Companies and organizations with piles of relevant data are increasingly relying on AI to mine it. This is also the case at Coeman Packaging, a distributor of packaging materials and machines. With more than 3000 B2B customers, the company has a turnover of around 35 million euros. “We had been looking for a way to make even better use of our sales opportunities for some time. Eventually we ended up with Trendskout’s AI for salesforecasting and maximizing our sales, ”says general manager Luc Vanderbeke.
Optimize sales time
Coeman Packaging has a long history and pioneered a hefty IT investment back in the 1980s. Over the years, this has led to highly developed ERP and CRM packages in the company, which contain a wealth of data. Mining all that data was a known bottleneck all along.
"A lot is happening in our market," Vanderbeke explains. "Not only our customers and competitors are evolving, but also our products. In addition, our salespeople spend too much time on administrative tasks, whereas we would rather dedicate them as much as possible to pure sales. We were therefore looking for ways to move forward and get added value from our data, in order to make more targeted sales. That's how we soon arrived at Trendskout and its broad AI applications."
Detecting sales opportunities
The company is now using Trendkout AI for its forecasting to detect less visible sales opportunities as well. Behind the scenes, it mainly involves the Sales Opportunity Detection that is baked into Trendskout AI by default. That model looks for patterns in Coeman Packaging's decades of historical sales and customer data. The AI then analyses those to make accurate predictions. Very specifically, the AI software automatically produces a monthly forecasting report that indicates which customers may be in need of a new order. In practice, the algorithm's suggestions are more than 80% accurate, which is quite an addition to the gut feeling and routines of the experienced sales team. Hard data thus supports the sales profession, which inherently floats on human relationships.
Simple technical setup
The implementation of the algorithm happened very quickly – a requirement for the Coeman Packaging team. The data from the existing ERP and CRM was easily connected to Trendskout via the standard API, without the need for an expensive preliminary process. This allowed the AI algorithm to immediately start unlocking data for quick results. New links with future software or other external data sources are also possible.
Unburdening customers
“The great thing about Trendskout for us is that you don’t have to be a computer specialist to discover new sales opportunities,” says Vanderbeke. “The Trendskout AI provides immediate added value for our salespeople. Our customers notice that they receive extra attention and appreciate the unburdening. ” The AI forecasting model detects customer needs even before they even realize it.
Continuous improvement
“In a turbulent corona year, Trendskout has helped to ensure that we can present the same strong figures today as last year,” concludes Vanderbeke. The results of the AI forecasting model are evaluated monthly and adjusted where necessary to further improve accuracy and give the sales team the best chances of new deals.
