R. Torre and Company (Torani)

R. Torre and Company, trading as Torani, is a San Francisco-based, family owned company, providing The Original Italian Flavoring Syrups and specialty beverages and service to the distributor and operator community in Foodservice, Retail and International channels. Their competitors, in particular large corporate conglomerates, provide similar products without the "detail in service" that Torani is known for.

Torani's goals were to:

• Build more face to face time with both the distributor and owner/operator in order to increase the value of each opportunity
• Create a common selling language within the organization
• Build selling competencies
• Improve the selling skills of the sales force

The reasons they were unable to achieve these goals is that:

• The sales force was reacting to sales leads rather than proactively qualifying
• There was no standard way to assess progress on any opportunity
• The sales force had a wide variety of selling skills which were not being harnessed into a best practices
• The sales team was spending too much time on administration rather than seeing clients and prospects.

What they needed was a way to measure the value of an opportunity to evaluate whether it met the newly established guidelines (minimum amount of an opportunity, penetrate new geographical market, allow a relationship with a new distributor to flourish), and then determine the win rate. The deal guidelines were published in Salesnet, the new CRM that Torani chose to adapt.

After conducting a customized CustomerCentric Selling® workshop with all levels of account managers, Andrea Edwards, a CustomerCentric Selling® affiliate, worked with the sales team to monitor the results of their sales process implementation initiative. In addition, Edwards was retained to provide sales coaching, so that all sales people would be able to assimilate and personally implement the new sales process.

Since February 1, 2005:

• There have been 140 plus wins (domestic only)
• Every team member has had double digit contribution to the win rate
• Of the 140 plus deals, 81 percent were within the established guidelines
• Since July 2005, the win rate within guidelines has increased to 95 percent

Foodservice Sales Director Larry Winkler is very pleased with these results. "We have stopped in basket selling and have begun to make the most of our out basket opportunities. I am very pleased with these results and the team is now thinking, planning and prospecting 'bigger'."

For more information about Toriani, please visit www.torani.com. Reach Philippe Lavie by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .