Massimo Zannetti Unlocks the Power of Transparency and Analytics With CRM Upgrade
Google sheets can be useful tools in some instances, but not to measure the massive output from a sales pipeline for a leading coffee brand in the U.S. At least that’s what Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA found when trying to scale their solutions to foster growth and keep up with increasing demand.
Owner of well-known brands such as Segafredo Zanetti Coffee and Espresso, Chock full o’Nuts, and Hills Bros. Coffee and Cappuccino, Massimo Zanetti, also a private label coffee provider, had tapped a CRM system in the past, but it was a “huge failure.”
Julia Girard, business development manager, strategic accounts, Massimo Zanetti Beverage, saw its away-from-home business was really beginning to hurt due to its burdensome, manual processes. While a mobile app flowed data into a Google spreadsheet, employees were struggling to juggle their customer management files, and communication became a tangled web over phone and email.
“We were really starting to struggle with activity transparency and business analytics as a leadership team, and it was becoming more difficult to identify issues and manage through them in a timely manner,” says Girard. “This system worked for a time, but we recognized that our business was rapidly growing.”
The dynamic sales team, which serves a diverse customer base, required a highly collaborative system that would do some of the heavy lifting around account analytics. “We knew we needed a CRM system to help us solve for some of these challenges, but we weren’t sure who to turn to as a partner,” Girard adds.
The Key? Knowing What Doesn’t Work
The company’s last attempt at a CRM resulted in a solution that was too difficult to use, limited in its ability to customize processes. It was an expensive mistake, says Girard. To avoid making it twice, the brand created an internal team to research and review multiple systems, looking for a partner that would allow teams and departments to work cross-functionally.
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Also of importance, the platform needed to be intuitive and provide leadership with the tools they needed to better analyze business with real-time data. The standout was Spiro. The platform offered customer data warehousing, sales pipeline management, integration with existing internal systems, cross functionality, and artificial intelligence (AI).
Massimo Zanetti underwent a phased approach as to not overwhelm the team with an influx of options. Once established, the brand selected “power users” from its team to test the system, allowing the company to fine tune the tech before launching with basic functionality and then ultimately taking advantage of the platform’s full functionality.
Although the transition was a smooth one, the biggest challenge the team encountered was translating the sheer volume of tech functionality to team members of varying abilities — and there was resistance at first.
“We have a team with varying technical abilities, and we didn’t want anyone left behind with implementation and adoption of the new system,” says Girard. “We also didn’t want it to be a distraction.”
Girard says the company is already working on the next phase of integration, launching in January 2023. This will add purchasing information to the company’s customer history, transforming the way Massimo Zanetti manages its sales process and existing business growth goals.
Results: Collaboration, Communication, and Efficiency
The platform has allowed the company to decrease the amount of phone calls, emails, and team messages. “We can go into one system and see what information we need and communicate with our customers without having to access multiple systems,” says Girard. “It has greatly impacted the leadership team in our efficiency in coaching our team, as well as having access to real-time information.”
While the end goal is to measure success with an ROI of increase in sales, Massimo Zanetti has witnessed changes on a day-to-day basis, in the quality of work its team is providing and the speed at which it is closing business and communicating with customers.
Having increased transparency and connectivity to the business, she says, builds a stronger team. “If we achieve these markers of success, we will see a direct correlation to an increase in sales over time as well as in improvement in employee dedication and morale.”
Success for the company means a boost in morale, full user adoption, more efficient connectivity with customers, and access to accurate real-time data.
“We are achieving all of these markers of success,” says Girard.
Especially amid a challenging, supply chain-strained environment, the increased transparency and accessibility from the new CRM has allowed the brand to easily field customer concerns, create wide-scale communication specific to customers by channel and segment, and communicate in a faster, more efficient manner.
Untapped Potential
Girard recognizes the importance of leveraging artificial intelligence within the CRM, emphasizing that the possibilities are limitless.
“I can see the AI feature being integrated into more aspects of the system to help us reach customers faster,” she says. “I could see AI becoming our full-time assistant to help fulfill basic customer day-to-day interactions and communication — maybe even help with lead generation for new opportunities.”
AI might allow Massimo Zanetti’s teams to focus on sales activities further in the process, freeing up employees to tackle more complex customer management tasks and build pipelines faster, she says.
“I am open to using technology to help us move fast and connect to our customers in a more impactful way, and I am excited to see what Spiro is working on next to continue to make the AI feature work harder for us,” Girard adds.
