Field visits: because customer relationships need to be nurtured!
18 September 2026
When we defined our Strategic Compass five years ago, a number of initiatives emerged to help us achieve our objectives. Among them were field visits.
Victor Chombart, Sales Representative at Carreau Fruits, tells us the story.
Why go out into the field?
✔️ We operate in a B2B2C market: it is essential to go where consumers go in order to better understand trends and make better purchasing decisions.
✔️ Although our customers are often loyal to us, every relationship needs to be nurtured and maintained. Nothing can ever be taken for granted.
✔️ Reaching out to potential customers is also a way of raising our profile.
In practical terms, how does it work?
✔️ Planning weekly rounds from September to March, working in pairs with the Fruit and Vegetable team at Le Carreau. The whole team is involved.
✔️ Organising sales rounds: we identify a specific client to visit, then map out a geographical network of clients and prospects to meet.
✔️ Communication and follow-up: we share what we’ve observed and update a shared spreadsheet so that we’re all on the same page.
What’s the point?
It is shared:
✔️ With our customers, it’s all about the relationship. They appreciate us making the effort to meet them. It’s a friendly moment that strengthens our bond. We’re ‘in their home’, as Victor explains.
“We take the time to explore their retail outlets and discuss strategy and in-store promotions in greater depth. This gives us ideas for other product ranges to develop, helps us avoid getting stuck in a purchasing rut and allows us to see things from a fresh perspective.”
A way that suits us to build customer loyalty whilst growing our business.
✔️ With potential customers, the approach is the same: build a connection before trying to make a sale.
“Our role isn’t to push sales. We take an interest in them, their customers and where they source their produce. Then we tell them about Lagache, who we are and how we work. We leave them our brochure and offer them the chance to try a product that might suit them with a free sample. We build a connection. That’s part of our approach, too.”
✔️ Observe in order to adapt more effectively
These visits also enable us to gain a better understanding of market trends.
For example, they have enabled us to gauge the importance of delivery directly to the point of sale: a shop opening today no longer wants to ‘waste time’ on transport. This is a trend we had already anticipated, but feedback from the field allows us to further refine our approach.
We are at the start of this initiative, which is already a commendable one, beneficial to our clients and a source of motivation for our teams.
Because at Lagache, being close to our customers sometimes means leaving the Carreau to go out into their own environment.
