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When a professional services company is bought by a private equity firm, more acquisitions usually follow. The idea is to purchase other businesses with complementary products and create a new, larger organization greater than the sum of its parts. That’s the playbook Richardson Sales Performance, a major provider of sales team training services, put to use this week.

Richardson was acquired last July by a new Los Angeles-based private equity firm called Truelink Capital. This past Monday, the sales training provider announced an acquisition of its own: Challenger, a Chicago-based competitor. The deal aligns with the strategy that Truelink outlined in a press release last year: to grow Richardson “organically and through strategic M&A.”

Philadelphia-based Richardson helps business-to-business companies make their sales teams more productive. Its solution portfolio mostly comprises two types of offerings: consulting services and software-based employee learning tools.

Richardson’s consulting services are designed to help companies find areas for improvement in their customer acquisition workflows. The firm can also identify the methods, tools and other resources necessary to implement those improvements. Another set of consulting services offered by Richardson promises to help enterprise sales managers become more effective at coaching. That’s the process of sitting down with sales representatives to find ways of improving their productivity.

Richardson’s other core focus is providing prepackaged sales education content. It distributes that content, which includes instructional videos and related resources, through an e-learning platform called Accelerate. Analytics dashboards allow sales executives to track how well their team members apply the lessons they learn through the platform.

Challenger, the Chicago-based competitor that Richardson acquired, has a similar focus. It provides a library of on-demand learning resources designed to help salespeople hone their deal-making skills. Challenger also has a presence in the professional services market: it provides sales courses and workshops focused on the same core goals as its learning content, namely to boost client companies’ revenue.

The firm’s value proposition and brand revolve around a sales methodology called the Challenger approach. The firm codified this methodology in a series of books that have proven quite popular among business-to-business sales teams. Challenger’s website states that 60% of the sales professionals who earn more than $250,000 a year have adopted its methodology, a claim seemingly supported by the large number of reviews its books have drawn on Amazon.

Boardroom Insight reached out to Andrea Grodnitzky, Chief Marketing Officer at Richardson, for insight into what the firm expects from the Challenger deal. She said that the acquisition will make it possible to provide a more comprehensive set of sales training offerings to clients. 

“Bringing together the strengths of Richardson and Challenger represents a transformative moment for our customers,” Grodnitzky told Boardroom Insight exclusively. “By combining our complementary capabilities, we are not only expanding the breadth of our solutions but also empowering sales teams with the innovative tools and strategies they need to excel in today’s dynamic market.”

In addition to sales teams, the assets that Richardson is gaining through the deal could potentially hold appeal for other departments at client organizations. On its website, Challenger says that its courses can be useful for not only salespeople but also other client-facing professionals such as business development representatives and support agents.

The acquisition could also help Richardson expand its client roster with a number of high-profile new accounts. Challenger provides sales training to major technology brands such Microsoft, SAP and PayPal. It has also nabbed contracts with large multinationals in other verticals including the auto sector.  

“This acquisition is a pivotal step in delivering unmatched value and performance outcomes to sales organizations globally,” Grodnitzky said. “I’m excited about the future we’re building with Challenger and the unmatched potential we have to reshape the future of sales performance.”

The companies did not share the financial terms of the acquisition. Based on market data seen by Boardroom Insight, Challenger will bolster Richardson’s headcount by a few hundred employees.

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