In many professional services organisations, growth depends on people who would never describe themselves as salespeople.
They are surveyors, consultants, engineers, accountants, lawyers and technical specialists. Clients buy their expertise, trust their judgement and rely on their advice. Yet those same individuals also play a critical role in winning, growing and retaining business.
In this episode of Mastering Sales & Negotiations, Anna Betts, Head of UK Business Development and Sales Enablement at JLL, explores what it takes to build commercial capability across a complex organisation where expertise is abundant, but sales is not always seen as part of people’s role.
The conversation offers a powerful lesson for commercial leaders: sustainable growth is not created by a sales function working in isolation. It happens when an entire organisation understands how it creates value for clients and feels confident playing its part in that process.
In professional services, the product is often expertise rather than something tangible.
That creates a different commercial challenge. Clients are not buying a piece of equipment or a software licence. They are investing in the knowledge, experience and judgement of the people delivering the service. As Anna explains, business development teams are often working to enable technical experts to be more effective with clients, helping them navigate opportunities, build relationships and articulate value.
The challenge is that many experts do not naturally see themselves as contributing to sales. Their focus is understandably on delivering excellent technical work. Yet commercial success increasingly depends on their ability to engage clients, understand wider business needs and contribute to growth conversations.
The organisations that succeed are those that help experts recognise that commercial capability does not sit alongside their expertise. It strengthens it.
From a client’s perspective, navigating a large organisation should feel simple.
That sounds straightforward, but it can be difficult to achieve when businesses become highly specialised. JLL, for example, operates across multiple service lines and disciplines, each with deep technical expertise. Anna describes the challenge as helping people understand the breadth of the organisation well enough to connect clients with the right support at the right time.
As she puts it: “You want the client to feel that you are one organisation... and that you are easy to navigate.”
For clients, a seamless experience means consistency. It means not having to work out who does what internally. It means feeling that every interaction contributes to a joined-up relationship rather than another disconnected conversation.
Commercially, this matters because the easier an organisation is to work with, the easier it becomes for clients to expand the relationship.
By the time a formal RfP arrives, many of the most important commercial decisions have already been influenced.
Anna is clear that proposals matter. Pursuit teams, bid professionals and proposal specialists all play a critical role in helping organisations present compelling solutions. But she also acknowledges a reality that many commercial teams will recognise:
“If your competitor has already built and established a trusted relationship with that client, they are in a far better place than you are going into that RfP scenario.”
This reflects one of the most consistent findings from sales research. Buyers often develop preferences long before they formally evaluate suppliers.
That means commercial performance depends on the quality of conversations happening before opportunities become formal procurement exercises. The strongest organisations identify target clients early, invest in meaningful relationships and create opportunities to understand challenges long before a buying process begins.
The proposal may help secure the decision, but the relationship often determines whether you are seriously considered in the first place.
Anna's answer is simple: yes.
More importantly, she argues that selling is a skill that can be learned, practised and developed.
Too often, organisations assume technical experts will somehow acquire commercial skills through experience alone. Yet they would never expect those same people to become technically proficient without formal training, coaching and development.
As Anna explains: “Sales is a skill. I think there is a formula. You can teach it.”
This perspective aligns closely with Huthwaite's own research. Commercial effectiveness is not primarily about personality. It is about understanding customer needs, asking effective questions, listening carefully and creating value through conversations.
The good news for expert-led organisations is that many technical specialists already possess the curiosity and problem-solving mindset required to excel in these areas. The missing piece is often confidence rather than capability.
Culture plays a bigger role than individual training programmes.
Throughout the conversation, Anna repeatedly returns to the importance of embedding commercial capability across an organisation rather than treating it as an optional extra. That starts with clarity about expectations and continues through career frameworks, development pathways, recognition programmes and leadership messaging.
One particularly interesting point is her comparison with language learning. Commercial skills, like languages, are often easier to develop when introduced early.
Rather than waiting until people reach senior positions, organisations can build commercial awareness from the beginning of a career. Doing so helps people see client development, relationship building and collaboration as part of their professional identity rather than an unwelcome addition later.
Commercial capability becomes more sustainable when people grow up with it rather than being asked to adopt it retrospectively.
One of the strongest themes in the episode is the value of structured coaching.
Anna describes how her teams help colleagues prepare for client meetings, qualify opportunities, develop proposal strategies and rehearse presentations. Importantly, this coaching is not limited to major pitches. It begins much earlier in the relationship-building process.
Sometimes that means asking simple questions:
These questions may appear basic, but they introduce discipline and intentionality into client engagement.
Many client meetings are pleasant conversations. Fewer create genuine progress. Coaching helps teams distinguish between the two.
The most valuable commercial insights often emerge after opportunities have concluded.
Anna describes a disciplined approach to client feedback that applies regardless of whether JLL wins or loses an opportunity. Structured debriefs help uncover patterns, identify improvement opportunities and generate insights that can be shared more widely across the business.
A particularly interesting observation concerns price.
Many organisations are told they lost because a competitor was cheaper. Anna remains sceptical of that explanation when viewed in isolation.
Her view is that buyers who genuinely believe an organisation offers the strongest solution will often seek ways to continue the conversation. If price becomes the deciding factor, it may indicate a broader value conversation did not land as effectively as intended.
That is a useful reminder for any commercial team. Price objections are often easier to discuss than concerns about confidence, differentiation or perceived value.
Anna is enthusiastic about AI's potential but equally clear about the need for thoughtful adoption.
The most immediate value she sees comes from improving access to knowledge and making it easier for professionals to find relevant expertise, case studies, credentials and information. By reducing the time spent searching for resources, AI can improve consistency and free people to focus on higher-value activities.
At the same time, she sees clear limitations. AI-generated content can default to generic language, overly promotional headings and styles that do not reflect how clients actually communicate. As a result, commercial teams must remain active participants in the process rather than passive consumers of AI outputs.
One of Anna's strongest points is that AI should create capacity, not remove responsibility. Human judgement continues to matter, particularly in relationship-led businesses.
As she notes: “People buy people.”
That principle remains remarkably resilient, regardless of how sophisticated technology becomes.
Perhaps the most powerful insight comes right at the end of the conversation.
Asked what advice she would give her younger self, Anna's said: “Take more chances, be bolder.”
It is advice that applies just as well to organisations as it does to individuals.
Building commercial capability requires people to try new behaviours, learn unfamiliar skills and step outside their comfort zones. It requires leaders to rethink traditional assumptions about who owns growth and who contributes to client success.
For many organisations, the greatest commercial opportunity is not finding better salespeople.
It is helping more people recognise that they already have a role to play.
Commercial performance is rarely created by sales teams alone. In expert-led organisations, growth depends on the quality of conversations happening across the business. It depends on technical specialists understanding client needs, building trust, collaborating across disciplines and recognising opportunities to create value.
The organisations that succeed are not those with the most experts. They are the ones that make it easiest for those experts to contribute commercially. Clear expectations. Structured coaching. Strong client relationships. Consistent behaviours. Thoughtful use of AI.
Combined effectively, these elements create something more powerful than individual expertise alone. They create a culture where commercial success becomes everyone's responsibility.
This episode of Mastering Sales & Negotiations is available here. Follow the full series wherever you listen to podcasts.
Anna Betts is Head of UK Business Development and Sales Enablement at JLL, where she helps drive commercial growth across a complex, multidisciplinary organisation. With more than two decades in professional services, she specialises in business development, strategic pursuits, sales enablement and client engagement, helping technical experts build stronger client relationships and win complex opportunities.