Ascender®: Knowledge & Support
Ascender®: Knowledge & Support
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Ascender Release Log

Listed below are the new and enhanced features and learning content added to Ascender. Items are immediately available unless otherwise noted.

  • new Next Level Handoffs - This course shares practical strategies for turning routine sales handoffs into high-impact handshakes. Learn how to prioritize the critical few transitions that truly affect customer outcomes, what great handshakes look like across teams, and how to avoid common pitfalls that derail momentum. Whether you're in Sales, Services, or Customer Success, this course will help you build trust, drive alignment, and set the next team — and the customer — up for success.

  • new Support Your Team's Career Pathing - Career development isn’t just an annual conversation – it’s a leadership skill. This course gives you practical tools to help your team grow, stay engaged, and build readiness for what’s next. Because when you invest in their future, you strengthen your own.

  • new Quickly send reminders for general assignments to all incomplete assignees with the new Send a Reminder Email for Assignments button.

  • Enhanced Managers — you now have a streamlined Team Management view that's more targeted to your role and focused on what matters: managing your team.

  • Enhanced Slight adjustments were made to the Functional Area values; make sure to download a new template the next time you Invite or Update users via upload.

  • Enhanced Updating users' information via file upload is now even easier with the addition of separate name fields in the Users table.

  • new Leading Through Relationships — This course equips sales managers with the skills to build and manage strategic relationships across all levels of the organization and with external stakeholders. Through practical frameworks, coaching strategies, and real-world scenarios, learners will explore how to lead through relationships. 

  • new Leading Effective CoM-Powered QVRs — Power your Quarterly Value Reviews (QVRs) with Command of the Message® to reinforce value, drive executive alignment, and unlock growth opportunities. This course is designed to help you elevate your customer conversations from a status update to strategic engagements. [Command of the Message Access Required]

  • Enhanced We’ve simplified how we communicate and how you can provide course feedback; make sure to enable browser notifications to ensure you receive key updates tailored to you.

  • new Find answers and receive learning recommendations with Ascender AI.

  • Enhanced We’ve updated our goal and topic interests for better content categorization, filtering, and search results. Check them out and update your interest selections.

  • Enhanced On Explore and Enroll, now you can toggle the filters list to show just your interests or to show all available interests for you to filter by.

  • new Securing Expansion & Renewals — Unlock the full potential of every customer relationship by mastering the art of securing expansions and renewals. This course will shift your mindset from “second sale” to strategic continuum, equipping you with the tools, insights, and playbook to drive growth, deliver value, and stay ahead of risk – no matter your role or title.

  • new Shifting to a Leadership Mindset — Explore what it means to lead—not just manage. This course explores the mindset shift required to move from managing people to truly leading them. Learners will examine the behaviors that distinguish leaders from managers, explore the cultural and performance impact of leadership, and begin crafting their own Leadership Footprint. 

  • Enhanced Global search replaced with page search on Explore and Enroll.

  • Enhanced Improved the mobile view of the course page.

  • Enhanced Several security related enhancements removing older TLS versions and cyphers.

  • Fixed Webhook issue for ILT attestation courses.

  • new Moving From Rep to Manager — This course is designed for individuals who are either stepping into a frontline sales manager role for the first time or are seriously considering making that transition. Whether you’ve just been promoted or are exploring what leadership might look like for you, this course will help you understand the realities of the role and how to prepare for success.

  • new Leveraging AI in the Talent Management Lifecycle — This course equips sales managers with practical strategies for using AI across the talent management lifecycle—from recruiting and onboarding to coaching and team assessment. Learn how to integrate AI tools into your daily workflow to make smarter decisions, develop your team more effectively, and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving sales environment.

  • new Enjoy a more streamlined and intuitive course-taking experience with the new course page.

  • Enhanced We've renamed Favorites to Saved for Later and updated the icon from a star to a bookmark to better reflect its purpose.

  • Enhanced Updated font colors, sizes, and other elements for better accessibility compliance.

  • new Aligning with Customer Verifiable Outcomes — In this course, learn to leverage Customer Verifiable Outcomes (CVOs) not just as indicators, but as dynamic tools to define and adjust your strategy, ensuring unparalleled forecast accuracy. Stand out from the competition by focusing on enabling your customers and supporting their decision-making process.

  • Enhanced You can now pull company-specific course links (select Share with Coworkers) to use in your own LMS or other systems. When combined with SSO, this means that when an authenticated Ascender user clicks on the link, it will take them directly to the course.

  • new Stay in the loop on all things from the content, curriculum, and community from Ascender Plus by subscribing to the Plus Nurturing Emails.

  • new Identify the last time a user visited Ascender via the new Last Ascender Visit field in the Users table for Plus companies. This can be used for calculating metrics such as the number of users that have logged in within the last quarter.

  • Enhanced Various changes to background colors, error & access restriction messages, and other UI improvements.

  • new Critical Coaching Conversations — This course is designed to equip managers with the skills to conduct impactful coaching conversations. It covers essential coaching models and techniques to foster a culture of continuous improvement, enhance team performance, and develop compassionate leadership.

  • new Empowering High Achieving Level Fours — This course focuses on effectively managing and developing Level Fours to ensure ongoing growth and success. Managers will learn to engage with Level Fours through a collaborative, strategic partnership, enhancing their efficiency and performance by removing barriers, providing valuable support, and offering growth opportunities.  

  • Enhanced Get Well Coaching with Level Twos - Having a critical conversation with a Level Two team member can be one of the most challenging conversations you have as a manager. This short course will walk you through the basics of conducting this coaching session successfully.

  • new Opportunity Coaching in Action — Designed primarily for managers, this course provides a deeper dive into the preparation and execution of opportunity coaching, as well as an example opportunity coaching conversation powered by MEDDICC to demonstrate what good looks like. 

  • new Remediating Skill Gaps of a Level Three — This course helps managers remediate skill gaps of Level Threes. Managers will learn to understand the specific needs of Level Threes, identify their skill gaps, create and implement development plans, and evaluate their progress to ensure continuous development and success.

  • Enhanced Reports now include your company’s custom fields.

  • Enhanced Efficiently invite and/or update users in bulk using the improved Invite/Change via Upload.

  • new We’ve added a Save Views functionality and a one-click Download button to the Users table in Team Management.

  • new We’re nagging your team so you don’t have to—invited Plus users will now receive a reminder email each week until they log in for the first time and validate their email.

  • new Influencing Decision Criteria — This course focuses on uncovering and influencing Decision Criteria throughout the sales process. Learners will explore strategies for identifying technical, business, and partner criteria, and learn how to effectively engage stakeholders to ensure alignment. By leveraging these insights, learners will be equipped to position their solutions as the best fit and drive successful outcomes.

  • new Quantifying Business Pain — Quantifying the impact of pain is crucial because it allows you to clearly demonstrate the value of your solution to the customer. By making the pain tangible and measurable, you can create a compelling case for why your product or solution is the best choice to address the customer's needs, ultimately increasing the likelihood of closing the deal. 

  • new Introducing custom fields — a new way for customers to group and filter users based on the data that’s important to their company.

  • Enhanced To eliminate confusion with login options, we’ve implemented a 2-step login flow. First you’ll enter your email and then you’ll be presented with the login options relevant to your account.

  • Fixed Progress column on reports is now sorting as a number instead of as text.

  • new Defining Success — As a leader, you have a responsibility to define and develop the necessary skills and behaviors within your team. This course is designed to help managers and sales professionals establish a consistent definition of success and highlight the benefits of having a success profile. 

  • new To enhance adoption of Command Series methodologies, organizations can now assign Command Series Professional Certifications to team members, verifying their knowledge and application of the methodology.

  • Enhanced Various enhancements and fixes to the onboarding and password update processes.

  • new Addressing a Level One — Proactively dealing with a Low Skill/Low Will individual decreases risk for you and the organization. In this course we will help you identify and effectively navigate the tough conversations you will need to have, whether you decide to try to save them or you decide to manage them out.

  • new Ascender now offers enhanced security by allowing connections to your company's Single Sign-On (SSO), supporting all standard SAML types with SSO federation.

  • new Advancing the Deal — Advancing a deal is about balancing the speed at which the deal is moving forward with the quality of how you help the customer define and articulate their needs. This course will focus on how you can drive the deal forward quickly but do so in a way that helps you differentiate yourself as much by how you sell as what you sell while also creating selling challenges for your competitor. 

  • Enhanced Security enhancements such as captcha and increased password length were added to the log in screen.

  • Enhanced When assigning Elite Selling Certifications, you’ll now assign them as one entity with a single due date for the entire certification.

  • new Value Selling Elite Selling™ Certification — This certification validates knowledge and application of value selling.  It requires the completion of a series of online coursework and passing a comprehensive assessment.

  • new Achieve industry recognition with Command Series Professional Certifications for Plus Enterprise customers. These certifications are now available on Enroll for Plus Enterprise customers with the required methodology access and fast start enrollment:

    • new Command of the Message® Professional Certification — This certification validates knowledge and application of the Command of the Message® methodology. It requires attendance at a live instructor-led training, completion of a multi-week Fast Start Program, and passing a comprehensive assessment.

    • new Command of the Sale® Professional Certification — This certification validates knowledge and application of the Command of the Sale® methodology. It requires attendance at a live instructor-led training, completion of a multi-week Fast Start Program, and passing a comprehensive assessment.

    • new MEDDICC Qualification Professional Certification — This certification validates knowledge and application of the MEDDICC Qualification methodology. It requires attendance at a live instructor-led training, completion of a multi-week Fast Start Program, and passing a comprehensive assessment.

    • new Value Negotiation® Professional Certification — This certification validates knowledge and application of the Value Negotiation® methodology. It requires attendance at a live instructor-led training, completion of a multi-week Fast Start Program, and passing a comprehensive assessment.