We are updating the curriculum for 2024! Register your email to be notified when applications re-open here

Tech Sales Bootcamp

We are updating the the curriculum and delivery method to include new techniques, tools, and AI, to best prepare our students in their new career.

Register your email to be notified when applications re-open in 2024.

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Andrew McGrath

Tech Sales Graduate

From Sales Manager @ Best Buy

To SDR @ Anaplan

Sell tech and scale your income

+$25K

Average salary increase of Springboard students who provided pre- and post-course salaries

September 2022

In this sales bootcamp you will learn:

  • Researching, prospecting, and pipeline maintenance

  • Effective engagement, storytelling, and relationship management

  • How to adapt selling techniques to cloud delivery services and subscription-based models

You’ll work with tools like:

Learn to sell the future of tech in just 12 weeks.

2023 course curriculum

Please note this 12-week program curriculum is currently being updated.

Topic 1: Getting Started (Week 1)

In this opening week, you’ll receive an overview of how the bootcamp works and a breakdown of your weekly schedule.

You’ll also attend your first live learning session, exploring the different roles within tech sales and understanding the end-to-end customer journey. 

  • Learn the vocabulary of two high-growing industries, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Business-to-Business (B2B) sales

  • Understand the SDR role and its crucial role in the end-to-end customer journey

  • Learn how sales roles include inbound and outbound sales

  • Learn about the bowtie model and the six stages of the customer journey

Topic 2: Pipeline Development (Week 2)

You’ll explore how to visualize your prospects into hot, warm, and cold categories and categorize prospects from a list during a live learning session. You’ll also look at the wider pool of customers by familiarizing yourself with TAM (Total Addressable Market).

  • Review a list of prospects and categorize them into hot, warm, or cold

  • Understand how to receive weekly, monthly, and quarterly lists based on the average contract values (ACV) of customers

  • Explain that Total Addressable Market (TAM) is not infinite

Topic 3: Research (Week 3)

Researching is a crucial step before contacting your prospect. Learning about what your prospect cares about and how they make decisions will help you tailor a communication strategy around their business needs.  

  • In live learning guided practices, determine prospect fit to qualify and disqualify prospects

  • Explain what different personas care about, from VPs and C-level execs to Directors and below

  • Read and assess a LinkedIn profile, company site, YouTube page, or social media site to pull relevant information

  • Identify appropriate channels to use for your prospect given certain background information

Topic 4: Engagement (Week 4)

Taking the knowledge you’ve attained from your research, you’ll engage your prospect through different communication strategies.

You’ll learn how to tune into how your lead prefers to communicate and start engaging using the TALKER technique. Guided practices include roleplay on understanding the five elements of tone and practicing communications strategies for email, unscheduled calls, and voicemails.

  • Employ the 5 elements of tone — speed, volume, prosody, silence, and enthusiasm

  • Implement TALKER, a conversation technique designed to apply the science of effective communication to any conversation

  • Structure an email using RRR (Relevance, Reward, Request) and respond by mirroring the customer’s language

  • Prepare for the opening of unscheduled and scheduled cold calls

Topic 5: Engagement, Sequencing, and Intro to Qualification Calls (Week 5)

You’ll focus on two emerging engagement strategies that have taken root in the 21st century — video and social media. Live learning will guide you to work within this space.

You’ll prepare for and create a 60-second video with a clear call to action and send a LinkedIn request following RRR. You’ll also learn to sequence and batch prospects based on similar personas.

The week closes with introducing you to the components of a qualification call: open, diagnose, prescribe, and close. 

  • Create a 60-second video with a clear call to action using the WWW framework (who are you, why are calling, what’s in it for me)

  • Identify where a prospect is in a sequence and what step to execute in the sequence

  • Use key opening techniques for scheduled calls using ACE (Appreciate, Check Time, and End Goal)

  • Learn the difference between close-ended (situational) and open-ended (pain) questions

  • Understand how to tell a story through the hero’s journey effectively

Topic 6: Qualification Call Preparation (Week 6)

You'll dissect preparation steps for the introductory phase of both scheduled and unscheduled calls. You’ll execute close-ended and open-ended questions. You’ll review a sample of qualification calls in live learning sessions, prepare qualification questions, and construct relevant stories using the hero’s journey framework. 

  • Prepare for the opening of a scheduled call by jotting down a simple three-step agenda

  • Prepare for the opening of an unscheduled call focusing on the “what’s in it for me” exchange of the WWW framework

  • Learn best practices for a qualification call, including conveying enthusiasm and adjusting for surprises

Topic 7: Opening (Week 7)

The opening of a call is one of the most crucial aspects of establishing a rapport with your prospect. This week, you’ll learn to put your preparation into action. Live learning sessions will have you implement ACE, an agenda, and the WWW framework on an unscheduled call. 

  • Use ACE (Appreciate, Check Time, End Goal) to transition from small talk to business talk

  • Tailor your ended goal to any relevant information you have about the prospect

  • Set a three-step simple agenda and refer to the end goals in closing the meeting

Topic 8: Diagnosing and Prescribing (Week 8)

Diagnosing involves building empathy and establishing trust. This week you’ll develop active listening skills and mirrored language to understand and empathize with your prospect’s pain points. Live learning sessions include role plays for diagnosing on a qualification call and prescribing through storytelling (hero’s journey) while employing personalization language. 

  • Review a battle card listing your prospect’s expected challenges and generate closed and open-ended qualification questions

  • Summarize the prospect’s responses using mirrored language and demonstrate active listening

  • In 90 seconds or less, tell a relevant story using the three steps of the hero’s journey (Situation, Pain, Impact)

  • Develop an awareness of the need to adjust stories in different contexts

  • Use personalizing language to connect with the prospect (“like you” statements) 

Topic 9: Closing (Week 9)

Closing involves taking ownership of the call, ensuring you don’t leave any doors wide open for your prospect to leave. This week you’ll learn how to set up next steps to enable the prospect to continue conversations with you and hold yourself accountable. Live learning involves demonstrations and guided practices in closing scheduled and unscheduled calls. 

  • Verbally define next steps, such as scheduling a discovery call

  • Learn to take ownership of next steps and immediately follow up in writing to confirm

  • Describe the difference between closing a scheduled vs. an unscheduled call 

Topic 10: Handling Objections and Rejections (Week 10)

You’ll learn that objections and rejections are the norms in qualifying. You’ll review the most common types of objections and how to deploy the appropriate responses, then move on to rejections, which must be handled more delicately by adjusting your tone. Finally, you’ll learn how to relay critical information about the prospect in preparation for your handoff to an Account Executive.

  • Learn how to appropriately respond to the four most common types of objections

  • Purpose handle an objection to earn more time to qualify a prospect

  • Recognize the differences between rejection and objection and when it’s best to end a call or continue qualifying

  • In live learning, record a 30-60-second video message describing the SPI to an Account Executive

Topic 11: Tools (Week 11)

Learn the tools of the trade. You’ll review an SDR’s tech stack, including Salesforce, the leading cloud-based CRM, then execute email sequencing through Outreach. A later unit helps you explore more advanced functions in the SDR tech stack for LinkedIn and Gmail. 

  • Differentiate between objects: Lead, Account, Opportunity, Tasks

  • Recognize dashboards and metrics used to track prospecting success 

  • Create a list of potential clients from a LinkedIn search

  • Practice setting up Gmail and navigating tabs and filters inside of Google sheets in live learning sessions

Topic 12: Succeeding in Your New Role (Week 12)

In order to succeed in your new tech sales role, you’ll have to learn how to handle setbacks appropriately. This final week will help you plan and timebox in live learning sessions.

You’ll explore different time management techniques, such as the Pomodoro Technique and the Getting Things Done (GTD) method. You’ll also learn how to manage stress and the common fears of not meeting quota. 

  • Develop a mindset of accountability (taking ownership of what is in your control)

  • Find a stress management technique to reset your mindset

  • Apply a timeboxing template to your calendar to create a weekly plan

  • Explain the importance of a learning/growth mindset in achieving success in your role

Topic 13: Assessments

Throughout this program, you’ll work through assessments focused on helping a fictional company find and attract potential customers. You’ll read through their objectives, value propositions, ideal customer profile (ICP), competitors, and customer stories, then execute qualifying calls. 

Topic 14: Career Support

Career units throughout the bootcamp will help you create a tailored job search strategy based on your background and goals. Topics include:

  • Types of industry roles 

  • Job search strategies

  • Building a network and using it to land interviews

  • Creating a high-quality resume, LinkedIn profile, and cover letter

  • Preparing for technical and non-technical interviews

  • Successful negotiation

Build your selling skills through live learning sessions

Every week you’ll meet and observe tech sales industry leaders and participate in role-play activities, so you can maximize what you’ve learned once you're on the job.

How you'll learn:

  • Learn directly from the experts at Winning by Design, who’ve trained sales teams at Uber, Adobe and Asana.

  • Attend weekly 60- 90- or 120-minute live class to graduate.

Work with your coach to get the right job — not just any job

Learning tech sales skills is important, so is learning how to land the job you want. Meet regularly with your career coach during the course and after you graduate.

Your career coach will help you:

  • Get prepped for your job search

    Understand industry roles, define your job strategy, and develop your resume and LinkedIn profile

  • Build your network

    Learn to create a network and how to use it to land interviews

  • Ace the interview

    Get technical and non-technical interview practice that will set you up for success

Here’s why people like you choose Springboard

My career coach was really good at holding me accountable and making sure I went through all the steps–networking, building a LinkedIn profile, making sure my resume reflects the role I’m going after. She also gave me tips on how to negotiate.

Monica Chieffo

From Lecturer of Musicology

To Sales Development Rep @ Zappar

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