Gabriel_175th Anniversary_Web_Spreads - Flipbook - Page 101
THE CONNEC TORS
Closer than
sales
Sometimes the strongest sales moment happens
That endurance is also why the Connectors speak
without the salesperson speaking. Just observing how
about sales in a different tone. Letting each person
a customer’s sustainability manager explains why
“sell both yourself and the company” in their own way.
Gabriel is the right partner.
It works because customers must be able to rely on
Esa remembers exactly that kind of room: several de-
comes organisational.
you as a person first. Trust is personal before it bepartments around the table, a discussion about certificates and how to handle sustainability documentation.
You can hear how that personal trust is maintained:
Then the customer’s own sustainability manager begins
not through perfection, but through the way problems
to translate Gabriel to his colleagues - how they work,
are handled. “How you handle those crises, that’s how
why they are “best in class” - and suddenly the connec-
you’re measured,” Esa says. Be honest. Answer quick-
tor is simply listening. No pitch needed. Just proof that
ly. Listen. Done well, the relationship doesn’t weaken
trust has shifted sides, from supplier to colleague.
- it becomes stronger, “like in life with family.”
This is the craft of the Connectors: being so close that
A week after a holiday, one of Esa’s biggest customers
the relationship can speak for itself. They are the peo-
needed an urgent order. It was “more or less impos-
ple in daily contact with customers worldwide - the
sible,” and the customer had partly created the situ-
face of Gabriel’s global presence, while carrying the
ation themselves. Still, the response was immediate:
same promise into many different cultures.
contact production, contact headquarters in Aalborg,
push the system, and call back the day after with a
In their world, a good customer relationship is not
path forward. That, Esa says, is “walking the extra
built by intensity, but by consistency. Benjamin com-
mile,” and it is worth it because the customer can feel
pares it to an old bakery: not always the most flashy,
the effort - not just the outcome.
but reliable day by day, year after year. Customers
may challenge, markets may shift, collections may be
This is where dedication in every relationship be-
rejected - but what lasts is the sense that Gabriel will
comes tangible: the willingness to treat the customer’s
stay at the table, think, and find a solution.
pressure as a shared reality, and to bring the organisation with you when the call comes.
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