UK Enterprise Awards 2026/ 72 Sales Enablement Consultancy of the Year 2026 Mentor Group Ltd is a UK-based sales performance consultancy and sales enablement organisation which specialises in transforming B2B sales teams and driving revenue growth through a mix of strategy, training, and technology. We speak to James Barton about emerging industry trends and how the company is setting about futureproofing its services. Helping businesses sell better and achieve stronger, more reliable sales results, Mentor Group Ltd (Mentor Group) achieves its objectives by training sales teams, optimising sales processes, and using practical technology, including AI, to support everyday selling. The firm’s approach focuses on people, processes, and technology working together, with everything that is delivered being designed and built upon depending on how a client's business already operates. The result is improved adoption, lasting behaviour change, better sales opportunities, and more predictable sales forecasts. “We define ourselves by our values of Openness, One Team, and Ownership,” explains Chief Solutions Officer, James Barton. “These three values drive every decision at Mentor Group, both internally and externally. They help us ensure that we are delivering the highest quality work, at the best attainable standard, in the most empathetic way possible”. James himself brings more than 25 years of commercial, sales, sales enablement, technology and learning development experience and is focused on developing the next generation of digital learning and applications to clients across the globe. In order to stay ahead of the curve in such a challenging and highly saturated industry, Mentor Group ensures that it is as informed as possible in two critical areas of the business: technology and sales enablement. When it comes to technology, the dedicated solutions team is always looking and learning when it comes to new and emergent tech, and how it can apply that tech to the work it does for clients, covering everything from CRMs to LMSs to the ever-broadening world of AI tools. As far as sales and sales enablement is concerned, Mentor Group is proud to boast an extraordinarily experienced team of industry professionals who have lived and breathed sales and enablement for decades. “Everyone involved in delivering our services is committed to never resting on their laurels; all that experience is fantastic, but if we simply do things how they've always been done, progress never gets made,” Jame elaborates. “That is why we ensure all of our sales professionals are as curious as they are experienced, always armed with the latest research and insights, and always prepared to challenge a status quo if it's holding a client back.” Within the world of sales enablement, James is seeing a couple of very interesting trends developing. The first being that, when the Covid-19 pandemic ended, most organisations assumed the world would return to traditional instructor-led training (ILT). However, it appears that the opposite is true. ILT is in steady decline, blended learning, virtual instructor-led training, and self-paced digital/eLearning have become increasingly popular, and companies are now beginning to expect some level of always-on/ on-demand training given the significant increase in hybrid and remote working. This has also set the scene for a second key trend - the explosion of AI coaching tools. Research suggests that AI coaching could become more popular than traditional sales enablement platforms, with learning and coaching that integrates directly into CRMs becoming more of a necessity than a niceto-have. “These two trends reinforce a simple but critical position: digital-first learning is here now, and it's here to stay,” James tells us. “Companies that can provide training ondemand and can offer coaching directly at the point of need will see significant growth in performance, behaviour change, and employee retention - needless to say, those represent enormous competitive advantages in the current corporate and economic landscape.” Recently, thanks to its continued commitment to its clients, Mentor Group saw significant success in the UK Enterprise Awards 2026 and was named Sales Enablement Consultancy of the Year 2026. Now, James has his sights firmly set on growth for the company, with the next 12-24 months focusing on how Mentor Group can provide services that better fit the unique needs of every client, embracing new and emergent technology, and driving the industry forward in its thinking regarding sales, learning, and performance. “There is a more philosophical goal for us as a company,” states James. “We want to make sales feel more like the noble profession that it is. We want sellers to feel a sense of pride when they tell people what they do for work. Our growth always has and always will be tied to the success of our clients.” Contact: James Barton Company: Mentor Group Ltd Web Address: www.mentorgroup.com/en-gb/
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUyMDQwMA==