Business to business sales professional (integrated degree)
- Level
- 6
- Typical duration
- 36 months (about 3 years)
- Max funding band
- £21,000
- Route
- Sales, marketing and procurement
Selling products and services to other businesses.
About the role
A Business to Business (B2B) Sales Professional is responsible for delivering value to business customers, including corporate, public sector, SME, not-for-profit organisations as well as their own organisation. In addition, the individual may work in a national or international environment. It is a multi-facteted role which includes leading on long term, complex propositions, such as multiple pricing options or which may interface to procurement specialists. Using insights, critical thinking and commercial judgement they deliver commercial benefit to a number of customers or a complex, high value account. Commercially astute, they strategically and financially manage customer accounts, lead cross-functional teams through the sales process and deliver winning solutions and customer satisfaction. Influential, they are adept at understanding the needs of customers and developing strong stakeholder relationships whilst demonstrating strong, ethical practice. Occupation / Profile: B2B Sales professionals operate in organisations of all sizes and across multiple industry sectors such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), business services, professional services and technology. The occupation profile covers different areas of B2B Sales such as: Account Management, Sales Specialist, New Business Development and Channel Sales.How it compares
At 36 months (about 3 years), it is about average length for a degree-level apprenticeship (the average across all 172 Level 6+ standards is 39 months).
The funding band — the maximum an employer's levy can contribute to training costs — is £21,000, below the £21,500 average for degree-level standards. Apprentices never pay tuition either way.
What you'll learn
The official standard defines 7 knowledge areas, 6 skills, 4 behaviours. This is the actual assessed content of the apprenticeship — worth reading before an interview, because competency questions are usually written straight from these lists.
Knowledge 7
- Prospecting and Qualification: Analyse the business environment, industry, sector and competitors to identify potential new customers. Build, prioritise and manage the pipeline of prospects according to their potential, ensuring strategic and commercial fit with own organisation.
- Sales Planning: Plan strategically and consistently to meet sales targets through prospecting, qualification and pipeline management. Define, refine and validate specific customer requirements in the terminology of the customer’s business and industry.
- Solution Development: Use customer insight/requirements underpinned by an excellent level of portfolio and product knowledge. Analyse and create innovative solutions and propositions that deliver tangible business benefits to customers.
- Developin Proposals: Develop effective sales proposals, tender documents and presentations utilising a range of communications tools and techniques. Produce compelling formal proposals using the customers’ terminology and framed in a way to meet the customers’ needs.
- Commercial Acumen: Contribute to commercial strategies with a deep understanding of financial principles and the external environment such as relevant markets, competitors and associated products and services. Assess opportunities and risks for consideration through line management of others to support successful outcomes.
- Post Sales Delivery: Manage customer’s expectations and the strategic value of achieving these. Influence teams to ensure company alignment with the customer. Analyse the company’s performance together with the customer’s view of every interaction and summise how this can be used to inform continuous improvement.
- Applied Insights: Interpret and apply customer, competitor, consumer and market insight and intelligence from digital and traditional sources. Use these insights to effect actionable and ethical change of behaviors for mutual commercial benefit.
Skills 6
- Working with others: Influential, able to conduct stakeholder analysis and develop strong relationships at all levels, internally and externally, to build trust. Interacts professionally and ethically maintaining a positive and flexible attitude. Demonstrates emotional intelligence.
- Consultative Selling: Works with customers to identify new business and market challenges, utilising insights and good questioning and listening techniques. Identifies strategic & innovative solutions integrating products and excellent service solutions, to meet customer needs.
- Pitching: Leads a confident, clear and compelling sales pitch in front of a customer, which builds rapport, establishes credibility and delivers commercial benefit. Handles questions, objections and demonstrates the value of the proposal in a clear, quantifiable way.
- Negotiation and Closing: Applies the principles of negotiation, develops strategies and tactics to a mutually agreeable outcome, ensuring both customer and supplier leave committed to the outcome.
- Psychology of Sales: Critically reflects on the different psychological needs of customers and other key stakeholders in the buying/selling process. Takes into account strategic and organisational context when adapting their sales approaches, by using the psychological models pertinent to developing positive and ethical buyer and seller relationships.
- Leveraging Digital Business: Adopts different approaches to social selling & digital technologies which aid the sales process. Develops a digital selling strategy that leverages social selling to support lead generation, nurturing and customer engagement. Develops digital networks and drives insight-led engagements. Measures results and return on investment.
Behaviours 4
- Ethics, trust and Integrity: Promotes and protects good sales practices (in accordance with the organisation’s Sales Code of Conduct). Maintains the highest level of integrity in all business relationships.
- Management of Self: Ensures effective time management, prioritisation and strategic alignment of activities. Continually reflects and reviews its own performance. Understands the impact on others
- Interpersonal Skills: Relates well to all people and builds effective relationships diplomatically and tactfully. Demonstrates a positive mindset and attitude and has a range of skills and approaches and knows when to use different models of communication and influencing with whom.
- Customer focused: Acts as a customer advocate within their own organisation.
Live vacancies
No live vacancies for this course as of 2026-07-24 — new adverts appear on Find an apprenticeship daily, and many degree apprenticeship employers recruit on their own careers sites instead.
Universities registered to deliver it
3 universities are on the government provider register for this standard. Registration means they can deliver it — live vacancies depend on employer partnerships each recruitment cycle.
Related courses in Sales, marketing and procurement
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Digital marketer (integrated degree)
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Marketing manager
Responsible for the marketing activities and strategy of their organisation.
Retail leadership (integrated degree)
Acting as a brand ambassador who will lead, motivate and develop a team of retail-based employees, to deliver sales and profit targets.
Official sources
- Official standard page (Skills England)
- Registered training providers (Find apprenticeship training)
Occupational summary, duties, knowledge, skills and behaviours reproduced from the ST0423 apprenticeship standard (last updated 2021-07-22) — contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Always check the official page before applying: standards get revised.