For Jordano’s Foodservice, AI is quickly becoming the foundation of a new sales model, built for how restaurant operators actually buy today.

Patrick Day, VP and General Manager at Jordano’s, calls it “selling in the digital age.” And the strategy is simple: if customers live on their phones, order late at night, and discover products through Instagram and text messages, then sales reps need a system that allows them to sell in that world without being trapped in admin work.

That mindset has helped Jordano’s do something rare for an 111-year-old family-run distributor: move faster than the industry giants, win modern accounts, and build a sales team that’s ready for the next generation of buyers.

Selling Digitally With AI: Meeting Customers Where They Already Buy

Patrick believes the biggest shift in foodservice sales isn’t pricing, product, or even delivery: It’s customer behavior.

Many of Jordano’s accounts have transitioned from first-generation owners to second-generation operators. These are buyers in their 30s who run their businesses through messaging, social media, and constant digital communication.

Patrick described it plainly: customers are now always shopping.

“A chef sees a product at another restaurant, takes a picture, and sends a message at 10pm, saying ‘Can you get me this’. We have to be responsive to that kind of buying, because these days our customers are always shopping”.

In the past, that kind of moment was hard to capture. The rep might not see it until the next day, and the order process could become slow or fragmented. Now, Jordano’s is designing their sales motion around that reality, one where selling happens through text threads, photos, and quick digital exchanges.

Patrick even recalled a sales rep asking: “Can we sell on Instagram?”. A few years ago, that would have sounded ridiculous. Today, Jordano’s sees it as inevitable.

AI as a Growth Engine: Turning Time Saved Into New Revenue

Most companies adopt technology to “save time.” Jordano’s takes a different approach. Patrick is explicit: time saved is not the outcome, the outcome is what salespeople do with that time.

He’s using AI to remove the obstacles that keep reps from doing the work that actually grows accounts:

• Visiting more customers
• Showing new items
• Prospecting and winning competitive deals
• Building smarter digital order experiences inside Pepper

In Patrick’s view, this is the biggest mistake large distributors make. They roll out technology, then use it as an excuse to shrink the salesforce or load more accounts onto fewer reps.

Jordano’s is doing the opposite. Patrick is hiring more salespeople, expanding into new territories like LA, Ventura, and Orange County, and using technology to make reps more effective, not replaceable.

“AI is game-changing for this industry, and I know what’s going to happen: the big guys will roll it out and put fewer people on the street. That just blows my mind. I’m hiring more reps, not less. Sales people make you money, don’t they? Why would you want less of them?”

Competing Against The Big 3: Technology Is Now Part of the Pitch

Jordano’s is increasingly winning opportunities where they’re being compared directly to the largest distributors in the country, and the conversations are changing.

When Jordano’s competes for chain or multi-site business, customers don’t just ask about pricing and service, they ask about the ordering experience. Buyers want self-serve tools, to order overnight, to search, reorder, and manage purchasing on their own schedule.

Patrick shared that prospects now directly compare platforms like Pepper to tools from US Foods, Sysco, and PFG. Technology is no longer a back-office topic, it’s part of the sales conversation.

And Jordano’s believes that AI is helping them leapfrog what the “big guys” can offer today.

Patrick put it bluntly: Jordano’s spent years playing catch-up. Now, with AI, they’re passing them.

The Tools That Make It Real: How Pepper’s Order Agent Became the Breakthrough

The turning point for Jordano’s wasn’t just adopting Pepper, it was rolling out Pepper’s AI Order Agent. Patrick expected a slow pilot - Instead, his sales team jumped in immediately. In fact, some reps started giving customers the Order Agent number right away, letting them place orders via text and voicemail with minimal coaching.

Within two weeks, Jordano’s saw results that surprised even leadership:

• Hundreds of orders processed
• Thousands of pieces captured
• Roughly 90% accuracy
• Full visibility into who submitted orders, when they came in, and where corrections were needed

But the biggest impact wasn’t operational, it was cultural.

At a general sales meeting, Patrick asked reps what the #1 benefit was and the answer was unanimous: “We got our Sundays back.” No more afternoons keying orders - they could use the weekend to focus on their family, and the weekdays to focus on selling.

And Patrick didn’t let it stop there. He used that reclaimed time to set a new standard: build better customer ordering experiences, push new products digitally, and spend more time in the field selling. That’s what made AI stick at Jordano’s: not just the tool, but the strategy behind it.

Because for Jordano’s, AI isn’t about replacing the salesperson, It’s about removing the friction so salespeople can do what they do best:

Build relationships, bring ideas, and grow the business.

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