Old school ideas, new prospects

As you embrace sales and marketing technologies in the new world, be careful not to lose the human touch that prospects want and need. Remember the old school mantra, “Nothing really happens until somebody has a conversation with somebody else.”

Try combining these old school principles in the new world of sales and marketing: 

1. Drop your “sales” mentality and start working with your prospects as if they have already hired you. This will shift your relationship to an entirely new level, right from the start.

2. Initiate genuine sales conversations. Put the prospect’s interests, challenges, and concerns in the forefront. The best questions you can ask are those that will solve their current problems. Ask, “Could you give me some specific examples when your current caterer(s) did not meet your expectations?”

3. Use social media tools to build brand awareness, but do not hide behind Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to avoid direct contact. Finding new customers is still “a numbers game.” The more prospects you contact, the more business you will close. Period.

4.If you have an online ordering system, schedule a time at your prospect’s office to sit with them while they “practice” placing orders. This is a great opportunity to watch someone go through the process and to make notes of tweaks your system needs to improve its usability.

5. The e-newsletter can be a great mode of marketing. It is essentially taking the old school newsletter and adding the new world “e” to it. Think about the e-newsletters you receive. Some, you probably open regularly. Others, you never open. Why? You open the ones that are interesting, informative, and even entertaining. When you see an e-newsletter in your inbox that you always open, it is because you perceive it as valuable content, and not repetitive information about “them.” You look at it as being helpful for you. If you can do the same when creating your own e-newsletters—making them about your customers and what then can get out of it—you will be on your way.

Michael Rosman has been in the catering and restaurant industry for over 30 years in the Boston area, where he built a $1.8 million per year corporate drop-off catering operation. He’s the founder of The Corporate Caterer, a resource membership website, lead generation and private coaching company. To learn more, visit the www.TheCorporateCaterer.com or call Michael directly at 781.641.3303.