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712: Opening new accounts, Tips from Hall of Famer, Melissa Anderson

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“You have to find a value for yourself at every customer; and it’s going to be different for every customer,” declares Melissa Anderson.  All customers need help with something; products, prices, new menu ideas, back-of-the-house kitchen ideas, front-of-the-house server ideas, and the list goes on.  You have to do your homework with each customer to figure out what value you are going to bring to them.

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DSR Dave recommends…

Proven DSR Laws of Opening New Accounts

In order to properly go into a potential new account, you must do some basic things to have any shot at all at selling them.  Start with the points below:

  • Build an order guide by doing the following four (4) bullet points for each prospect and every customer.  A good goal would be to build two prospect’s order guides a week until you are selling 30 to 40 customers, but NEVER Stop prospecting.
  • Identify the products being used by a customer using their menu as the roadmap—goal would be 100 products, but at least 50 products
  • Identify products by ordering them to see what/how they’re using it
  • Code out the products identified by starting with products on your company’s TOP 200 list, and work your way down that list using the first item found.  So if you don’t have a like-product on the Top 200 list, continue on down the list until you find the first, turkey breast, for example—could be #325 or 863 and so on.    
  • Add the products to an order guide so you know which products to ask for; take samples/POS of items to discuss with prospective customer
  • Study and learn your company’s Top 200 items so you become an expert on those products 
  • ADD VALUE to YOU—make it so your customers don’t want to be in business without YOU!!!
    Start building your “GO-TO SERVICES”network of help.  We suggest having two for each service. Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, Stove & Oven, Accounting, Advertising, Hood Cleaning, Grease trap cleaning, Laundry services, Carpenters, Beer & Beverage line cleaning, Legal, Menu Makers/Printers, Insurance Agents that specialize in Foodservice, Floor cleaning, Window cleaning, Electrician, Music Folks (bands and DJs), Sound Dudes, Delivery companies, Web Site builders, Computer tech dudes and every other thing you see Robert Irvine do on The Food Network J

 
There is ONE WORD that’s the secret to DSR success:  WORK!!

There are TWO WORDS that describe what it takes to have GREAT DSR success:  HARD WORK!!