Explore the booming field of tech sales, a domain focused on selling technology solutions to businesses. Dive deep into the different training formats available for tech sales, and understand how to choose the right one for your personal learning style and career goals.
Which Tech Sales Training Format Is Right for Me? Compare Learning Methods
If you love technology but are not sure you want to learn to code, tech sales is a good career choice. When comparing types of tech sales training, there are many factors to consider. Everyone learns differently, and choosing the right kind of training is critical to your experience.
Keep reading to find out more about the different formats of tech sales training, how they compare to each other, and how to determine which is best for you.
What is Tech Sales?
Tech sales is exactly that: selling technology. Technology Sales Representatives work for companies that make hardware and software or provide services like cyber security or financial services, but tech sales are focused more on solving a problem than on selling a product. Building a relationship with customers based on meeting their needs is the foundation of tech sales.
Tech sales is a business-to-business sales model, also known as “B2B.” Sales Reps spend a lot of time reaching out to potential clients through cold calling or emails. Once they’ve made a connection, Tech Sales Reps often pass the clients on to an Account Executive to complete the sale, but the Rep usually stays in contact with clients after the sale to make sure they are satisfied.
Because businesses continue to embrace technological solutions, the field of tech sales is easy to get into. There are many opportunities available, and the pay is very good. As long as technology is booming, tech sales will be a solid career.
Read more about what tech sales are and why you should learn it.
What Can You Do with Tech Sales?
Do you have a passion for technology? Are you always reading about new devices and what they can do, but you don’t know how to code and aren’t really interested in learning? You can turn that passion into a new career in tech sales. Selling software as a product relies less on the development of the software and more on what problems it can solve. If you are outgoing and enjoy talking about what software products can do for people, you can use those skills in tech sales. This is a rapidly growing field that offers numerous opportunities for advancement and lucrative pay.
When you work in tech sales, you can find a job in different kinds of companies. Some sales reps work for firms that sell hardware products, others develop and sell software, and others sell services. If you want to change to a different type of product down the road, that won’t be a problem in the high-demand field of tech sales. It is easy to get into and jobs are plentiful. Most businesses use some type of technology product, so tech sales is likely to remain strong far into the future.
Training Formats for Tech Sales
You have three choices when it comes to tech sales training formats. You can attend an in-person session in a classroom setting with an instructor and other students in the room. You can sign up for a live online class that meets at a set time on a video conferencing platform that you can access from anywhere with internet service. You can also choose on-demand video classes. These are prerecorded, and you can watch them whenever you want.
In-Person Tech Sales Training
When you think about learning a new skill, maybe the image that comes to mind is a classroom with an instructor at the front of the room and students at desks throughout. You can ask questions if you don’t understand something, and you can get to know and talk to the other students. In-person classes are a familiar environment.
Noble Desktop offers in-person business analytics classes to help you prepare for a career in tech sales. The Business Analyst Certificate covers Excel, PowerPoint, SQL, and Tableau. Students attend from Noble’s state-of-the-art computer classroom in Midtown Manhattan. Sonic Training also offers in-person business classes at different locations across the U.S., and NYIM Training has a Data Analytics Bootcamp in New York City.
Live Online Tech Sales Training
You may prefer in-person classes to help you prepare for a change to a career in tech sales, but if that configuration isn’t available, a live online class has many of the same advantages. Live online sessions often take place at the same time as an in-person class through a video conferencing platform. You can ask questions or get help if you need it from the instructor and chat with other students, but you don’t have to commute or pay for parking.
You can find live online tech sales classes at Noble Desktop. The Python for Data Science Bootcamp presents the fundamentals of using Python to analyze real-world data sets and generate useful statistics and visualizations. The Data Analytics Certificate includes Python as well as Tableau and working with relational databases. NYIM Training offers live online classes in a number of business topics, including project management, Microsoft Office, and accounting. Thinkful has a Data Analytics Flex class, Digital Workshop Center teaches Business Soft Skills, and NYC Career Centers offers both Intro to Financial Accounting and Project Management Bootcamp as live online courses.
Free Online Courses & Tutorials
If you’re not sure if you are ready to tackle tech sales classes, there are free seminars you can watch to get an idea if the subject is for you. Noble Desktop has a number of free video introductions to topics like Excel, Python, and PowerPoint. HubSpot Academy also offers free training courses. You can choose from Sales Rep Training, Sales Enablement Training, and Sales Software Training. Udemy has free courses on sales including How to Sell Anything in 3 Simple Steps and Starting Your Sales Career. Coursera offers a free introductory tech sales course.
Read about more free tech sales videos and online tutorials.
Then find other non-Noble courses.
On-Demand Classes
Besides good communication and listening skills, Tech Sales Reps need to have business knowledge, and one way to get those skills is by taking classes. Some companies prefer to hire people who have degrees in business or marketing. It is possible to get into tech sales without a degree, although some business skills are always helpful.
You can sign up for various business and marketing classes to build your tech sales skills. One option is a live in-person class in a classroom setting. The advantage here is that class sizes are small and you can get individual attention from the instructor. This is also an opportunity to meet other students and do some networking. But what if there aren’t any in-person classes near you? Another option is a live online class. This is a hybrid of a video session and an in-person class, where there is a real-time remote instructor who can answer questions, but you log onto a video conferencing platform to attend class. No need to commute!
On-demand classes are also a possibility for learning business and marketing skills. This type of class tends to be less expensive than in-person or live online sessions, and on-demand videos are convenient. You can watch the videos from your home or office whenever you want. The downside is that you don’t have an instructor available to answer questions or give advice.
You can also find free resources to help you gain the skills you need to get a job in tech sales. Noble Desktop has several free seminars that could help you in a business setting. Top 10 Beginner Excel Tricks You Need to Know can save you time at work, and PowerPoint Presentation Design can teach you what you need to know to put together sales presentations. Videos like Intro to Google Analytics can get you up to speed on collecting and using data. There are also blogs to teach you business and marketing skills.
Read the full guide on how to learn tech sales.
Comparison of Tech Sales Training Formats
If you went to school, you are familiar with how in-person training works. Many people feel most comfortable going into a classroom and interacting with an instructor and other students, but these types of classes are only found in large cities. What do you do if you live somewhere else and don’t have access to in-person tech sales classes? Live online learning is an attractive option.
Online classes come in two types: asynchronous and synchronous. Asynchronous classes are recorded ahead of time. When you join a platform and sign up for a class, you get access to the videos. You can watch them whenever and wherever you want, and go back and repeat lessons if you need to. Of course, there is no instructor to answer questions or get extra help. This is one of the reasons that on-demand classes tend to cost less than live online offerings.
Synchronous classes are often held at the same time as an in-person meeting and streamed to all participants through a video conferencing platform. The instructor presents the information in real-time, and you can ask questions and get help with exercises. Although you can’t go back and watch the class whenever you want, some programs allow you to retake classes or give you access to the slides from the instructor’s presentation.
Is it Possible to Teach Yourself Tech Sales?
Watching free video tutorials is a good way to get started learning tech sales. There are many to choose from on YouTube, and some of the online training platforms like Skillshare, Coursera, and LinkedIn offer free classes as well as a free trial period for their on-demand videos. Also, HubSpot Academy has a free sales training course focusing on their many tools for tech sales.
You can get a good overview on your own from free resources, but if you want a more in-depth education, most people find in-person or live online classes more useful. These courses are taught by industry professionals who can answer your questions and share insights on tech sales best practices to save you time. So, while it is possible to teach yourself tech sales up to a point, if you want efficient, well-rounded training, sign up for a class.
How to Decide the Best Way to Learn Tech Sales
It’s up to you how you want to learn tech sales. Choose the learning method you prefer. You can take an in-person class, a live-online course, or on-demand training. You can also choose classes that fit your schedule. Some classes meet on weekdays, some on weekends, or others in the evening. The most important factor is where you feel comfortable starting.
If you are a complete beginner in tech sales, you may want to find an overview of how sales and marketing work. Noble Desktop’s Pillars of Digital Marketing gives you an introduction to sales through digital marketing. There are many tutorials on YouTube, and HubSpot Academy also offers free training courses.
Once you have an idea of how tech sales works, you might want to sign up for a more in-depth training course to get a more detailed view. These courses meet in person or live online, or you can choose an asynchronous on-demand video class. If you like the human interaction aspect of learning a new skill, choose in-person or live online. If cost and convenience are more important to you, go with the on-demand classes.
Once you are comfortable with tech sales, you can learn more about related topics by signing up for a Digital Marketing Certificate course or a Project Management Bootcamp. Web development courses are also helpful when you are building a career in tech sales.
Learn Business & Marketing Skills with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop
You can learn project management and digital marketing through Noble Desktop. Noble’s Project Management Bootcamp covers methods for running projects effectively and managing scope, time, and resources. Noble’s Digital Marketing Certificate covers creating internet marketing campaigns, including SEO, social media marketing, paid and unpaid search, and analytics. Noble also offers classes in Excel, Python, and SQL if you want to take your business practices further.
Classes are taught by industry professionals who have real-world experience in their subjects. Class sizes are small, and you can choose between in-person training and live online sessions. Each class offers a free retake option within a year, and upon completion, you will receive a digital certificate that you can attach to your resume or LinkedIn profile.