CEO's column April

Swedish companies invest millions of kronor in trade fairs and visibility. Yet deals are becoming more difficult to close. The problem is rarely the lack of opportunities, but what happens afterwards.

We spend millions on visibility and call it growth. But what actually determines whether the deal happens happens long after the stand is dismantled.

Millions at the fair. But the deal is settled elsewhere

Swedish companies spend millions of kronor every year on trade fairs, campaigns and visibility. Stand construction worth millions, travel, events. Pipelines are filling up and the level of activity is increasing. It looks like growth.

Yet something is amiss. Employee turnover is increasing, customers are becoming less loyal, and deals are becoming harder to close. These are often treated as three separate problems. They are not.

Most sales organizations are built to measure what is easy to measure: activity and results. Number of meetings, number of leads, revenue. But what actually determines the outcome, the quality of the work in between, is largely invisible.

What happens afterwards is often disorganized

This becomes particularly clear in connection with trade fairs. A stand can cost two million kronor. What happens in the meetings afterwards is often left to the individual, without a clear structure, without a common methodology, without systematic follow-up. At the same time, it is precisely there that the deal is decided.

According to Gartner, a large part of the B2B buying journey occurs before the customer even meets a salesperson. Once the dialogue takes place, the demands are therefore higher. The customer is not looking for more information, but for understanding, perspective and support in their decision-making.

Despite this, many organizations continue to optimize for volume. More meetings, more quotes, more leads. It creates a sense of progress, but in practice it is often about movement rather than results.

Higher demands, weaker conversations

As employee turnover increases, experience and business understanding disappear. As loyalty decreases, every interaction must carry more value. This makes the quality of customer dialogue a crucial competitive factor, but also something that few organizations work on systematically.

It creates a paradox: the more complex sales become, the greater the need for quality. Yet this is precisely where focus is often weakest.

Ultimately, the problem is rarely the lack of business opportunities. It's what happens to them afterwards.