Accessing Restaurant, Bar and Cafe Owners to offer them a service

**MissBossLJ** · 03-26-2010 08:32 AM

Hello

Well i need to get in contact with all the restaurants, bars and cafes in my area. In a B2B way. In your opinion what way do you think is the best way to get the most response when contacting them in order to achieve business from them?

Do you think its better to write them a letter, however this could easily get misguarded by the owners, do you think it would be better to recruit a staff member and send them "the rep" round to these businesses to achieve business.

Many Thanks

**guidemesingapore** · 03-26-2010 02:20 PM

Try to get their email address, introduce yourself and tell them you would be calling them to follow up on the email. After couple of days, call them and introduce yourself.

**nenyalorien** · 03-27-2010 05:31 PM

In my opinion, it would be better to just hire an assistant to gather all the businesses in your area and in the nearby counties/cities you are targeting. Then, you'd have to approach all the business owners personally. I think it's a better touch than to have an assistant do that: it makes for a very personal touch, and it makes you look really professional. Contrary to the thought that having an assistant makes you look good, even today's startup businesses would look more professional if their CEO's actually did the client presentations and client contacting tasks themselves. It gives other business owners the impression that you are a hands-on manager/CEO/owner, and that you are willing to work from the ground up. That makes for a great impression, and that earns you the old-skoolers respect.

Just my two cents'.

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**MissBossLJ** · 03-27-2010 06:17 PM

great replies!! thankyou! x

**ernest1918** · 03-27-2010 08:30 PM

The Chamber of Commerce would have a list of local businesses and may be a great resource for you as well as google

I would probably try all three methods email, phone call, and really if you wanted too a letter

**Encrypted** · 03-28-2010 12:16 AM

About a year or two ago I sent out letters to nearly 150 businesses for my web design startup and I got one reply. He emailed me and I sent out a reply and never heard back from him. I was extremely upset given the time it took to fold each letter, type up the addresses, print the labels, buy the $30+ in postage stamps, etc. Basically what I'm saying is, I wouldn't recommend it. I mean, you could always try it and see how it goes. It's possible I was just targeting the wrong businesses.

Originally Posted by MissBossLJ

Hello

Well i need to get in contact with all the restaurants, bars and cafes in my area. In a B2B way. In your opinion what way do you think is the best way to get the most response when contacting them in order to achieve business from them?

Do you think its better to write them a letter, however this could easily get misguarded by the owners, do you think it would be better to recruit a staff member and send them "the rep" round to these businesses to achieve business.

Many Thanks

**SmoothEntrepreneur** · 03-28-2010 12:50 AM

I wouldn't waste capital on hiring someone else to do this work -- this is an opportunity for you to really get to know your customers and what marketing methods work best. I would call up and ask for a good time to come in and speak to a manager briefly about whatever you are trying to do. Face-to-face would be best, but over the phone is also great. Be sure to speak to the decision maker and let them know the value you can offer them.

**Berserk** · 03-28-2010 03:34 AM

How you should approach restaurants depends on what type of service you are offering them. You can probably start a website and work through that. Can you give us a general idea of exactly what type of services you are offering them?

**DerekS** · 03-28-2010 10:58 AM

Originally Posted by Encrypted

About a year or two ago I sent out letters to nearly 150 businesses for my web design startup and I got one reply. He emailed me and I sent out a reply and never heard back from him. I was extremely upset given the time it took to fold each letter, type up the addresses, print the labels, buy the $30+ in postage stamps, etc. Basically what I'm saying is, I wouldn't recommend it. I mean, you could always try it and see how it goes. It's possible I was just targeting the wrong businesses.

In 2006, a fellow real estate agent and I sent letters out to over 3500 doctors in the Baltimore Metro Area touting a special program for doctors/residents through my broker and Suntrust bank. We got about 10 responses- and closed 2. Direct mail has a really low response rate for first time attempts. I hear that it takes serious consistency to see results, which obviously isn't in the budget for many people (both the time budget and the $$$ budget.)

**GlobalWealth** · 03-28-2010 11:16 AM

I used to own a restaurant and I can tell you mailers and email are immediately discarded. The only method that works for selling to a restaurant/bar is face to face. Find out the slow time for the rest/bar and make a personal visit during these hours. It is much harder for the manager/owner to say he won't talk to you if you are standing there in front of him. It is very easy to discard a mailer or delete an email.

**MissBossLJ** · 03-28-2010 11:29 AM

Thankyou, for all the great replies!

From all of your feedback it seems the best method id face to face. I think i will proceed with the staff member as their really good with sales and people and theyve worked for my other business for a while now so im not hiring someone actually new. i think that i will get the staff member to telephone before hand and then proceed to go in when its quiet and when the manager is also in, so from that i would need to focus on my staff member being the bees knees to really sell it to them.

**MissBossLJ** · 03-28-2010 11:35 AM

i also need to get a very large volume of catologues produced 500 pages very thing paper, if we were talking 100,000 how much do u think id pay per single unit? as its such high volume it should be really cheap per unit surely? I have sent off for a laod of qoutes but need to wait untill tomorrow or later to hear back

**SwiftCoaching** · 03-28-2010 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by MissBossLJ

i also need to get a very large volume of catologues produced 500 pages very thing paper, if we were talking 100,000 how much do u think id pay per single unit? as its such high volume it should be really cheap per unit surely? I have sent off for a laod of qoutes but need to wait untill tomorrow or later to hear back

What size are you looking for? If you can't find a decent price let me know, my sisters the manager of a local print shop and I'm sure she could do them cheap.

Christian