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Commercial Excellence
Improving solution-selling capabilities to accelerate the European energy transition

The client, a global manufacturer and supplier of sustainable HVAC systems, experienced a disruption in the market due to digitalization and the global energy transition. New technologies and players were entering the market, and systems were becoming increasingly complex. In addition, with new business models being launched, the number of available options made it increasingly difficult for the customer to find the best solution for them. In this changing landscape, the client saw an opportunity to increase their turnover and improve their customer loyalty by moving from selling products to selling solutions.
Ascend had previously supported the client in setting a common foundation for sales and marketing excellence. As a result, several potential improvement areas were identified when conducting the maturity assessments to understand gaps in commercial capabilities and define a common commercial operating model and new ways of working.
One of the highlighted areas of improvement was to increase the commercial capabilities in terms of solution selling. As Ascend had experience in both the industry and implementing sales methodologies, the client asked Ascend to also support with both setting and aligning the strategy as well as implementing a solution selling methodology. As a complete solution is a combination of support, systems, and services, it was key for the client to:
- Understand the customer’s business and needs
- Identify areas where their offers can help the customer
- Formulate and package the value message
The implementation was kicked off in an iterative approach with two workstreams to ensure transparency and alignment across departments and markets. One workstream focusing on enabling processes, solutions, tools, methods, and capabilities for solution selling. At the same time, the second workstream concentrates on piloting the solutions and methodology in the local markets to validate customer acceptance and delivery capabilities. With the new capabilities and workstreams established, the client is ready to take on a new enhanced role in the European energy transition.

Jonas Nodler
Partner

Madeleine Gartz
Senior Consultant