4 May 2026 · 58 min · Spoken in Dutch

From Opportunity to Growth: How Soudal Wins with Flexibility and Closeness to the Customer

With Ben Swerts, Regional Director at Soudal. Hosted by Stijn Van Daele and Jeroen De Broyer.

Ben Swerts, regional director at Soudal and the founder's son, explains how Europe's largest independent maker of sealants, adhesives and PU foams stays close to its customers: bottom-up budgets, follow-up without micromanagement, field sales, solution selling and the habit of asking the customer first. His view on AI: do not miss the train, but do not stare blindly at it.

Soudal was founded in 1966 and grew into Europe's largest independent producer of sealants, adhesives and PU foams, with around 4,500 employees and customers in about 140 countries. Ben Swerts is the second generation of the founding family. He started as a financial auditor, joined the family business, led a subsidiary and now leads the Benelux activities, on a path towards leading the group.

In this conversation he explains the commercial side of a family company that is, in his words, more a sales-driven organisation than a production company: how the sales organisation is built, how budgets are made, how he follows up on people, and why personal contact with customers stays at the heart of it.

This episode is spoken in Dutch. The summary and quotes below are our own English version of what was said.

Ben Swerts in conversation with the two hosts during the recording in the Stretch studio

The two hosts and Ben Swerts in front of the Stretch neon sign after the recording

Key lessons

Commercial excellence means results achieved in an honest way

For Swerts it is about reaching results while the customer feels truly helped and is happy with what was sold. You must earn something from it, but both parties should be left with a good feeling. He warns that removing or reducing the human aspect would be a mistake. Family values such as loyalty, authenticity, honesty and entrepreneurship are written down and shown in offices around the world.

Ask your customer, and you cannot do that enough

When volumes drop, Soudal looks at what customers buy, where volumes go and why: did a competitor arrive, are there complaints, can something be solved? Swerts tells how his own CEO once answered a question he could not solve in a budget meeting with a simple "ask your customer". He thinks that is one question you cannot ask often enough, especially when you have a good relationship.

Build the budget bottom-up, per customer

Budgets are made from October to December and consolidated across the group, with every entity presenting its plan. They are built from the sales manager level, on customer and product mix. Existing customers, new customers and "white spots" are counted separately. Leads in the CRM get an estimated potential and a month in which invoicing could start. The budget is then phased by month, and a growth figure is always expected.

Follow up without micromanaging

His motto is not micromanagement but real follow-up: people take ownership and accountability for their number and their customer base. Soudal brings sales people together regularly to share success stories, reviews targets in sector and sales meetings, and the manager shows that agreements are followed up. He is not a fan of meetings that keep sales people from selling. Where growth is missed for reasons outside anyone's control, such as sanctions, it is excluded and the manager is not punished.

Know your route to market

Soudal sells through professional hardware and building-material dealers, DIY chains, industry customers and larger contractors, and sells directly where volumes are large. The world is split into west and east, each with a business director, with regional directors and country managers below them. Sales people are often specialised by application, such as roofing, windows or finishing.

Field sales still wins, and digital is a supplement

New leads are found by sales people who know the market, and someone always visits a potential customer in person. Digital outreach is used for direct mailings to existing customers based on interest, for example in the UK, but Swerts notes that many of Soudal's customers are not heavy email users. How strong the brand is in a market also decides how far digital warm-up can go.

Decide account by account, but do not run at a loss

Soudal is volume-driven. It accepts large private-label customers with lower margins when the volume matters, on the argument that if it does not do it, a competitor will. He reviews this account by account, and the condition is that it must always bring in something and not run at a loss.

Marketing works at three levels

First, brand marketing and sports sponsorship, such as a professional cycling team and a golf tournament, aimed at the broad public that knows the brand from the DIY shop. Second, product-application marketing, where R&D, sales and marketing work together, for instance on how a foam performs near freezing or on new uses discovered in the market. Third, actions towards distributors, such as an anniversary campaign for a well-known silicone.

From selling products to thinking along on solutions

Swerts says being a hard seller is passé. In mature markets, growth comes from sales people who think along with the end customer on the job site about the solution, while the distributor sells the product. Selling a product on price alone is, in his words, outdated.

Do not miss the AI train, but do not stare at it blindly

Data is great but not all-saving, and he thinks AI will first pay off in finance, operations and production. He calls himself fairly old school: know your market, customers and competition, plan your routes and follow up. Soudal has plenty of leads, and the key is turning them into customers. A spreadsheet cannot tell you that a customer's children just returned from their studies, and that human detail matters.

In his words

Short quotes, translated from Dutch. Times are approximate.

Ask your customer. You cannot do that enough.
Ben Swerts, around 21:00

Not micromanaging, but really following up.
Ben Swerts, around 33:30

Being a hard seller is really passé.
Ben Swerts, around 49:30

Chapters

1:00 Ben's path: from auditor to the family business
7:00 How the sales organisation is set up
10:00 What commercial excellence means
12:00 Family values and culture across countries
16:00 Metrics: revenue, margin and product mix
17:00 Who the customers are: dealers, DIY chains and industry
20:00 Asking the customer why volumes move
22:00 How the budget is built, bottom-up
25:00 Leads, white spots and the CRM
27:00 Field sales versus digital lead generation
31:00 When growth is not reached
33:00 Follow-up, ownership and sales meetings
40:00 Volume, private label and unprofitable accounts
42:00 Marketing at Soudal
48:00 Trends: AI and technology
49:00 From product selling to solution selling
51:00 AI in practice, and being old school
55:00 Why the human aspect still matters