An Open Letter to Foodservice Distributors
Donald Burns
The Restaurant Coach®️| 6X Amazon Best Selling Author - My mission is to work with independent restaurant owners that want to achieve the have-it-all lifestyle across all four domains: Body, Being, Balance, Business.
Dear Foodservice Distributor,
In the ever changing world of restaurants, people are struggling. How do we add value to customers that are just surviving and not thriving? Education.
Whatever you think you are doing to help your customers is not enough. You need to really up your game and become known as a provider of solutions other than lower food costs and the standard control systems that all your competitors have. To stand out you must be innovative and progressive.
Offering educational seminars and workshops is a great way to show you are invested in your customers. For the last 5 years I have worked with some true forward thinking food companies and we have seen the data. 28% increase in sales penetration in accounts that attend a third party workshop sponsored by a food vendor.
Other data:
• 32% increase in cases
• Increased loyalty to the sponsoring vendor
• Increased sales on product lines mentioned during workshops
All of these things basically add value to the customer and places your brand top of mind. The workshops need to be creative and engaging. Please don't do the same boring seminars on how to lower your food cost a few points. Bring value by showing the multiple dimensions of what composes solid food cost management. Bring in a professional that can have an impact and deliver a message that gets customers to take action. Get someone with influence.
Bring in industry experts that can elevate your brand to being committed to educating the customer and not just selling them. There are a lot of other companies in your market that can drop of groceries to the back door of a restaurant. You want to become known as the company that will show the customer how to make more money. That comes from education on issues they truly need help on.
• How to fine tune labor costs
• How to stand out in social media marketing today.
• How to attract and retain top talent.
• How to build a team.
• How to turn managers into leaders.
These are the topics that help restaurant thrive. All business problems are really people problems in disguise and if you focus on helping them solve the people problems, you will have a customer for life.
Foodservice Distributors need to help more restaurants find solutions to the real problems that get them stuck and keep them contained in what is known as the addiction to average. Help them break free and help your brand stand out.
If you would like to discuss how we can build an educational program for your market together, please contact me. Helping restaurants escape the cult of mediocrity has always been my mission.
Sincerely,
Donald Burns
The Restaurant Coach™
- Named one of The Top 30 Restaurant Experts to Follow in 2016 & 2017 by Toast Restaurant Management Blog.
- Named one of The 32 Most Useful Hospitality Websites to Bookmark in 2016 by Typsy
- Named one of 50 Hotel, Restaurant, and Café Industry Experts on Twitter by Resseto
- Named one of The 27 Restaurant Experts You Should Follow on Twitter by Typsy
- Named one of the 7 Restaurant Podcasts You Don’t Want to Miss by Toast Restaurant Management Blog
Director of Operations at NVMS, Inc.
7yThis rings true for all industries, products, and service providers!
Chef /Owner dba Chef Peter Gillotte
7ydon great article. I started a new company and one of my services is a food service contract management. I have found that if your a small operation you get little or no face to face service. sales reps seem to be pushed to open as many businesses as possible. as full commission sales reps they can't afford to take the extra steps needed to help the operator grow their business and profits.
President @ ENJ Insurance Group | Kris Aley Allstate Insurance Agency
7yDon, I am on both sides of foodservice, our family operates a local restaurant and I work on the supply side as a manufacture Rep. I am embarrassed to say this (for them) but most independent restaurant owners won't reinvest into their own business by educating themselves with all of the tools that are offered by their supplier partners; the trend might be changing a bit since the younger generations seem to be more open to learning new things ? Thanks for sharing your article !