Is sales selling itself short?
Most industrial companies aim for sales excellence. Yet many find themselves in a reality better described as sales mediocrity. Behind the buzzword lies a familiar pitfalls: disconnected teams, underused data, and decisions made on instinct. This white paper explores what sales excellence really means today – and how top-performing organizations are transforming their sales from a siloed function into a connected, data-driven growth engine.
In industrial sales, “excellence” is a term that’s often used but rarely defined. Many organizations chase it through new tools or dashboards, only to find that the real issues lie deeper: siloed teams, inconsistent collaboration, and decisions still made by intuition rather than insight. This white paper explores what true sales excellence looks like today, and how leading industrial companies are reshaping their sales organizations.
We begin by unpacking the five most common pitfalls that hold organizations back, from underused CRM systems to fragmented customer understanding and misaligned operating models. Through concrete examples, it illustrates how these challenges quietly erode growth and competitiveness – and what can be done to correct them.
From there, the paper introduces a practical framework for building sales excellence at scale. Three perspectives guide the approach: understanding customer needs, aligning with organizational goals, and leveraging technology and data in ways that actually support people.
Because transformation doesn’t happen through systems alone, the paper also highlights the human side of excellence: motivation, ownership, and the conditions that help people and teams thrive. Supported by real-world examples from companies like Algol Chemicals, Fortum, ABB, and Metso, it shows how organizations can turn individual effort into collective performance and lasting growth.
Ready to see what sales excellence looks like in practice? Download the white paper.
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What's in the white paper?
Unlock sales excellence
How top performers align people and data to deliver on customer promises
Sales excellence means building a sales function that consistently delivers results by uniting people, processes, data, and tools to drive customer value and business growth. Ultimately, sales excellence requires a new mindset across the entire organization’s processes and all the teams involved.
Five pitfalls on the path to growth
What ties the five most common challenges together is a narrow view: organizations act from a single perspective instead of treating sales as a cohesive process. Real change begins by pinpointing the pressure points that hold the organization back.
Avoid the common mistakes
Over the years, we have seen many organizations attempt to tackle these challenges and pursue sales excellence. The eagerness to drive change often ends up targeting the wrong areas – slowing progress and diverting attention to secondary issues.
Where to begin?
Before making changes, it’s crucial to analyze the situation as a whole to identify pain points and find effective solutions. While problem analysis matters, organizations also need an inspiring perspective: what does success look like?
From people to profit: Essential levers for growth
“Based on your usage, your compressor will likely need a service kit in six months.” A deep level of foresight like this is only possible when sales experts capture rich data, which is then transformed into actionable insights.
The way forward: From buzzwords to benefits
The development of sales excellence is both diverse and complex – that is simply the reality. Yet the starting point is clear: place the customer at the center. Listening to customers ensures decisions have a real foundation; without it, they rely on guesswork.
What sales excellence could look like in practice?
From sharpening focus to providing customer value, these five dimensions have emerged as particularly significant in our customer projects and discussions. These real-world insights show how data, digital, and AI solutions can help industrial sales teams and drive transformation across the entire organization.
White paper
