01 Oct 2025
By Sharon McLellan, Co-Founder & Chief Relationship Officer (CRO), KWC Global
In 2000, when Russell Wardrop and I co-founded Kissing With Confidence the world looked very different.
Google had just launched and was barely known. The first BlackBerry was the height of mobile sophistication. LinkedIn, Zoom, and Teams didn’t exist. AI in sales was the stuff of science fiction. And the “fastest” way to get a sales proposal to a client? Well, remember that beautifully printed proposal package (x 3) that went off in the post?!
A quarter of a century later, KWC Global has grown from a small Glasgow start-up to an internationally recognised training consultancy working with blue chip organisations across the world.
We’ve trained tens of thousands of professionals across sectors and continents, embedding the key skills and behaviours that inspire them to love selling, and, most importantly, helped them achieve measurable results.
Our own story is proof that the right skills and behaviours deliver results. In the last four years alone, our turnover has risen from £1.01m in 2021 to £2.07m in 2024 - a 106% increase - placing us in the elite top 10% of global training providers, with a proven ROI of up to 43 times for our clients. We are now a 15-strong team, with an academy of 15 associate trainers. That growth is entirely down to the dedication, talent, and creativity or our people.
What’s changed in 25 Years? Well, quite a lot. Over the years, selling has been transformed by technology, buyer expectations, and the way training itself is delivered. Here are the five biggest shifts we’ve seen:
1. Digital Transformation of Sales - Email, CRM systems, LinkedIn, video conferencing, and now AI have fundamentally changed how business development professionals communicate and track opportunities.
2. Buyers Are More Informed - In 2000, prospects relied on salespeople for information. Now, they’ve Googled, reviewed, and benchmarked your solution before you even pick up the phone.
3. Sales Training Delivery - We’ve gone from classroom role-play to blended learning, virtual classrooms, gamification, and microlearning.
4. Data-Driven Decision-Making - Where once leaders relied on “gut feel,” today they have real-time dashboards and analytics.
5. Globalisation of Sales - Remote selling means a UK-based team in can pitch a client in New York, Singapore, or Sydney without leaving the office.
For all the advances, the fundamentals of selling are timeless.
1. The Human Connection - People still buy from people they trust.
2. The Importance of Listening - Truly understanding client needs remains the ultimate differentiator.
3. Storytelling Wins Deals - Whether it’s a flipchart in the room or a virtual pitch on Zoom, compelling stories close business.
4. Rejection is Part of the Game - Every salesperson, we call them Rainmakers, must learn to handle “no” and keep going.
5. Consistency Beats Charisma - Process, preparation, and persistence still outperform the mercurial individual who thinks they do it all.
When we began, Facebook and YouTube didn’t exist, Amazon was an online bookstore, and the iPhone was eight years away. Today, technology has given us unprecedented reach and insight - but the conversations that lead to sales are still built on listening, trust, and problem-solving.
Looking ahead, at KWC Global, we believe that “Every Professional is a Salesperson.” We call them “Rainmakers”.
That mindset has carried us through market changes, a pandemic, and global expansion. It’s why we’ve reimagined our training for virtual and blended delivery, and why we continue to blend timeless sales principles with the tools of tomorrow.
Our Rainmaker series helps professionals turn contacts into clients, create winning pitches, and builds high-performing teams. And our focus remains the same: activating business growth through results-driven training.
The last 25 years have been about turning conversations into conversions. The next 25?
We’re just getting started.
