How to sell to restaurants: find the right ones, reach the decision maker, time it

To sell to restaurants, list every restaurant in your area that fits your product by cuisine, category and price level, remove the chains whose purchasing is decided at head office, and contact the decision maker (owner, chef or general manager) between lunch and dinner service. Restaurants are easy to find, since every one is on Google Maps with its hours, price band and reviews, and hard to reach during service. Timing and a pitch specific to their kind of restaurant matter more than volume.

What do restaurants buy, and who decides?#

Restaurants buy food, equipment, technology and services, and a different person usually decides each one. Know who you need before you call.

Independents are faster to close because the owner is on site. Franchise locations can work for local services and marketing, but suppliers and POS are often decided by the brand's corporate office, so check the franchise's rules before you spend time there.

How do I find restaurants by cuisine, category and price level?#

Search Google Maps by cuisine and by restaurant type, then use the price level, hours and reviews on each listing to keep only the ones that fit.

1. Search by cuisine. Google Maps has specific categories: "Mexican restaurant", "Italian restaurant", "sushi restaurant", "Thai restaurant", "steak house", "vegan restaurant". A produce grower or a wine distributor targets by cuisine.
2. Search by type. "Cafe", "bar and grill", "pizza restaurant", "fast food restaurant", "breakfast restaurant", "food truck". A POS or staffing pitch targets by type.
3. Search in pieces. One Maps search shows only about 120 results, and a mid-size city has far more restaurants than that. Split by neighborhood or ZIP code. See why Google Maps stops at 120 results.
4. Filter by price level. Google lists a price band for many restaurants, from inexpensive to very expensive. Premium suppliers and fine-dining services target the top two bands; fast-casual POS and staffing target the lower ones.
5. Remove chains. Sort by name and drop names that appear many times, unless you sell to franchisees.
6. Use reviews as a size signal. A restaurant with 1,500 reviews serves far more covers than one with 40, which matters for volume products.
7. Use hours for timing. The listed hours tell you which day they're closed, whether they serve breakfast, and when the gap between services falls.

The full list of useful categories, and how to pick search terms, is in the Google Maps categories list.

Worked example: a specialty produce grower#

Assumptions, for illustration only, not measured: you grow microgreens and specialty herbs and deliver within one metro.

If an account averages $60 a week (an assumption), 20 accounts bring in $1,200 a week, about $62,400 a year at 52 weeks. Start with the 50 restaurants with the most reviews and see what your real visit-to-account rate is before you plan the rest.

When is the best time to contact a restaurant?#

Contact restaurants between services, usually mid-afternoon on Tuesday through Thursday. During lunch and dinner the owner and chef are working the line or the floor; nobody wants a sales call at 12:30 or 7:00.

These windows are common practice, not measured results; check each restaurant's listed hours and adjust. Email any time, but expect replies late at night or in the afternoon gap.

What should I say? Scripts by what you sell#

Lead with one benefit for their kind of restaurant and make the next step small: a sample, a 10-minute demo or a price sheet.

Call: find the decision maker#

"Hi, is this {{business}}? I'll be quick, I know you're prepping.
Who handles [your produce / your card processing / your marketing]?
... When's a good time to catch them for five minutes? I can come
by with [samples / a fee comparison]."

Email: POS or payments#

Subject: card fees at {{business}}

Hi there,

I help {{category}} owners in {{city}} check whether they're
overpaying on card processing. If you send me one recent
statement, I'll show you what you're paying per transaction,
in plain numbers, and whether switching would save anything.
If it wouldn't, I'll tell you.

Is that worth 10 minutes on a Tuesday afternoon?

[Name] · [Company] · [Postal address]
Not interested? Reply "no" and I won't write again.

Email: produce or specialty food to a chef#

Subject: {{product}} for {{business}}'s kitchen

Hi Chef,

I grow {{product}} in {{area}} and deliver to kitchens around
{{city}} on {{delivery days}}. Harvested the day before delivery.

I'd like to drop off samples between services this week, with a
price sheet and minimums. Would Wednesday around 3 work?

[Name] · [Farm] · [Postal address] · Reply "no" to opt out.

Email: marketing#

Subject: slow nights at {{business}}

Hi there,

{{business}} has {{reviews}} reviews at {{rating}} stars, so the
people who come in like it. I help {{category}} restaurants fill
the quiet weeknights with [specific tactic].

Want me to send two ideas for your place, free?

[Name] · [Company] · [Postal address] · Reply "no" to opt out.

For food products, check the rules before you sell. The FDA Food Code, the model that state and local regulators use to write their own food safety rules, says restaurants must get food from sources that comply with law, so your local health department may need to approve how you produce and deliver.

How do I reach new restaurants before they pick vendors?#

New restaurants choose POS, suppliers, insurance and services in the weeks before and after opening, so finding them early is valuable. Watch for new listings in your area each month, local liquor license notices, and building and health permit filings where your city publishes them. See how to find new businesses in your area for the methods and their trade-offs.

What rules apply to cold outreach to restaurants?#

In the US, commercial email falls under CAN-SPAM: accurate sender information and subject lines, a physical postal address and a working opt-out honored within 10 business days. Calls to restaurants for business products are mostly exempt from the National Do Not Call Registry, but not from the FTC's ban on misrepresentations, and autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts to cell phones need consent; see how to find businesses to cold call. Google's Maps Platform terms restrict scraping and building lists from Maps content, a contract issue separate from these laws. Get legal advice for your situation.

If you'd rather not build restaurant lists by hand, Leadraft finds every restaurant of the types you choose inside the area you draw, with price level, hours and reviews, and never charges for ones outside your area or in the wrong category. Try it on your city on the free plan, or see sample exports for restaurants, bars and coffee shops.

FAQ#

How do I sell to restaurants?#

Pick the restaurants that fit your product by cuisine, category and price level, list every one in your area, and contact the person who decides: usually the owner at an independent, the chef or kitchen manager for food, and the general manager for operations. Call or visit in the mid-afternoon gap between lunch and dinner, and lead with one specific benefit for their kind of restaurant.

What is the best time to call or visit a restaurant?#

Between services, usually about 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday to Thursday. Avoid lunch and dinner rushes, Friday and Saturday evenings, and the hour before opening. Check each restaurant's listed hours: many close one weekday, and breakfast places are quiet in the afternoon.

Who makes purchasing decisions at a restaurant?#

At an independent restaurant, the owner decides on anything significant. The executive chef or kitchen manager usually decides on food and kitchen supplies, and the general manager on front-of-house, staffing and day-to-day vendors. At franchise locations, the franchisee decides some things and the brand's corporate office decides others, such as approved suppliers and POS.

How do I sell produce or specialty food to restaurants?#

Target chef-driven independents at a moderate-to-high price level whose menus match what you grow or make, bring samples to the chef between services, and be ready with a price list, a delivery schedule and minimums. Check your state and local health department rules first: restaurants generally must buy food from approved sources.

How do I find a list of restaurants in my city?#

Search Google Maps for restaurant types in your city, by cuisine ("Mexican restaurant", "sushi restaurant") and by category ("cafe", "bar and grill"), split the city into neighborhoods or ZIP codes because each search shows about 120 results, and export to a spreadsheet with phone, website, hours, price level and reviews.

Sources#

1. Google, Places API: Place resource (price level bands from free and inexpensive to very expensive; review counts).
2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA Food Code (food from sources that comply with law).
3. Federal Trade Commission, Complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
4. Federal Trade Commission, CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business.
5. Google, Google Maps Platform Terms of Service.
6. Leadraft, Lead fields reference (category, price_level, hours and the rest of the lead record).