Selling to restaurants can be very intimidating and poses many unique challenges. Maybe you have weathered the ups and downs of selling to restaurants in 2020 due to COVID regulations limiting, or even closing, restaurant doors. Although the exact future of restaurant dining is uncertain, the world is beginning to open up, again, and with that comes new opportunity.
If you’re looking to break into restaurant sales or reignite relationships with old accounts, we’ve put together our “Selling to Restaurants: A Farmer’s Guide” to help with just that. Filled with advice from industry experts, this Guide provides important information at a critical time for farmers and local food distributors. Read on to learn how to prepare for restaurants reopening and download our “Selling to Restaurants: A Farmer’s Guide” here!
How to Prepare for Restaurants Reopening
“It can be very intimidating just trying to figure out who to connect with, and not knowing who’s already selling to them, and what they’re selling. Part of my process was to spend the time looking at the website, looking at the menus, and figure out what I had to offer.”
– Jeffrey Orkin of Greener Roots Farms
How have things changed for the restaurant?
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- Do your research and think about what might be different about selling to the restaurant now versus before COVID. Anticipating some of the challenges before reaching out can give you insight into what you can sell and how you can sell it.
- Is the restaurant focusing on curbside pick-up and take-out or are they shifting back to more indoor dining? Increased dining options can mean a greater demand for product.
- Look at your data: using LFM’s extensive reporting features, you can easily analyze your sales, pull comparison reports of products listed vs products sold, view top selling products and customers, and more. You can use this information to better prepare for the year ahead with crop planning, product sourcing, and sales insights.
Update your contacts.
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- More than likely staff and ownership may have changed for restaurants throughout 2020, so it’s important that your contacts are current. Unlike other customers, many restaurants and chefs prefer a personal connection to the farmers they source from. Ensure phone numbers and contacts are correct for your existing accounts. If you’re looking to expand into new accounts, consider arranging a meeting or stop by the restaurant during down times.
- If you’re working with corporate accounts, buyers, and multiple staff, LFM offers a User Management feature that makes managing multiple users under one account simple. LFM makes it easy for your customers to shop, invoice, and pay for their orders.
New menus? New opportunities!
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- Have menus and offerings changed for your accounts or for new restaurants you’re eyeing? Use this as an opportunity to offer your high-quality, local products. Chefs that utilize seasonal menus might value a unique product only your farm offers locally, so keep your offerings up-to-date and marketed!
- Sending out regular e-mails to both your customers and prospective customers with product availability (either current or seasonal) will keep people interested and aware of your offerings. Using your LFM account, you can easily export product lists and availability tables for emails, newsletters, and social posts.
Use your judgment.
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- While connecting with a local restaurant is always exciting and can be a great platform for spreading the word about your farm to a wider audience, keep in mind that your business needs to stay profitable. Carefully consider what it is a chef is asking for when deciding if setting up a direct relationship is going to make sense. After all, you don’t want to offer preferred prices or waste time driving out to make deliveries if all a restaurant wants to buy is $20 worth of microgreens every other week.
- Restaurants who don’t have a lot of experience buying directly from farms might not realize that things which are easy for broadline distributors can be burdensome to farmers. You don’t need to turn away any business, but consider options like adjusting your prices to account for things like delivery.
- Make it easy for them to order from you, but make sure whatever system you use works for you as well.
Promote yourself and your passion!
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- Are you growing Jaune du Doubs or Red Cored Chantenay? Believe it or not, details about variety can be extremely valuable to restaurants when they’re writing menus. Chefs and diners connect deeply with stories, and will remember a good one long after a meal is over — so it’s important to tell a good one about yourself. It might seem silly, but taking the time to write down a little bit about yourself, your farm, and why you do what you do can be a really worthwhile activity.
