Samsung asked us to double B2B sales. The first fix was surprisingly small.

A clear growth target with a limited commercial setup

When I joined Samsung, the commercial objective was unusually clear: double B2B turnover. The starting point, however, was much less developed than that ambition suggested. The local B2B operation effectively relied on one highly experienced salesperson, with little dedicated marketing infrastructure and limited locally adapted sales material in Dutch and French.

That created a mismatch between the growth target and the system expected to deliver it. Digital signage was not a simple transactional category, because projects often involved resellers, integrators, tenders and several stakeholders within the buying process. Sales therefore needed relevant and current material for customer conversations, while Product needed a much better understanding of what customers were actually asking for in the field.

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Starting with the salesperson instead of the strategy deck

Rather than beginning with a large marketing programme, I started with the person closest to the market. I asked the salesperson what would make the biggest immediate difference to his daily work, expecting perhaps a request for more campaigns or stronger lead generation. His answer was much more practical: he needed a proper local product catalogue.

We built that catalogue together, translating and adapting it into Dutch and French and establishing a quarterly update cycle so that the content remained relevant as products changed. The material was shaped around the questions Sales actually encountered rather than around the internal structure of the product portfolio.

In return, I joined customer visits to understand how the products were being discussed, which information mattered in real buying conversations and where the existing material was failing. That exchange created a more useful feedback loop than producing marketing collateral independently from the commercial reality.

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Turning sales material into a shared learning process

As the catalogue evolved, local customer examples and case imagery were incorporated to make the commercial story more credible. Product information became easier for Sales to use, while customer feedback started flowing back into Product and Marketing with much greater clarity.

What looked initially like a straightforward content problem was therefore exposing a broader operating issue. The business did not simply need more marketing output; it needed Product, Sales and Marketing to work from a shared understanding of the market.

That distinction mattered because each function held part of the information required for growth. Product understood the technology, Sales understood customer conversations, and Marketing could turn both into material and programmes that were easier to scale. The commercial system became stronger once that information began circulating rather than remaining inside separate functions.

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Looking beyond the existing category for growth

Improving execution inside Digital Signage was necessary, but it was unlikely to be sufficient to double turnover by itself. Reaching the target also required finding additional sources of volume rather than depending entirely on the existing business.

The growth plan therefore expanded into tenders, larger project opportunities and additional categories, including Hotel TV. The economics of Hotel TV were different from Digital Signage because the value per unit could be lower, but projects could involve substantially larger volumes. That made it commercially attractive when the right opportunities could be identified and won.

One of those opportunities developed into a major prison tender. Securing the deal required repeated pricing negotiations through the wider Samsung organisation, including escalation back to Korea, because the commercial conditions had to work at a scale that was unusual for the local business.

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Combining operational improvements with commercial expansion

The eventual growth did not come from a single breakthrough. Better local sales material improved customer conversations, while field visits created a stronger flow of market information back into Product and Marketing. Closer collaboration between the functions made commercial decisions more grounded in customer reality.

At the same time, tenders and category expansion increased the size of the addressable opportunity. This combination was important because improving conversion inside the existing model and expanding the opportunity pool are different growth levers. Samsung needed both.

The result was a commercial approach in which stronger execution and broader growth opportunities reinforced each other rather than competing for attention.

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Doubling B2B turnover within the year

Within the year, the B2B business doubled turnover. The result reflected the combined effect of more useful sales tools, stronger field feedback, closer Product-Sales-Marketing collaboration, new volume opportunities and persistent execution across larger commercial deals.

The catalogue itself remained a relatively simple intervention, but its importance went beyond the document. It became a practical connection point between teams that had previously operated with less shared context, helping commercial knowledge move more effectively between the market and the organisation.

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Building growth from the market backwards

The experience reinforced a principle that remained relevant in later roles. Commercial improvement does not always begin with a sophisticated strategy or large transformation programme. Sometimes the fastest route to understanding what the organisation needs is to start with the people closest to customers and work backwards from the problems they are encountering.

At Samsung, that approach revealed that the growth challenge was not primarily a lack of ambition. The business needed better connections between Product, Sales and Marketing, together with a willingness to pursue opportunities beyond the existing category.

Once those elements came together, the organisation had a stronger commercial system behind the target, and the target became achievable.