Bosch Rexroth South Africa hosted its inaugural Africa Sales Meeting (ASM) themed ‘Sales Excellence’ in early February 2020. For two days, Bosch Rexroth SA’s Executive Committee met 141 delegates from eight African countries at the Birchwood Conference Centre in Johannesburg. The discussions focused on the Group’s 2020 goals and objectives, underpinned by its strong customer relationships.

Absolute customer obsession was the primary focus with sales initiatives driving home the need for our people to be close to the customer, being mindful that solutions need to commercially add value to the end-user by giving meaningful and measurable production and financial returns.

The Group’s service business, which offers great opportunities in the current market conditions, was also a priority. The focus is on asset preservation, the extension of component life and long-lasting component efficiency. All of these are achieved through routine and pre-planned maintenance solutions, or more complex inexpensive IoT interventions.

Guest dignitaries at the ASM included Marc Wucherer, Bosch Rexroth Executive Board Member, and Manfred Al-Kayal, Regional President for Bosch Rexroth SU South America, among others. Wucherer focused on the drive to achieve the 2020 Group sales targets and the positive roll-out of the Global Sales Programme.

He encouraged delegates to focus on sales performance through to personal development in their selling skills. This included focusing on innovative and value-add solutions which are aligned to the customers KPI’s and our Group’s mission: Move Now, Drive Tomorrow and Shape Africa.

Al-Kayal inspired the delegates with shared sales strategies which are producing enviable successes in a continent which is faced with severe economic challenges.

Intensive break-out sessions opened the door for interaction among all the delegates as they explored new technologies, debated innovative approaches in markets and sectors which offer a great opportunity.

“The ASM is the ideal opportunity for our sales force to network with one another, while simultaneously providing our business units with the opportunity to formulate action plans related to the successful achievement of our sales targets,” explains Freddie Kühn, Sales Director, Hytec South Africa. “The ASM will become an annual event and the hosting of the event will coincide with the start of each new sales year.”

Another topic discussed was the Group’s social commitment, where Bosch Rexroth SA is actively playing a role in shaping Africa. This topic was tackled enthusiastically by a number of delegates on the Friday following the ASM, when they interacted with and supported the LIFT Community Development project, a local community project in Pretoria.

The ASM also celebrated the Group’s top achievers for 2019:

• Sales Innovation: Hytec Johannesburg Repairs Department
• Exceptional Customer Service: Hytec Mogalakwena
• Entrepreneurial Spirit: Hytec Fluid Technology (HFT)
• Sales Collaboration: Hytec Cape Town and HAW Cape Town
• Sales Excellence: HAW consolidated

Bosch Rexroth South Africa will continue to host the annual ASMs for the foreseeable future.