Spotlight on Commercial Excellence

The approach to achieving sales excellence begins with a thorough assessment of performance across eight specific areas that are critical for driving top line company growth:

• Go-to-market: How do we access customers in the best way and ensure that we are in the right markets?
• Market mapping and product offering: Do we understand the market segments and the relevant product offering?
• Sales tools: Can we explain the value of our products/services and how they create value for our customers?
• Sales Excellence: How do we improve sales efficiency across the organisation and ensure appropriate resource allocations?
• Customer satisfaction: How do we ensure customer retention?
• Pricing excellence: What is the right strategy for businesses and what are the tools and techniques needed to set the right price?
• Reporting and processes: How do we set sales-focused KPIs that acknowledge behaviours?
• HR leadership and motivation: How do we embed the right structures and competencies?

Having identified areas for improvement, the Commercial Excellence team works to support portfolio companies, often bringing in “black belt” trainers to support the implementation of best practice.

Many of Nordic Capital's portfolio companies have benefitted from the Commercial Excellence initiative. Unifeeder, a Fund VIII-backed logistics business, sold to DP World in 2018, strongly exemplifies the benefits derived from optimising the sales process. It enabled the company to differentiate its service from the insourced feeder operations offered by the mainliners in a highly competitive market, strengthen its customer relationships and create a truly sales-focused culture.