Being Unique In Your Marketplace

Catering companies tend to copy or clone each other. Many catering businesses are opened by professionals who have already worked for one or more caterers in the same city where they have their own new operation. Because they tend to use many of the same policies, procedures and menus they learned while at the other companies, the new catering business is often built in the image of these other companies.

When buyers call four or five catering companies to gather information and find what they get is that similar, they are unable to find a reason to select one caterer over another. What if all the companies they call have the same deposit, refund and guarantee policies, with pricing methods are similar if not identical and using exactly the same sales scripts and rules? Because one caterer seems to be the same as the others, the shopper can concentrate only on price.

Concentrate on talking, acting and being different than the other caterers in your city in as many ways as possible so shoppers can clearly see the differences and advantages of your company over the others. If other companies tend to charge for delivery, then consider building the delivery charge into the price and offering “no delivery charges.” If other companies require a 50 percent deposit, charge 30 percent to create an advantage for the shopper where it counts.

To create differences between your business and others, you need to do some investigation of the other companies. Consider this to be a form of competitive analysis. As long as you are gathering your competitor’s information in a legal manner you are on firm ethical ground.

To learn about your competitors:

·   Check out their websites closely.

·   Ask common vendors, like your party rental dealer, about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.

·   Mystery-shop your competition—almost everyone does it. It would be a wonderful world if you could just walk into a competitive caterer, introduce yourself as a competitor and then pick up the information you need.

·   Chat with any of your staff who may have worked for other caterers in your city.

·   Attend public charity events that competitors are catering, to see them in action.