What Comfort Zone?

Eat. Drink.

I have had a lot of conversations with clients this past month. Both new and existing clients. It is so exciting to see caterers, design companies and venue operators thinking about new strategies, being busy again and getting back to business.

What has been most interesting is how everyone is mixing it up and trying different things. They may have a new, profitable line of business they created in 2020 they want to continue and expand on.   They may have recently hired employees they are excited to train and onboard. They may be having more frequent conversations with their favorite clients and industry partners. They are all thinking about the positive path ahead.

The pandemic forced my clients to seek new opportunities and work in ways they never would have imagined before. 2020 gave them the time to do this. Although way beyond their pre-pandemic comfort zone, they pushed themselves to get where they are today. With hard work, focus and dedication, they survived. Now they have streamlined their businesses to run smarter and be more profitable in the future. Hopefully, it will be more enjoyable as well.

Inspire.

My business is four years old this month. I cannot believe it. It was such a whirlwind of activity and growth my first three years. I traveled coast-to-coast and developed amazing relationships as I continued to expand my client base. I loved every minute of it. January and February 2020 were insanely busy, pacing to be the best year of my business yet. Then March hit.

It was a few unsettling months wondering what was going to happen and if anyone would be interested in investing in a consultant. As the pandemic continued to worsen, I tried to be optimistic but realized I could not rely on my clients to keep me busy in 2020. It wasn’t even about money. I needed something else to keep me active, relevant and engaged.

In May, 2020, I started to have more frequent conversations with a fellow consultant and friend, Francisco Christian of Taylored Hospitality Solutions. It was great talking to someone like me. We talked about what was needed in the industry and who was asking for help. We started having weekly strategy calls to determine how we could help. We explored new, effective mediums for reaching out to the industry. 

Since this time, we have created an affordable consulting partnership called Rebound with Frank & Jen (fultonmarketconsulting.com/consulting-rebound), produced over a dozen free webinars for the International Caterers Association, participated in a podcast for Catersource, developed several additional industry-related zoom workshops and most recently, published an educational, written book series called Catering Chronicles (fultonmarketconsulting.com/ebooks). All this while maintaining our own businesses and client relationships.

I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I had to try something new to keep myself busy and engaged. It was also great working in tandem with someone I respected and could rely on. I always challenge my clients to think differently, so I had to do the same. I would have never thought at this time last year, I would be calling myself a published author ready to launch our second book next week.

Selling is New for Some of Our Salespeople

I started my business three years ago. The typical phone call I get from a potential new client is, “Can you teach my salespeople how to sell and stop being order takers?”

Owners, managers and company leaders, we have done a disservice to our sales teams for the last two decades with poor sales and business development decisions we have made:

• We call some salespeople “salespeople” when many are truly “account managers”  

• These “account managers” are used to handling inbound leads and have never attempted an outbound new business call their entire career

• Lead distribution has fooled these “account managers” into thinking they have been “selling” all this time

• We have become reliant on external venues and third-party websites to provide leads and have forgotten how to find new business

• Leads are expected. Leads should not be expected. I call leads GIFTS.

• What we considered selling in “our day” is different than what happens today

Sure, salespeople and account managers need to be skilled in relationship building, listening, knowing their product and understanding their client’s needs. That type of selling is very important and I am not minimizing it. I love when salespeople take a $50,000 client and turn that client into a $250,000 client. That is an imperative expectation of individual sales growth. However, that doesn’t mean they have been fulfilling your expectation of selling; they have been nurturing and growing existing business. 

Once we return to planning gatherings over 10 guests, we need to recognize something; the phone ain’t going to be ringing as much as it did for the last 11 years. We need to get our hustle back on.

So now we will see who is

a real salesperson, right? 

When we all return to the office post-COVID-19, your sales team should have more time to sell. I bet some have never done this before. I can actually guarantee this, as I have owned my business for three years and have worked with several salespeople who have told me as such. This is a skill set that needs to be taught, re-taught, audited and developed. Do not assume your team knows how to sell. Provide them the tools and coaching to make them comfortable as many need to start at square one.

Seven Initial Ideas for Leadership Coaching:

• Have honest, individual dialogues with each one of your team members

• Ask them if they have ever called on a new client

  • What made them feel good? What made them feel bad?

• Define your actual expectation for what a “call” is

  • Phone vs. Email?

  • Is tackling your stagnant client base a good start?

• Look at a sample outbound email to see how they introduce themselves

• Look at what collateral materials are readily available following the initial call

  • Be prepared for immediate follow up

• Pretend to be the potential customer so the salesperson can practice

  • Ask questions back/email responses back

• Provide resources for research

  • Stagnant- Invoice Reports, Revenue History

  • New Biz- Trade Publications, LinkedIn, Google Alerts

As a former catering salesperson, the luckiest thing that happen to me was not being at the “big dog” company. I had to be scrappy and creative to find new business. I had to have guts to call on previously proposed lost business. Have that mindset now no matter what your company’s size and resources. Everyone is in the same doghouse now.

Front of House AND Back of House—not versus!

There is always a silly assumption in the catering business that the front of house and back of house does not get along.

“The sales team does not know how to sell food!”

“The culinary team never understands what the client wants!”

The list could go on and on. Get over it, caterers! You are missing out on the best, most collaborative internal business development relationship that I can guarantee will increase your sales, enhance your client partnerships, and improve team morale if you realize the culinary team can and should be an active and collaborative participant in your daily sales processes.

Encourage your sales consultants and chefs to tackle a few of these team initiatives together and see what happens:

Food is beautiful!

Tastings

This is imperative. START THIS TODAY. Food is cool. Food is trendy. Food is sexy. Your chef is the most exciting person for a client to see in the tasting room. This is their stage. Let the culinary team be the lead performers. Sales consultants should absolutely assist in best supporting roles. Please—no excuses that chefs are not “customer friendly.” This is not acceptable; arm the culinary team with client information, event and venue data, and then also provide communication and customer skill relations training if necessary. Lastly, have the culinary team sit in a tasting as a guest to “feel” the experience to understand the client and sales perspective.

 

Sales training educational sessions

Encourage hands-on training and educational sessions so sales consultants can better understand the products they are selling. Invite outside industry experts to your office to conduct training sessions—including your local farmers, wine producers, produce vendors, meat purveyors, and fish and seafood suppliers—anyone that can explain their products directly from the source. Knowledge is power and clients will buy from a salesperson that is confident in the product they are selling.

 

New product roll-outs with invited clients

Invite a select group of inspirational clients into the kitchen for a “casual” new product roll out. The environment should be as comfortable as if you are inviting them to your home.  Provide feedback forms, keep the roll-out to a structured time frame, and print tasting menus. Have service staff available and offer creative alcohol-free beverages. Taste a broad selection of menu items, show the products on new equipment, and create an environment for these trusted clients while asking them in return for valuable, honest feedback. It is very important that you curate an appropriate list of clients and keep the list small so this feels intimate and special.

 

Daily photo shoots

Create a photo lab in the kitchen. Keep a camera set up at all times and establish a process of photo share with the sales team that is manageable and timely. This will encourage the sales team to expand the portfolio of products they sell as they see more options coming from the kitchen and what other salespeople are selling and showing. Make sure the photos are client appropriate and visually appealing so you can use these for your social media initiatives as well.

 

Production meetings

Chefs and salespeople sit in hours and hours of production meetings. Rethink your meeting structure. Is it collaborative and forward thinking, or is the team spending hours over what happened in the previous week? Evaluate your existing communication systems and processes and the “meetings have always been done this way” mentality and start looking at the cost and time of these lengthy meetings.

 

Sales meetings

Invite the culinary team to every sales meeting and give them 15 minutes to share new ideas, implement changes, and be creative.

 

Dining budget

Give your culinary and sales team a monthly budget to explore hot, new restaurants in your city… together. Not only does it give the team a creative boost, but it also develops the relationship among your players and inspires new ideas and fun.