Does any one have any school ,church or other large daily or weekly contracts. If so can you please shine light on how did you get in the door, what was stratgy and who did you talk to get it done. What price point did you start or offer to get contract…for example Large Pepperoni for $ 5.00.
Any minimum quantaties to sign a contract
Thanks for all help in advance.
Jayp
Jay,
I’m eager to hear what others have to say about this. I’ve been very patient in building my relationships with people at these organizations. The local YMCA, a couple big churches, a community aquatic center, and even a local “Kids Party indoor jumper place” All get regular emails and stops from me. I always ask for their business. I’ll find out if I get the aquatic center’s contract very soon. It was a bid, so I don’t know if I’m for sure going to get it or not. I know I have to be close. I got some follow up emails from the concession director.
You’ve got to beat your competitor on price, or service in this segment. I don’t think places like this care much about the quality ingredients in your pie. It is all about feeding the mouths, on the smallest budget.
-Scott
I actually just went through this . I gave coupons to my daughter to give to her teacher. 7.99 w/ topping free. She copied it and sent it threw the school district. I got 30 replies from teachers. Then I called the head office today and told them that a few teachers came by and they wanted me to fax more coupons to the school and they would copy them and give them to the teachers. The secretaries were so happy on the phone when I said coupns they did all of the work for me off of 1 fax, I also did it to the police station town hall and fire department. Well see what happens later on this week.
Well we have 5 schools that we do lunch for every day.
The way we went about it we talked to the owner and were willing to give her great prices and we have a time frame when the food has to be there.So far its been a great move.As far as a large pepperoni pizza i dont know where you guys are from but $5 no way the schools get them for $10 and in our area thats a deal.
All i can say if you want go for it find out who you have to talk to and find out what you are willing to go as far as prices so that way you both win.
Well hope and wish you the best
dominoes does our schools in the area at 5.00 for large 1 topping
I could beat it but with no profit at all
Re: School contracts or church contracts
I am from Los Angeles market…Local compition include Little ceasar, pizza locca, pizzahut, dimano, papa john and other 30 or so local indy pizza places in 5 miles radius…some of them have contract with school district…we have 8 to 10 schools in 2 miles radius due to popplution den.
Large pepproni goes low @ $ 3.99 to high as $ 8.99 from the big four.
That is the reason I mention $ 5.00 for Pepproni…if I do $ 10.00 we will be out of bussiness in a month…
I do appricate your feed back…
Thanks
Jayp
J’Rokk, DFW, Nick and other please chime in with your expert advise or suggestion on school contracts…Thanks
Hello Ron
Thanks for reply, is not your cost $ 2.77 or so on 1 topp.
If you go $ 4.75 or so over dimanos than you might get that contract, and all the volume and additional future customersfrom their parents to other friends, extra catering from birthday parties or social geathering. Also in terms as kids growing up eating your pizza in school to adulthood…like the way beverage companies tailor the programme to intice kids in the taste bud to get them customer for life…
I have a folder with all my school programs that I deliver to each school with a letter for the principal. It explains my lunch program and also my fundraising, catering and reading programs. I print it so when it is in the folder you can see the heading of each sheet of paper. I do this the first week that school starts and once again this year I managed to get every school on board. If you would like a copy email me and I will send it to you.
Re: School contracts or church contracts
I have something that works great for me and sounds like you have a lot of schools in your area.
I went to the PTO meetings of each elementary school, talked to the president and we had a PIZZA NIGHT for the kids, its once a month (works perfect for us cause theres 4 different grade schools in the area.)
Now we chose tuesdays because they are our slowest days.
SO each monday we take over fliers to put in the back packs of all the kids. the pto gets 10 percent of each flier redeemed…
I also purchased a letter board and the room with the most orders for the MONTH gets a pizza party
this really works well
YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE HOW THE KIDS RUN WHERE THE FAMILY EATS
Re: School contracts or church contracts
JayP,
Maybe this link will help you:
http://www.pmq.com/tt/viewtopic.php?t=695&highlight=
-J_r0kk
We had the one of the local districts high school lunch program. It was quite a boost of income. But we came to realize a couple of things. If kids are eating your pizza at lunch, do they want it for supper? We found out the answer was no. What is your memory of school lunch? Mine isn’t very pleasant. Your product gets lumped into that. You’re now school lunch. We dropped the contract focused on full price customers and have never looked back. Every year we get begged by that school district to handle their lunch. Every year we quote them double what every other shop in town quotes them.
My dear friends. Let me stress that we ourselves are commoditizing our own industry and product when we sell by price. When you read a post that it is no longer about the quality of the pizza, but the number of mouths you can feed on a budget- that is a key statement that our product has become a commodity. When we allow ourselves to get to this point, our product is no different than gasoline. People are shopping at the gas station with the cheapest price. They are only vaguely familiar with the branding, less informed about product quality, and know only that “gas is gas” and if they can save a penny at one they will shop there.
If this is the route you really want to support then ALL OF YOU need to immediately change your operations. Scrap your current products and offer the cheapest, most economical ingredients possible to churn out a pizza with the lowest price point. Then you can compete in a commodity market.
If this is NOT the route you really want to support, then ALL OF YOU need to immediately get off the idea of “lowest price”. Some gas station brands have begun to do this in recent time. Surely many of you are familiar with the Shell brand and their recent efforts in promoting that not all gas is created equal and how theirs will clean out your fuel delivery system and valves, etc. More stations have been following this trend- Amoco, BP, etc. Now, being as they are a highly regulated industry with limits on the amount of profit they are allowed to reap per gallon, I will end the comparison there.
With regard to our own industry, we can also look at the computer building industry. Computer prices have been dropping as more and more players have entered the market. Heck, I can recall a recent computer that I had assembled for $350 (which of course is already outdated). How, then, did Dell and Gateway climb to the top? They weren’t the lowest priced. They didn’t want to compete in a commodity market- as the computer market had become. So they changed. Just as we should. They pioneered what is now a buzzword in the business world- “Solutions”. They are a solutions provider. It’s not a world of “Hi Dell, give me the cheapest computer you can” (although they would sell you their cheapest computer if you really called and asked them for that). But their success lies on being able to provide a solution for your particular needs. When you call up Dell or Gateway and say you are interested in a computer, they will attempt to ascertain how the computer will be used. Is it for your son off to college? An avid gamer? An at-home businessman? etc. They will then offer to configure a system that is tailored for your particular needs- and budget. After all, a cookie-cutter pizza pie, er, computer system, isn’t the best fit for everyone.
Wow isn’t this post a mouthful so far? Anyways. Now to transition to our own industry. We need to essentially become solution providers. We are not going to compete anymore for the lowest pie price. To give you an example: I have a local laser tag arena in town that has been getting pizza from a national competitor for $9, as low as $7 per large 1 topping pizza. The laser tag place hosts parties, the parties then order the food (via contract) through this competitor. Sure I could have waltzed in there and offered pizzas for $6. I would make less profit per pizza, but recover it in volume right? Wrong thinking. Perhaps I could match or slightly exceed my competitor’s price but justify it by boasting the fact that i’m 15 minutes closer to the arena than my competitor they are using. Here we’re on a better track, but let me go on. My friends, I now have that contract with the laser arena. They actually BROKE OUT OF THEIR CONTRACT to join with me. And the best part is- I get $15-17.50 per pizza. That’s right. That’s actually HIGHER than my retail price. Now imagine THAT combined with VOLUME instead of lower prices and volume!
And guess what? This isn’t the first time I’ve done that. I’ve done this same principle across brands and across cities. Whatever pizza shop I go to in whatever city, I have become that city’s pizza solutions provider. It almost sounds comical, I know. But the proof is on the books. So what is it that I’m doing to reap an unheard of amount of money per pizza in a commodity-bound market? More reading to follow:
Number one: Establish a baseline relationship with your targeted client (in this case, a laser tag arena). Talk to everyone there. Find out all you can about their operations, their current vendor, etc. Knowledge is power. I was able to find out both what my competitor was selling their pizzas there for, as well as the problems they were having with that competitor- Constant complaints about the quality, food being burnt, cold (they ARE 15 minutes further away than I am after all), late, and drivers not speaking much english. Number two: Identify your real customer: It’s not the patrons of the laser arena, it’s the laser arena themselves. You need to sell your “product” to them, not their customers. In this case, your “product” is really a “solution”. Even though THEIR customers complained often about the food, MY target customer (the arena) had their own complaints- which I learned after talking to everyone there. Their patrons are always coming up asking for plates and napkins and cups and all sorts of stuff. They were not equipped to handle this. They simply host the space for the parties, they’re not party planners or organizers. That simply was not their business. Alas we uncover an opportunity for a pizza solution. My approach was to sell my “service” to the arena. I would provide each attendee of each of their parties with pizza, bread sticks, drinks, and everything else necessary for a successful party- the plates, the napkins, paper towels, cups, plasticware, etc etc etc. Our drivers would deliver the pizzas promptly, very hot, speak perfect english, present themselves exceptionally professionally (after all, I call my drivers professionals in their field), and even set up the party for them. My driver will set each place setting (or at least offer to do so in case the party host wanted to do it themselves) and make sure everything is perfect before they left. And the drivers, whether or not they set up the placesettings or not, almost always leave with an incredible gratuity for their professional service. The arena is extremely happy because they no longer are subject to complaints about the product or service, nor are they bombarded with requests for smallwares. We have pleased both the host and the end-users at the same time. And we do this for a “modest” $5 per person. We don’t sell a quantity of pizzas to a party. We supply the party to a quantity of persons. I will never go back to selling pizzas by price competition again.
==End Novel==
Hello Friend
Thanks for the information on service and I do agree with you on all the points that you had made on your posting…
The problem for me is income of household in this part of Los Angeles…is very less and all our popluation base is Hispanics, nice hardworking just emigrated from Latin America, where trying to let them know about any thing is impossible due to language problems.
My pizza can truly stand against any one in quality and quantaties, with best pricing that one can afford in inner city…
your idea are great but hard for certain area or places to follow…because we are carry out pizza no dinein or delivery…
Thanks
Jayp
Well said!
Years ago my friend and I took over a pizza place…A local competitor was quick to let us know he was the “cheapest pizza in town”…He said he would lower his prices to compete…Imagine his surprise when our menu came out and we proudly advertised the “most expensive pizza in town”…A subsequent menu carried a message that said if you wanted the cheapest pizza in town phone so and so and we gave his number…We promoted quality all the time and never looked back…RCS…
PS…The competition did not last very long after we got our marketing train rolling down the tracks…
Who put then nickel in the Barn Guy! :lol: Talk about catching his wind and preaching on. Lots of words of wisdom, and a score with the full price plus service fee. I tend top be in your camp and love that mentality of identifying their problems and being “their solution”.
That said, I do want to give a nod to those on the boards who ARE volume shops and compete on price point to make their profit margins. They really are two different business models that can confuse and irritate the customers if mixed together too liberally.
For someone asking me about this, I’d say figure out your business model, identity and brand. Once you have that, you can decide which way to go with competing for contracts like this . . . price, quality, service level . . . or the RedBarn solution way . . . or a hybrid of them all. Whatever you do, I would suspect you will be most successful and effective doing it the way your shop and processes are set up. If you are set up to roll out high volumes, then you can meet high demands at lower price points, otherwise, you can fail rather flamboyantly.
" . . . This above all else, to thine own self be true"
Polonius to Laertes on sending him to England to betray Hamlet.
Who put then nickel in the Barn Guy! :lol: Talk about catching his wind and preaching on. Lots of words of wisdom, and a score with the full price plus service fee. I tend top be in your camp and love that mentality of identifying their problems and being “their solution”.
For someone asking me about this, I’d say figure out your business model, identity and brand. Once you have that, you can decide which way to go with competing for contracts like this . . . price, quality, service level . . . or the RedBarn solution way . . . or a hybrid of them all.
I’m Red Baron, not Red Barn 
My Friend,
Even though my “story” is specific to my store, it is the process which can be applied to ANY store and ANY industry. In your particular case you are carry-out only. There is nothing wrong with this. If that is the route you wish to follow, we can tailor it. You claim your market consists predominantly of hispanics. Hard working hispanics. And getting in touch with them is hard because of language problems. Just in those three lines I have found mutiple avenues of approach to providing a “solution”. Let’s examine just a few of the possibilities:
You distress because communicating with them about anything you have to offer is difficult, if not impossible. Ok. Fine. Now look from their perspective. How hard must it be for them to GET information about businesses? There’s one solution you can provide. You need to do marketing and advertising in Spanish, have at least one spanish speaking staff member at all times, and really insert yourself into the hispanic community. Think of how hard it must be for a spanish only speaking person to order a pizza? What if your shop was the only place where they didn’t have a problem ordering a pizza? Ta da. Reap the rewards.
Let’s see, what else. Hmm. Hard working. I will assume by hard working you mean these individuals are working locally, and many many hours at a time, and probably labor intensive work. Probably factories, or maybe field work. Construction? Line jobs? etc. Well they must get hungry. I bet they could use some reliable food joynt to get lunch from each day. Heck, especially if they don’t need to know english to order (see point above!). Couple of options here may be to offer some sort of on-site food service (a vendor cart, a part time delivery person, negotations with the factories/worksites to provide food for lunch, etc). You could also heavilly push carry-out orders. Obviously key points here would be quick, good, “affordable”, and tailored to this type of client. Slice, side, drink, napkin, quick, hot, good, espanol, $4.99. Find your own unique approach about it. Maybe include something else that could be promoted. Do you offer coffee? Have some good work thermoses available for sale. Refill deals on coffee in your thermoses. etc. Don’t forget that after a long day of work they may want food. Have specials for them to call in their order, swing by after work, and pick it up. Everything necessary for a family of 4 maybe? or just for one? up to you and your market.
My point is don’t focus on trying to offer pizza “cheaply”. Don’t think that if the pizza isn’t $5 each they won’t come in and buy it. I can recall some of my former employers who were upset that our sales were only 4k/wk and that we needed to get sales up. I suggested it’s not about the sales, it’s about the profit. They argued with me and said it was the sales. So I told them if they wanted 10k a week I would guarantee it from now on starting the next week. They said yeah right. I said yeah, right, I will sell your pizzas for $1 each. You will get your 10k a week in sales. “But we would lose a fortune doing that” they said. “Exactly” i said. It’s not about the sales, it’s about the profit. At 4k/wk it may not sound like much in sales, but we were doing good profit. You need to sell your product to make a PROFIT, not to get SALES. Lowing your price to $4 may get your a nice rush of new customers. And you may be tempted to think that the volume will earn you more profit. But it won’t. And I won’t spend another 15 minutes right now typing up exactly WHY it won’t, but suffice to say for now it won’t.
Another thing that I will touch upon very briefly is that there ARE different classes of customes. As your customer base becomes more and more discerning and different priorities develop between different customer segments, there is an opportunity to exploit those different segments. You can have a nice base of customers that you sell a pizza to for $7-9 each, but make a significant amount of profit on the 10-20% of your customers seeking a more “sophisticated” pizza. This may be specialty pizzas at $16-25 each, or it could be something different all together. Again this is a pattern than Dell and other computer companies have exploited. They have established themselves with a cornerstone of customers- the individual buyers looking for relatively inexpensive systems customized for their needs. But this is not their most profitable segment of customers, even though it is the largest. While their individual customer segment accounts for the majority of their customer base, the other portion of ther customer base- large businesses, goverment agencies, etc, account for the majority of their profit.
Or think of Mattel. They have a strong hold in the market with their “affordable” line of barbie dolls. No one else can get a strong foothold in the market because Mattel has such a low pricepoint on such a variety of dolls. At the same time, Mattel has capitalized on a segment of their customer base that promises to offer a huge amount of profit- Collectors and others looking for “higher end” dolls. At almost no additional cost to Mattel, they can offer ‘premium’ and collector’s edition dolls and sell them at 2-10x the price of a “regular” doll. Sometimes even higher. They would not be able to do this if that segment hadn’t developed itself, that is to say, if their customer base hadn’t become more diversified and discerning. Ok i’m done.
==End pamphlet==
Preach on, Red Barn Baron! 
Nicely said. All of it.
And you’re RIGHT, too!