A shared approach to growth: how Zen and Alate create lasting commercial impact
A long-term partnership that delivers business results
For more than fifteen years, Zen Internet and Alate Business Growth have worked together to strengthen commercial capability and results across multiple sales teams and business units.
What began as a sales development initiative has evolved into a long-term partnership built on shared values, mutual trust and a common belief that sustainable business growth comes from developing people, not merely improving short-term sales metrics.
The result has been a lasting shift in capability, confidence and commercial performance that continues to support Zen's growth.
The need
Like many growing technology businesses, Zen faces the challenge of scaling commercial capability while remaining true to the values and customer-focused culture that define the company.
Zen wanted more than traditional sales training. The goal was to create lasting change that would become embedded in the culture and continue to deliver value long after individual programmes had finished.
As markets, technology, people and the business change with the years, Alate has been alongside to help identify and build the capability to support Zen sales teams through their next stages of evolution and growth.
Listen to how participants and leaders benefit from the relationship.
Partners for results
One of the reasons the relationship has endured is the alignment between Zen's values and the way Alate works.
From the outset, programmes were designed around Zen's culture, business objectives and the specific needs of each team. Rather than introducing an off-the-shelf methodology, Alate worked closely with sales leaders, Learning and Development team and participants to create practical approaches that reflected the reality of working at Zen.
Each programme combines workshops, coaching, practical application on live business opportunities and ongoing reinforcement over an extended period. Participants are given time to test ideas, develop new habits, learn from experience and build confidence through application.
A defining feature of the partnership has been the close, open collaboration between Zen and Alate. Regular communication, shared ownership of outcomes and a mutual willingness to adapt as business needs evolve ensures that learning remains relevant and commercially aligned.
Focus on behaviour change and outcomes
Enzo Romano
Learn how the Alate relationship has supported Enzo, Network Sales Lead, through his career. He shares how the Alate approach has grown with him and shares a concrete example of a recent large new business win.
Gill Cummings
As L&D Manager, Gill understands what makes a difference beyond engaging training sessions. Learn how she and the Zen team value Alate's approach to making a difference that lasts.
Jon Nowell
As MD for Zen Business, Jon shares his experience and the tangible measures we used to track and support the progress of his sales leadership team.
A shared commercial language
Across the years, one of the most significant cornerstones has been a common methodology that can be applied across different teams and functions.
As commercial employees move between roles and business units, they take a shared language, consistent framework and common approach to customer or partner engagement with them.
While the specific objectives and content evolve over time to meet changing market requirements, the underlying principles remain consistent.
Understand the customer's business and objectives.
Create value-led conversations rather than product-led discussions.
Manage opportunities proactively and strategically through the customer / partner buying journey.
Build higher and wider stakeholder relationships.
Improve qualification and forecasting.
Develop confidence to challenge, advise and lead customer conversations to deliver true customer value.
Continuing impact
Mark Baker shares his experience of working with Alate over 15 years, from his time as a sales person through to his current role as Head of Sales. Hear how we've helped him to develop his career and now support his leaders and sales teams in their development.
Recent impact
Mid-market & enterprise
Working with field and desk teams across new business and account management, we designed cohorts for foundational and accelerating skills: two cohorts at different stages of career and sales development, but with a common language and shared objective to increase revenue from the mid-market and enterprise base.
The program focused on strategic engagement and stakeholder mapping, qualification, account planning and creating higher-value business conversations. Participants became more proactive, widened stakeholder relationships and developed and won larger, more strategic opportunities.
Impact:
Significant growth in closed and forecast revenue.
7 figure renewals secured.
Improved pipeline confidence and management, prioritising winnable opportunities and greater confidence to qualify out.
Strategic and senior engagement based on business needs.
More deliberate, commercially minded customer focus: from tactical to strategic and reactive to proactive.
Confidence and skills to ask more questions, challenge, qualify and seek upsell and cross-sell opportunities that deliver greater value to the customer.
Telesales
For telesales teams, the emphasis was on helping individuals move beyond transactional conversations to better understand customer needs, articulate value effectively and manage opportunities through to completion. Participants developed stronger questioning skills, improved call structure, developed greater commercial awareness and more structured opportunity management disciplines. The team acts with greater credibility, seniority and intentionality.
Impact
Exceeded target. Every team member achieved target and the team exceeded overall target for the financial year - and are on track for the new financial year.
Improved conversion rates and shortened sales cycles through deeper understanding of customer needs, decision criteria, processes and value.
More accurate forecasting with fewer stalled opportunities.
Reduced cancellations.
Increased cross-sell into broader solutions, uplifting overall sales value.
Sales leaders
With a new business MD recently in place, a solid leadership team, but with new objectives and higher targets, we focused on specific factors for success for sales leaders - clear and common measures of success, focus on outcomes and developing and leading a high-performance team.
We facilitated the leaders to define how to work together to optimise how they operate, supported by the Squadify high-performing teams diagnostics. This enables the leaders to understand how to be effective as a team.
Impact
Increased and sustainable sales performance across the teams.
Sales leaders come together regularly to share and learn from each other, breaking down silos to work together and address business challenges and opportunities.
A common framework, language, and method for developing performance and moving as one within the business.
Mid-market & enterprise
Learn more from Michelle Fitton about how the program helped her meet target and get promoted.
Telesales development
Learn more from Telesales leader Tonnia Wilde about how her team smashed their target.
Leadership development
Tonnia shares her experience developing as a sales leader.
Accredited programmes
As an accredited training partner of the Institute of Sales Professionals, all participants of recent programs receive ISP-issued Certificates of completion on completion of the program and demonstration of clear personal and performance impact.
Squadify for team performance
The sales leadership team use Squadify to help them come together as a leadership team and focus on metrics for high performance that go beyond standard sales metrics to what leaders need to do to move as one.
The future
Perhaps the strongest endorsement of the relationship is its longevity.
For more than 15 years, Zen has continued to invest in extending the methodology across new teams, new roles and new business priorities. The relationship has evolved alongside Zen's growth because the focus has never been on delivering training for its own sake.
Instead, success has come from a shared commitment to:
Developing people
Embedding lasting behaviours
Creating measurable business outcomes
Maintaining alignment with Zen's values and culture
Adapting continually as the company grows
As the Zen-Alate partnership moves into its next phase to support the Partner sales team, the relationship demonstrates that when commercial development is aligned to business goals, customer needs and organisational values, the result is not simply better sales performance. It is stronger people, stronger teams and sustainable business growth.
Alate Business Growth is a B2B sales and leadership development company founded in 2002 by Anna Britnor Guest, who has over 30 years of experience in the B2B technology sector.
Alate works with technology companies across SaaS, cybersecurity, connectivity, MSP, telco, and AI that are under pressure to grow faster and smarter but whose people don't yet have the capability and skills to get them there.
Unlike standard training providers who deliver a program and move on, Alate works on live deals, real leadership challenges, and specific commercial goals over time, building the lasting change that connects capability directly to revenue.
Clients typically report improved win rates, stronger pipeline accuracy, and leadership teams that can finally move as one.
Alate is an accredited training partner with the Institute of Sales Professionals.
Zen have been supporting UK businesses since 1995, growing from a small start-up into one of the country's most respected technology providers.
Zen believes in doing business the right way. The largest B Corp certified telecoms provider in the UK , their commitment is balancing profit with purpose to do right for people and planet.
Zen provides a broad range of business technology services, including connectivity, networking, voice, cloud, security and hosting. Rather than treating these as isolated products, Zen's focus is on how they fit together in the real world – supporting day-to-day operations, enabling growth, and reducing unnecessary complexity.