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Consulting Sales Training

Turn insight into opportunity with business development training for consultants.

Modern consultants face competition with each other and the widespread availability of low-cost alternatives and in-house resources. The proliferation of data has given companies unmatched decision-making capabilities—but data only tells half of the story. It’s up to consultants to translate this data into insights that make a difference for their clients—and their bottom lines.

But translating technical expertise to win rates isn’t always easy. Consultants need the skills to develop trust, push back on the status quo, uncover needs and opportunities, and demonstrate the financial case and ROI story.

Consultants frequently aren’t trained in these business development skills, which makes retaining clients in a changing world difficult and winning new ones even more challenging.

RAIN Group works with consulting firms to develop business development training and skills to help professionals identify strong opportunities, expand their accounts, and communicate value to clients.

Ey
JS | Held
Monitor Deloitte
Kantar
Wilson Perumal
Witt/Kieffer

Strategies for Consulting Firms in a Changing Market

Consultants are busy. With the majority of their time spent managing and delivering work to existing clients, it’s hard to find the time and motivation for business development activities.

But with competition high, technology rapidly changing, and clients opting for low-cost options, consultants need to lean into their vertical expertise and the broader value of your integrated offerings if they want to be successful.

Acquisition and Retention

Acquisition and Retention

Take your consultants from reactive to proactive with better account expansion and bid management. Between expanding service offerings and improving your customer support, you can become a trusted resource for your clients.

Adapt to a Changing Market

Adapt to a Changing Market

Help your consultants leverage digital tools to prospect, lead masterful conversations, negotiate, and collaborate with clients in a virtual or hybrid environment.

Create Efficiencies

Create Efficiencies

Keep your team oriented and on-track by investing in productivity and eliminating outdated business processes.

Revenue Growth

Revenue Growth

Your best opportunities are often right under your nose. Teach your consultants to dig deeper, align with your clients’ priorities, and sell the full capabilities of your firm.

Business Development Training for Consulting Sales

Foundations of Consultative Selling

Leading with value, strengthening relationships, and collaborating with clients and prospects are vital for business development. Insight Selling training teaches your team when to consult and when to listen. Consultants learn which questions to ask, how to deepen trust, and why they don’t need to be salesy to be successful.


Foundations of Consultative Selling
Foundations of Consultative Selling

Foundations of Consultative Selling

Leading with value, strengthening relationships, and collaborating with clients and prospects are vital for business development. Insight Selling training teaches your team when to consult and when to listen. Consultants learn which questions to ask, how to deepen trust, and why they don’t need to be salesy to be successful.


Sales Prospecting

Sales Prospecting

Consultants need to seek out new opportunities and stand out in a competitive market. With RAIN Sales Prospecting, consultants learn to make business development part of their daily activities and develop the skills to master personal branding, social selling, and outbound campaigns.


Strategic and Key Account Management

Selling to existing accounts is one of the biggest untapped opportunities for revenue growth, but 62% of companies believe they’re ineffective at maximizing sales to their accounts. Train your consultants to improve the client experience, lead strong conversations, and build lasting partnerships.


Strategic and Key Account Management
Strategic and Key Account Management

Strategic and Key Account Management

Selling to existing accounts is one of the biggest untapped opportunities for revenue growth, but 62% of companies believe they’re ineffective at maximizing sales to their accounts. Train your consultants to improve the client experience, lead strong conversations, and build lasting partnerships.


Virtual Selling

Virtual Selling

The shift to hybrid and virtual operations has left consultants scrambling to maintain pre-pandemic levels of service. Teach your consultants how lead conversations, collaborate, and stand out in a virtual world.


Learn more about our full suite of business development programs to help your consultants succeed.


Experience Success Like Our Clients

Global Engineering Consultancy Creates a Culture of Business Development

WSP Global is a top 10 global consultancy specializing in environmental, sustainability, energy and health and safety issues. The group knew that significant growth potential existed—to extend existing client relationships, build new ones, and grow revenue.

As is the case in consulting firms, WSP relies on its environmental professionals who deliver services for business development. The challenge was how to put a structure and process in place to drive and sustain business development success in a firm with a relationship-oriented sales process and a long sales cycle.

To help meet aggressive four-year growth goals, RAIN Group assessed WSP’s team, delivered a custom Foundations of Consultative Selling program, and reinforced the training with virtual learning.


WSP

WSP has:

  • Restructured the business development organization for greater effectiveness and financial performance
  • Created more and better sales conversations and improved cross-selling
  • Realized a marked difference in the company’s business development culture and a significant increase in sales opportunities

Insights and Resources for Consulting

6 Business Development Tips for Professional Services

When it comes to business development for professional services, one of the biggest challenges professionals face is finding time to do it all. After all, you don't sell full time. Your work, whether it's consulting, accounting, IT, financial services, or engineering, is what you do full time. And that makes it very difficult to find time to create and develop the relationships necessary to bring in new business.

There simply are not enough hours in the day to do it all.


Business Development Tips for Professional Services

The Secret to Selling Professional Services

If you're like many consultants, the thought of having to sell makes you anxious, distressed, or uneasy. And for others, while you may want to learn how to sell, you simply don't know where to start. You've never been taught what to do.

Well, I'm going to let you in on a little secret: as a consultant, you already have many of the skills you need to be great at selling.


The Secret to Selling Professional Services

Transform Your Team with Business Development Training

Learn how we can help your consultants expand their accounts, break into new ones, and create value for customers.


Experience RAIN Group's Training in Action.