What is your project about?
"It is a continuation of a large project called "Tomorrow's sale". In that project, we found that Danish companies can benefit from working more strategically with sales, and we uncovered seven weaknesses and came up with suggestions for improvements. We called the improvements the seven virtues, and in the current project we have selected ten companies where we will follow up on how they work with the seven virtues.”
What is the overall challenge with sales?
“That it is not considered a subject. There are ten times as many research articles on purchasing and marketing as there are on sales. Many still believe that the ability to sell is simply about our personality. We talk about some people being born to sell, but have you heard of the born surgeon, for example? And out in the companies, the sales department's only strategic announcement usually consists of a budget. So often you only look at the bottom line – not how to get there.”
What are companies doing wrong?
“The sales departments are considered isolated units. But sales are too important to be left only to salespeople. Because today it involves many other functions in the journey the buyer is on. It is not just about selling a drilling machine, but about looking at the customer's overall needs. Therefore, it is necessary for the sales department, marketing, customer service, supply chain and logistics to work together. For example, Sanistål, which typically sells to construction sites, has developed 25 different forms of delivery for their customers. It is both about packaging, sizes, forms of delivery as well as deadlines and different types of service.”
Has anything surprised you along the way?
“I am surprised by how isolated the sales departments work. Along the way, I have contacted a number of C-25 board members to ask about the board's responsibility for sales. Their answer was that the responsibility lay with the management. So you don't attach any major strategic importance to sales, and I think that's also surprising.”
What is the next goal?
"Along the way, we have been in contact with a large number of Danish companies, and I would like to do some similar studies in other Scandinavian countries, so that we have something to compare with."
Read more about the survey Tomorrow's sales
