A sales course that teaches you how to close deals.
Deals usually stall because changing feels costly to the buyer. This course shows you what to do about that.
From No to Yes is an online sales course. It takes you from the first conversation to a signed yes: how buyers decide, how to find out what’s really stopping them, how to negotiate and how to close. There are two courses and thirty modules, grounded in the published literature on decision-making and in the best practitioner accounts, with every source named and its kind stated. You practise all of it on your own deals.
How this sales course helps in your job
Three reasons deals stall instead of closing
When a deal stalls, nobody says no and nothing happens. Three common mistakes lead there, and each one feels like progress at the time.
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Taking “yes, that makes sense” as a decision to buy
A buyer who agrees has judged your argument and found it sound. That costs them nothing and commits them to nothing. Buying is a separate decision with a harder test: whether the change is worth what it will cost them.
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Adding more benefits when the real problem is the cost of change
A buyer weighs any change against what they already have, and losses from that starting point weigh more than gains of the same size. Another benefit adds to the lighter side of the scale. It does nothing to the heavier side.
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Answering the objection instead of finding its cause
An objection is the reason a buyer is willing to say out loud. If you answer it well, another one often appears, because the first wasn’t the real cause. It helps more to find the root the objection grows from.
How the course teaches you to sell
You learn to sell by practising on your own deals.
Each lesson takes one idea about how buyers decide and has you use it on a real deal of your own. You write, you practise out loud, you make mistakes in private, and you check yourself against a clear standard. About half of each lesson is this kind of work. The rest is reading.
Every lesson follows the same nine parts, from a short written scene of a deal going wrong to a one-page summary you can print and keep on your desk. There are no videos. The diagram below comes from the first lesson. It shows the gain from changing on one side, the loss from changing on the other, and the line a buyer has to cross before they buy.
| Part | What you do | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Written scene and illustrated explainer | read | 8 |
| Reading | read | 13–14 |
| Case teardown | analyse | 5 |
| Your turn, on a deal of your own | write | 6–7 |
| Interactive exercise | interact, solve | about 5 |
| Practice drill | do | 4 |
| Check yourself (ungraded) | check | 3 |
Typical minutes across the course’s lessons. Recall questions and each course’s final project are extra.
A lesson counts as complete only when you’ve done the reading, written your own version, used the exercise and recorded the practice drill. Reading alone doesn’t complete it. Each lesson ends with a short check for your own use. It isn’t graded and doesn’t count toward anything. How the method works.
The two courses: Foundations and Advanced
| Course | Hours | Modules | Credential | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foundations Earning the Yes | 47.25 h | 10 | Professional Selling: Foundations | $395 |
| Advanced Negotiation, the Room, Judgment and the Long Game | 59.25 h | 20 | Professional Selling: Advanced | $795 |
Everything you’ll learn: all 30 modules
Foundations: Earning the Yes
47.25 h · 10 modules- 01 The Buyer’s Mind 6.75 h
- 02 Earning Attention 6.75 h
- 03 Diagnosis 6.75 h
- 04 The Problem Frame 4.5 h
- 05 Trust 3.75 h
- 06 Articulation 3.75 h
- 07 Objection as Information 3.75 h
- 08 Commitment 3.75 h
- 09 The Follow-Through 3.75 h
- 10 The Craft 3.75 h
Advanced: Negotiation, the Room, Judgment and the Long Game
59.25 h · 20 modulesPart A · Negotiation · 19.5 h
- 11 Positions and Interests 3.75 h
- 12 The Zone of Agreement 3 h
- 13 Concession Architecture 4.5 h
- 14 Price Under Pressure 3 h
- 15 Deadlock and Walkaway 2.25 h
- 16 Professional Buyers 3 h
Part B · The room and the deal · 14.25 h
- 17 The Room 3 h
- 18 How Spend Gets Approved 2.25 h
- 19 Deal Architecture 2.25 h
- 20 Commercial Terms 3.75 h
- 21 Competitive Displacement 3 h
Part C · Judgment · 13.5 h
- 22 Disqualification 2.25 h
- 23 Pipeline Judgment 2.25 h
- 24 Forecasting Honestly 1.5 h
- 25 The Loss Post-Mortem 3 h
- 26 Ethics Under Pressure 4.5 h
Part D · The long game · 12 h
- 27 Referral and Reputation 2.25 h
- 28 Account Expansion 3 h
- 29 Teaching the Craft 3 h
- 30 The Twenty-Year Career 3.75 h
Each lesson takes 45 minutes. None of the totals here is an estimate.
Who this sales course is for, and who it isn’t for
For
- Anyone whose income depends on closing sales: founders, account executives, brokers, consultants, agency owners and anyone who sells face to face.
- Capable salespeople who keep losing deals and can’t see why.
- People willing to write, record themselves and listen back. Most of the course is practice.
- Sales managers who want a shared way to talk about why deals stall and what to do about it.
Not for
- People who want sales scripts to recite. The course teaches why buyers act, and you write your own words.
- People looking for ways to push buyers into purchases that are wrong for them. The course teaches the opposite, including when to walk away.
- People who want a credential without doing the work. Reading alone doesn’t complete a lesson.
- People who need training in a particular piece of sales software. The course doesn’t name or need any tools.
Where the ideas come from
The selling methods in this course are grounded in the published literature on decision-making and in the best practitioner accounts, with every source named and its kind stated. Researchers are cited as sources, not endorsers. None of them has reviewed or endorsed this course, and nothing here suggests otherwise.
- Prospect theory
- People judge a choice against a reference point, usually what they already have. Losses from that point weigh more than gains of the same size. In the same work, people tended to avoid risk when choosing between gains, and to take risks when choosing between losses. The course uses this to explain why a well-argued benefit gets discounted while the cost of changing feels bigger than it is, and why a seller who is behind target may favour long shots.
Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263–291. https://doi.org/10.2307/1914185
- Status quo bias
- A measured preference for keeping things as they are, regardless of the merits. For a buyer, doing nothing isn’t a neutral option: it’s actively preferred. The course uses this to explain why buyers who agree with you still don’t buy.
Samuelson, W. & Zeckhauser, R. (1988). Status Quo Bias in Decision Making. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 1(1), 7–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00055564
- Implementation intentions
- Plans in the form “if this happens, then I will do that” help people turn an intention into action. The course uses this to agree next steps that say who does what, and when, instead of “let’s keep in touch”.
Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation Intentions: Strong Effects of Simple Plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493
- Anchoring, resemblance and what comes to mind
- When people estimate a number, they tend to start from a value in front of them and adjust too little. A review by Furnham and Boo brought together research that found anchoring in many settings, including purchasing, negotiation and forecasting. It showed up in people with expertise as well as without, and it was hard to remove by warning people about it. In the same paper as anchoring, Tversky and Kahneman described judging how likely something is by how much it resembles a typical case, and how often it happens by how easily examples come to mind. The course uses these to let a buyer’s estimate start from their own evidence, to test a diagnosis that rests on a resemblance to a past deal, to turn a buyer’s memory of a problem into a count, and to explain why the first figure in a negotiation carries so much weight.
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Science, 185(4157), 1124–1131. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.185.4157.1124
Each lesson lists the works it uses and what kind of evidence each one is. The research page sets out every finding, what the course uses it for and where it stops applying, with full references. All 72 research findings, with references.
Sales credentials you can earn
There are two sales credentials, issued by From No to Yes, one for each course. Each rests on written work about your own real deals. Professional Selling: Foundations needs Foundations complete and its capstone, a discovery plan for one of your own opportunities, submitted with every part written. It isn’t marked, and it’s issued automatically. Professional Selling: Advanced needs an examination of 60 questions, passed at 85% or more, plus the Advanced capstone and a written deal analysis. Both are checked for completeness only, and neither is marked. The short checks in each lesson are just for you and don’t count toward anything. Each credential has a permanent public verification page and doesn’t expire.
- Professional Selling: Foundations
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- Foundations complete: every lesson’s reading, Your turn, interactive and drill done
- Foundations capstone submitted, every part at least 100 words (checked for completeness, not marked)
- Automatic
- Professional Selling: Advanced
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- Professional Selling: Foundations held
- Advanced complete
- Advanced capstone submitted, every part at least 100 words, the last naming one change and the reason for it (checked for completeness, not marked)
- Written deal analysis submitted and kept: six sections of at least 150 words each, with a figure or date in each section that asks for the deal’s numbers (checked for completeness, not marked)
- 60-question examination at 85% or higher
- Automatic: assessed by examination, with a submitted written analysis
Adding a credential to a professional profile opens a pre-filled form that you check and confirm yourself. Nothing is posted for you.
What the sales course costs
- Foundations: Earning the Yes $395 47.25 h · 10 modules · Professional Selling: Foundations
- Advanced: Negotiation, the Room, Judgment and the Long Game $795 59.25 h · 20 modules · Professional Selling: Advanced
- Both courses $995 Foundations and Advanced · all 30 modules · the path to both credentials
- The book and the mini-course $39 Why They Say Yes, a two-lesson mini-course, and Foundations, Module 1 in full The smallest way to start the sales course.
You can also pay for Advanced, or both courses together, in three monthly payments. Prices are in US dollars.
Questions about the sales course
What is this?
An online sales course. It teaches you how to take a buyer from a first conversation to a signed yes, and what to do when a deal stalls on the way.
Does reading a lesson complete it?
No. A lesson is complete only when you’ve done the reading, written your own version for one of your deals, used the exercise, and recorded and scored the practice drill. The short check at the end of each lesson is just for you and isn’t graded. If you read everything and practise nothing, the course shows as incomplete. That’s on purpose.
Are there videos?
No. Every lesson is written and illustrated, with exercises and practice. You learn to sell by doing, so the course spends your time on writing and practising rather than watching.
Who is behind this?
From No to Yes. The course is a collection of useful frameworks and expert-led studies that, once understood, help you close deals.
Is this a course in manipulating people?
No. The course describes how people decide. It doesn’t override anyone’s judgment. It teaches you to find out whether a purchase is worth it for the buyer, and to walk away when it isn’t. Module 26, Ethics Under Pressure, is part of the main course.
Do I have to take the two courses in order?
No. You can buy and take them in any order, and the site won’t stop you. We suggest starting with Foundations, because Advanced builds on it.
How long does it take?
Each lesson takes 45 minutes, and a module has as many lessons as its material needs. Foundations is 47.25 hours. Advanced has 59.25 hours. The course is self-paced, so how many weeks it takes is up to you.
What do I need?
A web browser and a microphone. The practice drills ask you to record yourself speaking, as you would to a buyer. Recordings are private: only you can hear them. The course names no sales tools or software, and everything in it works on paper.
Can I pay in instalments?
Yes, for Advanced and for both courses bought together, in three monthly payments. Foundations and the book are single payments.
Start with Foundations.
Ten modules on how a buyer decides to buy, and how to earn that decision. The rest of the sales course builds on it.