Module 01 · Core curriculum
Sales fundamentals & the commercial org
What sales actually is, every commercial role, and how salespeople are paid.
What you’ll learn
- What B2B sales is, how it differs from B2C and from marketing, and why companies pay salespeople at all.
- Transactional vs consultative (complex) selling — and why everything in this curriculum's target market is the latter.
- Every role on the commercial org chart — SDR, AE, AM, CSM, Sales Engineer, RevOps, BD, Channel, CRO — what each does, how they hand off, the career paths between them, and how to place any prior experience you have on the map.
- How salespeople are paid: base vs variable, OTE, commission mechanics (accelerators, decelerators, draws, clawbacks, caps, SPIFFs), how quota is set, and how many reps really hit it.
- How the market is carved up: SMB / mid-market / enterprise, named accounts vs geographic patches, greenfield vs install base.
- Full-cycle AE vs the pod model, and why early-stage startups run full-cycle.
- Core vocabulary: quota, pipeline, bookings vs revenue vs ARR, win rate, ramp, and the realities of PIP culture.