Why sustainable Commercial Excellence depends as much on organizational ownership and adoption as on the methodologies themselves
Written by Defne Isler
The challenge in building a Commercial Excellence function is rarely the availability of methodologies. The greater challenge is translating those methodologies into capabilities that the organization can own, apply consistently and sustain over time.
Account Planning can be introduced successfully and disappear from management discussions six months later. A sophisticated Customer Segmentation model can have little influence on where sales resources are deployed. Skills assessments can be completed without changing coaching or development priorities. Dashboards can improve visibility without changing how performance is managed.
The distinction is between implementing Commercial Excellence methodologies and building the organizational capability to sustain them.
We faced this challenge with a global industrial equipment and automation group establishing its Commercial Excellence capability for the first time. Across specialized businesses operating in more than 30 countries, we introduced six core methodologies while building the organization, ownership and adoption mechanisms required to sustain them.
Different methodologies require different paths to adoption
The Group’s commercial practices had largely evolved locally. Some businesses had developed sophisticated approaches, while others relied on more informal practices. Commercial maturity therefore varied considerably across practices.
We developed six methodologies covering Account & Opportunity Planning, Skills Mapping, Value Selling, Customer Segmentation, Field Force Sizing & Territory Design, and Performance Management. Their adoption requirements, however, were very different.
- Account Planning required sales teams to define growth ambitions and concrete opportunities for strategic customers.
- Segmentation needed to influence actual resource allocation.
- Field Force Sizing challenged historically inherited territories.
- Skills Mapping created value only when managers translated assessments into development actions.
- Performance Dashboards needed to become part of recurring management discussions.
- Value Selling ultimately required changes in customer conversations.
Four principles proved particularly important in moving these methodologies from design to sustained capability.
1. Build the capability alongside the methodology
Because the Group was establishing Commercial Excellence for the first time, the organizational infrastructure needed to sustain the new methodologies was also being created. We built the two in parallel.
A new Central Commercial Excellence function would progressively own Group methodologies, standards and the broader capability agenda. Local Sales Force Effectiveness specialists would support Commercial Directors and connect those methodologies with day-to-day commercial execution.
Methodologies without capable internal owners remain dependent on available ad hoc task forces; a Commercial Excellence function without a clear methodology and mandate has limited ability to influence execution.
Exhibit 1: Commercial Excellence capabilities require a structured journey from methodology design to sustained business ownership
Repeatability depends on progressing beyond implementation: building understanding, testing in practice, transferring ownership and embedding methodologies into recurring management processes
Capability adoption journey — eight stages: Built, Valued, Learned, Tested, Owned, Used, Embedded, Mastered.
Source: Eendigo analysis
2. Design for repeatability, not simply implementation
We treated each methodology as a repeatable management process rather than a project deliverable.
Tools were supported by practical playbooks, defining responsibilities and governance. Where processes needed to recur, the corresponding cycles and supporting trackers were established.
One question became particularly useful during design: can the business run this process again next year without external support?
Account Planning, for example, was not complete when the template was developed. It had to be tested on real strategic customers, incorporated into commercial reviews and transferred to internal owners capable of facilitating the next cycle.
The ability to repeat the process independently became part of the methodology itself, rather than something to address during handover.
3. Let implementation improve the methodology
Commercial Directors, SFE specialists and sales teams tested methodologies on real accounts, territories and decisions. This exposed unnecessary complexity and helped determine where local adaptation was required.
Customer Segmentation was a good example. The initial methodology followed a potential-based approach, combining customer potential with existing performance to determine commercial priorities. In practice, the customer and market information required to apply the model consistently was not sufficiently available at field level.
We therefore simplified the model. The revised segmentation sacrificed some analytical sophistication but could be applied more consistently using the information available to commercial teams.
The experience highlighted an important principle: the most sophisticated methodology is not necessarily the most effective one. Commercial Excellence methodologies need to match the organization’s current data, capabilities and operating reality.
This was particularly important in a decentralized Group. The objective was not identical execution across every business, but a common methodological backbone with sufficient local flexibility to remain commercially relevant.
Exhibit 2: Potential-based customer segmentation is key for optimal sales resource allocation and targeted customer strategies
A/B/C segmentation, plotting customer potential (in €) against current share of wallet (%)
- A1 – Attain / Expand and A2 – Keep: highest customer potential
- B1 – Attain / Expand and B2 – Keep: mid customer potential
- C – Cover efficiently: lowest customer potential
Customer segmentation tool: segments customers on two dimensions — three-year revenue potential and current share of wallet — translating estimated potential and share of wallet into five strategic customer segments.
Source: Eendigo analysis
4. Manage ownership and adoption separately
The six methodologies did not mature at the same speed. Some gained traction quickly because the commercial need was already well recognized. Others required further sponsorship, customization, data or reinforcement. Classifying all six as simply “implemented” would have obscured meaningful differences in their level of adoption.
We therefore tracked progression from methodology development and understanding through testing, ownership, active use, and ultimately integration into governance and sustained independent execution.
A methodology with a nominated owner was not necessarily being used; one being used was not necessarily influencing decisions; and one influencing decisions was not necessarily embedded sufficiently to survive a change in management.
By the later stages of the program, ownership of all six methodologies had transferred to client teams, while their levels of adoption remained different.
For management teams and investors assessing commercial maturity across a portfolio, this distinction matters. Two businesses can both have Customer Segmentation or Account Planning “in place” while having materially different capabilities to apply them consistently. This has direct implications for scalability and the sustainability of commercial value creation.
The real test is commercial impact
Commercial Excellence methodologies are ultimately a means to an end. The objective is better commercial performance: stronger revenue growth, higher sales productivity and more effective allocation of commercial resources.
This is why adaptation should not be seen as a compromise in a Commercial Excellence transformation. In many cases, it is a sign of good transformation leadership. The right level of sophistication is the one that an organization can realistically apply with its current data, capabilities and maturity, while creating room to evolve over time and shortening the time and effort needed for a new practice to be absorbed by existing teams.
For practitioners, there is a real risk of becoming too attached to methodological best practices. A theoretically superior segmentation model creates little value if the organization cannot populate it reliably. A sophisticated account planning process will not improve revenue if sales teams find it too cumbersome to use.
Introducing complexity faster than an organization can absorb can ultimately work against the commercial objective of the program.
Leading these transformations therefore requires judgment as much as methodology.
Get in touch
Email: office@eendigo-ops.com
Website: www.eendigo.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/eendigo
