How to activate your foodservice broker network with First Bite

Most food and beverage manufacturers put real work into their broker network: choosing the right partners, sharing goals, providing product training, collaborating. But once a broker is out in the field, it's genuinely hard to know which accounts got called on and which deals can be attributed back to their efforts.

How do you get the most out of your foodservice broker relationships?

Below are a few of the ways our most successful customers are using First Bite to make their broker partners even more effective and results trackable, without adding friction to the relationship.

Give brokers a focused go-get list

Brokers have their own networks, but if you hand them a specific, targeted list of accounts that match your ideal customer profile in a given territory, you make their job easier. 

Use First Bite to generate target lists, filtered by HQ state, zip code, cuisine, chain size, menu item, revenue potential, and more. 

Activating brokers with a clear list of targets means you can also more easily track their impact against your communicated goals. Run through your target lists on check-in calls and discuss progress, keeping everyone accountable. 

Drum up interest with First Bite outreach campaigns, then hand to brokers to follow up in person 

Close rates go up after meeting in person, whether that's your own team or a broker acting as your boots on the ground. A lot of manufacturers already think of their brokers this way: as a fractional sales team they've outsourced. 

Target operators in a broker's territory by running a personalized email campaign in First Bite, then hand your broker the warm leads to visit in person. You'll see close rates increase.

Track broker effort with rebate attribution codes

If you run rebates through First Bite, you can create unique attribution codes and give one to each broker rep. 

Every click on that rep's link is tracked along with redemption data, which gives you a real, direct signal of how much success they are achieving for you. 

Use broker location (and coverage gaps) to shape sales strategy

Run outreach campaigns in territories where you have brokerage partners. When an opportunity comes through, copy the broker responsible for that territory directly in your email chain and use tagging in the First Bite CRM to track progress. This makes it easy to see which leads went where and how they were followed up on.

Also run campaigns targeted specifically in the regions where you don't have broker coverage yet to reach your total addressable market. Filter operators by HQ city, state or zip code and build target lists that match your ideal customer. 

Streamline and track samples

Some First Bite users go a step further and give their broker teams direct logins to the platform to manage sample requests, rather than routing every request through your team.

A broker submits a sample request, associates it with an operator, and the request routes to your team for review and approval. 

This gives you real visibility into broker sampling activity. At the end of the year, you can look at how many samples a given broker team requested against how many deals they actually closed, and use that to make decisions about how much sampling spend to put behind them going forward. 

It also takes a recurring task off your team's plate: no more processing sample requests that come in by phone, text, or email on a broker's behalf.

Brokers use First Bite too!

A number of brokers are First Bite customers, using the platform to identify and reach out to operators on behalf of the brands they represent. 

Instead of only relying on their existing network or waiting for manufacturers to share territory lists, they are using our tools to grow their relationships with new operators and generate more wins. 

‍Give brokers direction, give yourself visibility

Your broker network knows how to sell. But the manufacturers getting the most out of their partnerships are the ones making it easier for brokers to focus on top targets and track their outcomes.

Have questions about any of these approaches, or want to talk through what would work for your foodservice sales team?

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