Being The Market Leader

A caterer can be either a leader or a follower in marketing activity. Greater marketing efforts usually result in greater sales—assuming the marketing has the intended impact on those it touches. Many companies are leaders and followers; it just depends on the message they are trying to get into the minds of buyers.

What you need to do to be a marketing leader:

·         Master the ability to recognize the opportunity for new service and products more quickly than others.

·         Be concentrated on success and winning over your competition.

·         Have a clearly written mission statement or goal for marketing.

·         Educate your entire team and potential clients to the advantages of your product and service.

·         Have valid cost-control in your marketing programs.

·         Constantly take the pulse of the marketplace by gathering data on the effectiveness of your marketing.

·         Enjoy winning!

·         Know what will be needed five years from now.

Audio Blog: Accounting Rebate (3:40)

Here is one of my craziest and most successful marketing ideas for corporate clients. Hope you test it!

An Important Book That All Caterers Need!

An indispensable reference book all caterers need is the Food Lover’s Companion/Comprehensive Definitions of over 6000 Food, Drink, and Culinary Terms by Sharon Tyler Herbst. Caterers will find correct spellings and accurate definitions of just about everything they need to purchase, cook or use in their catering. It’s great for getting ideas for new menus. You can buy a copy new or used.

Audio Blog: The Express Refund (3:44)

This is a cool idea that has helped many caterers offer their prospects a way to get the cake and eat it too!

Explanation of Non-Commercial Catering

Non-commercial foodservice operators supply food to businesses, educational, institutional or government organizations. Non-commercial foodservice is also called contract foodservice. Examples would be employee feeding at business offices; student dining at universities, colleges and schools; healthcare foodservice; military foodservice; and a host of different situations. Aramark, Compass and Sodexo are examples of non-commercial or contract foodservice operators.

The term non-commercial stems from the fact that people who eat the food provided by the foodservice are not the ones who hired the foodservice company. Students, patients and employees who eat food at their locations had no input into hiring the food contractor. A single foodservice vendor is selected and they have exclusive right to sell or serve all food consumed at the location, no matter whether the food is given free as a benefit or is paid for. In a hospital, patients get food included in their daily fees, the hospital staff gets discounted food and a visitor pays a regular price in the dining outlets. Non-commercial foodservice operators also offer catering. Depending on the policies in place at the location, the catering may be sold only to people involved at the organization or to the public or to both. Non-commercial catering is subject to the same joys and bumps as commercial catering and may be either on or off-premise.

Use Marketing Materials During Your Presentation

In face-to-face meetings with shoppers, the salesperson should have any advertisements that have run in newspapers, magazines, etc., to present and discuss with shoppers. In the case of television or radio ads, the salesperson should be able to play them for customers.

“Mr. and Mrs. Smith, let me show you our latest advertisement and explain how it will have a positive effect on your event plans.”

Marketing starts the selling process, but the salesperson makes the sale happen. If salespeople embrace and incorporate their company’s marketing messages into their presentations, sales will come more frequently. Your shoppers can get their catering from lots of different places; you need to strive to create marketing that helps the shopper understand that your company offers the greatest opportunity for their event’s success.

Audio Blog: A Marketing Lession From Roman (4:30)

How do you sell a clock radio? Yeap ... listen and I will share with you an great learning story about selling catering!

Enough Discussion Points Already!!

Can't help myself... need my blog readers to keep thinking!!


1. You should never lose the ability to laugh at yourself. Let's face it, the life of a caterer is often filled with humor! Of course some of the funniest incidents don't actually become funny until long after the fact.

2. It is important for caterers to read the food sections and restaurant reviews in their city's newspaper.

3. More sales would be made if the contract/agreements were written in a  more "user-friendly" manner.

4. There are no retirement homes for caterers ... a caterer needs to create their own retirement fund.

5. Understand the two most important words when making decisions in catering are "it depends". 

6. Each event is its own P & L statement.