Blacksmith Applications Acquires Food Sales Enablers to Satisfy CPG Demand for Tech-Driven Sales Enablement
The newly combined solution set will deliver best-in-class sales enablement and efficiency for CPG manufacturers seeking sales and finance process and performance improvements.
(September 1, 2020 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)
BOSTON, Mass. — Blacksmith Applications, a leading provider of SaaS-based trade promotion management and optimization software for consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers, announced today its acquisition of Food Sales Enablers (FSE), bringing together the market-leading CPG trade effectiveness and sales enablement platforms.
FSE, of Buffalo, New York, provides integrated sales enablement and mobile technology solutions to manufacturers and brokers of all sizes and categories. In a competitive set where CRM solutions simply serve as a repository for data and pipeline tracking, the FSE platform, combined with Blacksmith’s data and applications, will yield offensive sales insights; telling CPGs where to spend their time selling and even what price to offer for a higher-probability win.
The combined company will facilitate end-to-end sales enablement and efficiency through a broad assortment of trade management, promotion optimization, sales execution, and revenue growth solutions. Blacksmith will retain the Food Sales Enablers brand and application as the principal CRM and sales enablement platform for customers, and it will be offered to new clients seeking a user-friendly set of tools for integrated trade spend, contract tracking, data visibility and analytics for market activation.
“All of us at FSE are excited to be part of this next chapter with Blacksmith,” said Rick Heavern, CEO of Food Sales Enablers. “We wanted to team up with an industry leader who would value our domain knowledge and share our focus on growth, while creating connections between sales and finance organizations for our customers. Our combined solution and complementary customer portfolios will position the broader organization as the leader in CPG sales and finance technology capabilities.”
As part of the transaction, Rick Heavern will join Blacksmith Applications’ leadership team as General Manager of the Food Sales Enablers product division.
“The industry is hungry for technology that helps sales teams pinpoint exactly where net-new opportunities exist. For a long time, ordinary CRM solutions have served as basic activity monitoring systems. They have a purpose, but they haven’t propelled profit,” said Paul Wietecha, President & CEO of Blacksmith Application. “The combination of our trade system data and FSE’s platform and cataloged customer insights will finally deliver an easy enablement solution that puts sales teams back on the attack. We can help them sell more by telling them exactly where to go and even what price point should win the deal. That’s a CRM solution sales teams will get behind.”
Blacksmith Applications, backed by Strattam Capital, has a long history of partnering with the world’s largest and most successful CPG companies and is looking forward to building upon that foundation with current and future customers.
About Blacksmith Applications:
Blacksmith Applications is a SaaS technology company offering trade management and optimization services and software to CPG retail and foodservice organizations. Our TPM and TPO applications help customers spend money better. Our customer list includes organizations such as Tyson, Smucker’s, Nestle, Unilever, KraftHeinz and more. The Blacksmith Applications team is comprised of professionals with decades of CPG experience and we stand apart from ordinary solutions not only in the capabilities of our applications but also in our industry knowledge. Find out more at www.blacksmithapplications.com.
About Food Sales Enablers:
Founded in 1999, Food Sales Enablers is an industry leader providing integrated software solutions to CPG sales and marketing organizations (to include their broker sales teams). Our platform facilitates revenue growth effectiveness and efficiency. Capabilities include content management, product data, CRM, business planning, sales reporting, analytics and a robust suite of mobile solutions. Hundreds of clients rely on Food Sales Enablers to achieve deeper market penetration and performance optimization. Find out more at www.fsenablers.com.
About Strattam:
Strattam Capital invests in founder-led, independent, B2B software technology companies outside of Silicon Valley. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, we connect companies with the people, process, and scale needed to reach their potential. We believe in aligning with founders before signing, via our Five-Point Plan process, to allow execution with purpose, excitement, and efficiency. For more information, please visit Strattam.com.
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Media Contact:
Jennifer Schiffman
Blacksmith Applications
978-557-7565
SOURCE Blacksmith Applications
Related Links
http://www.blacksmithapplications.com
