Foodservice Marketing

The Distributor Sales Representative (DSR) is one of the most trusted resources to the independent “street” operator.   Generally, the DSR is awarded a higher financial incentive for selling their own brands versus a manufacturer brand.  For years, manufacturers have tried to garner loyalty from the DSR by offering “spiffs” for increased case sales.  According to the Association of Foodservice Distributor Representatives DSR Insights, here’s the harsh reality:

Most DSRs have a “default” recommendation in their brain for your product category (likely the house brand). You might distract them with the occasional spiff… but they often have 12-15 spiffs available to them at anytime.  In fact, they often will be paid out on a spiff and not even know where it came from.

AFDR argues that DSR’s can be loyal, however building loyalty should be tied to training (knowledge) about your products, then supplemented with ongoing, consistent communications about your brand. 

Like the previous new products post, AFDR offers great suggestions, but also re-enforces how difficult it is to influence the DSR.   The DSR and distributor are critical to ensuring delivery, however reliance on them to “sell”  manufacturer brands remains fraught with challenges.

So how does a manufacturer reach the “street” operators if you cannot rely on the DSR?  Hopefully, the manufacturer’s sales agents or direct sales force can reach the largest volume “street” operators on a regular basis.  Foodservice Rewards can reach these same Tier 1 customers (regularly and consistently) plus the Tier 2 and Tier 3 operators that can drive manufacturer sales in aggregate.  Foodservice Rewards provides a turn-key ongoing customized communication stream to each of the over 100,000 “street” OPERATOR participants to garner LOYALTY for the brands that feature our yellow reward stickers.  Program sponsors that develop operator loyalty to their brands, then protect their business from distributor/house brand conversion.