Business Development Strategies for Niche Markets
Selling to Late Night Restaurants
There's no question that late night restaurants are major players in a growth industry -- and that makes them attractive to providers who want to improve bottomline profits. Here are some of the things that are required to sell to late night restaurants in today's marketplace.
The world is an uncertain place for emerging businesses and businesses are constantly adapting their sales approaches to respond to market demands.
Don't be intimidated by the speed of the marketplace. Although speed is important, sales fundamentals and logical strategies will make the biggest difference in the success or failure of your selling efforts.
Marketing, Promotions & PR
Ambitious B2B entrepreneurs are often tempted to buy their way into the market. Rather than taking the time to develop relationships with late night restaurant owners, these companies blanket the market with high-priced marketing content in hopes of gaining quick momentum with buyers.
Marketing is useful and necessary. But new businesses should funnel their resources toward initiatives that support their value proposition. Although lead lists obtained from third-party vendors like Experian can dramatically increase the quality of your prospects, the effectiveness of your marketing efforts is limited to your team's ability to connect marketing, promotional and PR messaging with your company's unique product traits.
Customer Profiles
Emerging sellers in the late night restaurant market are advised to profile key sales targets before they invest in a specific sales strategy. A little industry knowledge can go a long way toward equipping your team with the tools required to convert high value late night restaurant leads.
In this industry, it is especially important to develop a customer-focused approach. In general, late night restaurants are very skilled at spotting B2B companies that don't have industry awareness and they tend to hold out for more knowledgeable suppliers, even if it means paying a slightly higher price.
Sales Team Considerations
Many businesses that sell to late night restaurants leverage a team sales approach.
Although your team may be comprised of individual sales reps, each rep has to recognize their role in the team strategy. There is simply no room for mavericks in this industry! Team-based training programs and other initiatives can be beneficial, but the best strategy for encouraging buy-in to a team sales model is for owners and managers to model team-based behaviors throughout the organization.
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