WHU organizes first “Campus for Sales” – Sales 2.0: evolution or revolution?

WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management is organizing a series of conferences on the theme “Campus for Sales”. Germany’s leading business school is hoping to raise the profile of the sales function as a topic in Business Administration studies. The first conference in the series was held on February 10, 2012, and the event, which focused on discussing the many ways sales channels are being transformed by information technology, was attended by 120 sales directors, company directors and industry researchers. The conference was chaired by WHU’s Professor Ove Jensen, incumbent of the WHU Chair in Business Administration for Sales Management – currently the only post of its kind in Germany. In a series of lectures, top-flight speakers from Danone, Deutsche Bahn, Linde Gabelstapler, Oracle, Roland Berger, T-Systems and Vorwerk presented case studies. Their presentations clearly demonstrated that while the transformation of sales channels serving the industrial goods market is primarily evolutionary in nature, the transformation of sales channels in the consumer goods industry amounts to a revolution.

Industrial products often require extensive introductions and explanations, which is why the human factor continues to play an essential role in customer relations. Any drastic changes tend to affect internal processes: sales staff are subjected to ever more rigorous performance metrics and priority management. The role of the traditional sales force is being polarized: the two most cost-effective models are either large sales and customer services teams selling high-margin products, or centralized key account teams with no significant presence in the field.

Simple consumer goods such as train tickets and even food are better suited to online sales. This does not mean that traditional sales channels are disappearing, however – rather, they are being enhanced. Where companies supplement their direct sale or counter sales efforts by adding online channels, it is important that the staff manning the traditional channels are also involved in the online sales activity. Meanwhile the integration of household appliances and smartphones into the Cloud is creating new business models. Furthermore, the scanning of web surfers’ browser histories is making it possible to build alarmingly detailed customer profiles. But those who simply “spy” on their customers – i.e. fail to use their findings to offer value-added benefits – will swiftly lose their credibility and reputations.

The delegates and speakers at the conference all expressed their support for the WHU sales initiative: “At last! A serious business school is dealing with the important issue of sales!” enthused Gerald Hübner, Sales Director at Danone. “While I was studying for my degree, I had just two hours of lectures on sales,” reported Birgit Bohle, who chairs the Management Board of DB Vertrieb GmbH: “Now WHU is offering a selection of compulsory and elective courses on this important subject.”

“A sales function isn’t everything. But without a sales function, you get nothing,” concluded Professor Jensen in his closing address.“Our next conference will focus on leadership in sales and the tension between technocratic control and the human dimension.” The next Campus for Sales event is due to take place on April 19, 2013.