Strategy in sales

The company Knud Wexøe A/S celebrates 50 years with tremendous growth in sales, but the company does not intend to rest on its laurels. 'We have a lot of gold hidden in the corners, and we need to bring it out', says sales executive Mogens Brusgaard, Knud Wexøe A/S. In order to be well equipped for the future he has asked TACK International for assistance in launching a Key Account Management project.

Chief consultant Henrik Vrangbæk Thomsen, TACK International says: 'It is important to look at what is good strategy for the individual company. It is about reaching an agreement on segmentation of the customer base in the organisation, which matches the reality one faces, and acting accordingly. 'Knud Wexøe A/S is a trade and service company built on engineering competence within electric and electronic interface solutions, installation and cable channels, and electronic and electric casing. The company is a trade representative for a number of market leading component products and provides design solutions and fitting as well. The customers come from the building installation business and industry, and sales are conducted directly and through distributors. There are 75 employees at the main office in Holte north of Copenhagen and the branch office in Århus. Knud Wexøe A/S has a small fleet of mobile showrooms: Mobile displays on lorry chassis bringing the products and solutions right out to the users. The company is a market leader in Denmark within its business area.

“Key Account Management is after all about strategic sales, and the first step is to define what the right strategy is for the company. Key questions to be asked include: Are there large accounts or customers; are there customers with great future potential; or are there perhaps customers who are included as key persons in other customers' projects? A strategic customer means that the customer - according to an established definition - has decisive impact on the company's future. The consequence is clear: time, attention and resources must be devoted to this customer,' says Henrik Vrangbæk Thomsen. 'And logically there will therefore be other customers having to be serviced in another way and thereby taking up less resources. Key Account Management also consists of deciding how that is going to take place. The salient point is: How do we make this choice rational and deliberate?'

So far the development work has extended over 3/4 of a year with group sessions and individual coaching, and hard work is being done in order to incorporate the methodology. When the basic decisions on segmentation of the customer volume have been made, the data foundation has to be brought to light and activated. A database describing a 360 degrees reality must be set up. Whether it is in an IT format or as conventional customer files is not crucial - the important part is for it to be done, and that data is used as the basis for making concrete action plans. Who do we see when and why?

'This is where it's really justified to talk about the gold in the corners,' says Mogens Brusgaard. 'Through many years we have built up an incredibly comprehensive knowledge of our customers and their business foundation. It has to be systematised and made available for the entire sales and product organisation in preparation for choosing the right approach in each prioritised customer relation.'

As customer companies are complex and different, there are no standard solutions in Key Account Management. Mogens Brusgaard has chosen to address this issue by closely following the employees' work on the action plan. This goes on in 1- to-1 meetings, where he sits in front of the individual key account managers, and in internal conferences, where everyone can chip in on the customer cases being presented.
'I am not satisfied just looking at numbers,' says Mogens Brusgaard. 'Turnover is important, sales figures are important, but in the long run I want us all to be conscientious of what we are doing and why we are doing it. I point this out in our meetings. I ask: Are you successful? If the answer is yes, I say: How do you measure that?'
'If you are not conscientious about this, you don't know if your activities link up with the strategy. And then it makes sense talking about strategic sales.'

'The people behind TACK International provide the wording and the tools. There are many repetitions of truths when we review this with them, but it is absolutely necessary as there are many habitual ways of thinking we need to get rid of. We are not quite there yet, but we are getting closer. The day our customer service employees, salespeople and product managers reach out for the customer plan as a natural gesture, when a customer name comes up - then we're there! Until that happens we will develop the organisation and sales together and use the resistance, which appears naturally, to drive the project forward. We will win this.'

Knud Wexøe A/S has chosen to make the winner team a concrete element by sponsoring the two times World Champions and Olympic medallists Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist - the two rowers in their double sculler represent focus, preparation, cooperation and perseverance. 'These are values we would like to identify with,' says Mogens Brusgaard. The pair won the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing in August 2008.