Sales training for agencies
Sales training for agency owners and their teams.
Tim Kilroy's sales training for agencies teaches owners and their teams a sales process that closes good-fit deals without the founder on every call. Instead of a generic course, it combines coaching, a custom SalesOS installation for larger agencies, and AI tools that review real sales calls, built on more than 25 years of agency sales.
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What should a sales training agency teach an agency owner?
It should teach you to turn what you already know about selling into a process other people can run. Most agency owners are good at sales; the problem is that the skill is trapped in their heads. Good agency sales training covers discovery, qualification, proposals, and follow-up as defined stages, then measures where deals leak.
Owners often look for a better closer, a sharper script, or a commission-only rep. Tim Kilroy's view is blunt: you probably do not have a sales problem, you have a process problem. You close deals others would lose, with the same services and the same leads, and you cannot explain how. That is what he calls founder magic, and it is real. It is also limited to one person.
Definition
Agency sales training, defined
Agency sales training is the work of building and teaching a repeatable sales process for a marketing, creative, or PR agency, covering how prospects are found, qualified, diagnosed on a discovery call, proposed to, and followed up with. Tim Kilroy separates it from generic sales courses in one way: the process is built from how your agency actually wins, not imported from a methodology designed for software or industrial sales teams.
For agencies between $1 million and $20 million a year, that work happens through SalesOS, a custom installation scoped after a free call. For smaller agencies, the same thinking is worked through week by week inside Agency Studio.
The five-stage agency sales funnel
A funnel is a measurement device, not a slide. Tim Kilroy uses five stages, and someone only counts in a stage when they have done something observable:
- Aware: they could name you unprompted.
- Interested: they took an action, not when you sent something.
- Qualified: you can name the problem in their words, it is worth money, and they decide.
- Proposed: they have opened the proposal, not when you hit send.
- Closed: there is a signature.
To find your leak, pull the last 90 days, count how many prospects entered each stage, and calculate the conversion from each stage to the next. Fix the weakest one first. For the front of the funnel, read the guide to agency discovery calls and qualifying the prospect.
How many sales conversations does my agency need each week?
Revenue comes from a small number of real conversations with people who have a short path to yes or no. Tim Kilroy's pipeline math works backward from your goal: revenue goal divided by average deal size gives deals needed; deals divided by close rate gives proposals; proposals divided by proposal rate gives conversations; conversations divided by 13 weeks gives your weekly number. Try it with your own figures.
Pipeline math worksheet
“Pick ONE constraint to fix this quarter: not enough conversations, conversations not turning into proposals, or proposals not closing.”
Agency sales manager in training: what your first sales hire needs
Hiring a sales manager in training before you have a process usually means paying someone to wait for you. Before day one, a first agency sales hire needs a written description of your ideal client, defined funnel stages with clear entry rules, a discovery call structure, and recordings of good calls to learn from. Tim Kilroy's advice is to prove the agency can sell without you before you step away, not after.
AI tools for reviewing agency sales calls
Tim Kilroy offers a set of AI tools, published on timkilroy.com, that give feedback on real calls rather than role-play:
- Call Lab Instant (free): record a pitch and get instant coaching on delivery, pacing, and persuasion, with no account required.
- Call Lab: paste a call transcript and get a coaching breakdown of what worked, what did not, and what to change.
- Call Lab Pro: adds scoring against SPIN, Challenger, MEDDIC, Sandler, and more, and tracks improvement over time.
- Discovery Lab (free): a prospect research brief with recent news, conversation starters, and smart questions in about 60 seconds.
| Option | Format | Published price | Time commitment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency Studio (Tim Kilroy) | Weekly group coaching on live problems | $399 / month | Ongoing, month to month |
| Agency Studio+ (Tim Kilroy) | Group plus custom plan and monthly 1:1 | $999 / month | Ongoing, month to month |
| SalesOS (Tim Kilroy) | Custom sales process installation | Scoped after a free call | Scoped per agency |
| Sales Cornerstones program | Sales training program | $2,165 discounted to $1,732 | Not stated in source |
| Sales Training program | Sales training program | $3,190 discounted to $2,552 | Not stated in source |
| Online self-paced programs | Self-paced online course | Not stated in source | 6 to 8 hours (associate), 20 to 25 hours (professional) |
| Workshops | In-person or live workshop | Not stated in source | 2 days (16 hours) |
Market figures for the last four rows come from the page “20 Best Sales Training Programs, Courses Companies 2026”. Tim Kilroy rows are from timkilroy.com, as of November 2026.
By the numbers
What the research says about sales training
- Spent on training by US companies in 2024 to 2025Source: Training magazine, via SoloFire
- $102.8B
- Higher quota attainment reported with coachingSource: Korn Ferry 2023, via SoloFire
- 28%
- Of sales leaders say prospecting is their most covered training topicSource: The Sales Collective
- 56%
- Feel their training is effective but offers limited resultsSource: The Sales Collective
- 55%
SoloFire's sales training and coaching statistics summarize the pattern: most training fades within weeks unless it is reinforced, practiced, and coached. That is the case for applying training to your own calls every week.
How agency sales training with Tim Kilroy works
Diagnose the leak
Run the 90-day funnel count and find the stage losing the most good-fit prospects.
Pull the process out of your head
Document how you actually qualify, run discovery, propose, and follow up.
Review real calls
Use Call Lab to see talk ratios, missed questions, and next steps on recorded calls.
Hand it to the team
Let a team member or first sales hire run good-fit deals while you review, not rescue.
Not sure this is the right kind of help? See the agency coach guide, or go back to the overview of marketing agency coaching.
Questions agency owners ask
Can my team sell without me?
Not yet, for most agencies. Tim Kilroy calls it founder magic: the owner closes deals others would lose but cannot explain how, so the team waits for the founder to show up. The fix is to turn that instinct into a documented process with defined stages, so a team member or first sales hire can run good-fit deals without you.
How do I find where my agency sales funnel leaks?
Run a leak test. Pull the last 90 days, count how many prospects entered each of five stages (aware, interested, qualified, proposed, closed), then calculate the conversion from each stage to the next. The weakest conversion is your leak. Tim Kilroy recommends fixing one constraint per quarter rather than buying more leads for a funnel that loses them.
What is SalesOS?
SalesOS is Tim Kilroy’s custom sales system for agencies, typically between $1 million and $20 million a year. It takes what the founder knows about selling out of their head and turns it into a process the team can run, including discovery, qualification, and follow-up stages, so good-fit deals close whether or not the founder is on the call.
What AI tools does Tim Kilroy offer for agency sales?
Call Lab Instant is free and gives instant coaching on a recorded pitch. Call Lab reviews a pasted call transcript and suggests what to change next time. Call Lab Pro adds scoring against SPIN, Challenger, MEDDIC, Sandler, and other methods and tracks improvement over time. Discovery Lab produces a prospect research brief, with conversation starters and questions, in about 60 seconds.
How does agency coaching compare with an off-the-shelf sales training course?
Off-the-shelf sales training teaches a general method in a fixed window. The page “20 Best Sales Training Programs, Courses Companies 2026” lists self-paced programs of 6 to 8 hours at associate level and 20 to 25 hours at professional level, and workshops of 2 days, or 16 hours. Agency coaching is ongoing and applied to your own calls, pipeline, and offer.
How does agency coaching cost compare with a sales training course?
Published course prices give a useful benchmark. The page “20 Best Sales Training Programs, Courses Companies 2026” lists a Sales Cornerstones program at $2,165 discounted to $1,732 and a Sales Training program at $3,190 discounted to $2,552. Agency Studio is $399 a month and ongoing, so the right choice depends on whether you need a one-time course or weekly help applying it.
Ready to fire yourself from sales?
Start with the contact page on timkilroy.com. The first strategy call is free, runs 30 minutes, and is built to find the real problem before anyone suggests a fix.
Contact Tim Kilroy