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Daily Special Board: Tips, Suggestions and a Bonus Idea!
As someone who has been in the restaurant industry for about
22 years or so, I've seen these boards come and go over the years. I offer the following tips and suggestions that may be of help: 1) If you're cold-calling/visiting . . . show some intelligence and common sense and DO NOT make your call or visit during peak volume hours (breakfast, lunch or dinner rush). If there's one thing that restaurant operators despise with a passion it's clueless sales people who want to show them how to make/save money during the time of day that the operator is trying to stay focused on the shift. Fastest way to lose a sale, no matter what you're selling. Best approach: Have dinner in the restaurant . . . that way you've "invested" in the business. Sit in the most visable section of the restaurant. Be very pleasant to the person waiting on you, be it a server or a counter person. Enjoy your meal. Look for the manager/owner. You'll know who they are when you see 'em. Try to make eye contact. When you do make eye contact, give a warm smile (no barracuda teeth), a slight nod or wave. Continue enjoying your meal. Near the end of your meal (not after), ask the server if you can speak with the manager for a moment. Compliment the service and the food. Be genuine. Mean it when you say it. Ask, "May I show you something?" and hand over a 4" color picture of the board, with your card attached to the back. Even if you leave without a commitment, leave the picture with the operator. Oh yeah, make sure you leave your server a nice tip also. 2) Don't be the salesman. Don't be the shark circling the kill. Restaurant operators deal with smarmy salesmen every day. They don't like salesmen. They are an annoyance, a distraction, a time-waster, and an inconvenience. Be Joe Customer who happens to have something to share. 3) Give something free. Offer an article reprint that has to do with some aspect of the restaurant world. Here's one of my reports that can be customized with your contact information: http://www.RestaurantNews.com/report.html 4) About mailings: Restaurant operators get tons of crap in the mail everyday as well. Where do you think most of it goes? How much of it do you think actually gets opened and read? Better do something to make your direct mail piece stand out. Examples: (a) Most "business" envelopes will get tossed. Use a return address with a business name and it will most likely hit the round file, unopened and unread. Send your direct mail piece in a regular #10 envelope and use your last name ONLY with your return address, handwritten. Think about it for a few minutes and you should understand why. (b) a priority mail envelope may be a little on the expensive side, but it will always get opened. 5) About your prospect list: Chamber of Commerce directory is okay, but won't give you a huge list of restaurants. Maybe a handful. For a small fee, the business license office in your local courthouse can print you off a list which will include business name, address and phone number. More often than not this will also include the owner's name. List Bazaar, http://www.listbazaar.com, is also a good resource for addresses, even fax numbers (but we won't get into that discussion). 6) Get to know your restaurant, its concept and its atmosphere. Does your board suit the restaurant's theme? Can you tweek it to make it so? 7) The statement that "many restaurants do not want something mounted to their walls" is not totally accurate. More often than not restaurant operators will prefer a wall-mount as opposed to a stand simply because the stands get beat to hell and back by people tripping over them, kiddies knocking them over, employees having to move them several times a day to sweep/mop, etc.,. Also, most restaurants don't like "clutter" and the stands do tend to add to the clutter. The wall-mounts are excellent for those restaurants that have a foyer that serves as an entrance/exit. For example: you walk through the entrance door into a foyer which leads to another door you must walk through to enter the actual restaurant. The wall mounts are simple: two or four eye-hook screws and some nice chain or decorative "rope". Or, simply remove the front panel and screw the thing to the wall, then replace the panel. Again, the free-standing units do tend to get beat up rather quickly . . . stands get bent, board gets cracked or chipped. Not too long and the whole thing gets tossed in the back of the storage room where it gets forgotten for awhile as it awaits the dead-man's walk to the dumpster. Most operators don't want "one more thing" that they have to manage, and the stand is exactly that. 8) Don't go after the big chains first. They'll be a harder sell and most have strict policies against stuff like this anyway. Goes back to the "clutter" issue and the fact that most chains believe things like this cheapen their image. You'll have better luck starting out with smaller operations and "mom and pop" locations. 9) Check on your board on a regular basis. Doesn't have to be every week or every month. Point is, these things are notorious for getting broken, beaten and abused. Ugly little buggies, flies and bees (yes, bees) get inside the panels from time to time as well and need to be removed. You also want to do this follow-up to make sure that your board is still active and in position. Note: in my experience, most boards are put in place and the restaurant operator never, ever hears back from the board salesman again. 10) Attach your card to the back of the board in case something comes up that you may need to handle. Don't assume your card will be kept "on file" for future reference. Lotta management turnover in the restaurant world. If an operator doesn't know how to contact you with a question or concern, where do you think that board is gonna end up? 11) Have you thought everything through? For example, are you going to replace a broken board at no charge? Your restaurant operator will expect you to do so, as will your advertisers. What else? Hmmm . . . are you gonna supply markers or bulbs? Make a list of every possible question you can think of that you might be asked and write down an answer. Set your Q&A list aside for a day or so and then review it. Do your answers still sound appropriate? 12) Your advertisers are something else to think through. No, you don't want to just go to any business and hit 'em up for a slot. Your restaurant operator doesn't want "just anyone" on that board. Ask your prospect questions: Which hotel do you get the most business from? When you run out of product, which nearby grocery store do they go to for an emergency food run? What nearby entertainment venue would the operator like to be associated with . . . the local theater, miniature golf, bowling alley, etc.,? These are your targets. 13) Check out your local restaurant supply store. They may already have the board you need, or something similar. You may just have to customize it a touch. BONUS IDEA: Here's another idea that I came across years ago in a restaurant that I was running: Table-top advertising. You supply the table-tops, free, and sell ad space that is "shellacked" on top. Tables / table-tops are fairly inexpensive in the grand scheme of things and can be easily acquired at any restaurant supply store. Ad space is for one year or more. Table-top can hold almost as many ads as you can fit, business card size on up. You won't be able to replace every table in the restaurant, but you're offering an opportunity to increase the number of the operator's seats. Seats equal money in the restaurant biz. Great for smaller operations and "mom and pop" locations. Seize the Day, Troy Brackett Publisher, RestaurantNews.com RestaurantNews.com |
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