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 Denitresse Transitioned from B2C to B2B: Securing a Group Coaching Deal with a Health System
Swagger School® advised a Global Culture Consultant and Executive Coach on B2B sales strategies to shift her business from primarily serving individuals in 1:1 coaching to creating a more scalable group coaching model that positioned her expertise to serve premium corporate clients and secure bigger contracts.
“Just the other day I was thinking back to my business school application and I said I wanted to be a consultant to small businesses and non-profits. I arrived on that as a career path after an executive mentor pulled me aside and told me the job you’re going to retire from doesn’t exist yet. You’re building the foundation for something that doesn’t exist.
Anniedi was able to see and understand my full vision and didn't try to water down its complexity as many others had. As a person with significant strategy experience, it was refreshing to have a thought partner capable of seeing the bigger picture and the connections. But the real magic, and the reason I knew she was the right person to support me, was in her ability to help me break down that big picture into clear and actionable next steps.
One session helped pull me out of my own mind to better articulate my vision and align clearly on my next steps. Anniedi is a breath of fresh air. Following our session I had a huge sigh of relief, before pushing forward with my new crystal clear direction."
- Denitresse, Global Culture Consultant and Executive Coach
Denitresse is a Global Culture Consultant. She helps organizations build high performing teams, strengthen their leaders and cultivate strong managers through people centered coaching and training programs.
A former corporate supply chain strategist in the manufacturing sector, she transitioned in the world of entrepreneurship first as an executive coach and did not have much exposure to corporate contracts or the world of B2B sales.
Before joining Swagger School® she spent countless hours each week helping individual clients achieve their personal goals.
In 2020, Denitresse made a big bet on herself by launching her own coaching business. A sought after executive coach, she quickly became booked and busy seeing 1:1 clients. She loved working with individual consumers and began subcontracting with larger consulting firms to hone her coaching skills and help corporate executives improve performance and elevate their careers.
Over time, she realized that she did not want to limit her capacity for growth to how many hours were in a given day. She was quickly becoming maxed out with 1:1 clients and began searching for a way to expand her impact without having to book more time on her calendar. Consulting bigger organizations would give her the opportunity to scale in a more sustainable way.
As a strategist, she was used to pioneering new paths in areas that had never been explored before. Finding corporate clients to serve was just the tip of the iceberg in venturing into the unknown.
When she began exploring the idea of pursuing more corporate contracts, it became evident that she would need to target an entirely new audience. She wanted to scale her services in a more sustainable way by working with larger organizations, and knew she needed to transition her business model from a B2C (business-to-consumer) model to a B2B (business-to-business) approach, but was unsure how to translate her big vision into actionable steps and needed a legit strategy and concrete plan to make the big pivot.
"Swagger School's proven process taught me how to leverage the relationships I already have to secure more opportunities. It has improved our competitive positioning, built up credibility quicker and helps our B2B clients choose us much faster. Working with Swagger School gave me a legit strategy and a solid plan to shift my business from serving individuals to organizations. Anniedi's strategy background and experience working with some of the largest and most recognized brands on the planet were exactly what I needed to support my transition. I left Swagger School with crystal clear direction to transition my biz from B2C to B2B and sealed the deal with a Fortune 500 company. I filled up my entire coaching roster with one corporate contract at a big bank. Now I'm taking my group coaching program and innovative culture model to a major health system.”
- Denitresse, Global Culture Consultant and Executive Coach
Opportunity
Denitresse first booked a swagger strategy consultation back in 2021 to clarify her path with new market entry points, joined our first pop up workshop to refine her target audience, and enrolled in our group consulting program to find her first few corporate clients and quickly filled up her entire coaching roster with ONE contract at a big bank, successfully closing her first deal with a Fortune 500 company.
But she didn’t stop there.
In 2022, she leveraged our 1:1 Swagger Strategy Sessions to map out a plan to take her B2B brand worldwide and then boldly launched her culture consulting firm on the global stage in Barcelona by delivering leadership development programming for a high growth tech startup!
But as she sought to boldly grow her footprint beyond her core network as she was building out her global brand, she needed to find clients that didn’t already know about her brilliance, especially as regulatory shifts affected demand for core offerings leading to slower decision making at her target organizations.
Leadership is not just about how you show up for yourself when everything runs smoothly; it’s also about how you guide your teammates through the tough times as well.
In 2024 she returned to join our Swagger School® Mastermind Program as VIP member for a customized business growth strategy with B2B sales strategic advisory support to help streamline her lead generation strategy and restructure her corporate offer suite so she can create a more sustainable and scalable path to success.
Denitresse successfully sold a group coaching program to a health system to upskill their top talent with her proprietary leadership development methodology—a breakthrough achievement that took her business to the next level.
In this case study, we’ll walk through Denitresse’s process of making that transition, the strategies we deployed together that helped her succeed, and the valuable lessons she learned along her journey.
Challenge
Lack of Experience in B2B Sales:
While Denitresse was skilled at coaching individuals, she had little experience with the corporate sales process or positioning her services to meet the needs of large organizations. While opportunities naturally fell into her lap with referrals from her existing network, she lacked brand awareness and needed a way to expand her reach beyond her local market. Denitresse needed a more streamlined lead generation process to connect with the right people within major health systems who could make purchasing decisions.
Difficulty Creating a More Sustainable Corporate Offer Suite
Having done a lot of corporate offer customization, Denitresse found herself spending a long time customizing proposals and experienced delays in closing deals without connecting with the right people within large health systems who could make purchasing decisions. She didn’t want to spend time spinning her wheels along the path to success and knew she needed an advisor who understood the corporate landscape and the target audience she sought to serve.
Scaling a 1:1 Offering Limited Revenue Growth
Denitresse largely relied on time intensive delivery models such as 1:1 coaching or live workshop delivery and prior to joining the Mastermind her revenue growth was limited to how many hours were in a given week or year. She had valuable content, but needed to pivot from a B2C to a B2B delivery model for greater standardization and she didn’t know how to package it into a program with a more profitable pricing strategy that would be attractive to corporate clients.
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 develop a more standardized pitch process, there’s one major thing you need to nail for greater sustainability: lead generation.
Finding a steady supply of new strangers to talk to about your stuff isn’t the easiest thing to figure out.
Our proprietary P.I.T.C.H. Method is designed to provide consultants with actionable B2B sales strategy secure their next corporate client and tools, training and techniques to thrive at every stage of their journey.
With a proven roadmap, Denitresse gained strategic advisory support and concrete action steps to confidently guide organizations from new contact to signed contract.
Pivotal Steps in Denitresse's B2B Sales Journey to Create a More Streamlined and Sustainable Pitch Process:
Shifting Her Mindset from B2C to B2B
The first step was to help Denitresse understand the key differences between selling to individuals and selling to large organizations. We worked on redefining her target audience and understanding the priorities of corporate clients, particularly those in the learning and development space. This gave Denitresse a clear focus and a strategy for targeting organizations across industries including manufacturing, financial services, tech and healthcare. Her transformative work delivered results for business leaders and we refined her value proposition which made her attractive to the health system.
Navigating Corporate Decision-Makers and Building Relationships
As a former supply chain strategist, Denitresse knew her way around the corporate sandbox. But selling her services to the key decision makers required a different skill set. We helped Denitresse map out the decision-making process within health systems and understand who the key stakeholders were. We worked on strategies for building relationships with HR directors, C-suite executives, and people & culture leaders who were looking for scalable, enterprise-wide leadership solutions. Inside the Mastermind she was exposed to other consultants sealing corporate deals, which accelerated her ability to translate her expertise to new audiences. By elevating her positioning to speak to the must-buy priorities at the highest levels of the organization, she was able to pursue larger scale corporate consulting engagements.
Refining Her Offering for Corporations
Denitresse’s individual coaching was successful, but it wasn’t scalable for a corporate setting. While she was able to leverage those skills to fill up her entire coaching roster with a big bank, she needed a way to earn more revenue that would not require adding more coaching calls to her already busy calendar. We helped her repackage a group coaching program that could be delivered to health system employees in a way that addressed the systemic challenges across high performing teams to better support people leaders within those organizations. This approach allowed Denitresse to package her expertise into a compelling offer that would appeal to health systems looking to improve leadership development to upskill staff during periods of significant change.
“Swagger School® has completely changed my view on group programs. It was intimate enough and there was enough space and encouragement in that space to get the opportunity to tailor the content to my specific challenge and the proposal I was actually facing. I got so much more out of the experience by engaging with fellow consultants in the group setting than I would have if I was only doing 1:1 coaching. I was able to talk to other consultants to identify what needed to shift in my language when entering different markets. It made me more bold and confident in going after the work.”
- Denitresse, Global Culture Consultant and Executive Coach
Outcome
In just 6 months, Denitresse successfully landed a group coaching contract with a health system, a deal that was several times larger than her typical B2C engagements. While results may vary for other consultants, Denitresse’s ability to pivot her offerings for the B2B market and build relationships within the corporate space helped her secure this breakthrough opportunity.
The ripple effect has already led to tangible impact across her growing team.
Denitresse recently expanded her team at Culture Refinery and has been working towards upleveling her B2B sales strategy by creating a stronger lead-gen process…and for good reason. This cutting-edge culture consultancy is on a mission to create equitable spaces that welcome wholeness, unleash genius and attract top talent. Not only does this allow accountable, inclusive, and diverse spaces to thrive, but it also improves engagement, innovation, productivity, and profitability for corporations, making it a total win-win.
By implementing a strong strategy for tracking key performance metrics like outreach, pitch meetings booked, and follow-ups, Denitresse was able to help her team know how well they are making strides toward their goals—and the even better news is that it worked!
She went from having crickets on her calendar to having 10 sales calls booked in a single week. While leading through market uncertainty can make it feel more challenging to put yourself out there, telling stories that showcase your authority, staying in active conversations and building your brand every day will help demystify what you have to offer, keep you top of mind, and help corporate clients make a buying decision much faster!
By tightening up her B2B lead generation process, Denitresse’s team successfully secured a new corporate contract with a health system that will leverage her existing leadership curriculum to deliver an innovative group coaching program that develops their top talent.
“Swagger School® is a breath of fresh air. I needed legit strategy and a solid plan to shift my business from B2C to B2B. Their strategy background and experience working with some of the largest and most recognized brands on the planet was exactly what I needed to support my transition.”
Takeaway
Denitresse’s success shows that transitioning from B2C to B2B is possible with the right mindset, strategies, and understanding of corporate needs. By refining her offering to match the goals of health systems and navigating the corporate decision-making process, denitresse was able to scale her business in ways she hadn’t imagined.
Conclusion
Denitresse’s story demonstrates that B2B sales is a different ballgame than B2C, but it’s a game that can be won with the right strategies in place.
real consultants, real results
i closed a group coaching contract with a major health system
Global Culture Consultant and Executive Coach
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.
