A Packaging Manufacturer Revamps Its Sales Strategy

Client Success Snapshot

Client Profile:

• Overview: A packaging manufacturer in the food and beverage space
• Industry: Manufacturing
• Team Size: 10,000
• Annual Revenue: $3.4 billion
• Headquarters: SC, USA
• Markets: Global

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The Challenge

A global giant that manufactures a wide array of packaging products lacked a unified system to consolidate its data. Its customer database was scattered across six plants — and four separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The manufacturer had limited visibility into customer accounts and its sales pipeline, undercutting sales and operations teams’ ability to function at an optimal level.

Gerent’s Approach

First, our team integrated the organization’s data into one warehouse to provide everyone with a single source of truth. Next, we integrated Microsoft Outlook 365 with the company’s software to capture e-mail communications more effectively, allowing teams to keep a pulse on client accounts and pertinent details. Gerent also implemented Sales Cloud to empower salespeople to sell smarter and Milestones PM — a robust project management tool.

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Key Outcomes

Salespeople can now see the 360-degree view of each customer and generate insightful reports within minutes. Correspondence with customers is organized and accessible within a single place, so salespeople can access conversation history — even if they are not the person who had been communicating with a given customer. This keeps everyone up to date and allows the company to provide best-in-class service.

Client Success Story

Corporate acquisitions can swiftly increase a company's market share — but when disparate tech stacks are involved, they can also create sweeping silos. Organizational silos lead to scattered data and inconsistent processes, causing disequilibrium within an enterprise.

A global giant that manufactures a wide array of packaging products — for the foodservice, delivery and carryout, food processing, and industrial markets — was struggling with these very difficulties when it approached Gerent at the beginning of 2021.

Following several acquisitions, the manufacturer lacked a unified system to consolidate its data. Initially, our client was using ServiceNow as their customer relationship management (CRM) tool and Oracle for business intelligence reporting. Customer information was scattered across six plants, and critical data was housed within disparate systems. To further complicate matters, they were using four separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

The manufacturer had limited visibility into customer accounts and its sales pipeline, undercutting sales and operations teams’ ability to function at an optimal level. Data was difficult to locate, and the manual process of generating reports was cumbersome — inevitably leading to wasted company time and questionable data accuracy. 

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Gerent’s Process

The company had several goals in mind: to increase its direct sales arm, eliminate data silos, and view a 360-degree view of each customer.

First, our team integrated the organization’s data into one warehouse to provide everyone with a single source of truth. Next, we integrated Microsoft Outlook 365 with the company’s software to capture e-mail communications more effectively, allowing teams to keep a pulse on client accounts and pertinent details.  

Gerent also implemented:

Sales Cloud — a cloud-based application that empowers salespeople to sell smarter by centralizing customer information and automating manual tasks salespeople carry out on a daily basis.

Milestones PM — a robust project management tool used to increase efficiency by tracking projects, tasks, milestones, time, and budgets.

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Unmatched Support: The Key to Success

Gerent’s unique approach involved building a true partnership with the manufacturer; we worked closely with our client every step of the way. To ensure the project began with a clean slate, we were heavily involved in guiding the company through an enormous 15-week data clean-up endeavor.

To guarantee the project was progressing smoothly, Gerent placed a stringent focus on keeping the lines of communication open.

Project Manager at Gerent, Sean Best, explains his hands-on approach:

We established a meeting cadence of three 15-minute static meetings per week to provide maximum support with minimal disruption. We kept this cadence up for the entire lifecycle of the project — it kept us abreast of all ongoing activities and ensured deliverables were timely. When you meet regularly, you address the minor issues so they don’t grow into more significant problems down the road.

Gerent also provided the manufacturer with thorough user acceptance testing training, as the project managers Gerent was working with did not represent the majority of end-users within the company. Gerent guided the manufacturer through the entire user acceptance process, outlined department-specific roles, demonstrated how to execute test and review scenarios, and addressed any bugs that surfaced.

All-Star Results

With Gerent’s 15 years of Sales Cloud expertise, our client met all the goals they set out to in the beginning. Data has been cleaned and organized, silos are a thing of the past, and everyone within the organization has a unified view of accurate data.

Salespeople can now see the 360-degree view of each customer and generate insightful reports within minutes. Correspondence with customers is organized and accessible within a single place, so salespeople can access conversation history — even if they are not the person who had been corresponding with a given customer. This keeps everyone up to date and allows the company to provide best-in-class service.

Could your business benefit from a similar Salesforce solution? To learn how we can help you boost efficiency and upgrade your sales initiatives, reach out to us today!