Commercial Excellence

B2B manufacturing has entered a critical era characterized by significant instability. Growth is being hindered, among other things, by a combination of unfavorable commercial factors: stagnant commercial performance, rising silos between departments, lack of sales leadership and interdisciplinary intrapreneurship. The market has shifted from a seller's to a buyer's model, where traditional loyalty is disappearing, exposing companies to the risk of replaceability and margin erosion. These realities are not just operational obstacles, but systemic risks. To counter this, organizations must transform their commercial organization into a rigorous instrument focused on value creation and commercial excellence enablement.

Growth leaders don’t treat sales as a series of disconnected tactics. They build a customer-centric growth system where sales enablement underpins how their teams sell every day. They excel at anticipating shifts in customer needs and market dynamics, moving early where others react late. Instead of waiting for demand, they actively evaluate markets, spotting early signals and turning them into strategic opportunities. Their sales leaders behave like intrapreneurs, orchestrating cross-functional teams and aligning product, marketing, and customer success around key deals. Above all, they link strategy to frontline behavior and relentlessly measure, coach, and experiment to ensure execution translates into real outcomes.

To navigate long sales cycles and high-stakes technical demands, the complex B2B world needs sales leaders, not just salespeople. A true sales leader acts as a strategic bridge between customer challenges and industrial capabilities, transforming vague pain points into high-value solutions through active listening and deep industry mastery. They don’t simply follow a sales process; they challenge assumptions, qualify opportunities rigorously, and navigate complex decision-making units with confidence. By combining technical credibility, business insight, and disciplined execution, they create momentum over time, motivate internal and external teams, and ultimately deliver measurable, sustainable ROI and competitive TCO in demanding industrial environments.

Business Process Management (BPM) mapping varies from one company to another. It depends on the standards applicable to the business and market segments on the one hand, the history, the culture and the structure of the company on the other. A key aspect of commercial processes is the distribution of responsibilities. In this area, it is necessary to ensure that the results delivered are consistent with the organisation's objectives and obligations, whether it concerns, for example, the qualification of new customers, the preparation of offers or the negotiation of contractual conditions. The identification and definition of relevant key performance indicators is of course also crucial.

Business acquisition performance is measured in at least two categories. The first category relates to the pipeline of open opportunities. Measuring its total value over several time periods relative to the expected closing dates (e.g. up to the end of the operational reporting period and over successive periods thereafter) provides an assessment of the level of anticipation. Furthermore, the definition of relevant opportunity types and the consequent evaluation of the portfolio ensures that every sales team is maximising its business development drivers. The second category concerns the volume of business won during the operational reporting period and associated key performance indicators.

The success of business acquisition depends largely on organizations' ability to take a proactive approach, identifying business opportunities at a very early stage rather than passively waiting for formal customer consultations. Structured analysis of signals such as changes in customer product designs, regulatory changes, competitor vulnerabilities, and foreseeable contract renewals makes it possible to anticipate needs. This anticipation facilitates the development and controlled implementation of interdisciplinary action plans that create value, respond to as-yet-unexpressed needs, optimize customer value, and enable companies to persuade customers before they begin their consultations.

Effective B2B business development does not only depend on the definition and execution of strategies. It requires every single sales team to optimally perform in the field of business acquisition anticipation. This means identifying strategic business opportunities at the earliest possible stage, launching true cross-disciplinary acquisition projects, defining and executing winning action plans, and proactively engaging with the customers. The aim is, for every significant opportunity, to convince all stakeholders and decision-makers of the concerned customers before they launch their own bidding processes, irrespective of the competition.

The ability to influence the design of customers' products, ideally from the specification phase onwards, is crucial to generating impact and creating value. The opportunities to influence product definition diminish rapidly as design and industrialization progress. Early involvement makes it possible to deliver the best possible contribution to technical choices, cost optimization, and the implementation of innovative or alternative solutions. Establishing close and privileged relationships with customers' technical teams is crucial to ensuring productive collaboration for both parties. This proactive approach not only increases the chances of integrating preferred solutions, but also helps customers optimize total cost of ownership, ensuring mutual long-term success.

Reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) drives commercial success and fosters strong, lasting customer relationships. By positioning itself as an expert supplier and, ideally, by actively involving itself in the development of its customers' products, a supplier becomes a true strategic partner. This proactive involvement enables it to identify and implement solutions that reduce TCO, thereby offering measurable added value and long-term competitive advantages to its customers. As a result, commercial negotiations will no longer focus solely on price but will be part of a broader value proposition. This approach not only allows the supplier to differentiate itself, but also increases its win rate, profitability, and customer loyalty.

Stakeholder mapping is the strategic process of identifying and analyzing every individual within a client organization who can influence a strategic business decision. In B2B environments involving many stakeholders, mapping is essential for navigating complex positions and priorities. It allows sales teams to visualize the entire ecosystem of influence, including formal reporting lines, informal power dynamics, individual support or resistance, and specific business drivers. This comprehensive overview enables multidisciplinary teams to tailor communication to each persona, building consensus and mitigating late-stage vetoes. Ultimately, it increases win rates through a coordinated, relationship-driven approach that addresses the unique motivations of the entire buying center.

The IATF 16949:2016 standard - associated to the ISO 9001:2015 standard - places particular emphasis on customer focus, extending far beyond mere product and service compliance by placing customer expectations at the heart of all processes at all levels of the organization, making them a shared responsibility. Sales departments are supposed to be primarily concerned and involved, but the concrete provisions of the IATF 16949 and ISO 9001 standards are not always that well known. It is critical that automotive suppliers embrace these expectations rather than merely avoiding non-compliance, as a strategic customer focus promotes customer satisfaction, continuous improvement, and long-term customer loyalty.