The situation
A Texas-based food service company with over 50 years of success recognized it needed outside expertise to address growing gaps in sales infrastructure and revenue. Sales leadership had been managed directly by the President, a model that was no longer sustainable for future growth.
Just 40 days into the engagement, the global pandemic struck, testing the company’s resilience and the strength of its new strategic approach. Despite the disruption, the company stayed focused on immediate survival while positioning itself for long-term success with stronger sales leadership in place.
Challenges
- Global pandemic
- No sales culture
- Sales team make-up: concern they did not have the right people on board
- Inconsistent selling process
- Compensation plan was not clear
- Communication between sales and operations was not clear
Solution
- Assessed the sales infrastructure and sales team needs, then implemented sales infrastructure
- Restructured the sales team during the early Covid phases, and recruited new sellers as Covid became controlled
- Executed a new website and implemented demand generation tactics
- Identified ideal customer profiles and the unique value proposition
Final result
- Although revenue was reduced due to many clients closing during the first year, we reduced costs, improved pricing and profitability during the shut-downs. We are growing again and adding headcount and marketing.
- We returned to pre-Covid revenue in 2022 and grew double digits in 2023 and added accounts in all five major cities.
- Installed a vibrant sales culture with accountability and cadence.
