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Food Distributor
When You Need a Work Unit to Buy Into Making Necessary Change
 Business Issue
This leading restaurant food broker competed in a commodities-driven market. Many of the company's products were identical to those sold by competitors. To increase market share, the company needed its sales force to better differentiate the company and its products. This was not easy for a sales force accustomed to a familiar, traditional selling model. It required giving sales reps and their managers new ideas and selling strategies that would make them more effective when dealing face-to-face with customers.
Process
The Advantage solution was two programs from Celemi: Apples & Oranges and Selling with Your Ears (Celesta). The Apples & Oranges financial simulation is based on the premise that sellers cannot be effective unless they truly understand the financial consequences of their customers' buying decisions. The simulation showed regional and district managers how purchasing decisions, changes in productivity, and resource management affect a customer's financial condition and profitability. The managers increased their financial business literacy and gained a new context for guiding their sales teams.
Selling with Your Ears (Celesta) taught sales reps the keys to effective differentiation-based selling. Participants learned how to recognize customers' buying criteria, ways to penetrate organizations, and tactics for reaching the true decision maker. They also learned that viewing themselves from their customers' eyes was the first, critical step in being able to differentiate their company and its offerings.
Result
- Sales force better able to differentiate the company and its products
- New awareness of financial consequences of customers' buying decisions supports improved product positioning
As a result of the training, the sales force was better able to differentiate the company from competitors. Managers taught their teams to consider the financial impacts that drive customers' decisions. Because of this, the sales force was able to apply a new selling model and position products more effectively. For the food distributor sales team, the most valuable new skill was learning to disregard their own opinion of how their company was being perceived, and discovering how customers really felt about the company versus its competitors.
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