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Pioneering catering business increases CRM
capability to retain customers and grow
Company Background
Pabulum provides a range of catering services to the education sector. Unlike many of its
competitors however, Pabulum only provide the very best, regionally sourced food, over 94% of
which is prepared fresh onsite at every school and educational establishment each day. To deliver
this exceptional service, Pabulum only serves schools within a 125 mile radius of its Hampshirebased head office.
Despite this niche strategy, Pabulum is a thriving business with over 1000 employees and a fast
growing turnover in excess of £23million per annum. With an unwavering mission to remain at the
forefront of shaping the next generation’s passion for fresh food, Pabulum decided to review its
customer relationship management strategy. Mike Richardson, Sales and Marketing Director,
joined the company to lead a transformation project spanning every stage of customer contact,
acquisition and retention.
Challenges
Pabulum’s new sales opportunities come from 2 largely reactive sources – consultants supporting
food procurement contacts for schools and ‘OJEU’, a European Journal which publishes upcoming
contract tenders. The small sales team had been using a CRM system from ACT but over time
processes had adapted and use of the system had become sporadic. With a largely reactive sales
and marketing approach, Pabulum was struggling to plan and forecast within the business. Plus, as
a company driven by genuine partnerships, they were finding that often they weren’t meeting the
final decisions makers until the very end of the pitch process, hindering their ability to build
understanding and add incremental value. With little market research or sales analysis being
undertaken, delivering targeted, proactive marketing activity was virtually impossible.
Mike comments “We had very little market opportunity data to support planning for our next stage
of growth. Although we were already a successful company, I knew we could accelerate that
success with the right information, a more targeted approach and a stronger finger on the pulse of
our pipeline. The catalyst came when I joined the first board meeting and had to give my pipeline
projections for the next year based on assumptions rather than insights.”
Solution
Mike ran a tender process inviting solution partners for all the main CRM software packages, as
well as bespoke CRM developers, to take part. Concise CRM immediately stood out with a
refreshingly different approach, taking the time to understand the business and challenges. It
recommended a cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution with a rich set of features to
support sales, marketing and business planning activities, with the right mix of scalability, costefficiency and adaptability for a growing, thriving business. Full integration with Microsoft Office
products and Pabulum’s back-office finance system ensured that Pabulum was making a futureproofed investment choice which fully supported the business’ long-term focus on creating a
strong CRM-led culture. Concise CRM designed and configured the CRM solution for a three-phase
implementation.
“Working with Concise
CRM has been superb.
They know our business
inside out and ensure
we get the best value
and functionality from
the Dynamics CRM
solution. They are truly
an extension of my
team, supporting us
technically, guiding us
with industry
knowledge and helping
us to gain greater
efficiency. They’ve
brought more expertise,
integrity, honesty and
fun to this process than
I could have imagined.”
Mike Richardson
Sales & Marketing Director
Pabulum
Phase one functionality was provided to the sales and marketing team, followed by subsequent
development and launch to the Operations teams and then finally the Finance department.
Detailed planning sessions were undertaken, new taxonomies created to support developing
processes and historic data migrated into the new system. End user training helped the sales and
marketing team as part of the first implementation phase to quickly build confidence, become
operational and embed the new CRM processes into their daily working life.
The dynamic, new Microsoft CRM solution is enabling Pabulum to:
 Build and develop a centralised contact database for customers, partners and prospects
 Generate, track, progress and report on all sales opportunities
 Deepen customer intelligence to enhance service and identify account growth potential
 Develop profitability and probability analysis for new opportunities based on historic trends
 Create new account management plans and processes to boost contract retention rates
Business Benefits
Financial visibility


With all opportunities captured and progressed within the system, Pabulum have
increased pipeline visibility, enabling them to optimise opportunity conversion rates
Weekly trading and sales meetings are now underpinned by real-time forecasting data
and analysis aiding fast and accurate decision making
Deeper customer understanding, higher retention



A single, searchable customer database gives Pabulum complete records on every
customer as well as richer intelligence on needs, views and buyer behaviour
New account planning processes have been introduced to ensure that customer
satisfaction remains high and contract retention rates are maximised
The CRM system will become the single central business hub for all customer related
information, documentation and financial data
Insights-driven strategy


Financial analysis can be easily generated for every stage of the sales process providing
Pabulum with vital insights into ‘win’ probability and values
Contract profitability analysis enables Pabulum to increase efficiency by proactively
selecting new bids opportunities that will yield the highest return and long-term value
Targeted marketing higher ROI


Armed with complete customer profile information, Pabulum can now develop and
deliver highly targeted proactive marketing activity to create and build new relationships
Greater ability to track results ensures that Pabulum can optimise ongoing marketing
activity to meet company goals and grow revenues by 10% year-on-year
Greatest overall benefit…
“One of the best aspects has been the added-value Concise CRM gives us. They understand that
changing CRM culture is only partly about what tools we use. They trained the team, got them
excited about what the system could do, and advised on process development. Implementing the
core solution was the first step in a 3-year programme of system and cultural development; I have
every confidence in our ongoing success with Concise CRM at our side.” Mike concludes.
“I now know when
contacts are
renewing, what’s in
the pipeline and I can
gauge probability of
opportunity
conversion. We have
highly detailed
growth plans based
on real opportunity
data and a greater
level of customer
understanding. None
of that was possible
before.”
“The system will pay
for itself in a year. By
2019, we want to
have grown turnover
by a third; the CRM
system is a crucial
part of that. With
Concise CRM as our
partner I have every
confidence that goal
will be met and
exceeded.”