How to Avoid Chasing Customers

Michael: Hi, how are you?

Michael B.: I feel badly about you having to call on your dime.

Michael: No, not at all. Don’t worry about it.

Michael B.: Okay.

Michael: Good job.

Michael B.: I was frustrated over the weekend and I was thinking about how I have really enjoyed the restaurant marketing. I have found my niche. Marketing is very general. You can’t do all kinds of marketing. You have to find a niche. Do you pretty much agree with “You can’t do all kinds of marketing - you have to find a niche.”

Michael: You’re more effective by finding a niche.

Michael B.: Okay.

Michael: You want to niche. It is more profitable and you’re identifying a target specific market, people respond to that.

Michael B.: Right. I was really going over, and thinking strategically, about what you had said to me last week.

Michael: Okay.

Michael B.: I wanted to talk to you just a little bit further about that.

Michael: All right.

Michael B.: My frustration, as I have said before, is chasing people.

Michael: Mine too.

Michael B.: When I sit down and meet with someone, they seem very positive. But, a day or so later, the chase is on.

Michael: Right.

Michael B.: These restaurant owners are very busy people and it is the chasing of them, trying to put the deal together, that is frustrating.

Michael: Right.

Michael B.: Just to recap: you had mentioned that instead of going in and consulting with them, that maybe I should go more in the direction of selling information.

Michael: Correct. Consulting with them is the same thing. You’re selling them information - but you’re choosing to do it where you have to be in front of them – when, in fact, it’s really not a necessary step if they’re really interested.

Michael B.: Right. That’s what Rory Pat was doing. He sells a lot of information but he doesn’t get in front of them. Two or three times a year, he holds a summit or big conference.

Michael: Which is just an additional thing to sell his customers?

Michael B.: Exactly.

Michael: You’re in front of them because you’re hoping to sell them, you see? You want to start all your selling with a sales letter, a fax, a lead generator, a telephone script, or by them listening to you doing an actual consultation with someone. You want to pre-sell them. You want them to say, “Hey, I want to talk to this guy.” You don’t want to have to go in and try and convince them that they want to increase the effectiveness of their restaurant.

Michael B.: Okay.

Michael: You want to send out something that causes them to raise their hand, or return a phone call, and say “Hey, I’m interested. I want more information.”

Michael B.: Right.

Michael: That “more information” is going to be reasons why they should invest in this material that will help them - guaranteed or their money back – help them get better results with their restaurant. They are going to have to study it on their own, because you’re just too damn busy to come out there and train them personally. Restaurant owners are busy and they’re going to have to find the time to do it on their own… if they want to be more successful. Anyone who doesn’t want to be more successful, you’re not interested in - because you are not going to be able to convince them to do what you teach them to do. They’re going to have to do it on their own.

Michael B.: Right. What I’ve been doing, I guess, would be considered cold calling. I think you’re on to something. I’m concentrating in southern California and I’ve got to think of ways of getting information to the different restaurants. That’s what I have to start doing.

Michael: You could find restaurants and offer your consulting and your service for free … if they’ll allow themselves to be a case study. You say, “This is the way it works: I’m going to do all of my consulting over the phone.” Remember when we first talked, we discussed this. You need to get yourself a recording device called Modem Spy.

Michael B.: Right.

Michael: I have a new audio clip, number fifty-nine, which talks about this. It teaches you how to edit the audio file. It’s a little complicated at first but it’s pretty easy once you get it down. It’s very simple. You need to get maybe five or ten restaurants to say, “Okay, Michael, I want you to try to help me.” Then you do your consulting with them over the phone. You record the conversations and then you can create a six or twelve tape program of actual case studies where you have done consulting. Just like I’m doing with you. Every time I talk to someone, and record something, it’s a product.

Michael B.: Right.

Michael: Out of those twelve, maybe you get two or three that just really kick ass. They are going to get someone excited. You can take that recording and put it on an audio tape and use that as the sales piece to send out to people. You can run an ad or do a fax broadcast to restaurants, saying, “If you’re interested in more business for your restaurant, this free audio tape shows you how. Call or fax back to…” Then, you just send out the audio tape and let them listen to it. Hopefully a percentage of those people are going to be more interested and want more information.

Michael B.: Right.

Michael: It’s all about time, about leveraging yourself.

Michael B.: I’ve already created a six page report.

Michael: Okay.

Michael B.: As a starter. That is my first product that I’ve have to somehow get to the restaurants in my area.

Michael: That’s right.

Michael B.: Hopefully they’ll be interested.

Michael: Sometimes you may need to get it out in different ways. You can get it out in the form of a written report, but today a lot of people don’t have time to sit down and read six pages. Maybe you can take that report and read it into a microphone to record it onto an audio tape.

Michael B.: Right.

Michael: You can also send the audio tape with a headline that says “Seven amazing reasons how you can double you’re existing food sales in the next thirty days.”

Michael B.: I’ve got to find some type of trade publication that restaurant owners in my area read. Maybe find an association that they belong to, and stop in during a meeting.

Michael: Absolutely. That is very smart.

Michael B.: I need to find the lake… the push off.

Michael: You can find that lake. You know how you find it? Try talking to some of your restaurant people. Ask them, “Are you members of any associations? What restaurant associations are there in this town?” Or you could try to search “restaurant association” with your city and zip code.

Michael B.: Right.

Michael:
Sometimes with those associations, you can rent their list, or you can advertise in their publication.

Michael B.: That’s what I am looking for.

Michael: Another idea is find out who the big food vendors are, who delivers the food to all the restaurants, in your area.

Michael B.: Oh, that’s a good one.

Michael: You could go to that food vendor and say, “Look, you’re selling food to these restaurants. How would you like to increase the value of your service to these restaurants? I’ve got an audio tape or report that shows your customers how to increase their business. Would you be willing to deliver this audio tape or report to your restaurants in the area as a service to them… to show them how to increase their sales? The more sales they have, the more food they will buy from you.”

Michael B.: That is so true.

Michael: Look at every person who supplies the local restaurants: the food vendors, the cleaning services, the people who service cash registers, the liquor vendors, the Coca-Cola and Pepsi distributors, the local janitorial suppliers who deliver all of the toilet paper and the bathroom supplies for the restaurant.

Michael B.: Right.

Michael: Joint venture with them. Explain that by increasing the patronage of the local restaurants they are servicing, they can actually increase their own sales.

Michael B.: On the front-end of their food.

Michael: On the front-end of their food. The more customers they have, the more Coke they need, the more food they need, the more toilet paper they need. It’s a win-win for everybody.

Michael B.: I just remembered something. Off the freeway, I just recently saw a big wholesale warehouse where people go and buy machinery.

Michael: Absolutely.

Michael B.: There are flyers and things of that nature that might be something that I can do something with.

Michael: That’s a great idea. You go and talk to a restaurant owner and ask them for a list of their vendors or just search restaurant vendors. You will see all the types of vendors that service a restaurant. Work with these people to show them how they can increase their business by helping the restaurant increase their patronage and sales of food.

Michael B.: Right.

Michael: So you see? Then what you can do is this: you can have them endorse you. You can approach the owner of the food distributor who services, say five thousand restaurants in your area, and say, “Look Mr. Distributor, I’m a marketing consultant and I can double a restaurant’s customers in the next six months… if you’re willing to endorse me and let me write a letter.” You can write an endorsement letter and then all that person does is sign it. Basically, it says that he endorses you to the restaurant owner, as a way to increase their sales, and that they may want to take a look at your video tape or whatever. You get them to endorse you. So you’re coming as an endorsement from the distributor - “Hey Joe, I meet this guy who’s a real genius in restaurant marketing. He can really up your business. Things have been really tight in this area, so, here’s an audio tape you might want to check out.”


Michael B.: That would be better then just blind faxing a number of restaurants?

Michael: Absolutely, you get a third-party, word of mouth endorsement. That’s the most powerful form of introduction you can have.

Michael B.: Right.

Michael: Maybe instead of paying for delivery, you can have the vendor include an audio tape every time they deliver a box of lard, or whenever they invoice a customer. You can say, “I’ll pay for your postage to get your invoices to all your restaurants if you include my audio tape.”

Michael B. Right. I was trying to think of what was in it for them.

Michael: What is in it for them, is that they endorse you - with the potential of increasing the restaurant’s business - which in turn would increase the vendor’s overall sales with the restaurant. More customers equal more food bought from the supplier.

Michael B.: Okay, more vendor services.

Michael: More vendor services, more money. It all starts with the customer.

Michael B.: Right.

Michael: If you can’t get the customers in the door, then there are no sales.

Michael B.: That’s exactly right. Basically it’s a no-brainer. It’s the same deal with car dealers. I work for the factory and we’re constantly trying to sell the dealers more cars.

Michael: Right.

Michael B.: You’re always trying to get them to buy more of these cars. More. More. More. More. They’re constantly telling us, “Hey, guys, we’re not selling them. The customers aren’t buying them.”

Michael: The dealers aren’t going to buy them unless the customers are buying them.

Michael B.: Right. So they’re not buying from us because the customers not buying from them.

Michael: That’s right.

Michael B.: So we’ve got to come up with ways to help them move the product out the door.

Michael: Of course and that’s the bottom line. You’re going to come up with ways to move the product out the door of that restaurant. The way to do that is to increase traffic to the restaurant. “I need your help, Mr. Vendor. You’ve got to endorse me. If you can endorse me, I’ll work with this restaurant, or the restaurants you service, to do just that.”

Michael B.: Right.

Michael: That may be the best way to focus.

Michael B.: That might be the best way – instead of me just sending out blind e-mails, blind packages.

Michael: That’s right.

Michael B.: I called about seventy owners and they all said “I’m interested in your package. Send it to me, and of course I’ll look at.” Then I’m chasing them asking, “Have you reviewed the package I sent yet?”

Michael: You only want to deal with people who call you back. Have any of them called you back?

Michael B.: I sent twenty-five initial packages out and I got one call back out of the twenty-five.

Michael: What did he say when he called back?

Michael B.: He said, “Hey, I want to talk to you. Can you come in?” Right away, we started doing something together.


Michael: Okay.

Michael B.: I did a free trial for him, but the owner changed some things. The bottom line is that I had one call out of twenty-five packages that I sent out. I think that may not be the best way to go.

Michael: It may not be, but you just learned that that particular way may not be the best way to go.

Michael B.: Right but I’ve got to find, like you said the “lake of hungry fish”.

Michael: Right and the lake of hungry fish is the restaurant’s vendors because the vendors are already selling to it.

Michael B.: Right.

Michael: The new audio clip, I think it’s audio clip number 57, is on joint venturing and it’s not even me. It’s a tape I heard and it’s probably one of the best presentations on joint venturing. I think you should listen to it.

Michael B.: Okay.

Michael: As soon as you can.

Michael B.: I sure will. I’ll listen to it.

Michael: I think that will give you a lot of ideas.

Michael B.: Okay, I appreciate it.

Michael: Okay, Mike, thank you. Good Bye.

Michael: I want to thank you for listening.

Thank you again for listening, this is Michael Senoff with www.hardtofindseminars.com . If you want to get in touch with any of the people in the interviews, please email me at Contact by Email