Selling to an Industry

Selling to Catering Businesses

Today's top catering businesses recognize that every dollar counts. Here are some of the things that are required to sell to catering businesses in the current market.

In today's economy, even small missteps can have dramatic consequences for your company's bottom line and impede your selling success.

A strong value proposition and a great strategy are requirements for companies who sell to catering businesses. Although there are market challenges, emerging companies can gain traction by applying a handful of tried and true sales principles.

Educate Your Sales Force

In the real world, most catering businesses aren't interested in middle of the road products. Before they make a purchasing decision, they want to know everything there is to know about your product.

In this industry, product details can be the deciding factor in conversions. It's imperative for your sales team to be knowledgeable and informed. If you're selling a service to catering businesses, your sales force should understand granular details of the service contract and be prepared to resolve customer concerns during the sales cycle.

Marketing, Promotions & PR

Young B2B companies are often tempted to buy their way into the market. Rather than taking the time to develop relationships with catering business owners, these companies blanket the market with high-priced marketing content in hopes of making rapid headway with buyers.

Marketing is useful and necessary. But new businesses should channel their energy toward initiatives that support their value proposition. Although lead lists obtained from third-party vendors like Experian can improve the flow of prospects to your team, 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.

Putting It All Together

At the end of the day, there is no single strategy that can guarantee conversions in your efforts to sell to catering businesses. It's often a combination of techniques that converts prospects to customers.

Although it's easy to get caught up in the micro-level details of the selling cycle, sellers in this industry need to maintain a macro perspective that combines techniques with selling strategy.

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