What Makes a Course Sellable?
A lot of courses get created.
Far fewer actually sell consistently.
And that’s something I’ve noticed again and again over the years.
Not because the course wasn’t good.
Not because the person didn’t know their subject.
Usually it’s because the course was created without thinking about one very important question first.
Is this course actually sellable?
Because creating a course and creating a sellable course are two very different things.
Why this matters more than most people realise
People often come to me when they’re thinking about creating a course, or when they’ve already created one and something isn’t quite working.
They might have:
• years of experience
• notes and ideas
• workshop recordings
• half-finished modules
• a Google Doc outline that’s been sitting there for months
The knowledge is rarely the problem.
What’s usually missing is the structure around it.
I’ve been creating courses myself for around ten years and helping others do the same for the past six. Over that time I started noticing the same pattern again and again.
People would begin with content.
They’d start mapping modules, recording lessons, designing worksheets.
And only later would they start wondering things like:
Will people buy this?
Who is this really for?
Where does this fit in my business?
By that point they’d already done a lot of work.
Which is why so many courses end up quietly sitting on the shelf.
The shift that changes everything
Over time I realised that the starting point needed to change.
Instead of beginning with content, the first step should always be understanding whether the course is sellable.
That doesn’t mean using pushy marketing or turning your business into something that feels uncomfortable.
It simply means making sure the course has a clear place in your business and solves a problem that people genuinely want help with.
Once that piece is clear, the rest becomes much easier.
A few things that make a course far more likely to sell
There isn’t one magic ingredient, but there are a few things I’ve seen consistently make the biggest difference.
1. The course solves a specific problem
Courses that try to cover everything rarely work well.
The courses that sell tend to help someone move from one clear situation to another.
Clarity beats comprehensiveness every time.
2. The right person can immediately recognise themselves
If someone reads about the course and thinks:
“That’s exactly where I am.”
You’re on the right track.
When the audience is too broad, the course becomes harder to position and harder to talk about.
3. The course has a clear role in the business
A course can play several different roles.
It might:
• introduce new people to your work
• support your existing clients
• become a core offer in your business
But when that role isn’t clear, the course ends up trying to do everything.
That’s where things usually start feeling messy.
4. The course is designed to be sustainable for you to run
This part is often overlooked.
Courses shouldn’t make your business heavier.
They should support it.
That means designing something that fits your life, your time, and the way you actually like to work.
The framework that came from seeing this pattern
After working with many different course creators, I started noticing that the same steps kept appearing again and again.
No matter what type of course someone wanted to create.
That eventually became the Sellable Course Framework I use today.
It’s built around five stages:
Decide
Define
Design
Deliver
Develop
The idea is simple.
Instead of jumping straight into creating content, we first decide what the course is for, define who it’s helping and what transformation it offers, then design and deliver it in a way that works for both the client and the business.
And finally, we continue developing it so it keeps improving and selling over time.
Because a course isn’t just something you create once.
It’s something that can become a valuable part of your business for years.
A simple question to think about
If you’re considering creating a course, or you already have one, this question is worth asking.
Is this course designed to be sellable, or simply to exist?
It sounds like a small difference.
But it changes everything.
If this has got you thinking about your own course, a good place to start is with the basics.
I’ve put together a Sellable Course Guide to help you look at your idea (or existing course) through this lens and see what might need tightening up.
You can download it here
And if you’d like a space to explore this in a bit more depth, you’re very welcome to join my community where I share practical ideas, examples, and support around creating and improving courses that actually sell.
You can join here
