Dealer Leadership and Commercial Excellence
A development programme for an experienced group of people who already carry weight in your organisation. Personal leadership, team spirit, culture and commercial drive in one track, built on our programme Ahead in the Organisation and extended with Commercial Excellence. The result we work towards is one integral company culture that holds across sites and across disciplines. Scope, group size and lead time are set together with you.
Why this programme
Experienced professionals usually have the knowledge and the mileage. The next step is not more theory. It is behaviour, cooperation, commercial awareness and the ability to take other people with you. This programme connects personal development, team development and Commercial Excellence, and your own practice is the starting point in every session.
Experienced people with influence
- Participants with real work and life experience, in a group size we agree with you
- Professionals, specialists, project leads and managers who want more influence on cooperation, culture and results
- People willing to put their own behaviour on the table, challenge each other and carry out real assignments between sessions
The people who carry your brand
- Dealer principals and branch managers who grew into the role without ever being taught to lead it
- Area managers and importer teams who have to influence without formal authority
- Sales, aftersales and service leads who share one customer but not always one story
- Mixed groups across countries, working in English
What it delivers
The point is not a series of good days. It is one culture that is recognisable in every branch and every discipline: sales and aftersales, workshop and office, head office and location. That is what makes behaviour predictable for customers and for colleagues, wherever they walk in.
One culture across sites and disciplines
The same standard in every branch and every function, instead of a culture that changes as soon as you cross a car park.
A stronger team
More trust, more openness and shared responsibility instead of parallel silos.
A culture you can name
The drivers behind behaviour become visible and are deliberately reinforced.
A commercial attitude
Everyone recognises opportunities, adds value and takes responsibility for the customer relationship.
A winning mentality
Ambition tied to discipline, cooperation, accountability and result.
More loyalty
From employees, customers, partners and other stakeholders.
A concrete action plan
Personal and shared, with agreements that are followed up after the programme ends.
MARCS: the foundation under team and culture
MARCS describes five fundamental human interests. When these are recognised and used deliberately, motivation, trust, ownership and loyalty follow. The organisation shifts from pushing to pulling.
| Driver | Meaning | How we use it |
|---|---|---|
| Mastery | Wanting to get better at what you do. | Making craftsmanship visible, asking for feedback, improving performance continuously. |
| Autonomy | Experiencing influence and taking responsibility. | Making decisions, showing initiative, turning agreements into action. |
| Reasonableness | Clarity, fairness and trust. | Clear expectations, consistent choices, holding each other to account. |
| Connection | Belonging and building meaningful relationships. | Strengthening team spirit, sharing knowledge, working across departments. |
| Status | Being seen, valued and recognised. | Giving recognition for contribution, craftsmanship and commercial success. |
The programme, step by step
Individual depth, plenary sessions and real assignments in between. The number of sessions, the group size and the lead time are agreed with you, so participants can apply what they learn in practice before the next session.
| Format | Theme | Core elements |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | Intake and assessment | Personal situation, experience, ambition, MARCS profile, commercial strength and development question. |
| Plenary | Who are we, who are you, what is our ambition? | Getting to know each other through colleagues; intrinsic motivation; macro, meso and micro developments; role and contribution within your organisation. |
| Plenary | Surface, undercurrent and culture | Formal and informal culture; emotions, core interests and personality; trust, team spirit and the behaviour that strengthens or blocks cooperation. |
| Individual | Going deeper | Feedback on assessment and assignments; personal dilemmas; leadership, behaviour and commercial attitude. |
| Plenary | Personal effectiveness and leadership | Priorities, time and energy; communication and behaviour; ownership; Kaizen and Gemba; giving feedback and holding people to account. |
| Multi-day, off-site | Team, culture and winning mentality | Ambition and desired culture; MARCS in practice; cooperation under pressure; personal cases; team assignment; decision making and accountability. |
| Plenary | Commercial Excellence | Customer value, stakeholder management, spotting commercial opportunities, advisory skills, negotiating, influencing and conversations that chafe. |
| Plenary | From ambition to execution | A shared point on the horizon; personal and organisational goals; introduction to OGSM; concrete commercial and cultural actions. |
| Plenary | Embedding and result | Evaluation, outcomes, practice presentations, follow-up actions and agreements for lasting development of team, culture and stakeholder loyalty. |
Commercial Excellence: from skill to attitude
Commercial Excellence is not a separate sales block. It is a shared way of thinking and acting, in which everyone understands how their own behaviour contributes to customer value, reputation, margin and lasting relationships.
What changes in daily work
- Seeing opportunities and taking responsibility instead of waiting
- Finding the question behind the question and translating it into value
- Building trust through craftsmanship, reliability and clear communication
- Sharing commercial signals between departments and disciplines
- Handling objections, resistance, complaints and price discussions
- Negotiating from shared value instead of position or price alone
- Developing relationships with customers, colleagues, suppliers and partners
- Celebrating wins, learning from losses, holding each other to agreements
A winning mentality, in four behaviours
Winning does not mean winning at someone else's expense. It means setting the bar high, taking responsibility and acting consistently from a shared ambition.
- Show ambition: knowing what we are going for and why it matters
- Show discipline: doing what was agreed, also when it gets uncomfortable
- Win together: actively sharing information, knowledge and relationships
- Learn from results: using both success and disappointment to get better
How we work
Learning principles
- Practical: current situations from participants and from your organisation are central
- Experience-based: practise, simulate, reflect, apply again
- Confronting and safe: naming honestly what is visible, with respect for the person
- Individual and collective: personal development tied to team result
- Embedded: every session ends with concrete agreements and assignments
- Measured: interim reflection on behaviour, cooperation, commercial impact and stakeholder relationships
Learning goals
- Raise the level of strategic thinking and acting
- Strengthen coherence, team spirit and cooperation
- Build confidence through insight into yourself and others
- Operate more effectively at personal, team, organisation and customer level
- Recognise commercial opportunities and turn them into valuable action
- Build a culture where ownership, accountability and continuous improvement are normal
Practical
Group size
Agreed with you. Small enough for depth, interaction and personal feedback, large enough for a real cross-section of the organisation.
Locations
Plenary sessions in principle at your own site. The multi-day team session takes place off-site with an overnight stay.
Lead time
The number of sessions and the period they run over are set in consultation. Lead time depends heavily on the situation in the organisation, and on how much room participants have to apply what they learn in between.
Guidance
A fixed lead trainer, with at least two trainers present on each training day, plus commercial or subject specialists where they clearly add value.
Preparation
Individual intake and assessment before the first plenary session. One-to-one coaching takes place on location, in consultation.
Investment
Determined once the number of sessions, locations, assessments and specialist input are agreed. We put it in writing before anything starts.
Stronger people. Stronger conversations. Stronger relationships.
Stronger people have better conversations. Better conversations strengthen cooperation and trust. That leads to more effective teams, better commercial results and more loyalty from every stakeholder.
After the programme the group has more than insight and skills. It has a shared language and visibly different behaviour: what the organisation expects of them, what they may expect of each other, and how they create value for customers together.
Marco de Vrind, +32 486 80 83 83 (also WhatsApp). We reply within two working days.