If you are trying to sell merchant services to restaurant owners let me give you my best tip. Eat their food! Sound simple? It is simple.
One of the most enjoyable and productive things you can do each day is eat lunch at a different restaurant. It will be easy at first, but after a while it can become a challenge, after all, how many places are there that serve lunch in your market? So, let me explain how you can add this tip to your daily prospecting routine and make it a productive use of time and money.
#1 Make a goal for yourself to accomplish that morning before eating lunch. This goal must be 100% within your control. The two goals that come to my mind would be, “I will spend 3 hours in the field prospecting for new business before going to lunch.” And, “I will walk into 20 businesses for the first time before lunch.” These are both achievable goals, but I like the first one because again, it is completely within your control.
#2 Sit down each week and pick out one restaurant where you will eat lunch for every day you are in the field. Obviously you would want to stay away from fancy restaurants in order to keep this from becoming a huge cost concern each week. This is something that would be a lot of fun and if you can afford it, maybe even have your spouse or significant other meet you at the restaurant one day per week. This will also require some money so make sure you add this to your budget. I have found in my market that $15.00 per day is about right and that average let’s me eat at 90% of the places in my market that serve lunch. One day I might spend $7.00 and the next day $21.00 but it averages out to $15.00 per day.
#3 Get up each morning fired up to hit your goal for the morning and remind yourself that you have picked out a great place to each lunch. This will motivate you to achieve your goal! Once you get to the restaurant, enjoy your meal. Don’t walk in scoping out the place, just come in and eat some food, bring a book to read, listen to a podcast or do anything else that will relax you and help you enjoy your reward.
#4 After your meal, walk up to your waiter or walk up to the counter and just say, “Hey, the food was awesome, thanks very much, who owns this place?” When they say, “Bob” you respond, “Is he here?” Just those two simple lines together with the fact that you just ate a meal will always get you in front of the owner if they are there and they will at least get you the name of the owner.
#5 Once the owner comes out, say something like this. “Hey Bob, I really enjoyed my meal, I know your probably busy, but I wanted to give you my card. I have a local business providing credit card processing and one thing I love to do is give a really good deal to restaurants where I eat at, do you know who you are using?” You could start with more small talk if you like, ask them how long they have been in business, but I have found a direct approach works best for me. I would encourage you to track these sales separately from your other sales and each month analyze your lunch time and I bet that you can eat lunch every day for free when you figure out how many sales it is getting you and in the process you might even turn a profit and motivate yourself to prospect in the mornings!
I hope this short tip has been a help to you!
James Shepherd
.jpg "GetIsoAmp.com")
.jpg "GetIsoAmp.com")
