How one restaurant really makes sales

Kommrad Khol

11 years ago

Better go offer to do that for restaurants for $1,000/mo now, I'm sure they'll take it...

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Osman_M

11 years ago

Human interaction in anything goes a long way. Thats something the internet can never replace.

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THIS EXACT SALES FUNNEL MAKES ME $346.75 EVERYDAY!
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SteveSki 11 years ago

Being in the portrait business... If I need business today... I head out the door with a small portfolio of sample prints and approach parents with children... show them my samples... tell them I think their child is photogenic and I'm looking to expand my portfolio... offer to give them a free photo session on the spot and a free print of whichever image they like best from their session. But I show them 20 images and most of them will want to buy them all!

I've been struggling trying to get more online sales but haven't found anyone other than the Daily Deal companies that can get me any significant online bookings... I'm still looking as you can see in my post at: http://www.warriorforum.com/wanted-m...-me-leads.html

I'm thinking that for me... I'd be far better off to hire a few people to carry samples of my work with them and pay them $25 for every portrait session they bring me....

And instead of advertising online... use a combination of high tech / low tech guerilla marketing like: Streetwise Media | Guerrilla Marketing | Ambient Marketing | Street Marketing | Ideas for Small Business | Small Business Marketing | Cheap Marketing Ideas

Or Free local DYI advertising that Dien Rice shared on Seeds of Wisdom Publishing - Books on Success in Life like:

I wasn't aware of water pressure stencils before. How can the local authorities complain about that, since you're actually cleaning the sidewalk?

Here are a couple of websites with more instructions and details of how to do water pressure stencils...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Reve...essure-Washer/

Reverse Clean Graffiti Street Pavement Stencil Advertising UK MANCHESTER LIVERPOOL LEEDS NEWCASTLE

The internet may be the cats meow... but there's more than one way to skin a cat....

Cheers,
Steve
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www.EnchantedPortraits.com.au
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Noctilus

11 years ago

Great info SteveSki. I'm already thinking of how I can apply this. Thanks.

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xlfutur1

11 years ago

Originally Posted by RaynayValles

I was visiting New York with my family. It was Sunday morning and we had planned on a place on Manhattan for breakfast. We got there and it was closed. What did we do?

I whipped out my phone and used google maps to find pancakes for my kid. There was a place on 48th Street, so we headed over there. As an internet marketer, you might think they got our business, right?

But a funny thing happened on the way to the restaurant...

There was a man on 5th Avenue who said to us, "Are you hungry? Want breakfast?"

That caught our attention. "Whatcha got?" we asked. There was another couple standing with him.

"We got pancakes, bacon, eggs, omelettes, coffee. Good food." he rubbed his generous belly.

"Where?" we asked.

He told us it was a half a block away and walked us and the other couple there. He brought in us 5. He showed us the restaurant then went back out and hustled up more customers.

It WAS good food.

We never would have gone there if it weren't for him. Having a restaurant on google maps was no match for the man on the street asking, "Are you hungry?" when we were searching for food.

Good stuff. Classic example of literally matching the message (good food) to the exact target market (people who are hungry NOW)

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Marty S

11 years ago

Interesting. I know my wife would have been a little freaked out and suspicious of such a person, but can I ask you, what about this man made you trust him right off? I mean your experience could have also been an opener for a Law and Order episode. I like the drag-em-in strategy, just wanted to know why you would trust a stranger to go for a walk - in New York!

I saw something similar in Quebec City, but the person had menus in his hand and was just outside the restaurant.

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TheBigBee

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Marty S

Interesting. I know my wife would have been a little freaked out and suspicious of such a person, but can I ask you, what about this man made you trust him right off? I mean your experience could have also been an opener for a Law and Order episode. I like the drag-em-in strategy, just wanted to know why you would trust a stranger to go for a walk - in New York!

I saw something similar in Quebec City, but the person had menus in his hand and was just outside the restaurant.

I think a large part of why she trusted him is that he didn't give her any reason not to.

Believe it or not, humans want to trust other humans. We want to believe each other.

It's hard not believing. Imagine the human existence if we just had our "I do not trust, I do not believe" in auto pilot.

Plus the fact that he asked them something universally relate-able helped. He asked "Are you hungry?" - We all eat.

If he had asked; "Where do you guys live?" out of the blue - that's a lil creepy.

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FILL IN THE BLANKS!

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Marty S

11 years ago

[DELETED]

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TheBigBee

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Marty S

Wow. Thanks. Profound stuff. :rolleyes:

I sure hope you do not give such advice to children. Wait..... most of them would probably laugh at what you just said as well.

What he said.

But maybe we can get the answer to my question from the OP, who was actually there.

I've seen big scary looking black guys, be left at a strangers house to baby sit their young kids, while the mom ran to the ATM to grab cash for this door to door solicitor.

She didn't think of how idiotic that sounded on the surface; "where are your kids?" "Oh they are at home?" "Who is watching them?" "Some big black guy that knocked on my door to sell me crap."

How many people would instantly dial 911?

This happened to the guy who trained me to stop being so afraid that 100% of all people would instantly judge me based on appearance.

Because of him, I've had similar experiences - not any quite that astonishing.

So when OP was challenged - I instantly got it from the solicitors perspective. One minor detail that you guys overlooked was that "he was rubbing his belly." I think "are you hungry + rubbing belly = selling food" - or at least maybe that's what she intuited. If he pointed his finger like; "ARE YOU HUNGRY!" She might have freaked out a lil.

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FILL IN THE BLANKS!

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Aaron Doud 11 years ago

Originally Posted by Marty S

I sure hope you do not give such advice to children. Wait..... most of them would probably laugh at what you just said as well.
.

I just want to point out that "stranger danger" is a myth. Children are normally harmed by those they know including family members. In fact by percentages children are far safer with strangers than with family members. I've seen numbers saying sexual assaults by strangers are less than 5% of all sexual assaults on kids. And it isn't just true for kids. Women are afraid when the men they know are far more likely to assault them than a stranger.

So while you do need to teach your kids to be aware of everyone including strangers you should never teach them to be afraid of strangers. In many cases when they are in danger it is strangers that will be able to help them.

I'm amazed by how "scary" the world has gotten since I was a kid despite all crime levels falling. We are making our kids afraid for no reason. Hell we have the government arresting parents for letting their kids play outside alone or walk to school alone. This is insanity.

There is a reasons stories of strangers kidnapping kids makes national news. It's very rare so it is a big deal. And how many of these kids could have been saved had they believed that the vast majority of strangers were good people that could help them. Teach your kids to find an adult any adult when they need help. 99.99999999999999% of the time that adult will be a good person.
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- Claude Whitacre 11 years ago
  
  I'll bet the guy was standing close to several restaurants that were not open at the time. That's a guess, but that's what I'd do. Get people that are highly likely looking for what you sell, and talk to them. And at Breakfast time? You are either going for breakfast, or just came from breakfast. Especially with kids.
  
  Smart marketing, and a great post.
  
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  What if they're not stars? What if they are holes poked in the top of a container so we can breath?
  
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RaynayValles

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Marty S

Interesting. I know my wife would have been a little freaked out and suspicious of such a person, but can I ask you, what about this man made you trust him right off? I mean your experience could have also been an opener for a Law and Order episode. I like the drag-em-in strategy, just wanted to know why you would trust a stranger to go for a walk - in New York!

You're right. It could have ended very differently. Reasons why we trusted him:

First let me say I AM from Chicago. Not the suburbs but the city. My husband, my kid and I travel our city all the time. We are aware of stranger-danger. We try to be street smart. That doesn't mean breaking out the pepper spray whenever strangers talk to us, right? :-)

Plus we walked by him, he didn't approach us.

Plus he was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. If he were wearing a big jacket or trench coat, we would have thought twice. He didn't look like he was packin' heat.

Plus the hawker seemed harmless, not wacko. Could have been, but wasn't.

Plus he did have a small sign for the restaurant. I hardly noticed it because he was so personable. (I know certain serial killers have been described as personable.)

Plus there was another tourist couple with him. (Social proof or a plant?)

Plus it was 9 am on Sunday morning on 5th Avenue (a major street). He wasn't suggesting we take a walk down an alley with him, just a short stroll half a block away.

That all added up to trust. :-D And he kept bringing in customers, too. Not everyone, but other people trusted him too.

It could have gone very differently...

"Are you hungry? Want breakfast?"

"WE'RE FROM CHICAGO! SPRAAAAAAYYYYY!"

(So he took a chance on us too!)

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misterme

11 years ago

Originally Posted by SteveSki

I've been struggling trying to get more online sales but haven't found anyone other than the Daily Deal companies that can get me any significant online bookings... I'm still looking as you can see in my

Steve, I'm a fellow pro photographer in NYC. I'm thinking you can expand into different demographics using variations of your sales strategy. You're currently doing a "cute kid" thing and you can add "child model from 8 to 18," newborns, first year baby plan, those sort of things and use FB ads in addition to deal sites to bring in clients. And if you use canvassers or what used to be called "coupon passers," get a list of families with children and send the canvassers to their doors.

You can also partner with all sorts of children's stores from baby stores, toy stores to juvenile furniture and clothing. I can think of several tried and true promotions you can do with them.

Originally Posted by RaynayValles

I was visiting New York with my family. It was Sunday morning and we had planned on a place on Manhattan for breakfast. We got there and it was closed...

There was a man on 5th Avenue who said to us, "Are you hungry? Want breakfast?"

That caught our attention. "Whatcha got?" we asked. There was another couple standing with him.

"We got pancakes, bacon, eggs, omelettes, coffee. Good food." he rubbed his generous belly.

"Where?" we asked.

He told us it was a half a block away and walked us and the other couple there.

If you believe every street hawker in this town you're going to misspend your money more times than not.

And while many New Yorkers have good hearts and wouldn't harm a fly it can be foolish to go off with a stranger.

Anyway next time go to the Galaxy Diner or Westway Diner, both on 9th Ave in Hell's Kitchen. They're great.

Thanks
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SteveSki

11 years ago

Originally Posted by misterme

Steve, I'm a fellow pro photographer in NYC. I'm thinking you can expand into different demographics using variations of your sales strategy. You're currently doing a "cute kid" thing and you can add "child model from 8 to 18," newborns, first year baby plan, those sort of things and use FB ads in addition to deal sites to bring in clients. And if you use canvassers or what used to be called "coupon passers," get a list of families with children and send the canvassers to their doors.

You can also partner with all sorts of children's stores from baby stores, toy stores to juvenile furniture and clothing. I can think of several tried and true promotions you can do with them.

Thanks,

I can tell you have been in the business for a while....

In addition to the sites in my signature I have several others designed to attract portrait clients... Here's one for example: Little Models Club Modeling Offer

But I love it when LivingSocial pays me $2281.44 and sends me 97 new clients. Now I'm spoiled and want more leads like those...

I just started advertising a new Facebook fan page today to build a client base up in a particular town. Unfortunately the giant daily deal sites don't target smaller towns and cities.

Australia is really big on privacy laws and it's difficult to get a list a with children. I can get a list of home owners with pets... but not children.

In fact - I prefer to hire an all female staff to handle all of my children's shoots for me.

Originally Posted by NewParadigm

ha, love that pressure sprayer stencil! That's some creative thinking, but I'm pretty sure you'd get a call from the city. LOL

In the typical American town you would not only get a call from the city but also a free ride in a squad car at taxpayers expense. ... After 48 years of living and working in the States I decided to see if the grass is any greener on the other side of the world... and it is!

The company doing it here in Australia never asks for permission... they have been doing it for the last five years... and they are seldom ever contacted by a city council.

It has happened a few times when a competitor of one of their clients calls the council to complain it's an unfair advantage and demands they do something about it.

But in those rare incidents... each council has only said... you have 24 hours to remove it. So they remove that ad and replace it with another type of business.... in five years they have never been fined once.... but....America.... is now a police state so thread carefully.

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Aaron Doud

11 years ago

I love this. This is a restaurant that knows 100% where their business comes from and used the 80/20 rule to grow. If the vast majority of your business comes from people in the area walking by why spend money on advertising when you can just pay someone to sell to the people walking by.

Many restaurants are not destinations they just happen to be where you are when you are hungry. In a city where traffic is pedestrian this method should work great. Best part? If the people walk by often and like the food they will come back on their own and tell others in the office or building about it.

Thus they may only need to station a guy like that on slow days.

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bizgrower

11 years ago

Where I used to live, the Quizno's sub shop would have their high school age employees stand on the sidewalk and wave a cardboard sign. One time it was something like 12 degrees outside.

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Aaron Doud

11 years ago

Originally Posted by bizgrower

Where I used to live, the Quizno's sub shop would have their high school age employees stand on the sidewalk and wave a cardboard sign. One time it was something like 12 degrees outside.

That's Little Caesar's marketing plan at most locations. Works well for them based on their hot & ready branding.

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NewParadigm

11 years ago

ha, love that pressure sprayer stencil! That's some creative thinking, but I'm pretty sure you'd get a call from the city. LOL

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In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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NewParadigm

11 years ago

A great resource for biz owners in urban/tourist areas are cab drivers. They have deals w/ bars/strip clubs and get paid when they bring people by. Cabbies get asked all the time, where is a good place to eat....etc....Give them a stack of discount cards to your establishment to hand out to passengers. Cabbie can leave his initials or whatever on the back to get paid, whether its a free meal or a few bucks.

Tourist/group bus drivers too. I've seen signs that say "bus drivers eat free". Hell, I'd offer the guy $50-$100 bill if he brought in 50 people on a bus! And actively market to them ahead of time vs. just a sign in the window.

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In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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How one restaurant really makes sales

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