A collaborative sales spirit? Marco from Wolt Denmark says it’s possible – and paying off

Sales is a fiercely competitive business where the only metric that counts is conversions, right? Well our Field Sales Lead Marco Teilmann Balch is here to tell you to think again.

Oh sure, his team is pounding the pavement looking for new merchants, educating them about the benefits of the Wolt platform and connecting them with local customers. But the spirit is very much one of collaboration, of leaving no colleagues behind. As Marco puts it: “We want to be successful as a team, instead of having one or two talented individuals who don’t care for anyone else.”

It may sound like an odd approach to sales, but it’s clearly paying off: team Denmark recently won in an internal sales competition! So how exactly does Marco do it, what changes has he seen over his seven years (and counting) at Wolt, and who would make a great team member? Dive in and read on!

Hi there 👋 Please tell us about yourself.

I’m Marco, and I lead the field sales team for Wolt in Denmark. I’ve been with Wolt for seven years, and we have a team of ten salespeople – six based in Copenhagen and four outside of the capital. 

Short and sweet. Thanks! So, how did you get to Wolt?

Before joining I worked at Expedia, building and scaling its presence for all of Denmark. I had a good friend who was working at Wolt, and he kept on telling me how great the company was. I was working in a huge American company, had just been promoted and was on a good career path. But my friend kept pushing, and I was at a stage of life where if a move was going to happen, it had to happen then.

I joined Wolt as a Sales Manager. I think we were less than 20 people at the time in Denmark, so it was a culture shock for me when I started. I moved from an office in the trendy meatpacking district in Copenhagen to the outskirts of the city. There were boxes everywhere in the office. I remember thinking to myself “OK, what have I done…?”, but then I met the team, who were amazing and we quickly became very close. 

Tell us a little about the Field Sales team and what the work is like

Sure. For the past two and a half years, we’ve basically been in expansion mode. We’ve launched a whopping 50 cities in Denmark! It’s been a lot of driving around the country – visiting flower shops, bakeries, kiosks, mini-markets, pet shops, butchers and everything in between. But honestly, spending time out on the field is also one of the coolest parts of the job. 

Being on the road gives you a real sense of ownership. You’re responsible for your own cities, which means you manage your own time and plan your days independently. There’s a high level of autonomy, and that freedom is something many people really value in the role.

A lot of us choose to stay overnight when we’re working in other cities. During the day, you work independently in your area, approaching new venues, signing contacts, and collecting everything needed to launch the merchant on Wolt. Once a merchant is signed, we hand over to the onboarding team, who handle training, equipment, setup, and making sure the partner gets off to a strong start. When we're on the road, in the evenings, the team often meets up for dinner - we debrief, share learnings, and just enjoy each other’s company. It creates a strong sense of camaraderie and psychological safety. You’re independent during the day, but never alone. We support and spar with each other while we’re out there, which makes the travel feel energising rather than draining.

What sort of impact can you make in the cities and towns where you operate?

There’s the business side of things, but we’re also educating merchants as well. Everybody knows Wolt as a company that delivers food, but when you go out and sign up a bakery, they’ve often never been on a delivery platform before. So we take them on the journey of joining a commerce platform and the benefits and sales that Wolt can provide.

Our mantra is that we want to build a platform where we help local businesses to digitalise their operations and give them an online presence. Local bakeries often won’t have their own website. They focus on doing what they love: baking. But when they might have to throw out 25% of their products one day because it was rainy and no one came in, we provide them with the opportunity to tap into a new pool of customers. They don't have to think about anything else than handing over the baked goods to the Wolt courier partner and we'll bring it to the customers.

That’s one of the things I love about this role. We have a huge impact on local businesses – not just the big fast-food chains but also your local pet shop. If we can bring 10 more orders per day for the owner, it can be very impactful for a small business, and they’re orders that the owner wouldn’t have had before. And in the process we’re connecting local merchants with local people, helping the local businesses get more visibility.

What growth opportunities are there at Wolt?

I started as a Sales Manager, and over the years have established our Inside Sales Team and grown into a sales leadership position. Now I head our local team of Field Sales Managers. And when I look at Wolt today versus when I joined, there’s a much wider range of ways to grow and make an impact. 

In the early days, the job was mostly about converting restaurants into partners. Now we work with everything from small local businesses to big multi-national corporations and chains, and we have more solutions to offer too - like Wolt Drive, Wolt Ads, Wolt for Work, and more. We have lots of different kinds of sales roles that each have interesting growth opportunities. Our sales teams range from field sales pitching and meeting with merchants face-to-face, to inside sales converting leads via phone and email, to account management building long-term partnerships and helping merchants optimize performance.

The nature and scope of the work have changed, too, which also means opportunity. There’s the diversity of businesses you deal with, the different approaches you need for a big store chain versus the local pizzeria in a small Danish town. Or then for a kiosk where maybe the owner’s Danish is not totally fluent. You have to find ways to adapt, to make the customer feel comfortable.

Tell us about some of the challenges you face in the team.

One thing that can be challenging, but also keeps the work interesting, is that no day is the same here. It’s a very rapidly changing environment. We’re a fast-growing company where we constantly introduce new products and enter new segments, creating new opportunities for merchants to grow. To support the team in navigating this fast pace, we focus on clear prioritisation, transparent communication, weekly coaching and translating strategy into concrete, actionable focus areas so the team always knows where to direct their energy. 

Selling here is a completely different mindset, and I love it. We may decide that we want to go out and sign up a lot of pet shops. So, you adapt to it. If you’d told me seven years ago that one day I would be leading a team whose priority was to sign up pet shops, I never would’ve believed it!

What’s the working culture like?

The culture is essentially the reason why I've been with the company for seven years. People always strive for excellence, they’re respectful, and everybody's driving towards the same goal.

Even though we’ve grown so much we’ve managed to maintain the culture. We have a very humble mindset, but everyone wants to do the best they can, to be 1% better every day. It’s also about wanting to spend time with your team and your colleagues even outside of work, something I experienced for the first time after joining Wolt. It’s easy to feel part of the team, because people connect in different ways - from casual afterworks to football and padel tournaments - there’s something for everybody.

Wolt is a place where there’s room for the individual. I have a couple of small children, and I’m given the opportunity to be a dad who’s around for their kids. Ultimately the responsibility for your work is on you and you’re given the flexibility to manage your own time. There’s an understanding that we have lives outside of work, too. This kind of flexibility in sales is unfortunately rare, because you have targets, and there’s a tendency to tighten up if you fall behind.

That’s great, but … the working culture in sales can sometimes be brutal. What about Wolt?

The sales culture here is very, very collaborative, which is something that might sound odd if you’ve been working in sales. 

How can you be successful without a win-at-all-costs mentality?

 We try to create a culture with healthy amounts of competition. It's not fun to be the only successful one in your team. We want to create an ownership responsibility to help your colleagues, making sure that they're successful as well. We want to be successful as a team, instead of having one or two talented individuals who don’t care for others.

 It can be a surprise to new salespeople how collaborative our environment is. They often think, “OK, I need to compete”, but people here are like, “I'll bring you along. You can have this lead, I’ll come with you”, supporting each other. 

And our numbers back this up this approach. Our team just won an internal sales competition against Finland, Sweden, and Norway.  

Who should apply for a sales role at Wolt?

The kind of person that can strike up a conversation with everyone. The type of person sitting next to your niece or your aunt at a boring wedding who can really raise the energy level at the table! But you're also the person with the biggest heart. Empathy and sympathy are important to you. You want to be successful, but you want others around you to be successful as well. That's very, very important.

 Being self-driven is also critical, because a lot of the work happens independently and out in the field. You need to get out, meet people, and keep the momentum going. 

We’re looking for people at different stages of their career — from those stepping into their first sales role and ready to learn, to experienced sellers who enjoy navigating more complex deals. I’ve seen people thrive in these roles when they have a growth mindset. Rather than taking setbacks personally, they pause, reflect on what happened, ask why, and adjust their approach for next time.

Looking for a new role and keen to be part of a collaborative and successful sales team? Wolt is hiring! Check out open roles here. 🚀