Why Objections Arise From Shoppers

There are many reasons a customer ma raise objections. It may be as simple as the customer not understanding something, or as complicated as the customer fearing that he or she can’t afford your services, but being embarrassed to say so. Some of the reasons a customer may raise objections are:

• Normal hesitancy.

• Loyalty to their current catering company.

• Fear of making a mistake.

• Not convinced by your sales pitch.

• Don’t have the money (objections are

a way to avoid embarrassment).

• Have the money, but have other priorities.

• Private.

• Don’t like you.

• Don’t trust you.

• Being confused (maybe because you didn’t present the information clearly).

• You’ve highlighted the wrong benefits.

• You waited too long for the close.

• You used the wrong examples or “war stories.”

• Don’t sense your enthusiasm while you’re selling.

I suggest that in your next sales meeting you discuss these points and try to discover others!

Everyone Is Important!

Recently, I gave a speech to a group of foodservice professionals about action steps to become a better company team member and employee. I was part of a panel of five, so I only had twenty minutes. It was an interesting audience for me because, unlike when I speak at our annual catersource Conference, many of these foodservice professionals had not heard me sing the praises of the hospitality industry before.

When I speak to groups that have never heard me before, I need to remind myself to start a little slower than I do when speaking to professionals who are Roman “alumni.” I began by asking them, “Who owns your company?”
After a brief pause, so they could take time to hear their answer to my question in their own minds, I shared my thoughts. Here is a summary:

To become a better team member or staffer, you need to realize that no matter what position or duty you are responsible for in a company, that one single job is crucial to the success of the business. An executive chef is no more important than a person who packs orders or loads trucks, even though one is paid more than the other.

All of the work of the executive chef—or the whole culinary team for that matter—can be negated quickly if the wrong stuff is packed for an event. In fact, team members with lower pay often are the more dominant reason for a company’s success or failure; a team is as strong as its weakest member.

As I came nearer to the end of my speech, I started to pump up my energy and focus. I don’t know why, but when I forcefully told the audience that they, not the actual owners, were the true owners of their company, I could see a change in their eyes. Evidently, I had just presented a new idea that took them by surprise.

I explained that they didn’t just have a job description or duties to fulfill, they also needed to think about what they did and didn’t do on a daily basis as an owner would. Taking ownership is the only way to gain an upper hand on their contributions to the business.

I left them with this simple concept: If you actively take ownership of your role in a company, the company will experience new and renewed success. In addition, by taking ownership and responsibility for your job, you are able to take ownership of your own future.

I asked them to remember that the real owners of the company will identify clearly those team members who are thinking, acting and responding as owners would. In the hospitality industry, you can’t hide the good or not-so-good performance of any employee.
I
n all my years of speaking, I’ve never had so many audience members visit with me immediately after the speech to tell me how much they were affected by the ideas I’d just presented. Whether you are a real owner, or a “staff owner,” you may want to consider opening a discussion like this with your team.

Catering Needs To Be A Win-Win.

There is little that surpasses the feeling a caterer gets after walking into an empty venue, after they create an amazing catered event in less than ninety minutes of set-up time. Or, the rush a caterer feels when a bride seeks them out before leaving her reception just to give the caterer a final thank you and a kiss on the cheek for making her day so special. Or, the happiness and pride a catering team feels when they have just solved an unforeseen crisis that the event’s guests didn’t even know was happening. These are all the simple joys of catering.

However, the profession of catering is also a complex one. Caterers face a constant battle between pleasing customers and running a profitable business. Sometimes these two goals don’t necessarily go hand in hand. The problem rests in the fact that caterers are very nice people. They truly enjoy helping customers experience total satisfaction with any catering order whether it is a simple box lunch or a corporate gala. On the other hand, some caterers, in their quest to please customers and their guests, often place making a proper profit lower down on their list of priorities.

Profit is an important part of any successful business. My concern is that some caterers, as business people, tend to think with their hearts a little too much.

Sometimes caterers worry so much about customer satisfaction that they forget about creating a win-win relationship between themselves and the customer. Caterers tend to overcorrect on situations where there might be a chance for unhappy hosts. In fact, some caterers feel a sense of guilt if they make too much profit, so they are always willing to put some of an event’s projected profit back into the event just to make sure nothing will go wrong.

While many businesses and professions are becoming less personal with respect to customer contact, catering remains intensely personal. Caterers share the joys and worries of their customers from the first contact to the event’s end. They become part of the customer’s family or corporation clocking in countless hours of pre-event assistance. Therefore, I believe caterers should make the money they deserve. There are no retirement homes offering free rent for those caterers who put pleasing others ahead of also making some profit along the way. 

Make a sign for your desk to assure a win-win: Our Goal Is A Happy Customer and Proper Profits.

Scripts: Postponing The Decision

The customer may want to consult with someone else—or may say that in order to postpone having to make a decision. Respond to the customer’s desire to talk it over with someone else with comments like these:

“That’s a great idea; let me step out while you use my phone to call them.”

“Let me arrange for you to use a desk in one of the conference rooms to make your calls.”

“Great. Let’s decide now what you want to ask them so that I can make sure that I’ve given you all of the answers that you require.”

Your Difference Is Your Differences

Remember that old saying, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.” The phrase deals with the perceptions that people have about what they believe to be true. Sometimes, however, the perception becomes muddled and may lead to incorrect conclusions.

Caterers can significantly increase their business success by understanding how this phrase applies to shoppers seeking a caterer. If we simply reword the phrase above to read, “If it walks like a caterer and quacks like a caterer, it must be a caterer,” we can discover some interesting concepts that will help us.

Shoppers of catering are constantly exposed to the public perception of what a caterer and catering is. When a shopper calls five different caterers for information, they often get similar, if not exactly the same menus, formats and rules from each of them. In other words, most caterers in a particular area tend to copy what the other caterers do, so shoppers are hearing the same “quacks” from each caterer whether it’s menu pricing, staff charges, guest guarantee deadlines or deposit and cancellation policies.

These “me-too” concepts that many caterers follow lead the shoppers to a false perception that all caterers are just ducks, that one caterer is the same as all other caterers. Since they’ve not met any “me-different” caterers, the only thing that many shoppers are seeking is lower price. In truth, these me-too caterers set themselves up unwittingly as a commodity when the real goal is to create a win-win buyer/seller relationship.

This leads me to my suggestion to our subscribers who wish to pick up business. Concentrate on not being perceived as a me-too company. Create your own, different set of rules. You just need to sound unique and to offer the shopper the chance to realize that you are a company that transcends the perception that caterers are all the same. Your goal is to clearly make the shopper understand that with your company, they have finally met a caterer who not like the other caterers.

You need to be viewed as the company that offers different and alternative solutions for corporate and social clients shopping for a team of professionals to assist with their food and event needs. To do this you need to present your information in a more “buyer-friendly” format, making sure that your rules and procedures do not mimic those of your competitors. Your company must become the clear choice in the shopper’s mind as the company that is totally unlike the other ones they have talked with.

Don’t quack at the shopper; envelop them with your differences!

A System Is As A System Does!

Recently a catersource client asked me, “How important are systems in creating a successful business?” The more I thought about my answer, the more I challenged my own views. A system can be a good thing or just one more obstacle that gets in the way. Systems may be presented to staff in checklists, policies and step-by-step procedure explanations.

When I was a caterer, I had dozens of systems. I had them in writing for everyone to read. I had them on the walls, in the delivery vans and even as reminders in payroll envelopes. They were very important to me.
Since it was I who spent great amounts of time gathering the ideas and working hard on making them both logical and efficient, I absolutely made them rules for everyone to follow. In fact, many of them became laws—usually when they weren’t being followed as systems. The truth is, most of my systems, or laws, were so complex and single-minded that many of them never really had a chance for success.

To prevent losing equipment at events, I developed an elaborate coloring, numbering and packing system that was, in my mind, foolproof. Unfortunately, it was flawed from the get-go. But, because I had the system in place, I stuck to it. I made everyone stick to it because the system made me feel like I had more control.
What I’ve learned is that when putting catering systems in place, the ends don’t always justify the means. Most systems become too difficult to follow fully right from the start, especially with the impromptu chaos of a normal catering day.

Too often systems are created to create accountability. Whose fault was it? Accountability isn’t a bad thing, but accountability needs to be a self-guided principle, with staff members recognizing errors themselves, rather than getting a “failure notice” in a system of checks and balances.

The actual time spent on creating a system can delay the solution of the concern itself. For example, suppose items seem to be missing from inventory at a caterer’s commissary or warehouse. An elaborate system of enhanced inventory procedures could be created—or you could simply install surveillance cameras.

Good systems have two things in common: They are simple and easy to complete and they are created and endorsed by the team of people who need to make them work, rather than by just one result oriented leader. I’ve come to believe that systems, when it’s appropriate to have them, need to be democratic rather than autocratic.

What Is The Hardest Type Of Catering?

WARNING: This post is filled overwhelmingly with my biases!

What is the hardest type of catering? A simple question with an easy answer: All catering is hard work, no matter what type it is. What is the most challenging type of catering? This question is also very easy to answer: Off-premise catering takes the prize. No question in my mind. All catering is hard, but off-premise is the most challenging and unforgiving.

Off-premise professionals bring catering to the client’s location of choice. It might be a home, office, museum, boat, warehouse, parking lot tent or an open field. Most of the locations off-premise caterers are asked to work in don’t have adequate shelter, electrical power or water to support proper foodservice. Off-premise caterers are always the “away” team; they never play at home.

Just as the opening night in a new restaurant is filled with what ifs, every off-premise event is filled with countless question marks and never-ending challenges. Everything from blown fuses or circuit breakers to locked doors that everyone promised would be unlocked for the event. Each off-premise event carries the same pressures and worries about mishaps and unforeseen circumstances as the first night in a restaurant.

Caterers who do off-premise events have no constants in their lives. Once they leave the friendly confines of their kitchens, nothing can or should be assumed. Guests may arrive early or late; event staff may have trouble finding the location; and clients may make last-minute changes to the menu, the timing, the décor or even the size of the event.

Off-premise caterers can only work with what they bring. They can’t just go their coolers for more food or get an extra chafer from the supply room without traveling back to their catering offices and commissary, which may be many miles from the event.

Off-premise caterers live with the constant fear of running out of food. Between unexpected guests who show up uninvited, to the need to feed non-guests such as the DJ crew, valet parkers and the location staff, off-premise caterers are challenged to insure that there’s enough food for everyone, throughout the event. And did I mention the need to keep food in the safe temperature zone without the use of normal foodservice equipment like refrigeration?

Off-premise caterers expect and welcome challenges. They relish crisis. They solve the problems of late food delivery, missing menu items, bad weather, bugs, grumpy janitors, elevators that don’t work, nervous hosts and overworked staff. They are magicians who understand that the event must go on. There is likely to be a special place in heaven for off-premise caterers, who will be welcomed—and then challenged once again to work their magic.

Do they have electricity in heaven? Water hook-ups? No matter; off-premise caterers will take care of things the way they always do.

Three Things To Watch For In Your Kitchen

The three things below exist in many catering kitchens. Unfortunately, these actions lead to danger, problems and an overall unprofessional kitchen operation. Please check to see if they exist in your kitchen:

1. Do your chefs kick the oven door closed, or otherwise roughhouse your equipment? Kicking the door closed is a culinary sin; it causes damage to some parts of the stove, like the gas safety, that can require a costly repair. Is your equipment really clean?

2. Does your staff sample freely from foods being prepared? Do they eat while they are working?

A professional kitchen doesn’t permit eating while working. It is unsanitary and dangerous. Imagine eating a sandwich while slicing meat on the slicer. A separate area in the facility should be used for eating during breaks.

3. Does your hand sink work? Are there soap and towels at the sink? Some caterers have all staff stop what they are doing and wash their hands every hour on the hour. Hand washing comes with the job in the kitchen! 


How you answer these questions will help you decide if you need to think more about these situations. As usual, you may always contact me at mikeroman@catersource.com if you wish to chat.

Handling The "You're Too Expensive" Objection

The biggest hurdle for many customers, especially those who have never worked with a caterer before, is price. They’re worried they can’t pay what you’re asking, or that they will pay more than they should.

Here are some answers when the customer says something like “You’re so expensive”:

“Several clients this week have made the same comment. Let me take a moment and share with you what I told them about being higher priced.”

“Yes, but I thought that is exactly why you are here today: You know that we do the best job.”

"What would you like to pay for this event?"

“Yes, we are one of the more expensive catering companies in town, but we also have the most clients—so we really must be doing something right.”

“Yes, Ms. Weaver, we are expensive, but we stand behind everything we do. You won’t have any complaints, mishaps or failures.”

“We are very professional, Ms. Weaver, and we really don’t expect to sell everyone. We need to charge prices that permit us to maintain the professional staff and high standards of the ABC Catering company.”

REMEMBER: When a prospect suggests that your company is expensive, it is important to never apologize for your perceived higher prices and just explain what your prices guarantee for them.

NOTE: If you feel these are too strong, cocky or whatever please know that the problem probably rests with you not the scripts. Call me if you wish to understand what I'm referring to. (773) 549-7210 is my Chicago home/office desk phone.

Scripts: Establishing Price Ranges

How do you and the potential client figure out whether you’re in the same price range? Often, callers are obsessed with asking “How much does your catering cost?”

during the first ten seconds of the call.

When the question of cost comes up, use this script:

“We have a wonderful variety of wedding menus [packages] that range from $65 to

$125 per guest, depending on the day of the week, the menu you select and the style of service you wish. Is that the range you were looking for?”

In an attempt to take control, the caller may tell you flatly that they have a specific price already in mind. Use a variation of these scripts to respond:

“$18 is a great place to start. Please tell me what your budget is on the higher end.”

“I realize that you wish to learn about our $18 per guest menus, but I was also hoping to show you some menus that are a little lower. Would that be alright with you? (They always answer yes.)

Good. Besides the lower cost menus, I will also show you a few that are slightly higher in price.”

Did you sense that in this script when you say to the prospect “but I was also hoping to show you some menus that are a little lower” that they were expecting you to say “higher” instead of “lower”? Try to do some unexpected things when using scripts.

My point to our readers is that rehearsed scripts are central to creating a successful selling career.

Objections From Prospects

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you made your presentation, the customer nodded and bam, you had a sale? It almost never happens like that—nor should it.

Objections are required to make a sale! In fact, the caterer should encourage them and be suspicious when a buyer is not stating any objections; they are the foundation of most sales.

When objections arise, you have an opportunity to determine what really motivates your customer. That means you can do a better job of satisfying the customer by responding to those motivations, concerns and worries.

The single biggest reason that buyers give objections is to insulate themselves from having to make a decision—even when they already have decided to buy your catering.

In general, most buyers of anything want to hold off until the last moment to say "yes". Answering objections is the path to making the sale.

There's Always A Cheaper Caterer

They can get cheaper food from dozens of other places. 

Isn’t a chicken-salad sandwich the same whether you pay $7.50 or $4.75 for it? To understand the impact of this, ask yourself this question: When you buy Driscoll strawberries for your business, don’t you shop for the lowest price? Isn’t your assumption that a Driscoll brand strawberry is the same no matter where you buy it?

That’s just the point. To your buyers, the brand is the product line, or chicken-salad sandwich, not the caterer who is making it for them. The obvious solution is to stress the benefits of your brand name over others.

You would do this by stressing that your price contains much more than just the words “chicken-salad sandwich.” Your price includes the highest quality purveyors, 6 ounces of salad, safe temperature control, on-time delivery, sanitation and overall quality service. This is hard to do in a society where most people are looking for price advantages.

My point is that a caterer should explain their price rather than apologize for it.

An Important Part Of Qualifying The Prospect

Just because the customer is sitting in front of you, doesn’t mean he or she will be in charge of making decisions about this event. It’s important to understand what the customer’s expectations are, and how different parties involved with the event (family of the bride, the customer’s manager, etc.) will interact.

Questions like these can help:

1. “Who, besides you, is going to be involved in the decision of which caterer you use?”

2. “Who should I send a copy of the menus and other information to?” 

     (This tips you off to who else is important in the decision)

3. “What is your expectation on the time for me to get my information back to you?”

      (If you hear the words, “There’s no rush,” be very suspicious that this might be a waste of time.)

4. “Ideally, when would you be ready to make a decision about which caterer you will use?”

5. “What are your expectations for this event?”

6. “What is your experience in dealing with your boss? What menu is likely to appeal to her?”

The point I'm trying to make is that the salesperson needs to take charge and determine what is what with the real reason the shopper is asking for information. A salesperson just can't waste their valuable time by trying to sell someone that is not a valid buyer.

Being "Nice" Is The Way To Go

One of the more important stresses placed on catering businesses today is finding, training and motivating staff. As our industry grows, the need for more people to fill new or soon-to-be-vacant positions increases.

What makes it even more difficult is the fact that catering is a tough business with longer hours than most other businesses. Add to that weekends ... Well, you know what I’m driving at. Long hours, hard work and lack of time for family and personal activities makes recruiting people to staff our companies challenging.

While I don’t have an answer for how to fill this need, I do have some thoughts. Whether you’re trying to find full- or part-time staff for culinary, sales, office, operations, management or whatever, the single most crucial guideline is to hire as many “nice” people as you can. Sounds sort of weird doesn’t it?

As the work force gets younger, the work ethic changes. I’m not suggesting younger workers have a poorer work ethic, but people in their 20s and 30s look upon work in a completely different way than those who are older. They see work as an important part of their life bur, for many, it’s not the most important part. They expect not just to work, but also to enjoy what they do and to find it meaningful.

We can’t guarantee nice customers, but we certainly can’t afford to have staff that isn’t nice touching our customers.
 I don’t believe you can teach a staff person to be nice, so it’s extremely important to hire staff who demonstrate that they are, more than likely, nice.

The employment interview needs to draw out a measure of the potential hire’s level of respect for others and their need to please and serve. Catering is a low-tech, high-touch business where many words are spoken before, during and after a sale. Buying a catered event is a major purchase for most customers, so they demand a much higher level of communication, empathy and service from a caterer than from someone selling a set of tires.

For those staffers behind the scenes who never get a chance to “touch” customers, the need to be nice is also crucial to maintain staff morale, safety and teamwork. The days of not-so-nice employees are limited, and that’s true for everyone from the lowest paid staffer to those in upper management.

Never before have workers had so little concern about “staying on the job.” If they can’t be both productive and happy, then they will most likely leave in search of a better situation. 
Losing outstanding talent because others were not nice is a waste for all concerned.

Keeping Food & Guests Safe

Note: Sanitation is a subject that is very important. Unfortunately, many caterers only become agressive about sanitation after something goes wrong or almost goes wrong. So, I thought I'd give you some points to consider for your next company meeting:

Bacteria needs time, food and moisture to grow; but they won’t grow when the temperature of the food is colder than 41º F or hotter than 140º F. This temperature range differs slightly in different jurisdictions. The area between these temperatures is the Danger Zone. The goal is to keep food out of the danger zone until just prior to serving. Caterers, especially off-premise caterers, usually prepare food ahead of serving time, store it, travel with it, reheat it and then let it stand ready for guests.

Check with your health department to make sure that your staff has taken all the education and received all the certificates obtainable from your city or state. Hire sanitation experts to visit your location and check your facility and watch your staff at work to discover any incorrect procedures. The health department will do this for free.

Obtain and study your health department’s codes. They generally are multiple pages and may be filled with hard-to-understand information. A few samples from one state’s health code:

Critical violations creating an imminent danger to public health means those critical violations in which at least one of the following conditions exists:

(a) Food and drink is spoiled, unwholesome, or contaminated with pathogenic or fecal organisms, toxic chemicals, insect or rodent parts or excreta, or other harmful substances or articles;

(b) Potentially hazardous foods have been kept at temperatures above 45 degrees F. and below 140 degrees F. for four (4) hours or more; (this range also varies by jurisdiction)

(c) Food employee has a reportable disease or medical condition.

Critical violations creating a significantly increased risk for foodborne illness include:

(a) Potentially hazardous foods at improper temperatures.

(b) Cross contamination of raw to ready to eat foods.

(c) Poor personal hygiene and handwashing.

Thoughts on Making Menus Win-Win Successes

When I refer to a menu that will work in a catering situation, I mean one that will be able to be put in front of the guest with the least amount of problems. In other words, hot foods will be hot, cold foods will be cold and everything will go along with the pre-determined schedule.

You really can’t have menus that work, if all you do is wish to please the client by promising them all that they want... even if the location will not support it. Menus that work, start with the location that the event will be done in. If it’s being done in your own banquet kitchens, you have a decided advantage, but if it’s being done at an off-premise location you have potential problems.

It’s Like Olympic diving

When Olympic divers gets ready to dive they must inform the judges as to what dive they intend to make. This is done because some dives are more difficult than others. Because of this a diver who gets a medium score on a difficult dive may win over a diver who gets a higher score on an easy dive.

Catering menus are like dives. They have different levels of complexity. They have different levels of “worry.” A cold poached salmon filet is far easier to deal with than a hot grilled one. A pan of rice sent hot in a plastic thermal carrier is a lot easier to handle than rice being reheated on site.

What I’ve suggested to caterers for years now is to place a degree of difficulty onto each and every menu item with respect to its chances of success in normal catering. So, with respect to this degree of difficulty, we choose a number from one to ten to represent good to bad. Let’s make one the good and ten the bad.

For example, since mashed potatoes in a four inch pan are very stable and stay hot for a long time they would tend to be a one or two on our degree of difficulty scale. Sauteed veal scalloppine, on the other hand, because of its thinness and difficulty in cooking correctly and staying hot for very long would rank a ten on the scale of difficulty.

Is this making any sense? Let’s make a list of other foods and see if you might agree:

1. Beef tenderloin - 2,3, or 4 - rather easy to work with... cooks by length of time... takes only 30 to 40 minutes to cook on sight... high yield per piece.

2. Breaded Fried Chicken - 8,9, or 10 - difficult to do off-premise unless you have special equipment... cools off very quickly... loses its crunch factor...

3. Broccoli - 7,8, or 9 - can be a problem... needs constant attention... easy to make a mistake with and hard to serve at proper temperature.

4. Creamed Spinach - 2,3, or 4 - easy to handle, always looks great no matter how it hits the plate... stays hot forever once it gets hot!

5. California Roll - 1 or 2 - just put them out and they do their thing!

Are you getting my point? All of you have different types of menus but they all have the same types of worry... yield... staying hot... looking good in the chafer or on the plate... amount of space it takes up... etc.

The next step

Once you get your foods numbered by degree of difficulty you can now move onto the next step which is to create an awareness of the locations you do catering in. You might do some events at a location that has a complete professional kitchen with six ovens and large walk-in coolers.

On the other hand you might be doing events at a similar location where nothing exists... not even easily accessible water! Both of these locations have their own joys and sorrows when it comes to catering. A menu that works well in one will not work at the other.

Why not take your locations and give them a point value also.... let’s call this the operations value. The location with the full kitchen might have an operations value of 50 points while the poorly equipped location might only have a operations value of 18.

Do you see what’s coming? We can now take our menus and add up the degree of difficulty of each item to see how many points we get. If the menu degree of difficulty points totals 27 after nadding them together, we now know that this menu cannot be done at the location that doesn’t have the full kitchen unless we decide to make some changes in the menu selections to use items with lower degrees of difficulty. When the total difficulty points are higher than what we have established for operations value, then we can’t do that particular menu.

A final thought

In addition to the two concepts above, I’d like to take a moment to get really basic because this is extremely important for catering success. To make a total menu development strategy, a caterer needs to be able to visualize what the menu will do while being cooked or reheated at an event sight. Let’s call this LAUNCH CONTROL.

Sound like fun? It really is. When planning a menu to be sold, you need to make sure that you can get it all done in time for serving. This deals with the amount of food that goes into pans, the number of shelves you have to cook on and the time it takes to cook. For example, let’s say that you need fifteen whole beef tenderloins for an event. You can put three into a pan for baking in an oven. That makes five pans. Now, the ovens you have to use have three shelves in them and you can get two pans on a shelf. That means that you have room in the one oven to place all the tenders at once.

But, the tenders take forty minutes to cook and you need them out of the oven by 7:45 pm, but you also have a starch to heat that also needs two shelves. And what about hors d’oeuvre that need to be cooked? This type of thinking goes on endlessly in many catering companies each and every day that events are being planned.This is my point... it needs to be visualized and planned before the menu is sold!

In summary, a caterer needs to understand the importance of Degree of Difficulty, Operations Value and Launch Control in order to meet with the greatest success level they can when performing catered events. Part of the fun of catering is solving these amazing problems, and potential problems, that arise when caterers sell the wrong menus for the wrong locations or cooking conditions. Discuss these ideas with both your sales and culinary staff to see if they can make them better or custom tailored for your operation!

Share The Numbers - Let Staff Share The Pain

One of my consulting clients in California called me yesterday to discuss a situation he was having with an important staff member. While this situation exists for many caterers, it may not be something you yourself are facing.

In this case, the culinary staff person in question was becoming somewhat difficult to manage plus less willing to work at a “proper” pace in the kitchen. In addition, they were pushing the owner to lessen their hours while still getting the same salary they were now getting. The owner called me just to bounce off the situation with me before he took action to either neutralize, eliminate, or overcome the changes overtaking this staffer’s work.

We got a plan together which was based on the fact that the company’s business was not back to prerecession levels and that management needed staff that realized that “having” a job in this economy with benefits was very special. Therefore, causing waves and lessening one’s efforts and passion for the tasks at hand was ill advised.

In essence, the owner needed to communicate to the staff person that their change of attitude was not appreciated and that management might need to make changes with respect to his employment, position, or pay. At the same time, the owner offered any assistance they could to understand any personal situations that the worker might be faced with that was causing his attitude and work habit changes. My client is a caterer doing $450,000 in annual sales and doesn’t have an HR department. Obviously, in larger companies with HR departments, the situation would be handled somewhat differently.

It is important to note that my client has given me permission to share this information with our Roman’s Opinion Blog readers. Also, whenever consulting is done, the clients have an amount of no charge phone time with me for follow-up after the consulting is finished.

Opening Scripts That Inform & Relax

Your first meeting with the client may be at the client’s home or office, or at your own facility. These opening scripts help the client feel comfortable with you, and allow both you and the client to get a sense about how you might work together. Choose the opening scripts that make the most sense for you.

“I’m sure that you will be pleased to know that we still have openings on the day you’re planning to hold your event.”

“If you’re interested in having a beautiful catered event at the best value, then you will enjoy the information I’m going to give you.”


"Before we begin, it would be great if you could take a moment and share with me what is on your "wish list" for your special events?"

Management: A Tough Kitchen Guideline

This is not for everyone. In fact, many readers will critique me for the suggested action plan that follows. They will say that management needs to “trust” their staff to follow policies and guidelines. That being said, I have dozens of consulting clients who follow my concept and have had positive results.

In most catering kitchens, formulas already exist for determining the amounts of foods to be sent with a full or self-service order. For example, the kitchen staff may know that on drop-off meat trays one sends a total of 5 ounces of meat for each guest. So, the trays would have a total of 11 pounds of meat (10.9 actually, but rounded up correctly to 11 pounds) for 35 guests.  Or, if your culinary team is hand-forming hamburgers for 100 guests, each one should weigh 7 ounces. Or, if your formula for sending rice pilaf is five guests to the pound, then you know how much should be going to the event.

My point is that, in the examples above, the culinary team knows how much they are supposed to send. The problem is created by being behind time deadlines, staff that is not trained correctly, a scale that is not calibrated properly, or a host of other reasons. Someone needs to check these targeted weights. After all, I do believe you set your prices based on what expected food costs are supposed to be.

The truth is that if we are just one ounce “heavy” on the hamburgers we are sending 6.25 pounds of meat extra. This doesn’t take into account the extra hamburgers you already send to insure non-embarrassment at the event if the client has extra guests stop in or if I am a guest and take an extra burger! So, in fact, these extra safety net hamburgers actually lose even more profit.

Someone, other than the one making or packing the order for delivery needs to take a pan of rice, or a finished meat tray or a hamburger and actually check to see if the weight or amounts are correct. Let’s not forget that if the error being made is making the amounts or weights smaller than the formula calls for even more damage may occur to the company image for running short on some menu items.

Am I being just a jerk for suggesting this? Is this concern of mine a little aggressive and paranoid? Right on both counts, but in the world I come from, ounces add up to improper food amounts that either lose profit or damage company reputations.

Let me close where I began. Most owners and managers find this “double-checking” to threaten their trust relationships with their staff. Most can’t do it even if they wanted to. I realize that smaller caterers, who have less staff, are less prone to take these steps because they themselves are emerged in the creation of the food. But, in larger kitchens with six or more culinary members, checking needs to be done.

Well, I hope I haven’t disturbed anyone with my thoughts. Discuss it with your team and see how they react!

Eliminate 50% Chance of Losing Bid

It has always been a huge discussion between caterers - should I give the shopper a price that includes all costs in one number or break it down for them so they can see each and every cost. Why not just ask them how they want their costs presented? Here is a useable and proven script:

“It’s important to me that the numbers on your proposal are done the way you want to review them. Do you prefer the costs to be wrapped up all in one number, or do you want to have them broken down into separate costs?”