Sales and business development courses help professionals generate revenue and identify opportunities for growth. The best programs teach SDRs and BDRs approaches to produce exceptional results and conquer new markets.

Investing in business and sales development training is an excellent way to boost team performance and nurture top salespeople. Your team learns new tactics and techniques for streamlining sales processes and closing more deals.

Sales training opportunities also improve employee retention by giving your workforce the necessary assets to succeed on the job. Supported employees are more likely to stay and achieve success for your firm.

Features of an ideal sales and business development course

To pick the right course for your team’s professional development, you need to understand what each program offers. The best courses have the following features:

  • Skills taught
  • Instructor’s reputation 
  • Fair pricing
  • Accessibility 

Skills taught

Business development courses should emphasize skills and knowledge that help professionals deliver better results. Ideal programs teach communication, market research, data analysis, relationship building, and negotiation.

Instructor’s reputation 

The organization and instructors conducting the program must be well-known and have extensive experience in sales and business growth. There should also be testimonials from previous students proving the value of the knowledge received from the course.

Fair pricing

The training materials must reflect the program’s cost. Comparing the course syllabus to the value is a good method for evaluating fair pricing: a program with a wider scope and robust objectives will likely cost more. 

Accessibility

Sales training courses should be accessible to students with on-demand resources and practical sessions to guide their learning.

Top 9 sales and business development courses 

Sales leaders can select suitable courses from this list for their teams to upskill, explore new business opportunities, improve performance, and grow revenue:

  1. Salesforce SDR professional certification
  2. Business development for startups
  3. The art of sales: Mastering the sales process
  4. Business development manager certification
  5. Business development foundations
  6. Harvard strategic sales management
  7. Dale Carnegie sales training
  8. Rain Group foundations of consultative selling
  9. Saleshacker inside sales consulting

Salesforce SDR professional certification (Free)

This certification is for sales development representatives who want to build prospecting skills for selling B2B products. It emphasizes professional development as a key concept and explains how it enhances success.

Duration: Six months (five hours per week)

Learning outcomes:

Business development for startups and tech companies ($130)

This course is for companies that want to “unlock next-level growth.” The training curriculum teaches business development representatives and managers outreach, relationship building, negotiation, deal expansion tactics, and the creation of new inbound prospects. 

Duration: 31 hours 

Learning outcomes:
  • Closing techniques for business deals
  • Outbound communication strategies 
  • Lead generation and relationship-building tactics
  • Sales psychology

The art of sales: Mastering the sales process (Free)

This is a specialization of four Northwestern University courses. It teaches salespeople unique ways to stand out, attract clients, and become high-performing professionals. 

Duration: Four months (3 hours per week)

Learning outcomes:
  • Skills for customer segmentation and prospecting
  • Collecting lead information, questioning tactics, and handling objections
  • Sales pitch and presentation styles

Certified business development manager ($49)

This certification teaches business development supervisors and managers the vital skills for upgrading their careers. 

Duration: 13 hours

Learning outcomes:
  • Business development basics
  • Creating marketing plans and strategies 
  • Capturing marketing insights and data analysis
  • Managing B2B client relationships 
  • Account management
  • Sales forecasting 

Business development foundations ($40)

This Linkedin learning course shows business development personnel the prototypes for identifying and following up on prospective clients. It also explains how to build effective teams and gives tips for scaling them as the company grows. 

Duration: 1 hour

Learning outcomes:
  • Importance of business development functions
  • Skills for business development roles and hiring tips
  • Managing and organizing teams
  • Measuring business performance

Harvard strategic sales management ($2,895)

This program teaches sales professionals the characteristics of high-performing teams and offers management techniques. It is an in-person training, with classes delivered on the Harvard campus. 

Duration: 2 days 

Learning outcomes: 
  • Proven techniques for leading and training high-performance teams
  • Tactics for improving performance
  • Coaching with effective communication 
  • Management performance analysis

Dale Carnegie sales training ($2,095)

Industry veteran Dale Carnegie focuses on maximizing trust, credibility, and a mutual understanding of value for building sales relationships. This course teaches identifying customers’ needs and positioning products and services as solutions. 

Duration: 3 days

Learning outcomes: 
  • Sales strategies that build long-lasting relationships 
  • Establishing connections with customers
  • Techniques for minimizing negotiation time and improving sales
  • Product pitches and placement

Rain Group foundations of consultative selling ($450)

The experts at Rain Group introduce students to tactics for successful selling with this program. It helps salespeople uncover buyer needs and teaches them to pitch their solutions to seal the deal. 

Duration: 2 days (in-person) or 6 weeks (virtual)

Learning outcomes:
  • Rapport building skills
  • Value proposition presentation 
  • Overcoming objections 
  • Influence and persuasion in sales
  • Sales collaboration

Saleshacker inside sales consulting (various prices)

This training is a full-funnel coaching program that increases sales effectiveness by improving client discovery and shortening sales cycles.

Duration: based on consultation

Learning outcomes: 
  • Pipeline growth strategies 
  • Sales questioning 
  • Identifying new opportunities
  • Navigating complex scenarios 
  • Designing sales processes 
  • Sales psychology

Bottom Line

As a sales leader, you should understand the value of sales and business courses and how they prepare your team for better outcomes. The best managers combine these programs with intra-team coaching and personal development tips to boost SDRs and BDRs’ effectiveness.