If you are searching for free online sales courses with certificates so you can learn how to sell, close business deals, and meet KPI targets, then you have come to the right place. In this article, I have covered some of the best free sales courses that will get you selling like a pro in no time.
Sales is an art – and it’s not an easy one to master. Great salespeople possess traits and characteristics that make them who they are. These may include, confidence, active listening, resilience, effective communication, and so on.
Sales courses mostly focus on the skills you need to become an all-around professional salesperson. The beginner courses will start from scratch, teaching on topics that a newbie needs to learn, including everything they need to know about sales and marketing before they can advance to sales strategy.
These free online sales courses with certificates have been carefully picked to give you the best learning experience. By the end of each course, you must learn some tips and attributes that will make you a great salesperson.
Focusing on traits that you originally possess and building on them, is a great and fast way to become a better sales representative. Subsequently, you can learn other skills you will need to start selling like a pro. Having said that, let’s go through some definitions of sales and see that we are on the same page.
What is Sales?
Sales is an activity between two or more parties where the buyer receives a product, service, or asset, in exchange for money. For sales to happen, an exchange has to occur between a buyer and a seller. A seller in this case is often referred to as a Salesperson.
In every organization, there is usually a sales team, and this team is also broken into other teams. Their major focus is on selling products and services, the region they are selling for, and their target audience.
It is important to note that while sales and marketing may go hand in hand, they are in fact very different from each other. Marketing focuses on a general audience, while sales focuses on an individual until the process is complete, i.e the individual makes a purchase. The process includes prospect, preparation, approach, presentation, overcoming objection, the closing of the sale, and follow-up.
If you would like to equip yourself with skills in digital marketing, Google has provided free digital marketing courses with certificates, you may want to start here.
Types of Sales Roles
Sales Director
The sales director manages the team of managers and their activities, ensuring that there is no bottleneck problem. They also focus on company goals, developing key growth sales strategies, tactics, and action plans. As a sales director, it is your duty to ensure the company hit its annual targets, and to build a lasting relationship with your customers.
One of the key skills a sales director needs to have is leadership skills. We have an article where you will find some free leadership courses to take if you are looking to be in charge of sales teams. You will earn a certificate after each course.
Sales Manager
The sales manager handles the team of Salespeople of a company or an organization. They are responsible for hiring and providing guidance, training, and mentorship to all the members of the team.
Sales Representative
The representatives are inside and outside salespeople. They are responsible for selling products to businesses and organizations, and meeting customer needs while obtaining orders from existing or potential sales outlets.
Sales Associate
Sales Associate is a B2C position in which a salesperson sells the product directly to the customer. It is the duty of a sales associate to greet customers on arrival, assist them through the buying process, and generally provide excellent customer service.
To become a better customer service representative, there are some skills you need to have. To help you achieve this, we have put together an article where you will find the best customer service courses to take for free.
15 Free Online Sales Courses with Certificates
If you are looking for courses to develop your sales skills, we have put together this list of free online sales courses with certificates to help you achieve that. Please note that while these courses are free, most platforms will require you to pay for your certificate before you can get them.
Let’s get started!
1. Fundamentals of Sales and Marketing, with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women
First up on the list of free online sales courses with certificates is Fundamentals of Sales and Marketing, one of 10 courses available in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women collection, designed for entrepreneurs ready to take their business to the next level.
In this 4-hour course, you will explore a range of useful marketing tools and learn how to use analytics to measure success in the context of your own business growth. You will gain a clear and comprehensive understanding of the marketing and sales cycle. You will use this cycle as a foundation to develop your marketing plans and sales process.
By the end of this course, you will understand how to identify the right marketing tools to reach your target market, and how an effective marketing plan can convert into sales and revenue for your business.
2. Strategic Sales Management Specialization
Next up on free online sales courses with certificates is this intermediate level specialization on Coursera, intended for sales professionals who are looking to improve their sales planning and management competencies and skills.
There are five courses in this specialization, and through them, you will cover Effective Sales overview, Sales Strategy, Models and Frameworks to Support Sales Planning, Sales & Marketing Alignment, and you will develop a Final Project.
By the end of this specialization, you’ll have improved your knowledge, competencies, and skills regarding the sales planning process. And you will be able to apply the concepts integrating the sales planning process to the strategy of the company, by bridging the gap between strategy and sales.
3. Enterprise Selling
The next course on free online sales courses with certificates is Enterprise selling, a 6-week course on edX.
This course offers you the opportunity to learn sales concepts like the sales cycle, buying process, and managing enterprise customers through a variety of lectures, case studies, and video role play analysis.
There will be an opportunity to see the sales process in action, taking potential customers and converting them into enterprise accounts, enabling you to practice your skills to become a sales leader.
4. The Art of Sales: Mastering the Selling Process Specialization
This is another Coursera specialization on free online sales courses with certificates for the absolute beginner who wants to close more deals and improve the performance of any sales team.
The Art of Sales Specialization is designed to make you more effective and efficient as you pursue your sales goals. Understand how to stand out in the crowd, attract customers, and build support for your initiatives within your company. Knowing how to “get to yes” is a crucial skill that can improve many facets of your life. Prepare to be tested, taught, and transformed as you learn to locate new customers and get great results.
5. Inbound Sales Course: Get Certified in Inbound Sales
If you started with me from the beginning of this post, you should know by now the different types of sales roles. This course has been designed specifically for sales managers and sales representatives. If any of these roles had caught your attention earlier, or you are already there, working as one, then this course is definitely for you.
During the course of two hours, you will learn how to identify the best contacts to reach out to, connect with and earn the attention of your most promising leads, and run sales calls and presentations that drive results.
The course has been broken into 5 lessons with 22 videos in total, and quizzes to assess your knowledge.
6. Sales Management – Business Ethics and Sales – Revised
The next course on free online sales courses with certificates is Sales Management, a course that teaches the elements of effective business communication.
This course throws light on important topics like consumer behavior, and the buying process. It will walk you through the different types of customers and buyers, the role emotion plays in the buying process, and all the steps involved in it.
This course picks up all the useful pieces of information that will be beneficial to a salesperson in career advancement. By the end of this course, you will be able to explain ethics and ethical behavior in business among other things.
7. Sales Training for High Performing Teams Specialization
Another course on free online sales courses with certificates is a specialization on Coursera, intended for sales professionals at any point in their career whether they’re just starting to apply for sales jobs or leading a global sales organization.
Each course in this specialization follows a sales career progression, from just getting started, to mastering sales, managing sales, and executing an overall business strategy. No matter where you are in your career, this specialization will give you a new perspective on what it’s like to be a sales job seeker, individual contributor, manager, and executive.
8. Strategic Account Management
This is another course on free online sales courses with certificates. It is one of the courses on the Enterprise Sales professional certificate on edX.
In this 6-week course, you will learn the sales processes, frameworks and skill sets utilized by top sales organizations in managing channel partnerships with retailers and resellers. As you delve deeper, you will learn how to implement a sales strategy to meet customer needs and increase customer satisfaction. You will be challenged to demonstrate your account management skills covering the range from customer service, customer success and to key account management.
This course is all about preparing you as a strategic account manager to build newly formed client relationships into long-term accounts to meet long-term goals of both client and the organization.
9. Sales Enablement & Analytics
This 6-week course on edX is yet another course on free online sales courses with certificates. In this course, you will explore concepts covered in the previous courses within the Enterprise Sales professional certificate, but through the lens of the tools and technologies which enable data-driven decisions.
Using the appropriate tools and technologies will permit sales representatives and managers to create value for their clients, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction and the likelihood of long-term client retention. You will learn how to use data, tools, and technology to drive productivity and set yourself apart as a sales leader.
10. HubSpot Sales Representative Professional Certificate
Whether you’re completely new to sales and looking to start a new career, or you want to grow in your current sales role, this five-course career training program from the inbound sales experts at HubSpot can help you reach your career goals.
You’ll start by learning the basics of sales enablement and how sales and marketing teams can collaborate to create and keep relationships with their targeted buyers. You’ll learn to analyze the effectiveness of your sales tactics and the success of your customer service with data and reporting using HubSpot’s CRM software.
This program will prepare you for your next role with hands-on projects that will apply your new skills, and you’ll create a portfolio to present to potential employers when interviewing for your next role. You’ll get real experience with HubSpot’s CRM Software and learn sales best practices.
11. Introduction to Negotiation: A Strategic Playbook for Becoming a Principled and Persuasive Negotiator
If you want to become a better negotiator, this course on free online sales courses with certificates is a good place to start. Unlike many negotiation courses, a framework has been developed for analyzing and shaping negotiations. This framework will allow you to make principled arguments that persuade others.
It will allow you to see beneath the surface of apparent conflicts to uncover the underlying interests. You will leave the course better able to predict, interpret, and shape the behavior of those you face in competitive situations.
In this course, you will have several opportunities to negotiate with other students using case studies based on common situations in business and in life. You can get feedback on your performance and compare what you did to how others approached the same scenario.
The cases also provide a setting to discuss a wide-ranging set of topics including preparing for a negotiation, making ultimatums, avoiding regret, expanding the pie, and dealing with someone who has a very different perspective on the world
12. Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills
We all negotiate on a daily basis. On a personal level, we negotiate with friends, family, landlords, car sellers, and employers, among others. Negotiation is also the key to business success. No business can survive without profitable contracts. Within a company, negotiation skills can lead to your career advancement.
In the course, you’ll learn about and practice the four steps to a successful negotiation:
- Prepare: Plan Your Negotiation Strategy
- Negotiate: Use Key Tactics for Success
- Close: Create a Contract
- Perform and Evaluate: The End Game
13. Customer Relationship Management
The next course on free online sales courses with certificates is Customer Relationship Management, a business and management course whose objective is to equip you with a sound foundation of CRM concepts and best practices so you can implement CRM practices successfully for long-term profitability.
In this course, you will learn how to shift from a short-term customer transaction-based mode of operation to a long-term relationship mode and understand the benefits of having strong customer relations.
Topics covered include:
- Customer retention
- Customer centricity
- Customer lifetime value
- Customer value management
14. Salesforce Fundamentals Specialization
The Salesforce Fundamentals specialization guides learners through the Salesforce Fundamentals for Business Administration Trailmix and presents what is possible with the Salesforce platform and how it can support your business.
This specialization covers the essentials of Salesforce from building a user interface and creating reports and dashboards, to advanced process automation. Upon completion of all the assigned modules and projects, learners will have the skills needed to begin to implement Salesforce in a business.
Each course in the Salesforce Fundamentals specialization offers formative quizzes and short, hands-on projects. These assessments offer learners the opportunity to regularly check their knowledge and apply what they have learned to practical, real-world situations.
15. Sales Training: Learn How to Sell in 7 Effective Steps
Finally on free online sales courses with certificates is this sales training course on Alison. In this course, you will learn about 4D Selling and how using specific skills and techniques will allow you to earn your client’s trust.
All the topics that are covered in this course are wrapped up in a tried-and-trusted 7-step selling system that will allow you to take a prospect by the hand and guide them through the sale.
This course is ideal for newbie salespersons, entrepreneurs, and sales managers who are responsible for training and providing sales training courses for the sales teams.
Conclusion
We have come to end of the list, and I am hoping that these free online sales courses with certificates will provide you with some, if not all, the skills you will need to become a better salesperson irrespective of your role or career.
If you stay committed to these courses and complete all your coursework in time, you will be qualified to receive a certificate. As I earlier mentioned, most platforms don’t issue certificates for free, you may have to purchase your certificates or upgrade to premium. Either way, what is most important is you acquire the knowledge and be ready to apply all that you have learned in your place of work.
Recommendations
- Reasons Efficient Supply Chain Management Is Essential For A Successful Business
. - Free Online Business Courses With Certificates
. - Best Online Courses On Marketing With Certificates
. - Free Online Excel Courses With Certificate
. - Best Free Online Customer Service Courses
. - 18 Free Online Management Courses with Certificates