Nice that you have found time for an interview today on the subject of sales excellence. As a consultant and interim manager, you work primarily in manufacturing companies. In which situations are you typically called in?
That varies greatly. There are currently a lot of changes in sales, for various reasons: For example, there are new requirements in sales in terms of speed and availability. There are also new sales channels: Think of the tendering platforms or award platforms in the automotive industry. In general, multi-channel sales are becoming increasingly important in the B2B sector.
And there are new competitors. Personal visits to customers were not possible during the pandemic. Despite this, there has been no slump in demand or orders - to the surprise of many, so many companies have asked themselves whether the traditional traveling sales force with cost-intensive personal visits is still appropriate. At the same time, the acceptance of online providers has increased significantly in many areas.
This means that the importance of traditional sales is decreasing, in many cases its direct use is being avoided altogether.
This means that the sales organization needs to be realigned?
Yes, exactly. The sales organization needs to be realigned. But clients are also companies where the sales department is sometimes still a traditional "freelance" artist: I'm called in there too. It's always about improving the performance of sales.
What is often lacking is transparency: transparency about the efficiency and profitability of sales, about the relationship between the use of resources and the results achieved. The reason is often that no or suboptimal CRM systems such as Pipedrive or one of the many others are used. This is not only the case for smaller companies. I have also experienced this in medium-sized companies. There are many CRM systems that help to optimize sales processes and customer support with speed and transparency and thus create an individual experience for each customer.
I often find myself in the situation where companies have a large number of observations, findings and approaches in the sense of a "should-do". However, many then often find it difficult to implement them. On the one hand, they want to tackle the problem as a whole, but unfortunately some sales departments - it has to be said - do not always accept the expansion of sales controlling because many salespeople still see it primarily as a control instrument.
Whenever a company wants to optimize the performance of its sales department, they come to you.
That's right, yes.
"For me, sales excellence means that the entire organization must be aligned with the market and the customers."
You said earlier that the use of a traditional salesperson is increasingly being avoided. Why is that?
Yes, the classic salesperson of the past, who was a freelance artist, so to speak, there was little transparency, little customer information was transferred from sales to the company and little work was done with it. When field service was due, you had to think early in the day: "Where do I have appointments today? Where could I actually stop by again?" It was pretty improvised, not very methodical. And of course there was often a situation where you first visited your regular customers in order to be able to prove your sales quota. But whether that was ultimately efficient and how that contributed to the company's success was another matter.
So there was a lack of efficient sales management and controlling needed to be better.
Exactly.
In your experience, one alternative is sales excellence. What do you mean by this?
Well, I believe that in this context, the conventional separate consideration of the individual company divisions is outdated. For me, sales excellence means that the entire organization must be focused on the market and the customers. This does not mean that the sales department sets the direction, but that the entire organization pulls together - with the aim of successfully marketing the company's services.
An example: the production and R&D departments play a very decisive role for me in the interaction with Sales, because this is where important impetus comes from: Impulses for the further development of product orientation, for improving the interlocking of customer and application understanding, but also through the rapid and perfect processing of complaints. This requires a cross-functional dialog.
Invoicing is also a factor, as this is where digital interfaces to the customer are created. This process should therefore be designed to be smooth, error-free and efficient. The same applies to supplementary services for customers, for example in the area of technology, such as maintenance or additional services. All of this and more can have a positive impact on the performance of sales and the entire company.
So you don't work at a departmental level, but start at the top, with the management from the outset.
Yes, that's right. At least I don't look at any department in isolation and exclusively, but always try to keep an eye on all of them.
In your experience, are there certain areas that are particularly important here, or is there basically potential everywhere?
Well, I initially see the potential in the processes, not in specific departments. As far as the employees are concerned,you have to take them with you, because the essential value of a company lies in its employees. This means: you have to hold discussions with people, convince them and show them that there is always room for improvement. Agree on goals, develop solutions and actively support their implementation. It's often the case that you simply get started, try out something promising new and derive insights from the experience gained.
Yes, I think that's basically always the case: You never know what's coming and where things will actually get stuck.
Sales excellence promises more sales and therefore more turnover. Can you give us an order of magnitude?
No, that would be dubious!
There are various key figures that you can work with. For example, when I look at the number of offers and their volume: I've already managed to double the number of offers there too. If these offers are followed up efficiently, this also results in more orders. But you can't say that across the board, that depends on the situation.
The basic aim is always to optimize this process by consistently pursuing these topics: there is a lead, which becomes an opportunity, which becomes an offer, and which ultimately becomes an order. There are very different KPIs here, such as success rates, benchmarks for prices and order costs, which can be used as target figures. However, you can't say that across the board. But I can say that the process is improving, that can be measured. But it's always just a question of specific targets.
How do you agree on targets? Do your customers have a clear idea of what needs to be done at the start of a project
There are different priorities that are naturally set. These are not fixed from the outset. They first have to be defined, depending on the company, situation and goals. One topic - and we haven't even touched on this yet - is pricing. It's about introducing a systematic approach to the prices you quote to the customer. You often don't approach things systematically. You don't look at: "Ok, which customer group do I actually have? And what is the economic, seasonal or other situation?" But a lot depends on this.
Another huge issue is the exploitation of customer potential. It simply makes a difference whether you are only ranked second or third or maybe even fourth in your category with your customers as a supplier, but have no customers for whom you are number one. There is a lot of potential that you can leverage. If you are in second or third place, I sit down with my client and their sales department before a project and discuss: "Ok, what do we actually need to do to become number one?" But that varies from company to company.
The same applies to sales channels that you might want to use, so you say: "Ok, we haven't done any digitalization yet. How can we position ourselves there?" The focus, the direction is already clear. But the way to get there is not clear from the outset. It first has to be defined, depending on the goal, company and situation. It's always different.
"For me, a mandate is always a learning process"
You originally come from a sales background, but you also have a strong technical background. What do you enjoy the most when you're on a mandate?
I think that the actual training plays a subordinate role at first. Sure, it gives you the tools, but the experience you gain is crucial, especially with regard to the methods and tools you learn. You have to be able to adapt them to the situation in order to apply them successfully.
But to come back to your question: What I like is simply working with people. These are always special experiences that I can have there. And of course I enjoy quantifying and evaluating developments and their impact and then discussing them with people who know the company very well. That's very important to me.
For me, a mandate is always a learning process, because you simply get to know new environments, new businesses, new markets, new customers - and that's actually the exciting thing about the job for me.
So it's about experiencing how figures translate into measures that then have a real impact.
Yes, that's exactly how you could put it.
If a company wants to realign itself in terms of sales excellence: What would you advise? What would be the most important thing in your opinion?
The most important thing is to start by questioning ourselves as a company: What made us successful in the past, what led to failures, what were perhaps missteps? And what about the present? How are we doing today? And how will we be in the future if we continue to develop in the way we have planned so far?
We should certainly consider what the corporate environment will look like in ten years' time, for example - megatrends such as sustainability and digitalization play a major role here. However, you also need to be clear about the success factors of your own customers: What actually makes them successful and what do these and perhaps also future customers need for their success in the coming years?
The second thing you should then question is your own organization. Because often you don't approach things systematically, you don't think about: "Ok, which customer groups do I actually have? In my opinion, these are the two points that you should start with if you want to focus your company as a whole on sales.
Then comes, for example, the question of strategic partnerships - also a very, very important point, because many things - think of new services that can also contribute to the customer's success - are sometimes difficult to offer from within your own organization and there may already be real professionals in this area.
And these strategic partnerships can lead to new business again.
Thank you very much for your time.
You're very welcome!
