128: Gap between foodservice marketing and sales is now measured in seconds

Forget elaborate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems if you're trying to build loyalty for your foodservice brand. There isn't time these days.

Foodservice operators live in a nanosecond world.  Most won't spend a moment to "relate" with your brand through some vehicle that primarily relies on pushing things to them online. 

Life's too messy for operators for brand thoughtfulness. They're online experience is limited to placing weekly orders with distributors and reading email.  Very few "socialize" on websites. 

It's all about time efficiency.  And this is why successful delivery of a manufacturer's message will be measured in "seconds" in the future.  Not by measuring clicks, awareness cycles, coupons redeemed or the number of Facebook friends -- which have little relevance to what happens out there.

The measure between the time it takes to hand marketing initiatives off to the sales organizations for delivery is the accurate metric.  Today... not tomorrow. 

Instant marketing has arrived...

INSTANT MARKETING (AND MEASUREMENT) 

Measurability is absolutely paramount.  But old marketing benchmarks don't apply in an industry where the customer is driven nearly exclusively by personal recommendations coming from DSRs and brokers.

How are you measuring the effectiveness and time-efficiency of motivating operators at the street level?  Have you ever tracked what it takes to convince an operator to try something new?  Let alone switch from Brand X to Brand Y. 

We'll save you the cost of research... the answer is "instantly."  If a DSR or broker is the trusted information source that can pass along details right now.  Not tomorrow.  Not next week.  Now.

This is why DSRs and brokers are becoming as much real-time marketers as sales developers.  Operators demand it: 

• Marketing, training and sales often happens simultaneously. A broker or DSR discusses a need. They email a video to the operator that provides a short training demo on how they could use the product. The operator likes it (or not) because they can see the product in its genuine state versus viewing fluffy romantic product photos. This all can happen in five minutes. Listen as we talk about real examples from General Mills, Dole and Sara Lee.
• Expenses go down because fewer costly samples are needed if operators can see the raw product "in action" via a video. Video instantly provides the "seeing is believing" benefit of a sample to determine if the product will simply work or not for an operation (that's half the battle!).
• The gaps among manufacturer, broker, distributor and DSR in terms of communication is disappearing. Anybody anywhere can reach the operator seamlessly when an operator wants to "experience" a product. Those who embrace this "openness" will ultimately win because, again, it's about TODAY... not who or how the info gets there. So, if you enable your network at all levels (corporate marketing and sales, brokers, distributors, DSRs) to deliver the right information NOW, operators will love you.
• Anything online can be measured without "interpretation." You can track responses in real time. No elaborate theories of "audience reach"... the numbers are what they are.
• Costs are tiny to participate in this interactive, messy (but measurable) world where marketing and sales truly come together. So, the risk to experiment is nearly nonexistent... yet the upside is huge. Let's face it, nobody can afford to blow their budget... or lose their job over some wild idea these days.

Listen in to this episode with a roundtable discussion featuring former Rich's Foodservice President Dennis Janesz (now AFDR Vice President and CRO) who discuss fundamental changes between marketing and sales.  DSR Live! co-hosts DSR Dave Miesse and Bill Hornung also yak away.