Apprenticeship Sales Top Tips

1. Talent – Building a Sustainable Pipeline

I’ve encountered a lot of sales talent in the sector, which can be both a blessing and a curse. Not all talent is created equal, and when it came to building a team capable of hyper-growth, I realised that bringing in high-end sales talent from outside the sector wasn’t as effective as expected. External hires often came with bad habits, fixed mindsets, and an underwhelming contact list.

So, I made a conscious decision to heavily invest in entry-level sales talent, providing them with a highly structured onboarding process that focused on both sales techniques and an understanding of the intricacies of funded learning. We split the sales process—one team focused on lead generation, and another on closing deals. This approach not only helped fill our pipeline but also gave us a clear understanding of how effective our closers were and where we needed to provide additional support and training.

I personally spent three months doing every role in our sales process, from prospecting to closing, to ensure it was scalable. It also allowed me to advise my team from a place of experience and insight. This investment paid off. Within three years, three of our top five most productive sales professionals had come through our entry-level programme. I’m proud to say that two of them now hold senior roles in the sector.

2. Think Small, Win Big

In the early days of our growth story, we had to adopt a blended approach to our market outreach. We were fortunate to secure large enterprise clients early on, which gave us crucial social proof. However, as we were building our pipeline in the new levy market, we also needed to attract smaller, more agile non-levy-paying clients.

Scouring job boards and converting entry-level roles that matched our programme offerings became an effective strategy to fill pipeline gaps while we worked on mapping and approaching larger enterprise clients. I won’t get too tactical here (though I’m happy to share my old playbooks if anyone’s interested), but the overall strategy was to make enough small bets to keep things moving while maintaining a clear focus on securing the big wins. This approach allowed us to keep stakeholders happy while still playing the long game.

3. Partnerships – The Power of Collaboration

Partnerships were critical to our growth. We aligned ourselves with other providers who shared our standards and approach to training, especially those offering apprenticeships in areas that didn’t compete with ours. We cross-sold and referred business to each other at every opportunity, rapidly expanding our network.

In one six-month period, we secured significant contracts with L’Oreal, McDonald’s, and Primark, all through our partnership network. That year, these clients became three of our top five largest revenue drivers. Those key partnerships were instrumental to our success, and I can’t stress enough how much they accelerated our growth.

4. Operate Like They’re Paying

Whether we choose to accept it or not, there’s still a stigma around apprenticeships. Despite improvements and the rise of degree-level apprenticeships, they are often seen as a "poor relation" to a university education. While there’s work to be done from a learner's perspective, in my experience, the most important differentiator when working with clients is acting as though they’re paying for the training out of their L&D budget—not just drawing down from a levy pot.

We focused on thoroughly preparing for client engagements. This involved understanding the team makeup, identifying skills gaps, learning about the tools and software solutions the company used, and tailoring well-designed proposal documents. Presenting clear ROI cases was crucial, as was ensuring seamless reporting on learner progress and having a robust customer success process.

Our operational standards were strict: proposals were sent within a maximum of 12 business hours; every meeting had a follow-up detailing what was discussed; and all enquiries were responded to within 30 minutes—no excuses. These practices aren’t revolutionary, but you’d be surprised how many providers fail to implement them. Operating efficiently and professionally set us apart and helped build long-term relationships with our clients.

5. Aligning Sales, Recruitment, and Enrolment – The Toughest Challenge

The final point, and the one we struggled with the most, was aligning the positive tension between our sales, recruitment, and enrolment teams. It’s a tricky balance. Being too good at selling the dream at the front end of the process can cause significant issues further down the line and shatter client confidence.

To address this, we took several measures. First, sales underwent extensive training on what compliant learners looked like and regularly attended our candidate screening days to gain first-hand experience. Recruitment was treated like an external recruitment function and rewarded accordingly, while our enrolment team was embedded within the sales function. This gave them direct lines of contact with both sales and recruitment team leads to flag any issues early on.

We also introduced regular job swap days so that everyone across the teams could understand the pressures and challenges of each other’s roles. This extended to tutors and coaches as well, fostering a sense of empathy and understanding across the entire process. Improved alignment between departments not only smoothed operations but also built trust, leading to more cohesive teamwork and better outcomes for our clients and learners.

These are just a few of the lessons I’ve learned along the way. I’m always happy to share more, especially as we enter another period of significant change in the sector. I see enormous opportunities for growth for those willing to embrace them.