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I have a sort of unusual question. I do marketing for a family-run franchise restaurant that offers a catering service that is perfect for medical luncheons & realtor open houses. We are competitively priced ($9.50 or $10 per person). We service Morris, Bergen, Essex, Passaic, Sussex, Somerset, and Warren counties. Our restaurant is Mexican cuisine.
I am trying to increase our catering business and am trying to get in touch with realtors and pharmaceutical representatives who order lunches for medical offices. I am having difficulty getting in touch with both, especially the pharma reps. Does anyone have any advice on how I can get in touch with real estate agents and drug reps? Thanks!
I don't know if you would be able to contact agents and drug reps directly. Middle management probably puts the catering/party planning in the hands of an admin or someone in marketing. The only way to contact agents & reps directly would be to obtain their direct business cell numbers which you won't get.
I would start with compiling a list of the realtor offices and pharma companies in your area of choice (with Morris, Bergen and Essex alone you will have a mile-long scroll size list of pharma and local real estate offices).
Probably the best approach is to go online and get the general fax numbers for these places, and fax menus/ads to the number. I'm not in real estate or pharma, but this is how the various companies I've worked at have gotten food ideas at times. And yes, a lot of these places still use fax. The fax is probably overseen by an admin (again, most likely the person to be handling the catering orders). Cold calls will be ignored altogether, or forgotten the second you hang up. With a tangible menu that lists prices and contact info, someone is more likely to at least glance at it and/or shove it in the food vendors binder for future reference.
Also, if you are good with internet sleuthing, you can get some email addresses to send emails to. For example, with realtors, I would Google REALTOR COMPANY + TOWN + NJ (i.e., "Acme Realtors Inc. Morristown NJ"). That will return a bunch of results with actual agents' names, and if you click on any of those links, you can find email addresses for many.
You can also do some leg work and leave menus and ads in the lobby if it's a smaller operation that doesn't have a big gate keeping security desk out front. A smaller, more informal pharma company (and most local real estate offices) will just have a receptionist out front (the same receptionist that may be coordinating the catering). In contrast, with something like the Giralda Farms complex (and I think Novartis), there's a security booth before you can even drive on to the grounds (so in that case, go with fax).
MOST IMPORTANTLY, what kind of online presence do you have? Do you have a website? If no, get one. It's easier than ever with DIY platforms like SquareSpace. Take advantage of social media (Facebook & Twitter; Nextdoor.com).
Also, get your company on GrubHub as well as Seamless. That's crucial, IMO.
Most sales professionals, pharma or otherwise, make their own decisions about which catering to use. Or they listen to who their customer likes and wants. Generally management has little to no input on the catering provider except to set the budget.
One idea is to try to influence the end customer of the meal (the medical office for example) so they tell their rep they want food from you. Since the goal of the rep is a happy customer, they will probably listen.
The other thing is convenience. The reps drive around all day and it's easy to just stop into a Panera or Chipotle because they are ubiquitous. You need to make it easy for them.
I have a sort of unusual question. I do marketing for a family-run franchise restaurant that offers a catering service that is perfect for medical luncheons & realtor open houses. We are competitively priced ($9.50 or $10 per person). We service Morris, Bergen, Essex, Passaic, Sussex, Somerset, and Warren counties. Our restaurant is Mexican cuisine.
I am trying to increase our catering business and am trying to get in touch with realtors and pharmaceutical representatives who order lunches for medical offices. I am having difficulty getting in touch with both, especially the pharma reps. Does anyone have any advice on how I can get in touch with real estate agents and drug reps? Thanks!
Go to the doctors offices in your target area with samples and lots of menus. Ask to see the office manager and offer them a free (meal, coffee, dessert etc) at your location with an office order.
Second while scoping out these offices you will see many reps come and go (offer them same). Hang around some of the biggest offices and after doing this for two weeks you'll have more pharma rep business than you can handle.
All these things above but you need to send free food so they can sample the product and see the presentation. Call and ask when is a good time to do this -- when are the most people in the office? Is there an office-wide weekly status meeting? Make sure you have your marketing materials (menu, how to order, info on delivery) accompanying your food.
Having worked in a large office that often hosts catered lunch meetings, this works.
Sales Reps usually let the doctors choose the places to order from with limits on how much they can spend, and they will pay for it. I actually don't think it's practice anymore since Obamacare has taken over to do this, as there are strict limits on how much spend they are allowed allocated to doctors, which is only a few dollars a year.
The ACA has stopped the pharma swag, but not the meals.
I used to work at one of the big pharma companies in NJ and we changed our policy to $50 annual spend per doctor. So if you have a staff of 10 people in your office, you're not getting lunch.
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