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With limited opportunities for operators to interact with your product in person, food service sales have faced considerable headwinds. At the same time, any disruption creates opportunities and we have seen manufacturers capitalizing on the changing landscape.
Headwinds
- Limited In-Person Sales Calls — especially for non-commercial where contacts are working from home.
- Limitations of Teleconferencing — Video calls are great for meetings, but have serious limitations for product demonstrations.
- Staffing Reductions — many distributors, sales, and broker organizations have made staff cutbacks in order to survive the reduction in product purchases.
Opportunities
- Changing and simplifying menus creates openings for new products.
- Products that have a take-out or delivery application are in demand.
- Production issues and distributor stocking policies have made out-of-stock items more likely — these shorts create opportunities to gain trial when your products are in-stock.
- Those companies that are nimble in adapting to the disruption will come out ahead.
At IBI Data we are seeing great response from sampling as many companies become more proactive in this area. Rather than just waiting for a salesperson to request a sample, marketing is looking for ways to fill the sales pipeline. Here are some of the innovative places where manufacturers are finding sample outreach opportunities:
- Social media
- Operators in the CRM but with limited or no recent contact
- Incentive & loyalty program data
- Third-party lists (IBI Data, Datassentials, CHD)
- Internal trade data (especially good for non-compliance outreach and pulling new products into the distributor)
- Foodservice media
- Special DSR programs that reward reps for placements that result in orders
- Partnering with associations and cancelled trade shows
Call us at 877-424-8725 or fill out our contact us form with any questions and to learn more.