Heres a business pitch scenario. Input anyone?

AMPWLLC

AMPWLLC

New member
here's a scenario I was in yesterday. Let me know how you all would've went about landing and closing this bid.

I was at an IHOP and I noticed that the outside seating area concrete was in pretty bad shape. Gum, oil staining, overall dirty. So I asked the waitress, hey do you know the manager's name. She told me and was personable towards me, so I said thank you and continued to order my food. As we were waiting for our food, I asked if I could have a moment to speak to the operation's manager about my food, to make sure she came to the table to serve a customer(me) I then layed it on her. Told her what needed to be done and I offered to answer any questions she might have. Then I offered her a quote. The manager then said that she was busy and I could tell that she was blowing me off and was quite rude about it. And it wasn't the fact that I was not speaking in a distasteful or condescending, demanding way. The waitress had given me a head's up about the manager that she can be a real ***** even before I had the conversation with the manager. My wife concurred that she was rather ill-mannered with me, even though I was a paying customer.

My problem was I wasn't sure how to take the bull by the horns on that particular scenario and close the deal.

What do you guys think?
 
She could have been a little bothered that you asked to speak to her about your food, and then she realized you said that just to get her out there. I just ask to speak with the GM. They rarely ask why.

I was able to secure a meeting with a district manager from IHOP by going through corporate (not sure if this was an Arizona corp office, or regional), but here's her email: shall@romulusinc.com . She was very helpful, but did take two emails and a couple follow up calls before she got back to me.

Do you have a price list made for restaurants? A wise man once told me to make a general price list for restaurants, which I did, and it has worked well. They like to have it in front of them, rather than not knowing and waiting for measuring and a final estimate. I have mine set up with pricing on fast food, family restaurants, dumpster cleaning, etc.

Do you offer FREE demos? EVERY account I have was won by doing a free demo on a 100sf area. It didn't cost them a penny. They went back inside (usually), and I came and got them when I was done. I always try to demo in the heaviest traffic area (the back door is good).

Don't get discouraged, you HAVE to keep at it. It will pay off. Everyone starts small.
 
One more thing... Even though she was a b****, follow up with her in a week or so. Mail her a price list or estimate. Keep a log of all your businesses you contacted, and when you followed up with them. Keep bugging her every couple weeks or so until she tells you to stop.
 
Great info.

Hope Ron will chime in, he is great at these.
 
I've had some managers under these circumstances refuse to take my card. You don't know if 3 employees didn't show up that day etc. Managing a restaurant is a tough gig. Don't take it personal and try back. Call on them until they tell you to go away. You can't be thin skinned in sales.

From what I've heard Ron is the King at cold calling.
 
You have the right idea, being their customer is a great start and almost always gurantees they will come and talk to you. 9 times out of 10 when they are called out to talk to a customer it is not a positive encounter, they are going to be on the defensive from the start...I always start by putting them at ease, and telling them we are enjoying out meal, the service is great and that you know they are busy but wanted to introduce yourself.... You don't have to hard sell them right then, but tell them that you think you could really help clean up (fill in the blank) and possibly save them money if they are already having it done. Tell them you will stop by at a less busy time with an estimate or like the guys above said, have a pre-printed estimate ready to give them (great idea and one I will be doing). I am going to start doing more demos, it is obviously a proven winner.

Follow up is the most important thing you can do.
 
I used to eat at the same places over and over.... Now I either hit a new breakfast or lunch spot.... When you ask for the manager .... Ask for the gm. Drop a hit there's nothing wrong, you just wanna min of their time. When they walk up introduce yourself .... Lou that's it ..... The food is great today .... Wait till they say something and they will. The say I'm from Eco friendly pw and wanted to give you a quick estimate... Give a menu estimate and let them talk again..... And they will. Then you can offer the free demo or stencile ...... It worked for me on a chick fil a...
 
I think you made a mistake when you mentioned the food...

If you want your services to compliment there facility...COMPLIMENT their food even if it tastes like your mother in law's cooking.
 
Here is how it would have went with me:

Me to waitress: "Hi, it's obvious that you keep this place running, but can I speak to the person who thinks they do?"

That always gets a smile...

When the manager comes out: "Hi Ms. Manager, I just wanted to compliment you on the food and the service that I received. I'm in a lot of restaurants in the area because of my work and it's such a pleasure to receive the kind of service I try to give to my customers. Let me ask you, do you currently have a company that cleans the outside of your property?, because I couldn't help but noticed when I walked in that it looks like it may be due for a cleaning and we all know that first impressions mean EVERYTHING in business, don't they?"

Manager: "Yes" or "No"

(Yes) Me: "Oh ok, that's great, so you're pretty happy with the job they do and their service?"

Her: "Yes"

Me: "Great, because it's been my experience that when a person is happy is when they should consider a change, because we usually don't make good decisions when we are not happy, do we? (wait for answer) Who Else other than yourself would make the decision to give us a try?"

Her: "No, we don't have anyone"

Me: "Great, we have some really good promotions going for the summer if you wanted to have us come out and give a quick 5 minute demo so you could see how your restaurant could benefit from our services." Who, other than yourself would need to make the decision...."

Or, another objection that you will hear often will be... we don't have it in our budget...

If you hear this, here is what you do:

"I understand that completely, Ms. Manager, times are pretty tough out there right now. Some of our happiest customers said the same thing before I showed them just how inexpensive a service like mine really can be. Here is a letter from a customer of mine that said the same thing.. his number is at the bottom if you ever wanted to give him a call and chat about it. For the summer we are doing some FREE demonstrations for customers just like yourself. Who other than yourself would involved in the decision making?.....
 
Great info Ant.

Thank You.
 
HotShot_Anthony said:
Here is how it would have went with me:

Me to waitress: "Hi, it's obvious that you keep this place running, but can I speak to the person who thinks they do?"

That always gets a smile...

When the manager comes out: "Hi Ms. Manager, I just wanted to compliment you on the food and the service that I received. I'm in a lot of restaurants in the area because of my work and it's such a pleasure to receive the kind of service I try to give to my customers. Let me ask you, do you currently have a company that cleans the outside of your property?, because I couldn't help but noticed when I walked in that it looks like it may be due for a cleaning and we all know that first impressions mean EVERYTHING in business, don't they?"

Manager: "Yes" or "No"

(Yes) Me: "Oh ok, that's great, so you're pretty happy with the job they do and their service?"

Her: "Yes"

Me: "Great, because it's been my experience that when a person is happy is when they should consider a change, because we usually don't make good decisions when we are not happy, do we? (wait for answer) Who Else other than yourself would make the decision to give us a try?"

Her: "No, we don't have anyone"

Me: "Great, we have some really good promotions going for the summer if you wanted to have us come out and give a quick 5 minute demo so you could see how your restaurant could benefit from our services." Who, other than yourself would need to make the decision...."

Or, another objection that you will hear often will be... we don't have it in our budget...

If you hear this, here is what you do:

"I understand that completely, Ms. Manager, times are pretty tough out there right now. Some of our happiest customers said the same thing before I showed them just how inexpensive a service like mine really can be. Here is a letter from a customer of mine that said the same thing.. his number is at the bottom if you ever wanted to give him a call and chat about it. For the summer we are doing some FREE demonstrations for customers just like yourself. Who other than yourself would involved in the decision making?.....
Click to expand...

Hot_shot Anthony,
WOW thats awesome! see my biggest problem is having a come back, like I go in there ready to land a deal but then they throw those blow offs at you and I get tongue stuck. This is great, thank you for posting your post has helped me!
 
Jillian Shelton said:
Hot_shot Anthony,
WOW thats awesome! see my biggest problem is having a come back, like I go in there ready to land a deal but then they throw those blow offs at you and I get tongue stuck. This is great, thank you for posting your post has helped me!
Click to expand...

You're welcome :dirol:

Just practice, practice practice... I know exactly what I'm going to say no matter what they say. Don't confuse that with not listening to your customer though. Don't have a canned response, be flexible and find out what their true hot button is.

At the same time, don't let a no, or a yes deter you from your objective.
 
My girls laid the law down on me, the time with family out to together is just that. I'm prohibited from business while at the table with them. Once done I leave a tip and a card.

I often get stopped by staff before I make it out the parking lot about half the time. Of the ones the have caught me in the lot I close about 70% that night.
Of the remaining 30% I close on half in the next 60 days.


I'd never request the manager/owner under the guides that there's a problem with the food. I'd think that would have them on the defensive right off the bat and should piss off any intelligent person as soon as the BS "bad food" story came to light.
 
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