The Sales Manager in the control room: Steering towards commercial excellence

The study explores the complex world of commercial excellence, a concept increasingly crucial for companies seeking to optimize their market interactions. Although many firms are implementing commercial excellence initiatives, the understanding and application of this notion are still inconsistent and often lack a solid theoretical foundation. Managerial literature offers various interpretations of commercial excellence, ranging from the effectiveness of sales teams to a customer-centric approach to managing the entire marketing mix.

The CEL Lab defines commercial excellence as a continuous drive to improve sales productivity and manage complexity through a system of actionable levers to optimize commercial processes and structures by aligning the actions of different stakeholders. The laboratory's project management model for commercial excellence is detailed in the book Commercial excellence. La scienza dietro l’arte dell’eccellenza commerciale (Commercial Excellence: The Science Behind the Art of Commercial Excellence), by Paola Caiozzo, Paolo Guenzi, and Laura Colm, McGraw-Hill, 2025.

In this context, the latest research focuses on several key questions:

• What are the perceptions of managers in different corporate positions regarding the role of the commercial function in the recent past, present, and future? The study specifically examined the opinions of top management, sales managers, and managers from other functions.
• What are the main challenges and innovations expected in the commercial/sales area in the coming years?
• Why is commercial excellence imperative? The study highlights the increasing difficulty of gaining a competitive advantage through traditional methods such as product differentiation or cost leadership, combined instead with the growing importance of effectively managing the customer experience.

To answer these questions, the Commercial Excellence Lab, in collaboration with Manageritalia, conducted an extensive survey of 503 managers from various industries and company sizes. The sample was carefully balanced, with approximately one-third of respondents from top management (CEOs/General Managers), one-third from sales/commercial roles, and one-third from other functions.

In previous CEL research, sales managers clearly expressed a perception of their function's increasing centrality. This survey, thanks to its expanded scope, reveals that the same view is shared by top management.

Here are the main findings from the research:

• The commercial function as a strategic asset: 8% of respondents believe that in the next five years, the commercial function will primarily play a strategic role, providing customer insights and driving innovation. This figure is significantly higher than those who view the function as more focused on implementing strategy (23.3%) or as purely operational (about 13%). Notably, 64% of top management and sales managers share this strategic vision.
• Recognized contributions: There is widespread consensus that the commercial function has been a salient element for corporate reputation (69.0%) and a key tool for customer engagement (62.6%) in recent years. Additionally, senior managers in particular recognize the vital role of sales in supporting the development of value-added services.
• Innovation driver: The commercial function is widely acknowledged as a driver of innovation (44.7%) and a key player in accelerating and successfully implementing omnichannel strategies (39.4%). In this regard, sales managers recognize their contribution to innovation and the evolution of business models even more clearly than CEOs and managers from other functions.
• Need for collaboration: 9% of respondents agree that strong synergy between sales and marketing is essential for business success.

The findings suggest that the commercial function is undergoing a transformation, becoming a pivotal force for strategic direction and value creation. In this light, it’s critical for managers to enhance the skills and expand the responsibilities of their sales teams so they can contribute more effectively to strategic decisions by leveraging their direct knowledge of customers and market dynamics.

To capitalize on this shift, companies should prioritize cross-functional collaboration, particularly between sales and marketing; invest in digital technologies and artificial intelligence solutions to equip sales teams with more powerful tools and advanced insights; review and possibly reorganize the commercial structure to align roles and responsibilities with new strategic needs; and pursue continuous skill development in the commercial function to successfully address emerging challenges.