No sales team will reach its full potential without effective sales training. Whether youre hiring new salespeople or looking to advance your existing sales team, a good sales training program can improve areas of weakness, improve effectiveness and boost confidence.

Weve identified 20 of the top sales classes, seminars, and resources:

For the main part, public sales training programs are delivered as 1-3 day workshops or seminars. Usually they take place at a local convention hall and anyone can join in by purchasing a ticket. Admission costs anywhere from $500 to $3,000 per seat.

If youre looking for classic training seminar, MHI hosts a number of sales training workshops around the US, as well as in Canada, Europe and Australia. Their events typically last 2 to 3 days, covering a variety of sales topics, including large account management, SPIN Selling and Strategic Selling which teaches a step-by-step method for managing complex business-to-business sales.

Launched after publishing the classic business book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, FranklinCovey offers a wide variety of business training resources. They sell books, offer online business training programs, hosts live seminars and provide one-on-one business coaching too.

While FranklinCovey do offer sales training programs, the majority of the resources cover leadership disciplines including; time management, data analysis, leadership and strategic thinking. You can view a list of their public training seminars here.

Training groups will work with you to write a curriculum specific to your business, then travel to your office to teach your employees. Costs can be quite a bit higher than public courses, ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 per day.

The Brooks Group provides customized sales training courses. What I like about their approach is that it avoids the hype of pop sales books: Customized sales training is NOT a matter of changing the language or giving you a unique acronym for the sales process, reads their website.

Instead, The Brooks Group develops a close understanding of your business so it can teach according to your specific needs: Real customization ensures that the training your salespeople receive accurately matches their daily selling experience, [is] tailored to fit your unique sales environment and organizational culture. Before deploying to teach your employees, The Brooks Groups spends 3 to 12 weeks working with business owners to build the curriculum.

One of the big names in customized training courses is Richardson Sales Training. They start with assessment tests that highlight areas of strength and weakness in your sales team. Then, they use this to develop a course that addresses your specific needs i.e. lead generation, opportunity management, on-boarding, account development, etc.

Richardson also has a number of 1 and 2 day course that cover topics like sales conversations (how to interact with a client), sales negotiation, complex sales training and more. View the rest on their website here.

Richardson can serve a wide variety of businesses, but according to their website, they primarily focus on financial services, finance, technology, manufacturing and distribution, chemicals, life sciences and professional services.

Wilson Learning offers private, customized training courses. They follow the belief that single training seminars arent effective, since much of whats learned is forgotten months down the line. Instead, Wilson focuses on sustained sales training programs: It starts by consulting with managers, then runs sales training programs with the sales team. Finally, Wilson provides reinforcement quizzes enabled via mobile apps.

Signature Worldwide offers customized training courses in a few areas of specialty. Client-Centered Sales is a consultative sales training program that helps sales reps add position themselves as experts and win the trust of their prospects and customers. Other sales courses focus on prospecting, equipment sales and rental property leasing.

Like Wilson Learning, they follow the belief that single training events are not retained very well months down the line. Instead, they help reinforce knowledge with follow-up lessons. Telephone mystery shoppers gauge the effectiveness of your sales and customer service team and help Signature Worldwide trainers determine what to focus on.

DoubleDigit Sales specialize in helping salespeople, sales managers and executives perform significantly better to achieve double digit growth. DoubleDigit leverage a consultation process to deliver customized learning experiences that change behaviors and drive improved sales revenue. They are also one of the SellingPower Top 20 Sales Training Companies in 2017.

One program that caught my eye was called StorySelling. As Fusion explains on their website, Stories are one of the things that make life and work fun and fulfilling. The ability to craft and tell great stories is a critical business and life skill. Other topics include prospecting, sales presentations and consultative selling.

Online sales training programs are delivered via a range of different channels including; video conference, webinar, video, e-books and other accompanying content. Below I have provided a selection of free, low-cost and higher-cost options.

Sales Hacker has a massive online digital blog presence, which I speak about further below. This free sales training course bundle is designed to help any B2B sales professional improve their skill set. The bundle includes some of Sales Hackers favorite conference lectures, webinars and eBooks. There are 4-hours of sales training content, 10-video based lectures and 5-PDFs.

Jill is a highly respected expert sales professional. This workshop covers the changing sales environment, the elements of a strong value proposition, how to use sales intelligence and trigger events, effective calls and voicemails, and more. There are also free and paid options and resources for reinforcing and extending the lessons covered in the virtual workshop, such as coaching, and video lessons.

This three-month virtual course covers the seven key facets of sales: Prospecting, developing trust and credibility, identifying the buyers problems, overcoming resistance, selling value, closing, and getting referrals and repeat business. Along with 24-videos you can re-watch at any time, you also get workbooks, exercises, and bonus training modules.

This course teaches you to sell the inbound way, which Hubspot are experts in. like a This free virtual course on the Inbound Sales methodology encompasses everything from identifying potential buyers to developing personalized presentations. Once youve finished the course and passed the exam, youll get a badge to display on your LinkedIn profile, email signature or website.

This course is focused on the art of cold calling and telephone based sales. Art is an expert and he shares his expertise on how best to use the phone as your primary sales communication channel. Over the course of one month, you can will learn how to engage buyers in the first few seconds of call, resolve objections, add value at each stage, secure follow-up calls and more. Along with the videos, youll get access to a workbook, live coaching sessions, and an online forum.

This 5-week course provides new sales reps with a solid introduction to the fundamentals of sales. It covers; cold calling, prospecting, qualifying, asking questions and developing cost proposals. Unlike many of the other options, its equally relevant to both B2B and B2C salespeople and includes lectures, reading, and real-world exercises. The course itself is free, but if you want to course certificate to put on your LinkedIn profile and email signature then this will cost you $95.

In this 8-week training program, inside sales professionals will learn how to get past gatekeepers, overcome call reluctance, engage prospects, book appointments, delve into their prospects motivations, resolve their concerns and close deals. Beyond the 1-hour per week live online interactive training, you get sales, sales scripts, workbooks, weekly tests and final exam results. You also get free support via email and chat. All sales training workshops are recorded for your sales reps to refer to when they need a refresher.

This online option is ideal if youre and experience B2B salesperson, manager or leader looking for relevant, digestible insights across a range of sales topics to boost your skill set and come away with some fresh ideas and techniques. Each year from April to July sales experts including; Dave Kurlan, Deb Calvert, and Colleen Stanley deliver a short presentation on their area of expertise. Past sessions are available as recorded videos and include selling value, creating a social selling strategy and managing your sales pipeline.

Tony Iannarinos sales training program and membership community is designed for continuous learning. Each month, members receive a new lesson on a core sales skill. They also get to attend a live question and answer webinar with Tony. You also get access to a private forum, where members network and answer each others questions, share thoughts and support each other.

This course is intended for sales leaders looking for predictable results. Whether your goal is a higher quota and revenue attainment, better win rates or lower sales force turnover, this course provides the best answers available. Delivered by expert sales professional Lori Richardson, the course is delivered in six 90-minute virtual sessions. The program will help you put in place the right sales process and methodology for your market, your product and your revenue goals.

Area(s) of Focus: Custom online training exercises

One of the top online sales training websites, Mindflash lets you create your own training courses. You can upload sales materials you already have (like PDFs, PowerPoints or videos) and tailor them into a quiz.

Mindflash automatically send invites and reminders to users and generates reports for you to view their progress and determine who needs to focus more on what. The downside is that it takes a while to setup, since you have to create the courses.

Area(s) of Focus: Fast online sales lessons

As the name implies, Rapid Learning Institute is all about quick exercises that teach important concepts. Theres 70+ sales training lessons called Quick Takes that last 6 to 10 minutes. One of the key benefits to Rapid Learning Institute is you dont have to create courses yourself, as you would with Mindflash.

Training topics include prospecting, presentation, handling objections, closing, referrals and more. When you assign lessons to your staff, theyll receive automated emails reminding them to log on.

You can check out some free educational videos on their blog here.

Area(s) of Focus: Sales Assessment Tests, Sales Training

Boyer Management Group offers a variety of sales resources. The one we want to highlight, however, is their sales assessment test. This may seem a little out of place in an article focused on sales training, but sales assessment is actually the first step in any good training program.

By scoring each area of the sales cycle, including prospecting, performing a needs assessment, presenting, closing, etc., the Boyer Assessment Test tells you which employees need help on which areas of focus. Rather than each all employees all topics in which case, theyre liable to lose focus you can zero in on their specific needs.

Armed with this information, you might realize you dont even need an outside educator You can host training sessions of your own, or pair employees with mentors who have more experience in particular areas.

Every business has different needs when it comes to sales training. Generally speaking, its a good idea to reinforce knowledge with ongoing lessons, as opposed to a just one-time workshop. But you can always reinforce sales training programs with sales books and sales training videos to help achieve this.

More:
Top 20 Sales Training Programs, Courses & Seminars in 2017