B2B sales consulting: how to find the right consultant for your SMB

Investing in B2B sales consulting can help SMBs improve sales and overcome performance plateaus. Consultants bring a fresh perspective to help teams convert more leads, shorten sales cycles and close more deals.

Knowing when to bring in a consultant, and whether it’s worth the investment, can be tricky. With limited resources, small businesses and startups need to be sure that hiring an outside expert is worth the time and money.

In this article, you’ll learn what B2B sales consultants do, how to know if you need one and what to look for when hiring. You’ll also get tips on how tools like Pipedrive can offer a powerful alternative if hiring isn’t the right fit.

What is B2B sales consulting?

B2B sales consulting involves sales experts helping businesses improve how they sell to other businesses. A B2B sales consultant helps companies optimize their sales strategies, processes and team performance to drive revenue growth.

Here are some common tasks sales consultants perform:

Do you need a B2B sales consultant? Key signs to watch for

If your B2B company struggles to grow or hit sales goals, a sales consulting service could be the solution.

Here are some of the common signs that you’re ready to hire an outside sales consultant:

Your sales are stagnant despite strong lead flow

Your business generates a steady stream of qualified leads, but sales professionals struggle to convert them into sales. Their performance leads to low conversion rates, less revenue and slower business growth.

A consultant can help by analyzing your sales process to pinpoint bottlenecks. They bring an outside perspective and specialized expertise, enabling them to identify issues that internal sales managers, who may be too close to the process, might overlook.

For example, a consultant might spot that salespeople spend too much time on unqualified leads. Sales leaders might overlook this by focusing on immediate opportunities instead of high-potential leads.

The consultant can then implement a more effective lead qualification system, helping the team prioritize high-value leads and improve conversion rates.

Your sales cycle is longer than industry standards

If your deals take longer to close than the industry average, you may have inefficiencies in your sales pipeline, like delayed follow-up emails or inconsistent sales communication. These inefficiencies prolong your sales cycle, meaning you miss out on revenue.

The challenge is knowing how to optimize your pipeline and shorten the sales cycle. A consultant’s specialized expertise enables them to weigh your sales pipeline against industry norms to identify opportunities for improvement.

For example, they can compare your sales reps’ follow-up times, messaging consistency and lead qualification process to those of your top competitors. This comparison will help them pinpoint where you’re falling behind and suggest improvements.

You’re expanding into a new market or offering a new product

Entering unfamiliar territory means navigating new customer needs, competitive landscapes and buying behaviors. An expert can help guide your market strategy in this new environment.

A consultant, for example, might have expert knowledge and experience in the market you want to enter. They can help you define ideal customer profiles (ICP), refine messaging and train your team on industry-specific objections and positioning.

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Your team struggles to convert high-ticket or enterprise sales

Enterprise deals typically involve longer sales cycles, multiple stakeholders and a more complex decision-making process than SMB sales. If your team is shifting from smaller deals to enterprise clients, a consultant can guide you in nurturing leads and closing more deals.

For example, they can provide training on complex deal structures, multi-stakeholder selling and relationship management. The training will help your team build stronger relationships with key stakeholders, manage longer sales cycles more effectively and confidently close deals.

The ultimate checklist for finding the right B2B sales consultant

An effective B2B sales consultant will have industry insight, understand your business needs and help you improve performance to increase revenue. However, knowing which sales consultant is right for your business can be challenging.

Download this checklist and use it to establish a process for finding potential consultants with the right experience, approach and mindset to meet your business goals:

Pipedrive B2B sales consulting template

Let’s take a look at the checklist items in more detail:

1. Define areas for improvement

Clarify what you want to improve – whether it’s increasing conversions, shortening the sales cycle or expanding into new markets. Understanding your specific challenges helps you identify a consultant with the right expertise and ensures their strategies align with your business goals.

Say your goal is to optimize and shorten your sales cycle. With this in mind, you can look for a consultant who specializes in process efficiency.

Here are some of the ways to clarify your areas for improvement:

• Review your current performance. Look at key sales metrics like conversion rates, sales cycle length and revenue growth to pinpoint areas for improvement.

• Talk to your sales team. Get feedback on the challenges they face in closing deals, managing leads or targeting new markets.

• Identify gaps. Look for processes, tools or skills your sales team needs to perform their best.

Defining these areas of improvement helps you understand what skills and experience to look for in a sales consultant.

2. Look for industry experience

Choose a consultant with a track record in your industry or with businesses like yours. Industry-specific experience means they can offer relevant insights, avoid trial-and-error approaches and apply proven strategies that work for your niche.

How to find a consultant with industry experience:

• Check their portfolio. Look for past clients in your industry or similar businesses. A strong portfolio in your field is a good indicator of relevant expertise.

• Get industry recommendations. Talk to colleagues or industry peers who have worked with consultants. Personal recommendations can point you to the right fit.

• Attend industry events. Engage with consultants at conferences, webinars or forums specific to your sector. These events often attract professionals who are familiar with your industry.

Focusing on proven industry experience helps you choose consultants with the right insights, strategies and understanding to drive results for your business.

3. Schedule a consultation call

A consultation call (or discovery call) allows you to assess whether a consultant is a good fit for your company culture.

Observing how they communicate and interact can help you learn more about their personality and communication style. Do they listen actively, ask thoughtful questions and show genuine interest in your team’s dynamics?

You can also determine whether they align with your team’s way of working. For instance, if your team prefers a collaborative approach, you might look for a personable and approachable consultant who enjoys working as part of a team.

Here are some of the other things to look for on a discovery call:

• Clear communication. A good consultant should be able to explain complex ideas without using jargon.

• Interest in your goals and KPIs. A consultant should show a strong understanding of your specific business objectives and how they can help you achieve them.

• Clarity about next steps. A consultant should be able to outline clear action items or a roadmap for how they would proceed after the consultation, giving you a sense of their organizational skills.

A candidate’s tone, language and willingness to adapt their approach indicate how well they’d fit into your team environment.

4. Check case studies and testimonials

Checking case studies and testimonials to verify a consultant’s track record. These success stories also provide insights into the consultant’s ability to solve problems similar to yours.

Say you’re a software company looking to optimize your sales cycle. You find a consultant who helped a similar software company reduce its sales cycle by 25% and increase revenue by 20% within six months.

These results indicate that their approach could help your business achieve similar outcomes.

Here are some other things to consider when reviewing case studies and testimonials:

• Timing. Check that the case study is recent to ensure the consultant’s strategies are up-to-date with current trends and technologies.

• Metrics. Look for clear, quantifiable results such as percentage increases in sales or improvements in efficiency to understand the real impact of their work.

• Scope of work. Review the specific issues the consultant addressed, such as sales process optimization or training, to determine whether their expertise aligns with your business needs.

Evaluating case studies and testimonials helps you confirm a consultant’s ability to produce results for your business.

5. Assess their coaching and training approach

Assessing a consultant’s coaching and training approach ensures they can help your team build skills for lasting success.

For example, if your team needs hands-on guidance, you might prefer a consultant who offers interactive workshops or role-playing exercises. If your team requires more strategic insight, a consultant focused on one-on-one sessions or group discussions may be more effective.

Here are some questions that can help you learn more about a consultant’s approach to sales training programs:

6. Discuss customization

The right consultant will tailor their approach to your business needs and goals, helping your team drive better results and long-term success.

Imagine you’re a SaaS company struggling to convert leads from a recent marketing campaign. You find a sales consultant who fits your ideal requirements, but they typically focus on lead nurturing and closing strategies.

To support your needs, the consultant tailors their offerings to optimize your lead scoring system and implement specialized sales scripts for converting these specific leads.

Here are some key things to look for when it comes to customization:

• Creating tailored strategies. Ensure the consultant adapts their strategies to address your specific challenges, such as adjusting their approach to focus on lead conversion if your campaign is struggling.

• Using industry-specific adjustments. Confirm that the consultant is willing to customize their approach based on the nuances of your industry, like adapting their strategies to account for sales cycles or regulatory requirements for your sector.

• Data-driven recommendations. Ensure they use data to adjust their strategies to match your current sales performance, ensuring the approach is grounded in actual results.

Customization helps the consultant focus on your challenges, building a stronger and longer-lasting B2B sales strategy.

7. Weigh costs against potential ROI

Weighing costs against projected ROI helps determine whether a consultant’s professional services provide enough value to justify the investment. Instead of only looking at the upfront cost of their work, you get a better idea of how their strategies deliver long-term benefits.

Imagine that a consultant’s upfront fees are $10,000. However, you predict that their work will help you:

• Generate 30% more high-quality leads

• Increase your revenue by $50,000 over the next six months

Based on these figures, the cost is worthwhile.

Predicting ROI in advance perfectly is impossible, but there are ways to make informed projections. Here’s how to compare costs with potential ROI:

• Review past results. Look at the results the consultant achieved with similar businesses.

• Evaluate opportunity costs. Compare the potential benefits of hiring the consultant to the cost of missing out on improvements or sales growth.

• Factor in scalability. Assess whether the consultant’s solutions can grow with your business.

• Estimate long-term value. Consider how the consultant’s strategies can drive sustainable growth, such as increasing lead quality, improving conversion rates or boosting sales efficiency.

Weighing the costs against potential ROI gives you more confidence in your investment in B2B sales consulting services.

Tackle sales obstacles head-on with Pipedrive

Using a sales consultant might not always be the best option for your business, whether because of cost restraints or limited time to get up to speed with solutions. In these instances, sales technology can help.

A sales CRM like Pipedrive gives your sales team the tools to overcome common challenges – like poor lead quality, stalled deals and inconsistent follow-ups – so you can close more deals faster.

Here are some of the features that help you tackle these obstacles:

Improve lead quality

Pipedrive’s lead generation tools – like the LeadBooster Add-on, with Web Forms and Chatbot features – help you attract and identify prospects that match your ICP.

Once you have more leads in your pipeline, you can use customer segmentation tools to prioritize the ones most likely to convert.

These tools and processes will help improve lead quality so your team can spend less time chasing the wrong leads and more time closing the right ones.

Here’s an overview of how the LeadBooster Add-on works:

Nurture leads effectively

Pipedrive lets you track and nurture leads through every stage of the buying journey to ensure leads receive the right messaging at the right time. Here are some ways to leverage Pipedrive features to improve lead nurturing:

• Access templates with the Email Builder. Create consistent, on-brand messages tailored to different lead segments or sales funnel stages. Save time while ensuring your outreach remains relevant.

• Launch drip campaigns. Send a series of timed, personalized emails that guide prospects from initial interest to conversion without constant manual input.

• Use email follow-up automations. Stay on top of every opportunity by triggering tasks after specific actions, like a meeting, call or form submission, so you never miss the right moment to engage.

Here’s an example of an automated email in Pipedrive’s interface:

Pipedrive’s AI also pinpoints key opportunities within your sales performance, allowing you to optimize your lead nurturing.

The AI Sales Assistant monitors your sales activities in real time and delivers smart suggestions, such as which leads to follow up with, which deals are at risk or which tasks you’re falling behind on.

The image below shows how Pipedrive recommends actions based on past interactions:

Optimize your sales cycle

Pipedrive’s visual pipeline allows you to identify where deals are stalling and make data-driven decisions to streamline your sales operations. Here’s how it works:

• Customize pipeline stages to build a workflow that mirrors your actual sales process

• Click on each deal to see its full history of inside sales activity (emails sent, calls made, notes and tasks) and make informed decisions about the next steps

• Flag deals that sit in the same stage for too long with Rotting indicators so you know where to focus your attention

Watch the video below for a full breakdown of the Pipeline View:

Final thoughts

Hiring a B2B sales consultant can be the right choice when your business faces stalled growth or a lengthy sales cycle. The right consultant provides tailored strategies, expert coaching and industry-specific insights that drive better performance and lasting revenue growth.

If hiring a consultant isn’t the right fit for your sales organization, a powerful sales tool like Pipedrive offers a practical alternative.

Pipedrive’s B2B CRM helps you overcome the same sales obstacles consultants typically address, such as poor lead quality, inconsistent follow-ups and pipeline inefficiencies.

Sign up for a free trial to see how Pipedrive can help your sales team work smarter and close more deals.