--- title: From Getting the right CRM Data to Driving Sales Globally description: Discover what 17 years leading global B2B sales taught Pierre about connecting CRM data, sales plans, and leadership to drive sales execution. image: https://www.salesgoal.com/hubfs/1766171460920.jpeg --- [![SalesGoal](https://www.salesgoal.com/hubfs/PRINCIPAL.png)](https://www.salesgoal.com) - [PLATFORM](https://www.salesgoal.com/platform) - [ADVISORY](https://www.salesgoal.com/advisory) ### [Business Games An evening simulation for sales directors and sales managers in Stockholm.](https://www.salesgoal.com/business-game) ### [Case Studies Real cases from our advisory services.](https://www.salesgoal.com/case-studies) - [ABOUT US](https://www.salesgoal.com/about-us) - [RESOURCES](https://www.salesgoal.com/resources) ### [Blog](https://www.salesgoal.com/resources/blog) ### [Know-how](https://www.salesgoal.com/resources/guides) ### [Advisory Case Studies](https://www.salesgoal.com/case-studies) - [CONTACT US](https://www.salesgoal.com/contact-us) [LOG IN](https://app.salesgoal.com/login) BOOK A DEMO # From Getting the right CRM Data to Driving Sales Globally Discover what 17 years leading global B2B sales taught Pierre about connecting CRM data, sales plans, and leadership to drive sales execution. [Pierre Bonel](https://www.salesgoal.com/resources/blog/author/pierre-bonel) Oct 13, 2026 --- *What leading global sales in a B2B organization taught me about steerability, culture, and finding the “difficult simplicity”.* For 17 years, I led sales in an international logistics and freight forwarding company. Last year, I joined SalesGoal, a Stockholm-based startup, because I thought they were onto something. Now I know that *we* are. Had we had SalesGoal back then, alongside our global CRM rollout, we would have been much more successful in transforming sales management and sales focus across a large, complex global B2B sales organization. Above all, we would have been able to move things faster and implement the cultural change in a way that would have made it much more tangible to the sales organization. We would still have had to do all the things we did, but our results would have become apparent far earlier and far more clearly. Because you really need a sales philosophy (sounds dramatic, I know), and you need something to make that tangible. We didn’t have the part that made it tangible. Like many companies out there, the company I worked for most of my working life grew by doing something specific very, very well. Since we were in a commodity market, we specialized. We became a global niche leader, known for excellent service. But logistics has a special characteristic: business always happens locally. And even more fundamentally, sales happen between people. Real people, sitting across the table from each other. Because of that, our organization was highly decentralized. Strong local branches served thousands of customers. Local management teams led sales. Many offices performed well. Some performed exceptionally well. But performance was uneven—and difficult to steer. In 2008, we decided it was time to professionalize sales globally. We started where most organizations start: sales strategy, sales planning, and training to make a common sales methodology work. At the same time, we rolled out a CRM system globally, with centralized system administration led by Sales, not IT. For the first time, we could see sales activities, follow-ups, targeting, and market focus across the organization. But we didn’t stop there. Together with the CRM rollout, we launched a comprehensive global training program for salespeople at all levels. We created a Global Sales Academy—designed to build skills, create a common language, and professionalize how sales was done across more than 60 countries. Since sales management is all about managing the activities that lead to results, we focused on helping the organization understand that principle and put it into practice. We invested heavily in training. Not just tools, but people. I think we customized the CRM quite smartly—maybe “too smartly,” in fact. Maybe we thought too much about all the KPIs that we wanted to get out of it so that we could centrally understand how the network actually operated across the globe. After rolling out the CRM, usage varied widely. And something surprised us: the best-performing salespeople and offices were not always the best CRM users. That was when I learned that simplicity is an absolute value. I now recall that my father used to talk about “the difficult simplicity.” I finally understood. But getting other people to convey a sales philosophy across the hierarchy is difficult. So, we trained even more. Globally. Repeatedly. The Sales Academy sessions that we had created helped raise competence and awareness—but only up to a point. Next, we introduced quarterly sales plan reviews. Centrally run. More than 60 offices. Some countries had understood and adopted the routines and improved a lot. Others didn’t improve. A few improved, but not much. That’s when we discovered a deeper problem: many country managers—the local bosses setting the direction for their countries—did not truly understand sales management as a process. Very often, their background was in Operations or Finance. Sales was something you simply did; it happened. But for them, it was not something you systematically managed. So, we trained again. We explained. We aligned. We focused on leadership and on what it really means to steer sales. Then another truth became obvious. Good results were not necessarily driven by good sales execution. Results were measured against budget—not against sales plans. And the link between sales planning and budgeting was weak. At least in the minds of (too) many country managers. When we finally connected those two—sales plans and budgets—using one common structure instead of hundreds of spreadsheets, things improved significantly. It was hard work. Finance owned the budget process, and this was not an easy conversation. But it mattered. And yet… steerability was still missing. We then focused on alignment at a deeper level. We trained leaders to understand that sales results depend on clear focus, alignment, and both the quantity and quality of sales activities. By this point, we had strong KPIs. Benchmarks. Dashboards. Personally, I was quite relieved, since I could now share sales process KPIs in the boardroom, which was a quantum leap in their eyes. For me, it was more of a necessary evil. Sometimes, these KPIs led us astray into conversations about data accuracy and similar issues. So, the CRM tool became the focus instead of the plan and how we needed to steer the activities to get there. Sales do not happen in spreadsheets. Don’t get me wrong here: the CRM was crucial for improving response rates, quote follow-up times, and task management in the sales back office, which is fundamental in any sales organization. But the real issue of global steerability of the sales organization was still there. Sales always happen between people, at the local level, except for global accounts with global procurement processes (which we handled centrally anyway). Sales is also built on relationships and trust, and those are managed by each and every one of us in sales—all of us who sell directly, from sales directors and strategic account managers to individual sales reps. How could we align all these salespeople and interactions, support continuous improvement, and drive growth? What was missing was a systematic way to connect global plans with the everyday reality of each salesperson and understand how their activities drove the planned results. On paper, sales managers knew what was needed. We had achieved a lot in the first couple of years: local ownership of sales plans, continuous coaching and skill development, and joint customer visits. These were the foundations of strong local leadership. But doing this consistently, month after month, across a large global organization was extremely hard. If we had had SalesGoal back then, alongside our CRM implementation, everything would have moved much faster. Aligning budgets with sales plans would have been a breeze. So would breaking them down into individual goals. Creating that natural coaching rhythm would have been much easier to implement. It would have been more concrete and would have required less preaching until we were blue in the face. Making sales input visible—not just the output—is key! Looking back, I believe SalesGoal could have helped us achieve in 12 to 18 months what took us almost 10 years. We did improve, though. We raised the quality of the sales organization significantly. Funnily enough, many countries confused good results with good sales management. We knew that wasn’t always true. Shareholders appreciated graphs showing areas of growth. They were equally pleased when macroeconomic trends and global events they recognized from the Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal helped explain increases or declines. Sales management remained in a black box for most of them. But this is like talking football (soccer) with someone who has never played the game and does not understand the offside rule. Appreciating a good 0–0 game takes an understanding of the game, and being satisfied with how your team plays even when you lose is not for outsiders. I remember one great CFO saying in one of those meetings, “And this is when Global Sales will do their magic.” So, interestingly enough, my team and I were mostly recognized for something else: strategic accounts, major tenders, and pricing. We did great there, so this became our legacy. Why was that? Because those results were visible in the P&L. And that taught me a lesson I’ve never forgotten: **Input is hidden. Output is visible.** When I was presented with the SalesGoal project, I didn’t hesitate to join. It was based on these years of experience. For the first time, I saw a way to make sales input visible—to give ownership back to salespeople and to give managers a rhythm of continuous improvement that actually changes culture. Managing sales may sound simple. But steering sales in large global sales organizations is not. To solve it, you need something simple. You need to get to that “difficult simplicity,” in fact. To really manage the delivery of growth in complex B2B sales organizations, you need something that brings ownership of sales plans and individual performance back to Sales—where it belongs. In my current role, I now help other Global Sales Directors, VPs of Sales, CCOs, CSOs, and CEOs with this endeavor—and hopefully, we are providing our customers with a few valuable shortcuts. Explore how SalesGoal connects sales plans, activities, and performance conversations to help teams turn strategy into execution. [Explore SalesGoal.](https://www.salesgoal.com/platform) ## Similar posts ### [Why Sales Management Matters Most When Growth Slows](https://www.salesgoal.com/resources/blog/salesgoal-international-ab-blog/why-sales-management-matters-most-when-growth-slows) Discover why proactive sales management, leading indicators and structured coaching become essential when business growth slows. Dafne Guerreiro Jul 29, 2026 ### [Sales Management Process: What It Is and How to Build One](https://www.salesgoal.com/resources/blog/sales-management-process) Learn what a sales management process is, why B2B teams need one and how to connect planning, performance reviews, coaching and follow-up. 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