Complex sales training is a program for sellers who run long-cycle, multi-stakeholder deals in IT services, SaaS, capital equipment and consulting. It covers mapping the buying group, building consensus, creating mutual action plans, navigating procurement, coordinating internal pursuit teams and recovering stalled deals. Bodhih teaches it in plain, practical language and customises cases to your deals.
- Recommended: 2 days in person, or 5 × 3-hour live virtual sessions, plus a 60-day live-deal review
- Level: Intermediate to Advanced · In person · Live virtual · Blended
- Designed with the ADDIE model and customised to your context
- Offered by Bodhih since 2008 to 2,000+ organisations across 7 regions
Also known as: enterprise sales training, complex B2B sales training, multi-stakeholder selling, long sales cycle training
Where and how: complex sales training as an in-person workshop in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Jaipur; as a live online course; or delivered overseas in Dubai, Singapore and across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Last reviewed · Bodhih Training, Bengaluru
Why enterprise deals need a different kind of selling
Enterprise buying groups keep growing. A cloud migration deal at a Mumbai bank or a plant automation deal in Pune now involves IT, finance, operations, security and procurement, each with its own worry and veto. One enthusiastic contact is no longer enough to carry a proposal to signature.
Most sellers were trained to pitch to one decision-maker. Complex sales training shifts the craft towards orchestration: understanding how the customer decides, helping stakeholders agree with each other and steering internal colleagues so the pursuit feels coordinated from the outside.
LinkedIn names executive and stakeholder communication and cross-functional collaboration among the fastest-growing skills of 2026.
Employers expect 39% of workers' core skills to change between 2025 and 2030.
What participants will be able to do
Map the buying group
Identify every person who influences the decision, their priorities, their stance on the deal and how they connect to each other.
Build consensus, not just support
Help stakeholders with different agendas find a shared problem statement and a shared definition of success.
Run a mutual action plan
Co-create a dated plan with the customer that covers evaluation, sign-offs, procurement and go-live, and use it to keep both sides accountable.
Navigate procurement calmly
Prepare for commercial review, vendor onboarding and price pressure without giving away value at the last minute.
Lead the internal pursuit team
Coordinate presales, delivery, finance and leadership so the customer sees one joined-up team with one story.
Restart deals that stall
Diagnose why a deal has gone quiet and choose a specific move to re-engage the right stakeholder.
Who should attend
- Enterprise account executives and client partners in IT services and SaaS
- Sellers of capital equipment, industrial automation and engineering solutions
- Business development leads in consulting and professional services firms
- Pursuit leads and bid managers who coordinate large proposals
- Presales and solution consultants who work alongside enterprise sellers
- Sales managers who review and coach large, long-cycle opportunities
Program outline
Recommended design, customised to your context after a short needs analysis.
01Anatomy of a complex saleModule 1 · 75 min+
- What changes when deals take six to eighteen months
- How enterprise customers actually decide: steps, sign-offs and hidden vetoes
- Where deals are really lost: no decision, not the competitor
- Diagnostic: score one of your live deals
02Mapping the buying groupModule 2 · 2 hours+
- Roles in a buying group: sponsor, users, technical evaluators, finance, procurement
- Plotting influence, stance and relationships on one page
- Finding the people you have not met yet
- Build: a stakeholder map for your largest open deal
03Building consensus across agendasModule 3 · 2 hours+
- Surfacing each stakeholder's success measure and personal risk
- Framing one shared problem the whole group can agree on
- Equipping your internal ally to sell when you are not in the room
- Role-play: a steering meeting where finance and operations disagree
04Mutual action plans that keep momentumModule 4 · 90 min+
- Co-creating a dated plan from evaluation to go-live
- Using the plan to spot slippage early and ask for commitments
- Building procurement and security review into the timeline from the start
- Practice: present a draft plan to a sceptical customer sponsor
05Procurement and the commercial stageModule 5 · 90 min+
- What procurement teams are measured on and how to work with them
- Protecting value when price pressure arrives late
- Trading, not conceding: preparing give-and-get options
- Simulation: a final-round commercial meeting
06Leading the internal pursuit teamModule 6 · 75 min+
- Pursuit roles, cadence and a single deal narrative
- Bringing senior leaders in at the right moment
- Managing presales, delivery and finance inputs without friction
- Pursuit stand-up drill with a live deal
07Recovering stalled dealsModule 7 · 60 min+
- Six common reasons deals go quiet
- Re-engagement moves: new insight, new stakeholder, new urgency
- Knowing when to qualify out and free your time
- Personal 60-day deal plan
Sample training plan: 2-day hands-on design
This two-day plan is built around each seller's own open enterprise deal. Participants score the deal, map the buying group and practise building consensus in a steering meeting where finance and operations disagree. On day two they co-create a mutual action plan, handle a late procurement round without giving value away, run a pursuit stand-up with internal colleagues and choose re-engagement moves for a stalled deal. Everyone leaves with a 60-day plan for a real opportunity.
Participants can score a live deal, map its buying group and practise building consensus across agendas.
- 09:30–10:00Who signs?Energiser
- 10:00–10:45Score the dealDiagnostic
- 11:00–12:30Map the buying groupBuild sprint
- 12:30–13:15Success and risk per personSkill drill
- 14:00–15:30The divided steering meetingSimulation
- 15:45–16:45Equip your allyRole-play
- 16:45–17:30Day 1 deal updateReflection
Participants can run a mutual action plan, handle procurement, lead the pursuit team and restart a stalled deal.
- 09:30–10:30Mutual action planBuild sprint
- 10:30–11:15Selling the planRole-play
- 11:30–13:00Final commercial roundSimulation
- 13:45–14:45Pursuit stand-upFishbowl
- 14:45–15:30Stalled deal clinicCase clinic
- 15:45–16:45Deal review with the managerPeer coaching
- 16:45–17:30My 60-day deal planAction planning
Every session’s activity, timings, outputs and materials, plus pre-work, a 90-day reinforcement plan and how impact is measured. Free, emailed to you instantly.
Recommended: 2 days in person (09:30–17:30), or 5 × 3-hour live virtual sessions, plus a 60-day live-deal review with sales managers. A sample design: every Bodhih program is customised after a short needs analysis.
How long is complex sales training?
The recommended design is two full days in person, or five live virtual sessions of three hours, followed by a 60-day live-deal review with sales managers at 30 and 60 days and a post-assessment at day 90.
What activities are included in complex sales training?
Sellers score a live deal, map its buying group, run a steering meeting where stakeholders disagree, write a case for their customer ally, co-create a mutual action plan, handle a late procurement round, run a pursuit stand-up and choose moves to restart a stalled deal.
How we deliver it
Live deals as the syllabus
Each participant brings one or two open enterprise opportunities, and every tool is applied to those deals, so the maps and plans have real value on Monday.
Stakeholder simulations
Facilitators and peers play buying-group members with conflicting briefs, giving sellers safe rehearsal of steering meetings and commercial rounds.
Plain, generic language
Bodhih teaches the underlying skills in its own practical language, so teams can adopt the approach without learning a branded vocabulary.
Deal reviews after the workshop
Sales managers join short deal reviews at 30 and 60 days, using the same stakeholder map and action plan format taught in the program.
Tailored versions
For IT services and GCC-led pursuits
Focus on large renewals and new logos, onsite-offshore pursuit teams, security reviews and selling into global customers from India.
For SaaS and platform sales
Cases cover expansion deals, proof-of-value pilots, IT and business co-owners and moving from a team-level purchase to an enterprise agreement.
For capital equipment and industrial solutions
Long evaluation cycles with plant heads, engineering, finance and central procurement, plus site trials and capital budget timing.
How we measure impact
Bodhih evaluates the program using the ADDIE model it has applied since 2008. Sellers complete a pre and post assessment of consultative and stakeholder-management skills on AssessAll. We record a baseline on selected live deals, such as stakeholders engaged, action plans agreed and stage movement, then review progress at 30, 60 and 90 days with sales managers. Individual development plans carry the learning forward, and a sample training plan is available to download.
Pair this program with AssessAll, Bodhih’s AI assessment platform, for pre- and post-program skill measurement.
Frequently asked questions
What is a complex sale?
A complex sale is a purchase that involves several stakeholders, a long evaluation, significant cost or risk, and usually a formal procurement stage. Examples include enterprise software, IT services deals, capital equipment and consulting engagements. Success depends less on a single pitch and more on understanding how the customer decides and building agreement across the buying group.
How do you sell to multiple stakeholders?
Map everyone who influences the decision, learn what success and risk look like for each, then help them agree on one shared problem and outcome. Meet people individually before group meetings, equip an internal ally to make the case and keep a shared plan visible. Complex sales training gives sellers a stakeholder map and practice with conflicting agendas.
What is a mutual action plan in sales?
A mutual action plan is a shared, dated list of steps that the seller and customer agree will lead to a decision and go-live. It includes evaluations, sign-offs, procurement steps and owners on both sides. It keeps momentum, exposes slippage early and shows the customer you are organised. Participants draft one for a live deal.
How do you restart a stalled enterprise deal?
First find out why it stalled: a changed priority, a missing stakeholder, unclear value or internal disagreement. Then choose one specific move, such as bringing new insight, reaching a different stakeholder or linking the deal to a fresh business event. If none works, qualify out and spend the time elsewhere. The program practises each move.
How do you handle procurement in B2B sales?
Engage procurement early rather than at the end, understand what they are measured on and build their steps into your action plan. Prepare trade-off options in advance so any concession gets something back, such as term length or scope. Keep value in front of the business stakeholders so price is not the only conversation.
Does this program teach a particular sales methodology?
No. Bodhih teaches the skills behind successful enterprise selling in its own plain language: mapping buying groups, building consensus, planning with the customer and coordinating internal teams. This makes the approach easy to fit alongside the sales stages and CRM fields your organisation already uses, without introducing new branded terminology.
Who should attend complex sales training?
Enterprise account executives, client partners, business development leads and pursuit managers who handle long-cycle deals with several stakeholders. Presales consultants and sales managers benefit from attending alongside sellers. We recommend cohorts of 12 to 20 so each participant can work on a live deal and take part in several simulations.
Is complex sales training available online?
Yes. The live virtual version runs as five three-hour sessions over two to three weeks. Simulations happen in breakout rooms with facilitators playing stakeholders, and participants work on live deals between sessions. It suits enterprise teams spread across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Dubai, Singapore and other locations.