How Sodexo saved precious time in structuring its Sales support functions

‍Sodexohas built a structured Go to Market strategy, based on streamlining tools and an account-based approach to boost its sales performance and support growth.

‍

Thanks to elaya's support, Sodexo has streamlined its digital tools, structured Sales Enablement and gradually introduced the function of key account management in the regions, to develop its growth.

‍

Context: rethinking commercial growth on a group-wide scale

When Franck Brunet took up his new position at the head office of Sodexo, one of the world's leading providers of food and facility management services, present in 45 countries, he discovered a complex ecosystem: a customized CRM and a multitude of poorly integrated digital tools.

Appointed Chief Sales & Retention Officer for the Group, he has a central mission: to accelerate sales growth by better equipping sales teams and structuring practices. To achieve this, he called on elaya to provide an outside perspective, inspired by the best Go to Market practices in the B2B tech world.

‍

Mission elaya: an in-depth audit of Go to Market teams and 5 recommendations implemented

elaya's intervention focused on three key areas:

1. Tech stack diagnosis & tool rationalization

The audit revealed a redundancy of poorly integrated tools, particularly around Salesforce. elaya enabled Sodexo to draw up a clear roadmap for centralizing and simplifying its sales tools, reducing costs and improving the user experience.

This enabled me to come up with a plan to rationalize our tech. We have far fewer tools, and they're all integrated into Salesforce. Franck Brunet

‍2. Structuring the Sales Enablement function

The support provided Franck with a solid roadmap for Sales Enablement, and enabled him to formalize a function that had previously been in its infancy: equipping sales staff with the right content, at the right time, in the right formats, and spreading this approach across the regions.

"We've really created the Sales Enablement function, with a single entry point, which is then rolled out to the regions." Franck Brunet

3. Redesigning Go to Market around customer growth

elaya's intervention was a catalyst in the in-depth overhaul of Sodexo's sales strategy, with a gradual and structured transformation of the Go to Market approach.

Two strategic pillars have been identified:

developing new sales to new customers

retention and growth of existing accounts

This support enabled Franck Brunet and his teams to set up a new KPI system to manage not only acquisition and loyalty, but also cross-selling and multi-site expansion.

"We've learned to look at account growth with a more analytical prism, integrating the growth dynamics of the existing customer portfolio." Franck Brunet

This change in perspective led to a reorganization of all sales functions. Until now, operations managed both customer relations and execution. Now, Key Account Management (KAM) functions are gradually being introduced in the regions, with the mission of steering long-term growth strategies on key accounts.

"We're in the process of creating a real growth mechanism structured around the customer." Franck Brunet

At the same time, elaya supported Sodexo in the selection and deployment of strategic account management tools (account planning + web of influence), fully integrated with Salesforce. Today, it enables sales and operational teams to work together on a common basis to identify opportunities, map relationships and build shared action plans.

Lastly, a gradual ramp-up phase was launched worldwide, involving the roll-out of KPIs, acculturation of the regions to this new approach, and preparation for an organizational changeover aligned with the company's budget cycle.

After 18 months, most of our regions are in the process of creating this KAM function. It's a real change of culture and way of working to accelerate the retention and growth of our accounts. Franck Brunet

Concrete results and lasting transformation

Acceleration in new sales, with record sales in percentage and value terms over the last 12 months

+1 NPS point out of 10 gained over 1 year, after user survey on our customized Salesforce tool, thanks to the changes made (simplification and integration of more user-friendly tools).

Closing inefficient digital projects

A clearer vision for managing IT and digital teams

This has enabled me to have convictions and expectations, to be much more relevant to IT and my teams of experts, to have a clear roadmap, and above all to move faster. Franck Brunet

‍Atransformation gas pedal

Thanks to elaya, precious time has been saved in structuring Sales support functions, while at the same time establishing a culture of performance and growth focused on accounts.

elaya helped me define what a successful sales organization should look like. It's a real time-saver and gives me strategic clarity. Franck Brunet

‍

‍