Welcome to Corporate Consulting Chronicles
This series features the Swagger School® success stories of independent consultants, industry experts, and thought leaders who are landing corporate contracts. Read our interactive case studies to explore how we helped them transform their business and amplify their impact—on their own terms.
How Dr. Minerva Landed Her First Corporate Contract in 6 Months: A B2B Sales Society Success Story
Swagger School® advised a Well-being Consultant and Leadership Coach on B2B sales strategies to expand her business from therapy to corporate speaking engagements and consulting for a major hospital by positioning her existing expertise and skills to serve premium clients and secure bigger contracts as a busy mom.
“I'm brand new to this. I just found out what B2B was. I've also never worked in corporate so a lot of this feels brand new and I just haven't really seen it done. I'm also not fully sure how to package my expertise or what organizations are looking for."
- Dr. Minerva, Trauma Therapist, Well-being Consultant and Leadership Coach
Opportunity
Breaking into the corporate world can be challenging for independent consultants, but Dr. Minerva’s journey shows how implementing proven B2B sales strategies can lead to securing long-term corporate contracts.
Dr. Minerva is a trauma therapist and leadership coach who formerly developed curriculum and trained graduate students to receive their licensure in the field of mental health counseling.
Having previously served a role in academia as a Mental Health Program Director, she was used to regularly engaging with faculty members, adjunct professors and clinical supervisors.
She transitioned from her role in higher ed to launching her own therapy practice and found herself experiencing burnout.
Dr. Minerva decided to make the big leap into the world of B2B and was excited to secure bigger contracts so she could stop trading time for money in individual patient care as a clinician, but did not know where to begin and felt like a total newbie in the corporate arena.
Before Dr. Minerva joined Swagger School® B2B Sales Society this January 2024, she had recently had a baby and knew corporate contracts could help her work smarter but wasn’t sure where to begin.
But she didn’t let not knowing the fancy corporate lingo hold her back.
Dr. Minerva believed that targeting organizations and landing bigger contracts could reduce her working hours as a busy new mom juggling 1:1 patient care.
Her revenue growth and geographic reach as a health practitioner were limited by state licensure requirements and she craved expansion but wasn’t sure how to translate her history in academia into the corporate world.
With little spare time, she leveraged our evidence based, proprietary P.I.T.C.H. Method to accelerate her pace to finding her first corporate client so she could diversify her offer suite and add an additional B2B revenue stream.
After joining our 12-month Swagger School® B2B Sales Society Program, Dr. Minerva applied targeted networking, business development and outreach strategies, landing her first corporate speaking engagement within 60 days and secured her first corporate consulting contract with a hospital in just 6 months.
While each consultant’s results vary, Dr. Minerva’s success demonstrates how the right approach can significantly improve your ability to attract corporate clients.
In this case study, we’ll walk through Dr. Minerva’s process of finding her first corporate clients, the strategies that helped her succeed, and the valuable lessons she learned along her journey.
Challenge
Low Corporate Visibility
Despite having a strong service offering, Dr. Minerva felt like a best kept secret and wasn’t sure how to raise awareness of her new B2B services and command the attention of decision-makers to get noticed by large corporations.
Ineffective Messaging
Her online persona, social profiles and marketing efforts focused more on her individual expertise rather than addressing the specific pain points of corporate buyers. She needed a way to elevate her thought leadership and tailor her value proposition to the needs of organizations rather than individual therapy or coaching clients.
Unstructured Follow-Up
Dr. Minerva’s outreach lacked consistency, and she didn’t have a system in place for nurturing leads over time. She did not have a lead generation offer to validate market demand for her services while gathering the social proof needed to showcase her impact to bigger organizations.
About the Consulting Journey
The B2B Sales Approach We Took By Implementing Our Proprietary P.I.T.C.H. Method:
As your business grows and you begin to expand your footprint by serving more organizations, there’s one major thing you need to get clear on before dipping your toe in the corporate waters: a go-to-market strategy.
Finding a target audience and translating your expertise into the corporate lingo isn’t the easiest thing to figure out – especially if you don’t have a traditional “corporate” background.
Our proprietary P.I.T.C.H. Method is designed to provide consultants with actionable B2B sales strategy to secure their first or next corporate client and tools, training and techniques to thrive at every stage of their journey.
With a proven roadmap, Dr. Minerva gained strategic advisory support and concrete action steps to turn transferrable skills from academia and mental health into an irresistible corporate offer. She created a pitch process to confidently guide organizations from new contact to signed contract.
Pivotal Steps in Dr. Minerva's B2B Sales Journey to Secure Her First Corporate Contract:
Refining Her Ideal Client Profile
Dr. Minerva’s first task was to identify the right type of corporate clients. We helped her narrow her target market to companies whose challenges aligned closely with her consulting services. This strategy increased her lead generation efficiency. We worked together to advise her on identifying attractive market entry points and creating an outreach strategy to get in front of key decision makers.
Tailoring Her Messaging for Corporate Buyers
We shifted Dr. Minerva’s messaging to focus on how her services would solve specific business problems for corporate decision-makers and helped her craft relevant case studies to showcase her impact, instead of merely highlighting her skills. This change helped her better connect with her target audience, communicate her value in a way that resonated with corporate buyers and increase engagement with dream organizations.
Implementing a Consistent Follow-Up System
Attracting highly qualified leads into the pipeline is one thing, but sealing the corporate deal is quite another as many new consultants don’t have a standard process for guiding organizations from new contact to signed contract. One of the most impactful changes was helping Dr. Minerva establish a structured follow-up system. Her first corporate speaking gig was already sitting in her inbox with a hot request for a worksite wellness talk, but she did not know how to best respond. The first thing we did was help her package up an irresistible corporate offer using our B2B sales strategies to reach the new audience and role played sales conversations at a live interactive workshop so she could interact with greater intentionality to close that deal. Corporate clients are often busy, and having a system in place to stay in touch through value-driven content helped Dr. Minerva remain top of mind with potential clients.
"The B2B Sales Society has been great. I love all the resources and have found the training really helpful. I just signed a contract with a hospital and I've had progress on all the strategies I've set in place this year. I'm getting more traction, gaining more experience, and attracting the right organizations so I'm really excited about that!”
- Dr. Minerva, Trauma Therapist, Well-being Consultant & Leadership Coach
Outcome
At every stage of her client acquisition journey, Dr. Minerva was able to plug into our curated corporate consulting resources for tools, templates and techniques to confidently move the deal forward to a successful outcome.
From our B2B Lead Generation Challenge to our live interactive Q&A sessions she found the curriculum and community she needed to transition from academia to corporate and confidently guide organizations from cold to sold.
Within 60 days she closed her first corporate speaking engagement and within 6 months of joining the B2B Sales Society, Dr. Minerva secured her first corporate contract. This contract wasn’t a result of a one-off sales push—it was the result of consistent, strategic outreach and relationship-building.
Now she is sealing deals like a pro and working on multiple new proposals for organizations who are pitching her to partner with them in providing wellness education to improve the mental well-being of their people.
Health and wellness practitioners expanding to serve corporations is just one example of the many potential ways to serve organizations as a corporate consultant.
While individual results vary, Dr. Minerva’s story proves that with an aligned growth strategy, it’s possible for seasoned professional services providers from every background to break into the corporate arena.
The boardroom isn’t limited to MBA’s. Clinicians and educators can negotiate game changing contracts any day of the week, even if you’ve never set foot in a cubicle before!
Dr. Minerva didn’t let having a nontraditional business background keep her from pursuing corporate contracts and is now fully owning her seat at every negotiation table.
She applied our B2B sales strategies to map out a game plan to take her clinical background onto bigger stages to make a broader impact by serving organizations.
The cherry on top is spending more quality time with her little one.
Takeaway
Dr. Minerva’s case shows that success in landing corporate clients isn’t about instant results—it’s about the application of a clear, targeted sales process. Consultants who follow the same proven strategies can increase their chances of securing corporate contracts.
Conclusion
Victory comes to those who take active steps in the direction of their corporate consulting ambitions with practical, actionable strategies. Dr. Minerva’s swagger success story provides valuable lessons on the power of strategic outreach and relationship-building.
Real Results
get inspired by well-being consultants who are sealing corporate deals
Earnings Disclaimer:
Individual results may vary. The outcomes mentioned in this case study are based on the experiences of the client described, and do not guarantee that other clients will experience similar results. Results depend on numerous factors, including but not limited to effort, market conditions, and business strategies employed.
No Typical Results Guarantee:
There is no guarantee of success in any business endeavor. The strategies discussed are designed to assist consultants in scaling their businesses, but success is dependent on a wide range of factors unique to each business owner.
