Any company that has successfully lasted nearly a century will have growing pains when it comes time to cross the digital divide. Quadient faced this challenge as it evolved from a traditional mailing company — providing customers mailing, shipping, and document management solutions since 1924 — to a customer communication and shipping organization offering specialty B2B software products.

The French-based company discovered many of the ways it conducted business needed transformation. Culturally, the relationship between sales and marketing was deteriorating.

“Marketing would complain that Sales was not selling enough, and sales would look back and say marketing didn’t know what it was like to be out there,” Head of Commercial Marketing Lee Graham says. “We knew we could perform better as a combined sales and marketing team.”

Account managers needed to become more sophisticated sellers because Quadient’s products were now more complex. Suddenly, they had to become authorities on issues like compliance and regulation. They were now targeting senior decision makers across the whole business, rather than their typical contacts in the mailroom.

“The buyers know so much more today because they’re researching on the Internet,” Lee says. “You can’t just send out a Christmas card and say your job is done.”

Quadient knew it needed to change. But it needed a solution that didn’t just solve its current problems; it needed technology that would put them on the next level for growth.

Starting in 2017, Quadient handed iPads with Showpad already installed on them to 100 field account managers and 20 members of its centralized teleSales team. The upside was clear within months — usage rate among account managers reached 98 percent. The average sales cycle shortened from three months to two weeks. In 2017 alone, Quadient software sales grew by 40 percent.

After that, Lee says, “Showpad became a core part of our selling DNA.”

Quadient immediately stopped printing product brochures and its quarterly customer guide. Both were replaced by PDFs in Showpad. By stopping printing materials, the company saved £15,000, or nearly $20,000 in yearly printing and shipping costs.

For Quadients’s marketing team, Showpad delivered insight. Through Showpad, marketers gained a better understanding of the conversations between account managers and prospects because it showed which content was opened, shared, and discussed.

“Before we could only judge success or failure by the results. We didn’t know what worked or didn’t work,” Lee says. The visibility is invaluable in helping Quadient make strategic marketing decisions and also evaluating which marketing content delivered results.

For Quadient’s sales department, Showpad delivered authority. “It invigorated our sales force,” Lee adds. “It has made them feel like the company has invested in them and wants them to succeed.” Salespeople no longer have to fumble for paper or realize they are working with outdated documents. Through Showpad, salespeople now arrive at a buyer’s door armed with content specifically tailored for their industry, business, and challenges.

Prospects can now watch videos on an iPad or scroll through to find the content most relevant to them. The relationship is now more collaborative and interactive.

Sharing content using Showpad provides invaluable insight into how the customer interacts with it: Did prospects open it? Did they share it with a colleague? What did they look at and for how long? All of this insight helps to drive follow-up conversations.

Now, when prospects see a Quadient account manager walk through the door, they see an opportunity to add value.

“Tell me what I don’t know” is a common customer request, Lee says, and it’s one his team is happy to answer. Customers know they’ll learn more than expected when they sit down and explore options through Showpad. The new dynamic transforms the account manager into someone who can show new ways to achieve ROI, increase efficiency, and whatever else the customer needs. Any question that may come up, the solution is now one click away.

“Showpad drives conversations,” he says. “And conversations lead to sales.”