Building successful customer relationships and maintaining them in the long term is the goal of every sales department. How can companies create sustainable relationships, and what role can a focus on customer success and the implementation of sales excellence play in this?

Here you will get to know innovative startups that present their smart and new solutions for digital innovations in sales. The best three will receive a Sales Summit Startup Award - you vote!

Top management in sales today faces unprecedented challenges. Global, social and political changes are increasing planning uncertainty. At the same time, changes in customer behavior can be observed in many markets. An almost unmanageable number of new, rapidly developing technological opportunities are just around the corner, while long-standing top performers in sales are still achieving and exceeding their targets, in some cases with great success, using approaches that have been tried and tested over decades. But how can the sales organization be geared towards the future? The latest study by the Sales Management Department shows where important key decisions for the transformation of sales lie and how these can be effectively implemented in the organization.

Sales teams are currently undergoing profound change, driven by technological innovations and economic change. As a result, collaboration in agile teams is becoming increasingly important in order to meet dynamic market requirements. What do today's team structures and working models look like and how can corporate goals be reconciled with the wishes of employees?

Sales professionals can benefit greatly from stoic principles that emphasise control over one's actions, resilience, learning from mistakes through self-reflection, emotional regulation, ethical behaviour, self-improvement, distancing from external validation and mindfulness.

But why are these ideas so alien to us in sales? Why do we have such unrealistic expectations of ourselves? And why do we leave no room for these thoughts or even their communication? 

Sales teams also want to grow strongly in 2025. They are trying to attract and retain the best sales employees in the competitive talent market. Numerous approaches and procedures try to support managers in this process: Employer branding, tools or external service providers. What does it take to be successful in today's talent market?

The Baby Boomers are retiring.
How is our company prepared for this? Can digitalization in sales compensate for this?
What options do companies have to proactively plan knowledge transfer?
How can knowledge be passed on? How important are internal and external networks?
Who am I when I no longer work?

It often starts the same way: with an Excel spreadsheet that was “just for overview purposes” – and somehow ends up becoming the most important sales tool in the company. Add to that a patchwork of isolated systems, manual workarounds, and the quiet hope that the senior sales guy doesn’t retire before someone figures out what’s actually in his head.

Welcome to the daily reality of many medium-sized B2B manufacturers.

In my talk, I’ll share a firsthand and practical perspective on how one industrial mid-sized company managed to escape this digital dead end – and why implementing a CRM system is far more than just rolling out another piece of software. It’s about internal alignment, surprising lightbulb moments in the leadership team, and the courage to radically rethink processes.

I’ll walk you through our leap – from grown structures and Excel habits to a centralized CRM that connects not just Sales, but the entire organization. No consultant buzzwords, just honest insights about what really works – and where you’d better take a second look.

This talk is for anyone tired of hearing “That’s how we’ve always done it,” and for those wondering what digital transformation really looks like in the world of mid-sized manufacturing.