You are still the main salesperson in your business. You take the enquiry calls, write the quotes and decide how hard to chase the customer who said "let me think about it". For most owners that is the right order of things: you work out how a deal gets won and write it down, which is the test to pass before you hire a salesperson. Until then, the selling skill that matters is yours.
So you look at online sales training, and many launch pages promise a "system": a proven framework, a step-by-step method, a script that closes. What those pages rarely show is whether the course teaches you to run a conversation with a real buyer or hands you lines to read out. You tend to find out after paying, around module three, when the system turns out to be a script written for somebody else's product.
Eric Salo Reviews publishes short, first-person reviews of online tools, software, courses and services, and sales training is one of the kinds of course it reviews.
This guide is sponsored by Eric Salo Reviews and names no sales course or coach.
The takeaway: a sales course is worth its price when it teaches the conversation, not the script. Before you pay, look for six things: discovery questions and listening, a follow-up method that doesn't rely on memory, pricing and objection practice with worked examples, a fit with the way you actually sell, a sample lesson with the renewal and refund terms in writing, and a careful line on results. A launch page that can't show you most of them is selling the launch.
Why sales training for founders is a different brief
Much online sales training is written for people who sell all day: reps with a quota, a pipeline somebody else fills and a product somebody else priced. An owner's week looks different:
- You sell in bursts between doing the work. A method has to survive days between calls.
- You set the price yourself. A pricing conversation is also a decision about your margin, so a course that answers every objection with a discount teaches you to cut your own margin.
- Your buyers come back and talk to each other. Pressure that wins one deal can cost you the next.
- You often deliver what you sell. The buyer is judging you as well as the offer, so a borrowed persona shows quickly.
None of this rules out a general course; read its curriculum for the parts that transfer to a handful of conversations a week.
Six things online sales training should cover
1. Discovery: the questions, and the listening, before any pitch
The first conversation with a buyer should be mostly the buyer talking. A course should teach how to open a call, what to ask about the problem, the timing, who else has a say and what they have tried, and how to listen instead of waiting for your turn to pitch.
Look for example question lists and transcripts or recordings of real discovery conversations, with notes on what was asked and why. A red flag: a "Discovery" module that lasts a few minutes before moving on to "the close".
2. Follow-up that doesn't rely on memory
Plenty of small deals die quietly in the days after the quote, with nobody saying no. A good course treats follow-up as a process with dates, not as persistence: what to send after a call, when to chase, how many times, and when to stop.
If you already run a lead follow-up system with stages and next-action dates, check that the course's cadence slots into it. Be wary of a follow-up module that mostly explains why you need the tool the course happens to sell.
3. Pricing conversations and objections, with practice
"It's more than I expected." "I need to run it past my partner." "Can you do it for less?" A course should show worked examples of how to answer each of these without discounting by reflex: how to say a price out loud without apologising, how to offer a smaller scope instead of a lower rate, and how to ask what the hesitation is really about.
Then it should make you practise: role-play, a sample script you rewrite in your own words, or one objection handled two ways. A course with no exercises is a lecture series.
4. A fit with how you sell: calls, email or a sales page
Small businesses tend to sell in one of three ways, and each needs different lessons:
- On calls or face to face (trades, services, consulting): discovery and objection handling matter most.
- By email or messages (quotes, business-to-business enquiries): written follow-up and proposal layout matter most.
- Through a sales page or online checkout (products, bookings, digital goods): the page itself does the selling, so copy and page structure matter more than call technique.
Check the lesson list against your way of selling first: a course built around cold calling teaches little to an owner whose buyers arrive through a booking form.
5. Sample lessons, length, renewal and refund terms on the vendor's checkout
Ask for a free lesson or a member-area preview before you pay, and watch it for format: exercises and worked examples, or an hour of talking to camera.
Then read the terms where they bind, on the vendor's own checkout and refund policy, not in a launch email:
- Length. How many hours of lessons, and how much of that is practice, set against the hours you have in a busy month.
- Price model. A one-off payment, or a subscription that renews, and at what price.
- Refund window. How long it runs, and whether it depends on finishing modules or submitting work.
- Cancelling. Whether you can stop a renewal yourself, without emailing anyone.
Screenshot the checkout page and the refund policy on the day you buy. Terms change between launches.
6. Results figures, read as the vendor's own claim
Launch pages for sales courses often show close rates, deal sizes or before-and-after numbers from past students. Read any such figure as the vendor's own claim about its strongest cases, not a forecast for you: it rarely says how many students finished or where they started.
This guide gives no figures, on purpose. A careful course names the skills you leave with, such as running a discovery call or answering a price objection calmly, not a number you will hit.
A course worksheet you can copy
Copy this table into a note and add one column per course you are weighing. A row you can't fill in before checkout is an answer in itself.
| Check | Where to look | A good sign | Walk away if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Lesson list, sample lesson | Question lists and annotated example conversations | "Discovery" is one short video before the pitch |
| Follow-up | Lesson list | A cadence with timings and a point where you stop | "Follow up until they buy" |
| Pricing and objections | Lesson list, exercises | Worked answers and role-play you do yourself | Only lines to read out, or a discount as the answer |
| Fit with how you sell | Lesson list, course page | Lessons for your way of selling: calls, email or a sales page | Built around a channel you don't use |
| Sample lesson and length | Free preview, course page | A full lesson you can watch before paying | Nothing to see before checkout |
| Renewal and refund | The vendor's checkout and refund policy | A clear price model and a refund window you can meet | Terms only in small print, or a refund tied to finishing modules |
| Results claims | Launch page, any disclaimer | Skills you will have at the end | Unlabelled figures, or a promise of closed deals |
For an owner, the first four rows decide which course fits; the last three rule courses out.
A note on course-building software
Some owners later want to teach their own method: how they quote jobs, run a consultation or pitch a service. Course-building software hosts and sells an online course of your own, with lessons, a member area and payments in one place. If that is where you are heading, use the worksheet in reverse: pick a platform that lets you show a sample lesson, state renewal and refund terms plainly at checkout and describe outcomes as skills.
Building the shortlist with Eric Salo Reviews
The worksheet tells you what to ask of a course. A sales training course review can tell you which courses deserve the questions.
Eric Salo Reviews has been publishing reviews since 2025, with Eric Salo as its founder and primary author. Its first-person reviews of online marketing training cover SEO courses, storytelling and copywriting templates, sales training and course-building software. They describe what a product is, what stands out and who it suits, and link to the product. The marketing training reviews overview sets out those four kinds of training in one place.
The reason we point owners there: each review says who a product suits, so you can check that line against how you sell, row four of the worksheet, before you open the vendor's checkout. If it describes a way of selling unlike yours, keep looking. Eric Salo Reviews writes for people building an online business, such as bloggers, creators, affiliate marketers and small online sellers, who are weighing a tool, course or service. On results, the review site's Earnings Disclaimer says income references are illustrative only and results are not guaranteed. Point six asks you to read a launch page the same way.
The trade-off: some of its links are affiliate links, and it may earn a commission at no extra cost to you when you buy through one. Treat a review as one input for the shortlist, and read the price and refund terms yourself on the vendor's own checkout.
FAQ
Should I take a sales course or hire a sales coach?
A course costs less and runs at your pace, but it is general: it teaches a method and leaves you to apply it. A coach reviews your actual calls or quotes and tells you what to change, which costs more and runs on a fixed schedule. For an owner who sells a few times a week, one sensible order is a course first for the method, then a few coaching sessions once you have real conversations to review.
How long before a sales course makes a difference?
No one can promise a timeframe, and a launch page that names one is guessing about you. It depends on how many sales conversations you have each week and whether you practise between them. Judge progress by what you can do, such as running a discovery call without jumping to the pitch. Eric Salo Reviews makes no promise either: its Earnings Disclaimer says income references are illustrative only and results are not guaranteed.
Do I pay more if I buy a course through a link on Eric Salo Reviews?
No, according to its disclosure. Some of the site's links are affiliate links, and when a purchase goes through one, Eric Salo Reviews may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That is the reason to treat a review as one input among several: what it says about who a product suits helps you shortlist, and the vendor's checkout settles the price and the refund terms.
Can a sales course make my selling worse?
It can, if it teaches pressure. Tactics built for one-off sales, such as invented deadlines, scripted rebuttals and pushing past a clear no, can win a deal and lose you the referral that would have followed. If a lesson asks you to say something you would not say to a regular customer, skip it. The other risk is time: a long course started in a busy month often stalls halfway.
Next step
Write down how you sell, then copy the worksheet and add a column for each online sales course you are weighing. To see what a course is and who it suits before you open its checkout, read the first-person reviews of online marketing training, sales training included, at EricSaloReviews.click, with the affiliate disclosure in mind. Then let the vendor's written terms make the call, not the launch date.