Dear Colleagues,

A few days ago, you received the eleventh issue of the BOLD MOVE newsletter, in which my executive colleagues Ralf Jung, Ulf Theike and I informed you about the latest changes in the Business Unit Industrial Services.

In addition to BOLD MOVE, digitalisation/Innovation and processes, the systematic development and expansion of a powerful sales structure has been identified as the fourth elementary success factor for Strategy 2020plus.

Under my leadership, the Corporate Center Strategic Sales & Marketing was launched last year and merged with the Project Management Division. Over the past few months we have had an intensive dialogue not only with those responsible for the OBS that are already established, but also those responsible for the OBS to be newly added at the beginning of 2019. The insights and requirements of this collaboration have been incorporated into our work.

We are pursuing the objective of optimally supporting and strategically managing the operational sales activities of OBS by introducing and continuously developing suitable sales structures and processes.

With the Sales newsletter we are launching a more proactive form of communication with you, the aim of which is to ensure that in the future the sales activities within the BU IS will receive additional momentum. The important aspect now is to bring about sales-related activation across all functions and achieve healthy, steady growth together with our customers.

As we do this, one message in particular is personally close to my heart: Sales is not a department, but an attitude!

All of us – whether in the function of team assistants, experts or managers up to the executive management level – have the opportunity along the customer care process to take advantage of this attitude in a profitable manner for TÜV NORD.

All of us can develop our fighting spirit and desire to achieve sales with self-confidence in our expertise, which is highly valued, and the high quality of our services worldwide.

The greatest change in the sales structure that has been implemented up to now is the departure from a purely regional principle to a matrix organisation in which the OBS, i.e. a specific customer segment, is considered to be the overriding structural criterion. Within the OBS, sales is then only organised in a second step in the form of a regional structure.

In order to ensure that the transformation to a customer-focussed sales organisation is as smooth as possible, Corporate Center Sales has developed new tasks and functions of the sales structures and coordinated these with the OBS. Sales will essentially be carried out from the OBS. Overall strategic planning, the development of valid methods and standards throughout the BU IS, as well as the coordination of cross-OBS sales initiatives and key account management, will be carried out by Corporate Center Sales/KAM/Project Management.

In the OBS, Sales Managers, Sales Assistants, Key Account Managers and Customer Managers assume responsibility for incoming orders and turnover in order to achieve the defined sales targets. The tasks and scope of customer care/responsibility are specified by the Profit Center Cluster Manager in consultation with the Customer Manager and are shown in the following diagrams:

One of the most important aspects of the strategic realignment of the Business Unit Industrial Services is the specification of future customer responsibility for the A and B customers of TN Systems along the new organisational structure.

The following general rule applies: Customer responsibility lies fully with the OBS to which the customer has been assigned within the framework of working steps that have already been completed. In exceptional cases, the future OBS and individuals responsible for customers still have to be defined.

For this purpose, Corporate Center Sales has organised a series of workshops (3 appointments) with the OBS, cluster and PC managers responsible and – as required – other employees in order to carry out this task together in a structured manner. The aim is to finally clarify the new customer responsibilities as of 01 January 2019 in all cases. Following the workshops, the resulting customer transfer discussions will be planned in the fourth quarter.

With the respective market and specialist knowledge that a Sales Manager also needs, we can serve our customers in a more targeted manner. Clear customer assignment guarantees transparency across all OBS, as well as consistency – for example with regard to the contact person for our customers. In my role as Sales Manager, I will be able to approach customers even more directly in the future, draw conclusions more easily concerning new customers, stimulate the interface between customers and companies and manage the implementation of the agreed contractual services in a better way. I can offer the service of competence, affinity and trust associated with the actual service to be provided that is required in the market.

With the even greater networking of all business units and OBS-wide collaboration, we will be able to align the entire company and each individual employee with our customers and put in place our wide range of services. This is particularly evident in the field of international cooperation – another step in the direction of cross-selling within the framework of the customer-focussed organisation.

Lead management, i.e. the professional handling of inquiries and information of interested companies, is continuously changing. Digitalisation is enabling noticeable process improvements.

TÜV NORD presented itself "in paperless form" for the first time at this year's Hannover Messe 2018. There were no printed versions of product data sheets or customer data acquisition forms at the trade fair stand. Everything was digital. A courageous step, but one with which we were able to very successfully collect data from existing and potential customers and feed it into our IT systems. The associated workload and implementation times were dramatically reduced.

When leaving our trade fair stand, our visitors already had their confirmation e-mails in their mailboxes. This caused a certain degree of appreciative astonishment and anticipation of the next sales contact among many people.

It has therefore been possible this year to hold numerous trade fairs for a wide range of sectors, such as Wind Engergy, SMM and Innotrans, with specific data queries for the respective OBS.

The acquisition, digitalisation and management of the leads is simple and effective – not only directly at the trade fair, but also subsequently in the office. TÜV iPads are made available for the trade fairs. In addition, the app can be installed on employees' phones.

The most important functions include:

- An individual app configuration in a TÜV NORD design

- Business card scanner

- Sketching board

- Individual questionnaires

- Personalised thank you emails

- Central lead Management

Lead acquisition at the fair is the decisive factor for ensuring that this pays off for TÜV NORD. By offsetting the quantity and quality of the recorded leads and the budgetary expenditure for the trade fair, the success of the trade fair can ultimately be determined and substantiated in terms of quality.