THE CHALLENGE
To elevate buyer experiences, IFF first had to tame its product portfolio
A consumer might spritz their signature perfume in the morning, enjoy a high-protein yogurt at lunch, and wind down the day with a moisturizing face mask — all without realizing that each of those products was manufactured with the help of flavors and ingredients leader IFF.
Serving 27,000+ customers globally, IFF’s chemical catalog sets industry benchmarks for size and diversity. It’s one of the company’s greatest strengths — but its complexity was becoming a burden for the sales organization.
Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of materials needed to train on and pitch the full ingredient library, account managers often stuck to the product lines they knew best. Recent mergers and acquisitions had afforded the company more cross- and upselling opportunities than ever, but they were being left on the table.
To unlock the full potential of its portfolio, IFF turned to Showpad.
THE SOLUTION
An interactive platform that unlocked cross-selling and boosted seller confidence
To overcome this information overload, Pedro Correia, Global Digital Director, and Daniel Ruiz, Digital Activation Manager, teamed up to use Showpad to enhance seller effectiveness. They sat in on customer meetings, listened for common questions, and used those insights to design a new tool within Showpad — the IFF Portfolio Explorer — that would intuitively guide the buyer engagement journey.
What began as a way to graduate from spreadsheets, offering a centralized hub to organize content and establish a consistent taxonomy through tags and categories, quickly evolved into something far more powerful. The use of interactive navigation transformed customer conversations, providing sellers with the confidence to address buyer needs — from technical specs to value propositions — across the full portfolio. When unexpected questions arose, sales managers could quickly find a relevant presentation to share.
“The magic of Showpad is that it allows us to leverage our complexity — so our sales managers aren’t overwhelmed by it, but empowered by it,” says Daniel.
Showpad also boosted productivity before and after customer meetings.
Preparation time shrunk as sellers no longer had to chase down files or search for information in email threads. After conversations, they could curate and share follow-up materials in Shared Spaces, Showpad’s digital sales room (DSR) that keeps all relevant information in one place for the full buying committee. And thanks to Showpad’s engagement analytics and insights, the IFF marketing team could focus on creating content that resonated with customers.
“IFF has been in the world for more than 130 years. But with Showpad, we were able to add a new way of sharing, a new way of establishing conversations with customers that move faster and that we can get insights from.”
Daniel Ruiz
Digital Activation Manager at IFF
“It’s a new mindset,” says Daniel. “IFF has been in the world for more than 130 years. But with Showpad, we were able to add a new way of sharing, a new way of establishing conversations with customers that move faster and that we can get insights from. We elevated and streamlined our processes thanks to Showpad.”
THE IMPACT
Less time frantically searching, more time meaningfully engaging
While thousands of IFF salespeople around the world were already on Showpad, the IFF Portfolio Explorer deepened usage and boosted platform ROI even further.
Survey feedback on the program was unanimously positive. But Pedro and Daniel knew that to demonstrate its impact to decision-makers, they’d need to show the influence of these new enablement investments on revenue.
When they analyzed deal data on sellers using Showpad versus those who weren’t, the results spoke for themselves — users had 27% higher deal value and four times the buyer engagement.
“We clearly saw that the sales reps who use Showpad close more deals than ones that don’t,” says Pedro.
Higher deal value among IFF’s active Showpad users vs. non-users
Buyer engagement among IFF’s Showpad users
“Two major behavioral changes we saw in our sales teams after Showpad? Greater confidence and stronger curiosity to explore and engage customers.”
Pedro Correia
Global Digital Director at IFF
The Shared Spaces feature also transformed buyer engagement for IFF’s global Fortune 50 clients. Instead of sending multiple emails to different stakeholders with attachments, teams could put everything in one branded, trackable location — allowing hundreds of stakeholders across different countries to access information in one place and keeping the entire team aligned from start to finish.
Sellers using Showpad now engage four times more customers than those who don’t.
WHAT’S NEXT
Supporting the joy of science — by perfecting the science of selling
Pedro and Daniel stress that while the IFF Portfolio Explorer might look like it required sprawling teams and a colossal investment, Showpad proved to be a force multiplier, magnifying their efforts. They’re now coaching colleagues and outside partners on lessons learned, from how to effectively organize content to how to measure engagement metrics, scaling enablement maturity across the organization.
Looking ahead, the team sees an opportunity to deepen their use of Showpad’s AI capabilities and analytics to surface even more precise insights about customer behavior, further refining how sellers engage across IFF’s vast portfolio.
IFF’s scale might be large, but its relationship with consumers is deeply personal. Their products are designed to shape taste, and elevate food experiences — a mission that calls for a rigorously high standard of care that Showpad helps support.
Pedro summarizes it best: “With Showpad, we elevated and streamlined our processes so that we can fully be with customers every day.”