Sales Techniques By Market
Selling to Food Service Equipment and Supplies Businesses
The area of food service equipment and supplies businesses is fertile ground for B2B sales. Don't forget that food service equipment and supplies businesses aren't easy sales marks -- here's what you'll need to compete in today's market.
In the current business climate, food service equipment and supplies businesses are looking for quality and affordability.
With perseverance and strategy in your corner, it's possible to penetrate the market and receive an acceptable return for your efforts.
How to Find Food Service Equipment & Supplies Business Leads
Leads are the foundation of successful selling. The first step in lead generation is to survey the local market. From there, you can broaden your net to include the yellow pages, Internet searches and trade listings.
The names of food service equipment and supplies businesses you obtain through your own efforts need to be qualified through phone calls, emails, and face-to-face conversations.
But the most accurate source of qualified sales leads is often a third-party lead list provider. For consistently high quality lead lists, we recommend Experian Business Services to our business partners. Experian has a reputation for providing accurate and filtered lead lists that can be used for direct mail and other marketing efforts directed toward food service equipment and supplies businesses.
How to Evaluate Sales Staff
Periodic staff assessment is essential for companies that sell in this industry. Businesses that achieve significant market share recruit the cream of the crop and routinely evaluate them against performance goals and benchmarks.
Although annual reviews may be acceptable for other business units, sales units should be evaluated quarterly with monthly or weekly reviews of sales totals. Training, coaching and sales incentives can be useful for improving performance and revenues. In some instances, it may be appropriate to team underperforming sales reps with reps that have more experience selling to food service equipment and supplies businesses.
Casting a Broad Net
The first step in selling to food service equipment and supplies businesses is to take a broad approach to the marketplace. Strategies that limited to the local market are not likely to succeed in an environment that leverages the benefits of long-distance sales techniques.
Although a geographic concentration may be a useful strategy for new sellers, you will eventually need to broaden your focus to include prospects outside of your initial range. You can also broaden your prospect base by expanding your product line or by creating strategic partnerships with suppliers of complementary goods.
Share this article
Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs