B2B and Social Selling Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Business Development Managers, Account Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-S-069

Before you join: Participants should have experience selling products, services or solutions to business, public-sector or institutional customers.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Complex B2B buying decisions now involve larger buying groups, longer evaluation cycles and information-rich buyers who often research suppliers before responding to sales contact. Sellers must combine disciplined account strategy with credible digital presence, relevant insight and coordinated engagement across email, telephone, meetings and professional social networks. Poorly targeted outreach, generic content and unqualified opportunities consume time while leaving stronger competitors to shape the customer’s agenda.

This course develops practical methods for finding, qualifying and progressing B2B opportunities through social selling and consultative sales conversations. Participants use ideal customer profiles, buying-centre maps, account plans, MEDDICC qualification and value hypotheses to focus effort on winnable accounts. They learn how to improve LinkedIn profiles for buyer relevance, research accounts responsibly, build engagement plans, create useful outreach messages and convert online interactions into commercial conversations. The course also covers discovery, insight-led questioning, objection handling, opportunity governance and sales-manager coaching.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with realistic account cases, group analysis, message-writing practice, buyer-role simulations and structured peer feedback. Participants work with examples relevant to corporate, public-sector, banking, technology, professional-services and NGO sales environments. They leave with a reusable account and social-selling action pack containing an ideal customer profile, stakeholder map, prospecting cadence, discovery plan, opportunity scorecard and 90-day implementation plan.

The course suits sales professionals who already handle B2B customers and need a more disciplined approach to digital prospecting and complex opportunity development. It is also valuable for account managers, business-development teams, sales leaders and marketing colleagues responsible for supporting revenue teams.

What you will be able to do

  • Define ideal customer profiles and account-selection criteria for priority B2B segments
  • Map buying centres using stakeholder roles, influence paths and decision criteria
  • Build account plans that connect customer priorities to commercial value hypotheses
  • Apply MEDDICC qualification to assess opportunity quality and forecast confidence
  • Create buyer-relevant LinkedIn profiles, content themes and social engagement plans
  • Write multi-touch prospecting cadences using email, telephone and professional social channels
  • Conduct consultative discovery conversations using SPIN questioning and active listening
  • Produce a 90-day B2B and social-selling implementation plan with measurable activity measures

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Spend prospecting time on accounts with clearer strategic and commercial fit
  • Build credibility with senior buyers through relevant digital and direct engagement
  • Run discovery meetings that expose decision criteria, risks and stakeholder priorities
  • Qualify opportunities earlier using evidence rather than optimism or activity volume
  • Use a personal 90-day plan to improve pipeline quality and conversion discipline

For your organisation

  • Improves focus on target accounts with stronger revenue potential and strategic fit
  • Raises consistency of outreach messages across sales, account management and marketing
  • Reduces weak pipeline through evidence-based opportunity qualification and review
  • Creates better customer intelligence from structured stakeholder and account research
  • Strengthens sales-manager coaching with common account and opportunity standards

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify how contemporary B2B buying behaviour should shape their sales approach.

  • B2B buying groups, hidden stakeholders and non-linear decision paths
  • Customer research behaviours before first contact and supplier shortlisting
  • Outbound, inbound and account-based motions matched to deal complexity
  • Commercial insight versus product information in early buyer engagement
  • Digital trust signals affecting supplier credibility and response rates
  • Sales, marketing and customer-success roles across the revenue process

Participants can select priority accounts using explicit fit, value and access criteria.

  • Ideal customer profile criteria: firmographics, needs, triggers and commercial potential
  • Tier accounts using fit, intent, accessibility and strategic value
  • Total addressable market, serviceable market and obtainable market distinctions
  • Buying triggers identified from events, hiring, funding and operational change
  • Disqualifying criteria that prevent low-probability prospecting activity
  • Account-scoring matrix weighted for revenue potential and relationship access

Participants can research target accounts and map the people who influence buying decisions.

  • Research account strategy through annual reports, news and executive communications
  • Map economic buyers, champions, users, blockers and procurement contacts
  • Power-interest grid used to prioritise stakeholder engagement actions
  • Document current state, desired outcomes and plausible business problems
  • Identify relationship gaps, warm introductions and credible referral routes
  • Account hypotheses tested against evidence rather than seller assumptions

Participants can frame customer-specific value hypotheses that earn senior buyer attention.

  • Value hypothesis structure: customer issue, impact, evidence and proposed outcome
  • Quantify cost, risk, revenue and productivity implications where evidence permits
  • Challenger-style commercial insight without unsupported claims or manufactured urgency
  • Translate features into operational, financial and strategic customer consequences
  • Message maps aligned to stakeholder priorities and decision criteria
  • Proof points selected from relevant cases, data and subject-matter expertise

Participants can use professional social platforms to build credibility and create relevant conversations.

  • LinkedIn profile headline, summary and experience written for buyer relevance
  • Professional credibility signals: recommendations, expertise, content and network quality
  • Social listening for trigger events, buyer questions and account priorities
  • Content pillars linked to customer problems, insight and commercial relevance
  • Engage posts through informed comments rather than generic reactions
  • Connection requests framed around relevance, context and mutual value
  • Privacy, consent and organisational policy in social prospecting activity

Participants can design targeted prospecting cadences that generate credible first meetings.

  • Cadence architecture combining email, telephone, LinkedIn and referral requests
  • Opening messages anchored in a researched trigger and value hypothesis
  • Email subject lines that signal relevance without clickbait language
  • Call openings that establish permission, purpose and customer context
  • Follow-up sequences paced by buyer signals, role seniority and deal urgency
  • Call-to-action choices matched to awareness stage and perceived effort
  • Prospecting metrics: reply quality, meetings, conversion and account coverage

Participants can lead discovery conversations that uncover needs, consequences and buying conditions.

  • SPIN questions sequenced from situation through need-payoff exploration
  • Discovery agenda agreed with purpose, timing and participant expectations
  • Active listening techniques: paraphrasing, probing, summarising and checking meaning
  • Business pain separated from symptoms, preferences and stated solutions
  • Decision criteria, success measures and consequences of inaction explored
  • Mutual action plans used to agree next steps and responsibilities
  • Conversation notes structured for CRM quality and stakeholder continuity

Participants can assess opportunity strength and choose actions that improve deal control.

  • MEDDICC assessment of metrics, buyer, criteria, process and competition
  • Evidence standards distinguishing verified facts from assumptions and optimism
  • Opportunity stage exit criteria tied to buyer actions and information
  • Competitive position assessed through differentiation, relationships and procurement dynamics
  • Risk register covering access, budget, timing, technical fit and sponsorship
  • Close plans built around milestones, owners, dates and decision events
  • Forecast categories calibrated against qualification evidence and customer commitment

Participants can respond constructively to objections while protecting value and deal momentum.

  • Objection diagnosis: concern, condition, misunderstanding or negotiation tactic
  • Feel-felt-found technique adapted for credible, evidence-based responses
  • Clarifying questions before answering price, timing and competitor objections
  • Value defence using agreed outcomes, evidence and quantified commercial impact
  • Procurement conversations separated from sponsor-led value discussions
  • Give-get negotiation principles for concessions, commitments and trade-offs
  • Stalled-deal recovery actions based on cause, stakeholder and next decision

Participants can establish practical measures and an application plan for sustained B2B social selling.

  • Leading indicators: account coverage, meaningful conversations and qualified meetings
  • Lagging indicators: conversion, deal velocity, win rate and revenue
  • Pipeline reviews focused on evidence, risks, next steps and buyer actions
  • Manager coaching questions drawn from account plans and MEDDICC gaps
  • CRM fields that support account intelligence and forecast discipline
  • Ninety-day action plan with target accounts, habits and review dates
  • Personal operating rhythm for research, outreach, follow-up and reflection

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Ideal customer profile template
  2. Account prioritisation scorecard
  3. Buying-centre stakeholder map
  4. Multi-channel prospecting cadence template
  5. MEDDICC opportunity scorecard
  6. 90-day social-selling action plan

Who should attend

  • Business Development Managers — need repeatable methods for opening strategic B2B accounts
  • Account Managers — need to expand relationships beyond established operational contacts
  • Sales Executives — need stronger prospecting and qualification discipline for complex deals
  • Key Account Managers — need structured account plans for multi-stakeholder customers
  • Sales Managers — need coaching methods and common opportunity-review standards
  • B2B Marketing Managers — need to align content and campaigns with sales conversations

Skills and tools covered

Account-based sellingSocial prospectingOpportunity qualificationConsultative discoveryStakeholder mappingSales cadence design

Tools and standards

MEDDICC, SPIN Selling, Challenger Sale, Power-interest grid

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short briefings to introduce frameworks, followed by account cases, small-group analysis, message development and buyer-role simulations. Participants examine realistic prospecting scenarios, customer research, stakeholder dynamics and stalled opportunities. Facilitated feedback focuses on relevance, commercial judgement and buyer value rather than activity volume. Individual application planning links the methods to live accounts, target segments and sales measures. Trainers adapt cases and discussion to the participants’ sector, sales cycle and channel model.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience selling products, services or solutions to business, public-sector or institutional customers. They should understand their organisation’s offer, typical customer types and basic sales stages, and be prepared to discuss a current or recent account opportunity. Familiarity with LinkedIn or another professional social network is useful but not essential. This is not an entry-level introduction to selling. No marketing qualification, paid social-media advertising experience, CRM certification, data-analysis expertise or technical platform administration is required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should already have practical exposure to B2B, institutional or public-sector selling and understand your organisation’s offer. The course does not require formal sales qualifications, LinkedIn expertise or CRM certification.

Bring details of one current or recent target account, including the customer type, your offer and any known stakeholders. A laptop is useful for live online delivery and for working on account-planning materials, but it is not essential for classroom attendance.

It is designed for business development managers, account managers, sales executives, key account managers and sales leaders working on B2B opportunities. Marketing managers supporting account-based campaigns will also gain useful alignment methods.

General sales courses often focus on core selling behaviours, while LinkedIn courses may focus mainly on profile and platform use. This course connects account selection, stakeholder mapping, social engagement, prospecting, discovery and opportunity qualification in one B2B sales process.

Participants can use the templates with named target accounts, existing pipeline opportunities and upcoming customer meetings. The account scorecard, outreach cadence, discovery plan and MEDDICC scorecard are designed for direct use with managers and sales teams.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. The five days cover ten modules in teaching order, using briefings, cases, simulations, group work and individual application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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