How to sell to restaurant owners

[misstenacity]

Wow, this is a new one for me. How to be a salesperson. In my several years of occasional eGullet posting (even one foodblog!) and copious reading, I now am seeking your counsel.

From my limited experience, restaurants exist on the margins of profitability much more so than other businesses, and any boost in income is something that appeals to them . . . but only if it doesn't eat into their already horribly overcrowded schedule and put a burden on their people.

So, I have the wonderful opportunity of an audience of high end restaurateurs to whom I want to pitch more sales through their websites. What's the key hook that is going to bring them on board? Simply more money, or is it the more money PLUS no legwork. Or is it ego - adopting a newish feature ahead of their competition?

Love to hear your thoughts on this, for I can talk the foodie talk, but not walk the restaurant owner walk. Yet.

Andrea

[Holly Moore]

Wow, this is a new one for me.  How to be a salesperson.    In my several years of occasional eGullet posting (even one foodblog!) and copious reading, I now am seeking your counsel.

From my limited experience, restaurants exist on the margins of profitability much more so than other businesses, and any boost in income is something that appeals to them . . . but only if it doesn't eat into their already horribly overcrowded schedule and put a burden on their people.

So, I have the wonderful opportunity of an audience of high end restaurateurs to whom I want to pitch more sales through their websites.  What's the key hook that is going to bring them on board?  Simply more money, or is it the more money PLUS no legwork.  Or is it ego - adopting a newish feature ahead of their competition?

Love to hear your thoughts on this, for I can talk the foodie talk, but not walk the restaurant owner walk.  Yet. 

Andrea

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1. Credible proof that it works.

2. Free, like Google ads.

Especially for a high end restaurant - 3. Aesthetically compatible to their site.

4. Free.

Any small business owner, especially a retail business, is bombarded with advertising and marketing "opportunities." Most have little tolerance for unsolicited solicitations.

[misstenacity]

1.  Credible proof that it works.

2.  Free, like Google ads.

Especially for a high end restaurant - 3.  Aesthetically compatible to their site.

4.  Free.

Any small business owner, especially a retail business, is bombarded with advertising and marketing "opportunities."  Most have little tolerance for unsolicited solicitations.

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Thank you for the feedback! I really appreciate hearing what everyone thinks about this...

Ok, #1 - check. Have a good selection of local (to me) restaurants that are selling well with virtually no work on their end.

#2 - Google ads are not free. Far from it, actually. I ran a small campaign myself for an organization I volunteer for and it took all of a week to rack up $100 in fees...

#3 - Absolutely. I know aethetics are VERY important, so there's no way we'd do it any other way. The flow from one page to another is nearly imperceptible to the user.

#4 - I'm not sure how to answer this one... There are no maintenance fees or contracts, but it is a technology company that I work for, not a non-profit.

Andrea

[Holly Moore]

Re Google ads, I'm assuming if I set up my site for Google ads, that it doesn't cost me anything and I get some sort of revenue as a result of people clicking on the ad.

I was suggesting that a marketing opportunity that only makes money when the restaurant makes money would be an easy sell.

[misstenacity]

Re Google ads, I'm assuming if I set up my site for Google ads, that it doesn't cost me anything and I get some sort of revenue as a result of people clicking on the ad.

I was suggesting that a marketing opportunity that only makes money when the restaurant makes money would be an easy sell.

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Right, gotcha. My mistake on the Google ads - I was thinking about AdWords, where you pay to show your own ads.

But you're exactly on target with your second statement - that is how it works. First, the restaurant makes/collects money, and then only later we ask for our side of it. This format definitely makes me an eager participant in how best to increase sales - the only way we make money is when our clients do first!

Andrea

[Sabrosita]

As a restaurant marketing professional (so a big enough group that it can afford to have one) I'm extremely wary of the word free. I actually reccomend against using that one. It scares me, sets off the "there is a catch and I have to be smart enough to catch it" and that makes extra work for me. I would rather have a sales person be completely honest and lay down exactly how much money I'm going to spend, exactly where that money is going, and exactly why it works. And concisely. These are extremely busy people. If you give them one extra free minute that they thought they had to be meeting with you, they will be thankful.

[misstenacity]

Thanks for the reply, Sabrosita.

I'm with you - tell me what it will cost and then I'll decide if the fees justify the result.

So far, we've done well with that approach, and if you get a business owner who is really on top of their cash flow and they get what the practice of "breakage" will do to the bottom line, they're usually very eager to engage...

I'm leaving for NY on Sunday, and looking forward to one of the meetings we have scheduled already.

That, and going to Joe's Shangahi for Xiaolong Bao!

Andrea

[WiscoNole]

What the heck are you selling?!

[misstenacity]

The software/ability to sell instant gift certificates on the restaurant's website - no cards, no paper. They are emailed to the recipient or printed by the giver.

That's it. :-)

Andrea

[Jakea222]

One I am not your typical sous chef. I do like to have someone come in, appointments are great, showing up at rush is bad. Anyways - STORY - I had a lady this week come in right before rush. Says If I could have 90 seconds of you time I would like to show you something. In 90 seconds she showed me a cleaning product for grills, hoods etc that literally made me feel like one of those idiots on an infomercital going WOW. Because is was a pricey item I had to have the exec look and sure enough samer reaction and the staff same reaction.

So my point is - if you are not going to do a face to face whatever you get better have a wow factor included. We bought 1000.00 bucks of cleaner in about 30 minutes because the face to face sell was good and the product was good. If you rope me in in the first couple of seconds, I will read or watch - you bore me with details, I have things to cook or chop - so knock em dead!

[misstenacity]

Jakea222,

I hear you! We've even found that since we're not really selling a THING, it is extra tricky to get someone's interest. We want our restaurants to make more money because of us, and then just kick back a small amount of what they make. So there's no "$1000 of product" to unload, or anything like that.

We might suffer from being almost too simple (?) - add this thing to your website, and you'll make more money because of it. Owners are dubious about it being that straightforward, frankly.

Still pondering.... but we did get a few takers in NYC that are getting started, so that's a joy.

Andrea

[Jakea222]

So how are you doing with your "sell"?

[misstenacity]

So how are you doing with your "sell"?

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Eesh, long response time. Sorry, Jake. Things are going, but slower that we'd hoped. Our other clients are spas/salons and I have to say, restaurants are a bit tougher of a sell, at least until I get to know them better.

It is starting to look like approaching it from the angle of doing marketing and driving new diners in the doors is much better than the "sell more from your website without doing anything" pitch. Most restaurants have a budget for marketing but not for their website per se, so we can get a toe in the door a little more easily by going for marketing right out of the gate.

More thoughts? Any eGullet restauranteurs that would like to try us out will get TLC treatment from me - use PM for those discussions, please.

I hope everyone's summer is doing well so far, despite the cloudy economics out there.