Case Study Johnson Food Service

Johnson Food Service is a full-service mechanical and distribution company that caters to the needs of the commercial food service industry Based In Peoria. IL. with 24 employees. the company has been serving the central Illinois food service community for 30 years

The Challenge

Like many food service equipment distributors, the sales team at Johnson found themselves spending much of their sales time sifting through paper catalogs.

“We had probably a 20-foot wall of catalogs,” said John Gleason, certified food service professional and sales rep at Johnson. “When it was time to quote a product for a customer, I had to spend so much time paging my way through the catalogs just to find out who is the rep for that company, how to get a quote from them, and then getting that quote over to the customer. It was a very
slow process.”

Gleason also points out that the team did not have an efficient way to compare manufacturers or models of equipment for their customers.

“It would take an 8-foot table to compare everyone’s specs on a door or cooler,” said Gleason. “And, that’s assuming the catalogs we were using had the most up-to-date information.”

The sales team knew that getting accurate quotes in the hands of customers quickly would help close sales faster – and free up their time to do more selling

The Solution

The team at Johnson implemented AutoQuotes, the FES industry’s most widely used and trusted software for Configuring, Pricing, and Quoting (CPQ) food service equipment. With a full suite of CPQ, design and data analytics applications, and a real-time database of more than 1M products, AutoQuotes helps dealers and distributors of food service quickly and accurately create and deliver quotes to customers – enabling reps to sell more, faster.

The Outcome

The sales team at Johnson has now been using AutoQuotes for 15 years, and they say it has transformed the way they manage their entire sales process.

“Does the invention of the lightbulb ring a bell?” said Gleason. “Using AutoQuotes changed our entire way of doing business.”

Gleason credits AutoQuotes with several major improvements in their sales processes and outcomes:

Simplified sales processes. With the industry-leading food service product catalog at his fingertips, Gleason says he is able to search for equipment and compare models for his customers in an instant – and with total confidence that he is accessing the most up-to-date product specs, every time

“AutoQuotes simplified my minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour way of doing business,” said Gleason. The ability to quickly create professional quote documents with AutoQuotes – and easily share those with customers – has also taken a significant task off Gleason’s shoulders.

“Rather than making up the quote document as I go along,or trying to come up with a template to present equipment or projects to customers, AutoQuotes puts the information into a professional quote document that I can easily share with the customer,” Gleason says. “This makes my job easier and faster.”

Helped close deals faster. As a service company, Johnson has a built-in customer base that often needs to produce quotes quickly, even on-the-spot, to support sales. For instance, if a Johnson technician is on-site at a service call and determines the repair would be costly, the technician can call the Johnson sales rep and get a quote for a new product almost instantly to help the customer consider their options – and support that sale.

“Before AutoQuotes,” Gleason says, “we would have to tell the customer we would get back to them on the price of a new piece of equipment – and then go back to the office to search our catalogs for the information. AutoQuotes makes these sales especially fast and efficient, and has absolutely helped us sell more equipment this way.”

“AutoQuotes simplified my minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour way of doing business”

– John Gleason

Johnson sales rep

Supported company growth. With less time spent researching and quoting products, the sales team at Johnson can spend more timefocused on what counts – making sales.

“We have grown so much over the years,” Gleason says. “We used to be one sales rep and a few technicians. Now we have a team of 24. AutoQuotes has definitely given our sales team the ability to focus on reaching out to more customers – and
growing the business

Case Study Johnson Food Service

The Challenge

The Solution

The Outcome

“AutoQuotes simplified my minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour way of doing business”

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