The company, with offices in Ghent, doesn’t just sell supplies — it also sells the skills needed to bring its products to life.

“We will make it easy as possible for you to bake those fresh bread products,” said International Marketing Manager Filip Eeckhout. “It’s all about selling operations and making life easy for the people who bake our products. That’s our promise.”

But in 2016, after successfully growing the Croustifrance brand for nearly 20 years, Croustico by Vandemoortele decided it needed a change. Increased competition was squeezing the market, giving people fresh baked goods everywhere they turned: From newsstands to train stations to bars. To respond, Croustico by Vandemoortele launched a rebranding to emphasize both its heritage and high quality products.

The company dropped the Croustifrance branding and began selling its bakery services under the Croustico by Vandemoortele name to remind people of the company’s established history. It also created a strategy to highlight locally sourced products and shifted its focus from convenience to the quality of the baked good itself.

“Europeans are not necessarily eating more bread but there are more and more outlets offering bread products,” he said. “So we decided to turn the local proximity stores into warm-hearted bakeries with more focus on quality and authenticity.”

“We changed a lot: Our name, logo, way of working, and our product offer,” Eeckhout said. “Showpad was the tool to make it all work together.”

Before Showpad, Croustico by Vandemoortele salespeople “were a little bit stuck in the past with everything,” he said.

Marketing sent paper newsletters to customers and salespeople handed printed operation manuals thick as phone books to customers. Showpad gave Croustico by Vandemoortele the opportunity to abandon all paper marketing and go 100 percent digital. Now customers can access marketing materials anytime, whether the salesperson is in the room or not.

“It greatly improved our sales efficiency,” Eeckhout said.

Showpad also became key to keeping existing customers happy. Because Croustico by Vandemoortele relies on operators to maintain the flavor and consistency of its products, the company uses Showpad to produce educational videos on an array of topics, such as how to decorate or present croissants. Eeckhout said he can determine how effective each video is because Showpad tracks each view.

When it comes to marketing food products, tastes vary depending on where you live. Salespeople like Showpad because they can create customized environments for different prospects that reflect only the products that work best for their particular store or part of Europe. When salespeople make a visit, their conversations will always be relevant.

“That makes the life of our salespeople much easier,” Eeckhout said.

Croustico by Vandemoortele also uses Experiences, which gives his salespeople the opportunity to build differentiated selling experiences that are customized and interactive. The dynamic and visual presentations make the conversations between seller and buyer more effective, which is needed when the product is technical.

Experiences also streamlines messaging. Because Croustico by Vandemoortele is not only selling food products — they’re also selling the systems that keep their products fresh. In the past, presentations became cumbersome because of all the moving parts. With all those elements in one place, presentations are now more cohesive.

Today, “everyone is a fan of Showpad” at Croustico by Vandemoortele, Eeckhout said. The solution helped the company recreate its marketing message and supported the methods needed to thrive in the digital age.

“Now, all sales documents that are shared with customers are on Showpad,” he said. “We can’t believe we worked for so long without it.”