, you'll learn how top salespeople are thriving in this economy. 

Price: $297 (Free bonus worth $15,000+)

What's inside:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: 10 Deadly Mistakes Salespeople Make Selling to CFOs
• Part 3: How to 'Speak CFO' - Getting Inside the CFO's Mind
• Part 4: How (And Why) to Build 'Above the Noise' Value
• Part 5: Champion Selection and Development
• Part 6: Build a Business Case That Gets CFOs to Say 'YES!'
• Part 7: How to 'Get Access' to CFOs (Direct and Indirect)
• Part 8: Value Realization: The 'Sooth-Sayer' of CFOs
• Part 9: Defend Price, Negotiate, and Close

5. Objections to Commissions

As salespeople, getting the right access is only half the job done—you still have to make sure you don't lose that advantage. With the Objections to Commissions course, sales leaders and team members can learn how to disarm conflicts and overcome objections.

Price: $317 (on sale right now)

What's inside: 

• Part 1: Clarify the objection
• Part 2: Validate and demonstrate empathy
• Part 3: Isolate the objection 
• Part 4: Gain permission
• Part 5: Address the objection with business value
• Part 6: Confirm the resolution
• Part 7: Attempt to surface other concerns
• Part 8: Five types of objections (and how to handle each)

6. SaaS Discovery Masterclass

I helped Gong grow from $200k to $200m ARR and this course is all about how we made it happen. With the SaaS Discovery Masterclass, experienced sales leaders and new salespeople can learn how to find pain points that draw money, get ahead of competitors by becoming trusted advisors, and close big deals faster. 

Price: $497 (on sale right now)

What's inside:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Identify and validate 'THE' business pain
• Part 3: A Field Guide to 'Cause Analysis'
• Part 4: Building Negative Impact and the Cost of Inaction
• Part 5: Desired Outcome and Future State
• Part 6: Reveal the True Decision Process to Close Deals FASTER

7. Rig the Game

If your team can't keep up with the competition and managers are left scratching their heads, it's time to apply advanced strategies from my Rig the Game course.  It's one of Pclub's most popular courses because it teaches you how to rig the buying criteria, and process, tip the scale in your favor, and smoke the competition out of the water.

Price: $397 (on sale right now)

What's inside:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Rig the Buying Criteria
• Part 3: Rig the Buying Process
• Part 4: Rig the Buying Committee
• Part 5: Putting it all together

8. Win the Demo

Booking the demo calls is the holy grail in SaaS but not everyone's doing it right. I describe the principles of SaaS demos, the strategies for group demos, messaging framework, and the exact system that closed $100M worth of SaaS. 

Price: $297 (Free bonus worth $1400+)

What's inside:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: First Principles of SaaS Demos That Sell
• Part 3: The 6-Step 'Macro' Structure of SaaS Demos That Sell
• Part 4: The 7-Step 'Micro' Structure of SaaS Demos That Sell
• Part 5: How to 'Restructure' Your Demo (Quickly) for Different Scenarios

9. Sales Hiring Masterclass

Sales leaders have to make sure they hire the right people but sales superstars are hard to come by; unless you know where to look. The Sales Hiring Masterclass shows a 7-step hiring process that led Gong to a $7.2B valuation.

Price: $297 (on sale right now)

What's inside:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Create unmistakable clarity
• Part 3: Design a shockingly predictive hiring process
• Part 4: Proven interview questions & frameworks
• Part 5: The chronological sales interview
• Part 6: Using behavioral science to hire great reps
• Part 7: A simple technique to cut mishiring in half.
• Part 8: How (and why) to write a "hiring memo"
• Part 9: Putting it all together

10. Sink or Swim

It's not easy to traverse through the changes in roles. One day you're a top salesman and the next day you're managing a team. It's even harder if you're an outside hire. The Sink or Swim course helps you avoid mistakes in the first 90 days and climb through the ranks of sales leadership. 

Price: $197 

What's inside:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Six (deadly) mistakes to avoid in your first 90 days
• Part 3: Days 0 thru 30
• Part 4: Days 31 thru 60
• Part 5: Days 61 thru 90
• Part 6: Beyond your first 90 days

👉Recommended: 5 Most Effective Sales Management Training Courses 🚀

Pclub’s Library of Free Sales Training Content

Full-fledged courses are great at fixing fundamental issues in your sales process and upskilling your team. But sometimes, your team needs a quick fix. 

Here's a list of Pclub's most popular sales training content that will bolster your sales performance immediately:

1. 14 Questions To Ask During Your Demo

I can't emphasize how important it is to ask the right questions in discovery or demo calls. Salespeople need to ask questions that steer the conversation in the right direction and engage the buyers. The 14-question template may not fix a bad offer but it will definitely turn good offers into great ones. Try it for free today.

2. 30 Discovery Tips In 30 Days

More often than not, it comes down to the closing that separates winners from the rest of the pack. As salespeople, your team needs to feel confident and push the sales cycle to big-ticket items. Once you sign up to receive the 30 discovery tips, you'll get to implement one new trick every day for the next 30 days. 

3. 39 Discovery Questions That SELL

Most great sales start with a question. Now, it's not easy to find the right question that sets the ball rolling, let alone a series of discovery questions that leads to a bigger sale. With the 39 unique discovery call questions, you'll be able to create urgency and close SaaS deals faster.

4. 7 Tips For Selling to CFOs

What does it take to make CFOs release the funds for your offer? I asked the CFOs of Gong, Drift, and Invoca in a rare interview series and they were more than happy to share what made them say “yes” to a deal. You can sign up for the 7-point cheat sheet for free to learn from the best.

5. Closing Motion Checklist

You can spend all your time getting access to champions and setting up your strategy, but if you blink while closing, you might just fumble the bag. Pclub's closing motion checklist is the ideal sales enablement content to avoid risks and make sure your pipeline is set up for the quarter.

6. How to Create "Urgency from Thin Air" with Impact Questions

Great salespeople like to say they pick urgency out of thin air. But in reality, they ask targeted questions that open the floodgates of opportunities. It's a free video that helps you create repeatable urgency, increase your influence and unlock deals you didn't know existed.

7. How to Plan Discovery Calls That SELL

If you're a sales leader or a high-performing salesperson, you know how important it is to stay organized and predict every move during a discovery call. You can only do that when you have a sales plan ready. This free cheat sheet consisting of simple, organized pointers help you be at your productive best in discovery calls.

8. How to Plan SaaS Demos That SELL

Just like the pre-discovery call cheat sheet, I have created a pre-demo call cheat sheet that has helped salespeople close thousands of SaaS deals. The step-by-step guide includes objectives, problems, customer stories, beliefs, questions, and a “don't show list” to make sure you're prepared for every scenario.

9. How to Turn a $50k SaaS Deal Into a $500k MEGA Deal

While scaling Gong, I discovered that there's always a bigger problem behind the problem I was solving. This free video helps salespeople understand how to find the “need behind the need” to address the root cause and close bigger deals. You may have used cross-sells and upsells but you've never seen them work like this before.

10. The 10X Cold Email Template

Sometimes, all it takes is a cold email to the right person at the right time to create deals. Get instant access to the 10X cold email template I used over 100,000 times to grow his own startup from $0 to $3M in just 8 months. It has taken him an awful amount of trial and error to refine the template over 12 years so you can get started with it immediately. It’s completely free.

The Role of Effective Coaching in Sales Performance 

Coaching salespeople is not just about skill development—it also creates a culture of growth and builds confidence among the team members. This is particularly important for the long-term growth of the company as trained sales representatives are better positioned to handle new challenges and deliver consistent results every quarter. 

Another benefit I've seen through sales coaching is the competitive edge it creates for your team. Most managers struggle to implement a coaching culture because of lack of time, lack of understanding of sales coaching strategies, and indifferent attitude of salespeople in acquiring new skill sets. If you can overcome these challenges and create a culture of self-improvement, mentorship, and confidence building, your company can withstand most economic downturns.

The Impact Sales Leadership Training Has on Sales Results

With sales leadership training, your team is more likely to succeed in moments that define results. They become empowered to solve issues instead of referencing back to sales managers. This shortens sales cycles, improves win rates, and brings in bigger deals to the company. 

In high-performing teams such as Gong, we encouraged sales managers to spend more time training and coaching people so they can attain quotas faster and more consistently. On top of raw numbers, personality development helps sales representatives to move up the ladder faster.

Leadership Development for the Sales Leaders of Tomorrow

You cannot always hire from outside for leadership positions and hope they fit right into the company culture. The best sales leaders are in-house talents that are trained and empowered to take the next step. 

A coaching culture within the organization will help you identify talents that can embrace leadership roles and create a pipeline of leaders for years to come. 

One of the best ways you can help them expand their skills and acquire a leader's mindset is by creating a presence on LinkedIn where they can create thought leadership content, interact with others, and network with like-minded professionals.