Question for owners

J

jeffs

New member
I am not a pizza owner but I do love Pizza. I have a question regarding owners and I was hoping you might be able to help. I have a marketing company and we need to be able to reach the owners of pizza stores. Problem is they are not usually in so it makes our job hard. We have a great product that is affordable and will help them make money but we need to get to them. Is there a website or a directory that we would be able to reach the owners? Thanks for any help you can offer.
 
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I prefer to have people leave information for me to look at when it is convenient for me. I don’t like having a salesman pitch to me when I have other things to deal with.

Leave the information and if I am interested I will get back to you.
 
I have left info and when I call and follow up the owner usually says they have no idea what I am talking about. Then I have to start over. I know salespeople can be a pain but all I need is 5 min to pitch and if you are not interested then I walk. Is there an association that I can join where I would get the owners info or email address?
 
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You could always offer to come back after the shop is closed. I had someone wanting my time so I asked them to come in at 1:00 AM. They did and made the sale.
 
bodegahwy said:
I would suggest first class mail.
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Or maybe paid advertising with PMQ or Pizza Today. We get so bombarded with BS calls from the likes of credit card processing companies, point of sale companies, yelp and similar web companies that if I gave everyone 5 minutes of my day I wouldn’t have any time to spend with my wife. But when I see an ad for something that interests me, I call to order or at least listen to the sales pitch.
 
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For 15+ plus years I have been trying to figure this out and still work on it every day…There is no one size fits all solution…Good luck…
 
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Thanks for all the responses everybody. Good stuff to think about. Still interested if anybody else have any thoughts.
 
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Great question and if you figure out the answer, you’d be rich regardless of whether your product actually sells. Tons of people/services would use you for advertising their own products/services to restaurants. (Me included. So let me know if you ever figure it out.)

We’ve tried (or are currently trying):

  1. []Door-to-door and that can be frustrating to say the least. Huge investment in time and rarely reach the decision maker.
    [    ]Email. Cold B2B marketing may not be considered spam but any email service will quickly cut-off your account. Trust me, I’ve learned the hard way. Be careful with this one.
    []First Class mailers is what we’re currently trying with substantial discounts/offers. Noticing some traffic, but too early to tell.
    [    ]Google / Bing ads. This is probably the most ideal, short of getting the 5 minutes with owners of course. But it’s expensive and dangerous. You have to make sure your ad campaign is setup EXACTLY as needed. Those clicks can cost $5+/each and you want to make sure someone is searching for exactly what you’re offering.
Good luck.
 
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All great answers.

Consider promoting your benefits to the pizza customers, not the pizza store owners. After all, a smart business owner is in the business of giving his/her customers what they want, for a reasonable price with great service. I submit to you that your time, energy and money are better spent educating pizza customers that you have the best product, and they, in turn, will convince the pizza store owners for you. That’s our primary focus.

Hope that helps.
 
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I much prefer getting something in the mail. If we’re open and I’m in the store, I don’t want the phone line taken up with a sales pitch. Send me something that I can look at at my convenience and I can contact you to set up a meeting if I feel like it’s something that I need.
 
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jeffs said:
I am not a pizza owner but I do love Pizza. I have a question regarding owners and I was hoping you might be able to help. I have a marketing company and we need to be able to reach the owners of pizza stores. Problem is they are not usually in so it makes our job hard. We have a great product that is affordable and will help them make money but we need to get to them. Is there a website or a directory that we would be able to reach the owners? Thanks for any help you can offer.
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No offense intended, but I have no idea what you are selling and I can tell you I’m not interested. Especially when it comes to marketing.

There is nothing new under the sun.

When I need things, I look for them on my own.
 
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What catches my attention. When I see something that indicates the sender knows something about the business and then MY business. It seems to me that in business you must find some differentiation. How does your material or pitch differentiate itself from other marketing companies? In our business (us pizza guys) it is critical to our success to be able to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. That can take many forms like producing a better product at a higher price. exceptional service, etc. If we cannot find differentiation then probably we will be unable to find much success.
One other thought. I remember one marketing person who used to visit my main location where I spent most of my time. He was pleasant and not pushy. The first few times I was polite but just did not want to get into another marketing discussion that went nowhere I wanted to go. He used to come by when I was there sometimes but would always leave his information. About six months later I was interested because of some reading and thinking I had done. We made a short term deal and then a one year deal.
Well, one more. I, and probably most of my compatriots in the pizza business, find it hard to not engage in conversation with a “customer” when they just purchased something. Very difficult to turn away from someone who is standing in front of you with a slice of pizza in their hand.
 
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@gmac42 nailed it! it’s hard not to listen to someone when they are spending money. I am usually the one working the counter during lunch and I always tell sales people i’m not the owner. honestly, I never want to hear even the shortest sales pitch, but I am way more likely to listen to what they have to say after they buy a slice.
 
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I’m at my shop quite a bit, and I get frustrated with the amount of cold calls or walk in’s wanting to see me. Introduce yourself in person, explain why you are here and ask for a good time to come back. Bonus points if you say the meeting will take 5-10 minutes. If you say that the meeting should only take 30 - 1hr I’ll most likely say no even if I’m interested in hearing what you have to say.

I usually always look at the mail, if you have a great product/service and you mail it to me, I will see it…

Just my opinions…
 
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