Two Key Strategies for Working Successfully with Food Brokers & Manufacturers
In my previous position as a foodservice marketing specialist and menu creator, I had the opportunity to work with food brokers and manufacturers. Although not directly related to the end users of my product, they played a key role in making me successful by establishing a win-win situation that increased their sales and ours.
Some people in our industry consider their sales tactics to be too pushy; and they don’t believe they are knowledgeable about their products and how they can work to expand our options. I have found that without this collaboration, we could not have grown into new areas of the market. We could not have brainstormed new ideas and products that helped us reach students on a higher level.
Here are a few strategies for working with food brokers and manufacturers to create a win-win situation:
1. Be clear with your expectations and needs. If you are looking for new ideas using poultry products let that sales professional know up front so they can offer you their best and latest product and service options. Don’t waste your time or theirs by being vague about your goals. This can cause friction in your relationship.
2. If the sales professional offers you a product for testing purposes, always be sure to follow-up with them in a reasonable amount of time. Try to look at it from their side of the equation, if you have projects that were due and you had to rely on other team members for vital feedback, wouldn’t you want to know if they did their part? Wouldn’t you need to know the end result of the project? Providing feedback lets the other party know where everyone stands and gives them the highest number of results possible to give the broadest input.
Working with food brokers and manufacturers is an important part of any school foodservice program. Understanding their role and how they can work with you to create and add products to your program can take you to another level and create a win-win for everyone.
Kern Halls, School Foodservice Consultant and Chief Innovator of Ingenious Culinary Concepts, turns empty dining halls into gold mines of student activity! By seeking out and combining just the right “ingredients” to accomplish what many call impossible: Halls gets students to “want” to dine in your cafeterias!
For his FREE report, outlining Marketing Tips to help you generate additional revenue TODAY, a $197 value, please visit http://www.ingeniouscc.com!
