Food Service Wholesaler Kuze Drives Sales Transformation Through uSonar Implementation

Kuze, a food wholesaler that celebrated its 90th anniversary last year, supports the development of the food service industry by leveraging its network of restaurants nationwide.
Recently, to respond to structural changes across the industry, the company identified the construction of a one-team sales structure as a critical management priority.
Previously, sales activities and business card management were handled individually, with results often concentrated among a few high performers. Consequently, there was a need to elevate organizational performance by visualizing sales processes and promoting the division of labor across marketing, inside sales, and field sales.

To address these challenges, the DX Promotion team within the Corporate Strategy Office redefined the company's use of kintone from a simple "management tool" to a "system to maximize customer satisfaction and profit." They began building a framework to accurately visualize and replicate the processes leading to orders, rather than just the results.

To achieve this, it was first necessary to resolve data duplication and obsolescence within the customer database to establish a solid customer data foundation. Furthermore, they envisioned a mechanism to effectively utilize this corporate data to enable sales teams to increase revenue (shortening lead times).
Based on these requirements, uSonar was selected for its ability to consolidate corporate data within kintone by location (such as individual restaurants) and for the high coverage of the LBC corporate database, which contains 12.5 million records nationwide. A key feature of this implementation is its deployment across multiple departments.

1. Sales Department
The sales department utilizes uSonar based on the customer data infrastructure organized by LBC, supporting both existing sales efforts to "deeply understand customers" and new business development focused on "proposing solutions based on customer business conditions."
For existing sales, the ability to visualize transaction status at the individual store level for chains and group companies enables a proactive approach to untapped locations within existing client organizations. Furthermore, by leveraging "Cautionary" information and credit ratings, the department has optimized the allocation of sales resources.
For new business development, the team uses the corporate information and business card management app "mSonar." In addition to managing information on independently owned restaurants, the app allows for flexible corporate searches at any time, enabling staff to easily grasp detailed information before meetings. This contributes to more efficient information gathering and the standardization of sales skills.

2. Product and Marketing Departments
In today's digital society, 70% of the purchasing process is completed before a salesperson makes contact, making pre-purchase research and evaluation by buyers a critical factor in decision-making.
The product and marketing departments at Kuze utilize the "Live Access" feature to visualize companies visiting their corporate website. By using Live Access, they can identify in real-time "which companies are viewing which pages on the website," allowing for more meaningful customer engagement.

3. Other Departments
In other departments, customer codes that were previously managed separately by the sales department have been unified and consolidated using the LBC code provided by uSonar, significantly reducing the man-hours required for complex reconciliation tasks.
Additionally, by utilizing "Credit Rating Information," the company can identify high-risk businesses in advance, leading to smoother credit assessments and transaction decisions.
Furthermore, the time-consuming process of individual internet searches for corporate research has been streamlined, as basic corporate information, financial data, and affiliate information can now be viewed in a single list on uSonar. As a result, this has contributed to greater efficiency in overall research and administrative tasks and improved productivity.

With the implementation of uSonar, Kuze is advancing the creation of a company-wide information utilization infrastructure that includes not only the sales department but also the product and marketing departments.
Moving forward, in addition to the CRM data from the inside sales department established three years ago, the company plans to integrate data from the SFA accumulated by field sales with BI tools. The goal is to leverage AI-driven, advanced data analysis to support decision-making and management.
Furthermore, by making more effective use of cautionary and credit rating information based on uSonar's corporate data, the company will continue to strengthen its risk management and proposal capabilities. Kuze aims to establish a data-driven sales structure centered on corporate data.

Previously, our sales activities were primarily reliant on the individual intuition and experience of each employee. However, by implementing uSonar, we have successfully established a foundation for utilizing customer data.
Because it is now possible to utilize corporate data at the branch and group levels, we expect to realize more strategic and reproducible sales activities. While cherishing the trust we have built as a company with a long history, we will continue to take on challenges as a company that supports the transformation of the food industry, striving to grow into an organization that is more convenient for both our customers and our employees.

Founded in 1934, Kuze Co., Ltd. is a food wholesaler that sells commercial food products and materials to the food service industry nationwide.
With the mission of "Connecting thoughts through the power of food," the company supports the future of food by leveraging its proposal-based sales and product development capabilities.

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