- CASE 03 · PACKAGING MACHINERY
Six salespeople, six ways of selling. Now there's a method.
Spanish manufacturer of packaging and end-of-line machinery, €20M in revenue. Eighteen months to go from reactive exporting to three distinct commercial models in France, Portugal and the UK, with the same playbook in all three.
Sector
PACKAGING MACHINERY
REVENUE
€20M
ORIGIN
SPAIN
DESTINATION
FRANCE · PORTUGAL · UK
DURATION
18 MONTHS
- Results after 18 months
What changed, in numbers.
+184%
EXPORT REVENUE · €1.9M → €5.4M
31
NEW ACCOUNTS ACROSS ALL THREE MARKETS
€3,5M
NEW BUSINESS GENERATED
24%
SHARE OF EXPORT REVENUE · PREVIOUSLY 9.5%
13
SALESPEOPLE TRAINED AND CERTIFIED
29%
QUOTE CONVERSION · PREVIOUSLY 18%
7,5 meses
5,2
AVERAGE SALES CYCLE
±38%
±11%
QUARTERLY FORECAST DEVIATION
Average project ticket: €112,000. New accounts by market: 14 in France, 11 in Portugal and 6 in the UK.
- THE STARTING POINT
Good product, good salespeople, no method.
A solid company with twenty-five years in the workshop, in-house engineering and an enviable Spanish customer base. 90% of revenue came from within 600 kilometers of the factory.
Outside Spain, whatever came in came on its own: one trade show a year, two legacy distributors with no targets or follow-up, and the occasional one-off project that showed up through a referral.
01
Reactive exporting
No market criteria or targets by country: whatever came in got handled, nothing was actively pursued.
02
Six different playbooks
Each salesperson with their own pitch, their own discount matrix and their own spreadsheet. Impossible to know why a project was won or lost.
03
Price as the only argument
With no total-cost or technical-service pitch, every negotiation ended in the same conversation: the discount.
- THE MARKET DECISION
Three countries, three different commercial models.
The research ruled out the easy answer —”let’s open a subsidiary in all three”— and assigned each market the structure its sales cycle and average ticket could actually sustain.
FR
FRANCE
In-house team
2 KAMs and 1 application engineer.
A large market, long cycle and demanding on-site demos: the project doesn’t move forward without local technical presence. It’s the only one of the three where volume justifies an in-house structure from year one.
PT
PORTUGAL
Exclusive distributor
Technically and commercially certified.
Proximity, lower average ticket and more operations volume: the cost of an in-house structure would have eaten into margin. We chose a distributor with its own workshop and trained them with the same program as the internal team.
UK
UNITED KINGDOM
Agent + service partner
With a committed spare-parts SLA.
Post-Brexit customs barrier and demand for local service. A sales agent with a portfolio in food and beverage, and a technical partner that guarantees spare parts and start-up without depending on the factory.
Italy and Germany were left out of this phase: entrenched local competition and an entry cost that wouldn't pay back within the 18-month horizon.
- Cómo lo hicimos · 18 meses
Elegir bien, probar barato y después construir.
01
Months 1-3
Market research
Five candidates on the table, three survivors.
- Demand and channel mapping across five markets: who buys, who refers and who provides service.
- 34 interviews with plant managers, integrators and local distributors.
- Attractiveness / effort matrix with entry cost, entrenched competition and expected return at 18 months.
France, Portugal and the UK · Italy and Germany, postponed
02
Months 4-8
Demand validation
Two flagship accounts per country before hiring anyone.
- Commercial pilots with six flagship accounts: real proposals, demos and negotiations.
- Value proposition test: machine price versus cost per unit packaged, measured by rate of progress to quote.
- Channel model validation and agreement with the Portuguese distributor.
The total-cost pitch wins · the structure by country is confirmed
03
Months 9-18
Structure and execution
One single commercial system for four countries.
- Single CRM with pipeline by country, common qualification criteria and a forecast dashboard.
- Onboarding of 2 KAMs and 1 engineer in France, with a six-week onboarding.
- Weekly sales cadence and monthly pipeline review by market lead.
31 new accounts · forecast with ±11% deviation
- SALES TEAM TRAINING
A method is worth little if everyone tells it their own way.
- Playbook by country: talk track, common objections, discount matrix and qualification criteria, in Spanish, French, Portuguese and English.
- Consultative selling and total cost: from the machine price to the cost per unit packaged and the payback period in years.
- 38 recorded role-plays based on real pipeline projects, reviewed one by one with each salesperson.
- 42 hours of in-field coaching in France and Portugal, with on-the-spot feedback.
- Distributor certification: technical and commercial exam, with annual renewal and access to materials.
- Monthly pipeline coaching during the first twelve months.
14
PROGRAM SESSIONS
13
CERTIFIED SALESPEOPLE · 9 IN-HOUSE AND 4 FROM THE CHANNEL
42h
IN-FIELD COACHING
- HIGHLIGHTS
Four things that didn't exist before we started.
A single sales playbook for Spain, France, Portugal and the UK, with talk track and discount matrix by market.
The Portuguese distributor now sells with the same method, the same materials and the same criteria as the in-house team.
The conversation now starts at cost per unit packaged, not machine price: eleven points higher quote conversion.
Forecast with ±11% deviation: production plans with three months of real visibility, not gut feeling.
We had good salespeople and no method.
“Now, when a project comes in from Lyon or Porto, I know what’s going to happen and in how many weeks. And if we lose it, I know why. That never used to exist in this company.”
— CEO of the company
- THE SERVICES WE APPLIED
One case, three chained disciplines.
SERVICE 01
Market research
Five markets assessed against the same yardstick: demand, channel, competition and entry cost.
SERVICE 02
Demand validation
Six flagship accounts to test product, price and channel model before hiring any structure.
SERVICE 03
International sales
Structure by country, a single CRM, and training for both the in-house team and the channel.
- NEXT MOVE
Does your team sell the same way in Lyon as in Porto?
If every salesperson has their own pitch and their own discount matrix, the problem isn’t the market. In the audit we review method, channel structure and sales forecasting.
If every salesperson has their own pitch and their own discount matrix, the problem isn’t the market. In the audit we review method, channel structure and sales forecasting.
