Practical and relevant insights to boost your sales from the marketing guru himself.
Food delivery has never seen greater heights than it has today. This was showcased in the webinar “Accelerate the Growth of Your Food Delivery Business” organized by Francorp and Mansmith and Fielders, Inc.
The webinar featured Josiah Go, a popular marketing guru, chairman and chief innovation strategist of Mansmith and Fielders, Inc., and bestselling author of 18 books in entrepreneurship and marketing.
According to Go, there are three indicators for growth: doing the right things right, avoiding the same mistakes, and better than personal best.
And from these three indicators, Go has deduced 12 practical and strategic tips that will help in accelerating the growth of online or home-based food businesses through excellent delivery systems.
Doing the Right Things Right
“First, you have to ask yourself, are you doing the right things, and are you doing them right?” said Go as he introduced the first indicator of growth.
Tip No. 1 – White Space Opportunity
Go said that focusing on your core competency is just one of the many ways to drive business growth. Hence, white space opportunities should be identified. Entrepreneurs should ask themselves, “Which door are you going to open? Which door will provide you an opportunity? Which door is unoccupied…underserved?”
Go shared his experience in looking for the best siomai and said that he received hundreds of product pitches but found no white space. But later, he said that he ended up ordering from a store offering siomai that only uses lean meat. “In other words, you can create a new category within a category,” said Go.
By doing this, entrepreneurs will be able to create a beachhead market. “When you start a market, start with a beachhead market. It’s a military term that means when you land, you’re not going to get killed immediately by your competitors, you’re going to survive.”
Tip No. 2 – Understand Your Barriers to Consumption
There are five barriers to consumer consumption. These are:
1 | time
2 | access
3 | skills
4 | wealth
5 | attitude
“In food deliveries, there will always be barriers,” said Go as he advised entrepreneurs to understand these barriers in order to overcome them.
Tip No. 3 – Value Proposition First Before Marketing
“If you have a lousy product and you are very good at marketing, your product is going to die anyway,” emphasized Go. The value proposition is about product and price and everything that surrounds them. He advised to have a great offering first before marketing it. Entrepreneurs have to ask, “What will consumers miss when my company is gone?”
Tip # 4 – Communicate
Communicating every relevant thing about your product is very important as well. If your food product has less salt or less sugar, indicate that on the label. “Don’t just communicate on your website. Follow the consumer journey, including what they will see on their dining table,” said Go.
Avoiding the Same Mistakes
In talking about the second indicator for growth, Go said, “Don’t be too hard on yourself if you make mistakes. I still make mistakes. I call them experiments. The mistakes that I make nowadays are more well thought-of because I call it “testing a hypothesis.”
Tip No. 5 – Go Beyond the Product
Even if your main product is food, you also have to enrich other elements such as your image, service, and consumer experience. He shared his experience of ordering from an online restaurant and he was told to book his own rider. He said that he immediately crossed out this particular restaurant and looked for another that will provide him a complete and hassle-free experience of ordering food online.
Tip No. 6 – Avoid Supply Side Thinking
“Many think about convenience from the perspective of the provider, Go said. “They forget the consumer journey.” Food providers should simply send the account details via message rather than sending their company poster, making it more convenient and easier for the consumer to pay the bill hassle-free.
Tip No. 7 – Anticipate Time and Motion
Online food delivery businesses should be mindful of delivery restrictions in different areas. Some areas are just more restricted than others and therefore, this must be anticipated in order to deliver orders on time.
Moreover, businesses should take care of their riders. “If your riders will have to fall in long lines just to complete your orders, they might abandon you and you might lose your rider,” he added.
Tip No. 8 – Be a Solution Provider, not a Problem Giver
Go shared another experience when he ordered a burger online and the owner informed him that he couldn’t book a rider but instead, he was on his way to deliver Go’s order himself. “Wow! Did I re-order from that guy? Of course, I re-ordered. Why? Because I found him reliable,” shared Go.
Better than Personal Best
Finally, Go discussed the third indicator of growth, saying “What’s important is you and yourself. You [should be] better than your personal best.”
Tip No. 9 – Look at the Size of the Prize
“I have helped mentor people who are selling bread, and I said, ‘What do you think is the size of the prize, the market size?,’” said Go. He discussed that in a rice-eating country, rice-based food products will have twice the market share of those selling bread products.
Tip No. 10 – Efficiency + Productivity
“Start coming up with a database,” advised Go. Database software, digital banking, and other technological systems can further make your business efficient, productive, and profitable.
Tip No. 11 – Be Proactive, Be Flexible During Quarantine
He emphasized that food providers should be proactive and flexible, especially during these times. He stated an example where food providers should offer splitting of orders that would be delivered in different locations, which could help family members living in different places.
Tip No. 12 – Think About Long Queues, High Repeat Buy
Finally, Go said that entrepreneurs should look at all the stages, from the trial order of the customer to retry to regular retention, and lastly, to recommendation. “Your customers become apostles. The recommendation is what you want because that’s when customers are talking about you.”
As seen in Esquiremag.ph