Sell sales training to the person who owns the number: a VP of sales, a head of revenue, or the founder of a company with 5 to 100 reps. Reach them at the moment something changed, such as a wave of new hires, a missed quarter or a new product, and offer a paid review of three real sales calls before you pitch a program. A review costs the buyer one hour and shows your eye before they commit to a workshop.

Below: who actually signs, five ways to find them, a worked month for a made-up trainer, the first email, and the habits that keep trainers stuck at one client a quarter.

Who signs the check, and who vetoes it

Sales training has three buyers who want different things.

  • The sales leader wants quota attainment and a faster ramp for new reps. This is your best first contact because the problem is on their scorecard.
  • The founder of a company with no sales leader wants someone to build a repeatable pitch. Smaller budget, faster decision, no procurement.
  • HR or learning and development runs a training budget and wants a vendor with a curriculum, attendance sheets and a clean invoice. Slower, but they renew.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes sales managers as the people who set sales targets, build training programs for reps, and recruit, hire and train new sales staff. Its Occupational Outlook Handbook counted about 650,100 sales manager jobs in 2025 and a median pay of $148,270 in May 2025 (that survey does not cover self-employed people). So the person you want already thinks of training as part of their job and has a salary, and usually a budget, that can absorb a four-figure workshop.

Five channels that work for a trainer

1. Hiring signals

A company that posts five sales development or account executive roles at once will have five people to ramp in the next 60 days. Search job boards for those titles, group the postings by company, and write to the head of sales, not the recruiter. Your line is simple: "I saw you are hiring several reps. I run a two-day ramp workshop for new hires."

2. A new sales leader in the seat

A VP of sales in their first 90 days is deciding what to keep and what to fix. They tend to bring a trusted trainer or hire one. On LinkedIn, search for "VP Sales" or "Head of Sales" with a start date in the last quarter, and write to them with a specific offer.

3. Recruiters and sales-tool consultants

Recruiters who place sales reps hear which companies keep losing them. CRM consultants hear which teams are not using the tool. Neither sells training, so they refer without a conflict. Offer them a referral fee in writing, and send them one useful page about what you teach.

4. The call review offer

Ask a prospect for three recorded calls from three different reps. Listen to them and send back a one-page summary: two things the reps do well, three things you would change, and one line of exact wording to try. Price it between nothing and a few hundred dollars. The summary does the selling. If the leader forwards it to the team, you are already in the room.

5. A talk to an audience of sales leaders

Local sales or revenue leadership groups, chamber lunches and trade association meetings all need speakers. Offer a 25-minute talk on one narrow subject, such as the first 30 seconds of a cold call. Collect names with a sign-up for the slides, then follow up with each person individually within 48 hours.

A worked month for a made-up trainer

Say Dana runs Northbeam Sales Lab, a two-person shop in Columbus that teaches cold calling and discovery to B2B software and services teams. She wants two paid workshops by the end of the month.

  • Week 1: pulls 120 companies with 10 to 80 employees that posted two or more sales roles in the past 45 days. She finds the head of sales at each one.
  • Week 2: sends 30 emails a day for four days, each naming the open roles. Replies come in from 9 people. Five agree to the call review.
  • Week 3: reviews 15 recorded calls (three each), sends five one-page summaries, and books a 30-minute walk-through with each leader.
  • Week 4: two of the five ask for a quote. One buys a half-day workshop at $2,800. The other asks to start in the next quarter, so she puts a date in her calendar to write again in six weeks.

Those numbers are an illustration, not a benchmark. The point is the shape: 120 names turn into 9 conversations, 5 reviews and 1 workshop, and the review is the step that converts. Track your own ratios for three months before you plan around them.

The first email to a head of sales

Subject: Your new reps at Calder Freight Software

Hi Marcus, I noticed Calder is hiring four account executives. I train new B2B sales reps on discovery calls, and I would like to listen to three of your recorded calls and send you a one-page note on what I would change. No charge for the first one, and nothing to buy afterward. If that is useful, tell me where to send the recordings.

Dana, Northbeam Sales Lab, 14 Mill Rd, Columbus. Reply "stop" to opt out.

It names the trigger, says exactly what the buyer gets, and asks for one small thing. Include your postal address and an unsubscribe line. The Federal Trade Commission's CAN-SPAM guide requires a valid physical postal address in commercial email, an opt-out that you honor within 10 business days, and says each violating email can carry a penalty of up to $53,088.

What to stop doing

  • Selling a curriculum first. A 12-module deck with no look at the buyer's calls reads like every other trainer. Look at their calls first.
  • Writing to HR when the problem is a quota. HR will pass you along. Start with the person who is missing the number.
  • Offering a free hour of "advice". Offer a defined deliverable with an end: three calls, one page.
  • Letting a good workshop end without a next date. Book the 30-day follow-up session while the room is still warm.
  • Waiting for referrals alone. Referrals come after delivery. You need outreach to get the first five engagements.

The weekly cost of this routine is about five hours: an hour on the list, two on outreach and replies, two on call reviews. A trainer who sends 150 targeted emails a month and takes every review call will know within 60 days whether the offer works. For more on warming up a buyer who goes quiet, see how to write a B2B sales email, and for the adjacent market of company-wide programs, how to get corporate training clients.

The list-building and follow-up are the repetitive part of this plan. Rocketship can take that over: tell it which companies you want in plain words, and it reads each company's website, finds the sales leader, writes from your own Gmail, follows up and books the review call on your calendar. It does not run the call itself, which is your job. Launch includes 500 credits a month, and at 4 credits per person found with an email that is about 125 sales leaders. Plans and the 7-day trial (card required) are on the pricing page, and lead generation software for consultants shows how it fits a one-person shop.