Channel & Customer led Sales Approach Tool Projectproduct experts not customer experts
The average Conversion Rate for a cold call in Foodservice for Hero Food Ingredients, such as meat, sea food, dairy, ranges between 10%-20%. For commodity products this can drop as low 5%-10%. Conversion rates for Dry Goods such as tea, coffee, pasta, condiments it ranges between 5%-15%. Global Foodservice players such as Nestle & Unilever report it takes +7 calls to convert a new lead for a larger customer. Time & resource is a significant cost when considering the number of actual calls & the low strike rate. For most suppliers even a Sales Qualified Lead has a less than 50% chance of success despite the multiple calls & effort to get it to a qualified level.
challenge
Our partner customer despite global brand recognition & world #1 market share position, their Foodservice teams struggled to convert unless price was significantly favourable. despite significant investment in technical detailing & significant relationship building activity. Actio was tasked with developing a new approach to customer engagement that increased conversion & moved beyond just a product & price sale. As part of developing a solution the Actio Team firstly defined the problem through a series of interviews with customer engagement teams.
Interview Findings – Despite some significant investment in Chef/Technical & Product Information & Materials what Actio discovered was a sales organization with an internally focused mindset:
- Product-Centric Mindset:
Many companies with a strong retail brand background tend to focus on their own products, rather than understanding the needs and goals of their customer. Our clients Retail Brand DNA was reflected in their over indexing their focus on product rather than needs of the customers. - Product Experts, Not Customer Experts:
Customer knowledge was limited to basic data such as product usage volume and pricing. There was little understanding of the customer’s broader business, resulting in low customer intimacy & in turn needs understanding. - Product-Focused Technical Support:
While the company provided technical advice, sales conversations were heavily centred around product features and performance, with minimal connection to the customer’s real-world benefits or operational improvement outcomes. - Poor Understanding of Operator Decision Drivers:
There was limited insight into what influences chefs or operators when deciding to change or choose new ingredients. As a result, sales conversations often missed the mark and didn’t align with actual decision-making processes. - Weak Benefit Communication Skills:
Without a deep understanding of customer challenges, it was difficult for their sales team to communicate relevant benefits. There was no standard process or approach ‘Pre-In-Post Call’ activity resulting in an inability connect product solutions to the real & specific needs of customers, especially in complex situations.
solution
Changing Mindsets Through Process & Proof Points
Actio completed an interview with company leaders to identify what exactly were the barriers to conversions
- Customer Intimacy – Pre-Call: Actio set about improving customer intimacy through the develop of a tailored Pre-Call Process that took customer insights gathering far beyond just product & price. This pre-process included a structured 10 step in-store analysis that enables sales & marketing teams to distil new customer opportunities & build targeted value-added solutions
- Communicating Benefits – In-Call: Actio developed a standard 6 step template for building a presentation to create a consistent process on engaging with customers. The process objective design was to make detailing value-added solutions easy for salespeople to communicate the solutions & associated benefits
- Proof Points – Working alongside sales team Actio built pre-call insights into the templated presentations to conduct a series of test/trial customer engagements to gauge operator receptiveness as part of establishing ‘Proof of Solution Concept’. Successful trials release the most powerful of all human attributes ‘Belief’, it is this belief that compels both teams & individuals to act
- Lift & Shift Success – Post-Call: – Successful trial learning was templated & converted into repeatable model with solutions & shared across markets. To accelerate learning Actio plan included our team leading global training sessions to ensure uptake & adoption of via a ‘Lift & Shift’ sharing program
results
Belief Through Conversion
Our partner customer selected two regional restaurant chains to pilot this new approach. Actio conducted pre-call analysis and identified a major missed opportunity: both chains were underperforming during the lunch period. However, there was strong potential to boost table turns by creating a menu specifically designed for time-pressed lunch guests. In response, Actio developed a customized value-added solution, focusing on menu improvements and promotional strategies aimed at driving additional lunch traffic.
Challenging the status quo by highlighting operational gaps and recommending changes to menu and promotional strategies marked a major shift from our partner’s traditional engagement style. Understandably, there was initial concern and some skepticism about how such candid feedback would be received by the restaurant chain decision-makers. However, encouraged to embrace the new approach, the partner saw immediate positive results. The key impact was as followws is as follows:
- Step Change in Customer Engagement: Our partner’s customer account team contacted us immediately after their first call with first of the restaurant chains, excited by the outstanding response from the procurement team, who requested the presentation to share with their senior leadership. Unprompted follow-up calls from the chain’s CEO of one of the chains further validated that this kind of proactive supplier support is exactly what the restaurant chains are seeking from their partners. Most notably, during the post-meeting call with Actio was how the success of the customer engagement had sparked a powerful sense of belief and excitement within our customer—marking a significant shift in their mindset of what was possible!
- Lift & Shift Learning: The presentation used in Europe was applied to the same chains in Asia with equal success on customer engagement resulting in conversion & supply, combined with a willingness to partner on future solution development
- Channel-Led Repeatable New Customer Conversion Model: The success of the initial trial naturally led to the question: “If it worked with these restaurant chains, why not with others in the same channel?” Pre-call activity was quickly initiated with similar chains, revealing a key insight—there is a consistent need across the channel for this kind of supplier-led solution support. Leveraging learnings from the initial engagement, we were able to drive immediate and successful follow-up interactions.
- Global Rollout at Speed: Inspired by the initial success, Actio was invited to support a global education and training program for Sales and Marketing teams across all regions—focused on building both belief and customer engagement capability. To ensure both effectiveness and efficiency in conversion, Actio developed tailored, templated tools that established a consistent operating model, enabling rapid sharing, learning, and scalability.
The End Game – Building Internal Capability: For our partner customers, the ultimate goal was not to rely on Actio or any third party to build solutions, but to create a model where central and local Sales & Marketing teams develop the internal capability to effectively analyse priority markets, channels, and customers. These insights then form the foundation for crafting unique, value-added solutions that drive customer conversion. Actio continues to support this journey as a contracted partner, contributing to an ongoing Sales & Marketing capability development program.
Contact us at the Actio Consultancy Group office nearest to you or submit a business inquiry online.
Having worked with Geoff & the Actio team over many years I am constantly amazed at their ability to understand our business needs and drivers. Our team greatly value their ability to turn strategy into actionable initiatives.
