The promise of the Byte Technology platform is compelling - an easy, low cost way to sell food anytime and anywhere. To get started, the most important step is to find your first location. In the 6+ years of operating this business, we've seen a myriad of locations perform exceptionally well for our clients. Locations can include apartment buildings, workplaces, warehouses, hotels, airports, community centers, hospitals or health clinics, universities, or anywhere else you can imagine someone wanting a quick bite to eat.
As the first provider of a small footprint unattended kiosk solution that supports fresh food, Byte Technology's clients have a greenfield opportunity to launch the service in their market. In this article we'll discuss how to go about finding your first - or hundredth - location. The formula is the same whether you're just starting out, or meaningfully scaling your business.
If you leave with just one learning today, it should be that fresh food delivers clear ROI to any location. A workplace benefits from improved productivity, stronger culture, and enhanced wellness. A hospital is able to have 24/7 access to fresh food and support visitors, patients, and workers after hours. An apartment is able to offer tenants another amenity, setting them apart from the competition. You are not offering a vending machine of chips and candy. You are offering a new, differentiated service.
With that groundwork laid, let's dive right in.
There are two pieces of who to sell to - the location type and the decision maker within that location. I touched on location types above. You can sell your service into workplaces, hospitals, apartment buildings, and so on. Knowing what person within a location to sell to is even more important. If you're trying to pitch a marketing manager at a company, but they don't handle anything to deal with food you are wasting your time.
Who is a decision maker within a workplace? In a larger company, decisions around food or vending will most often fall within facilities or wellness, if that role exists. In smaller companies, you may want to target the office manager, HR, or even the CEO.
Now that you know who you are targeting - both the location type and the roles within those locations - you're ready to start prospecting. The goal of prospecting is to get the actual contact information associated with the locations that you are targeting. This can sometimes be referred to as lead list building, as you are compiling a list of people you want to reach out to, their email, and their phone number.
There are many tools that can be used to do this, but these are a few of our favorites. And, yes, it's possible to prospect without spending a dime!
Now that you have your list of prospects, it's time to reach out! This is where the rubber meets the road and where consistency is key. It takes persistent follow up to get your prospect on the phone. And once you do, make sure you have thought through your pitch. Byte Technology has done some of the legwork here. Feel free to use our sales deck template to customize as your own.
Below are slide-by-slide talking points:
| Talking Points:
This is a chance to learn about the prospect’s company: |
|
|
Talking Points: This is a chance for more companies to offer a similar employee perk without incurring the same high cost. |
|
|
Talking Points: Employees compromise between health vs convenience; employers choose between productivity and budget. You no longer need to make those tradeoffs. |
|
| Talking Points: Talk about how the Byte fridge works. With the swipe of a credit card, the store unlocks. Open the door and it's like a normal shopping experience - you can pick things up, put them back or take multiple items. When you close the door, the technology automatically knows what was taken and charges accordingly. |
|
| Talking Points: Client will receive an assortment of products based on the office’s taste profile. The office can choose to subsidize as much or as little as they wish - even by day of week or time of day. |
|
| Talking Points:
And of course our food is incredible …. this is your time to shine and highlight all the great food you’re able to offer to your prospects. [Fun fact: if you can set up a tasting with the prospect, you have an 80% likelihood of closing that deal] |
|
|
Talking Points: Make their mouths water and talk about the great selection of food their employees will have access to. |
|
|
Talking Points: Update with numbers specific to your business, and talk through the benefits the average client sees. What percent of employees at a location typically use the kiosk? How much employee time is saved by not having to leave the building? How do people rate your food? |
|
|
Talking Points: Drive home the return on investment for your prospect. Employee count |
|
|
Talking Points: Drive home how hands-off and turn key your service is for the company. |
|
|
Talking Points: To recap, our service includes... and is 100% hands off. Gain all of these benefits for a monthly subscription of $500, and choose from a variety of add ons. [FUN FACT: most locations are willing or able to pay a low monthly subscription for the service.] |
|
|
Talking Points: Highlight other similar clients you are working with to build confidence. Schedule an on-site tasting or follow up call with a decision maker to make a final decision the following week. |
Hopefully these pointers help get you off to a strong start, or help augment your existing sales process. If you're interested in diving deeper into best practices, view our recent webinar on Selling the Service.