The ‘Force Multiplier’ Strategy in Foodservice Sales

Nick: 00:00:02

There are a million ways to make money in the food service industry. You just have to find one. On the Titans of Food Service podcast.

I interview real life movers and shakers in the food game who cut through all the noise to get to the top. My name is Nick Portillo and welcome to the Titans of Food Service podcast. Let's jump right into it. U.S.

special forces use a strategy called force multiplier or force multiplication to turn small teens into unstoppable forces. I use that same approach to scale my business.

Today I'm breaking down how you can apply this mindset to food service sales to multiply your impact, build influence, and grow your brand faster than ever. Welcome back to the freaking Titans of Food Service. I'm so excited to have you back.

Please, if you're enjoying the show, if you can leave me a five star review. Whether it's here on here, whether it's on Spotify or Apple podcasts, you can leave me a five star review. Go so far.

If you're on YouTube, please like share, comment, subscribe. All those good things goes a long way. Okay, let's jump into the episode. So growth.

It's not just about working harder in food service, I'm telling you, it's about working smarter.

I'm gonna draw some parallels to a group of people and that is the special forces units like Delta Force or Navy seals and others, they use this strategy called force the force. Wow. Can't even speak today. Force multiplier effect. And I've learned how to apply the same concept into food service sales and it works fabulously.

So in this episode I'm going to share how I shifted grinding out sales to sales, like kind of doing that door to door, you know, dragging the bag one call at a time to building a system that amplifies my presence and how you can do the exact same. It's not that hard. Just takes a little bit of time and practice and effort to grow and explode your sales.

So, so the concept of the force multiplier effect, so elite military units, they use it to essentially amplify themselves. Let's take like a Delta Force there many times they are, they go out on these solo missions, maybe one person at a time.

And so, or maybe it's a group of them, whatever it may be. So they need to use the force. Force multiplier, for example, would be they're not just going to fight alone. They may train local forces.

Building an army that extend their reach. That's how they accomplish missions that would normally require much larger team.

So they're essentially thinking to themselves like I'm one person or I'm a few people.

How can I make myself much larger, much grander, get more people involved, train local, local forces, train local people, whatever it may be, to extend the size of, of them and make the, the operation essentially a success. So what's the connection to business? So in food service we can't be everywhere at once. It takes time to fly, it takes time to travel.

If you live in southern Cal like me, you know, traffic and it just sucks. Okay, so we can't be everywhere at once.

But we can multiply our impact by training, building relationships and leveraging tools LinkedIn that extend our reach. So my early approach to growth in my career, I thought success was, as I mentioned, was about grinding it out.

I remember walking up and down PCH or Pacific coast highway here in Orange County. It went to Laguna because I loved it of course.

And I made my way to Newport and Huntington and I, and I'd go to these smaller operators, these small mom and pop cafes. I remember I had this brand of Chia water that I was showing. I had these pre made sandwiches. The company, the chiawater was Chi Omega.

I don't even know if they're in business anymore. But I like the product, it was good. It was probably their number one and only customer. But I don't even know if they're in business at this point.

But I'd go up and down PCH and showing my Chia water, my sandwiches and you know, I thought more calls, more, more miles, more meetings. Like truly like grit. Gritting it out meant more business. Wrong. I quickly realized that I was maxing out my time.

At the end of the day I was exhausted. No matter how hard I worked, I just couldn't, I couldn't scale myself. I was only one person.

And I remember at one point my dad said nick, if you're always outselling, you can be outsold.

I thought that was like the dumbest phrase and, and but what he meant by that, if I'm constantly out there just trying to sell one at a time, I'm only going to be able to bring on so much. I have to amplify my voice and myself and get others to help. So this was really a mindset, mindset shift for me.

The best sales professionals, they don't just sell. They're building simple, they're building systems that amplify their presence in food service. So remember that.

How can I make my food service voice bigger and louder and stronger like you know, a US Special Forces unit. So think about that. You know, kind of cool, you know, maybe there's a little parallel. Those guys are badasses, man. I.

I mean, thank goodness they're on our side. They are phenomenal at what they do. And you know what? Let's get as good as. Let's.

Let's be what they are in their world, let's be that in our world, you know, let's be a force to reckon with. So how I built my own force multipliers was, let's start with my own, My broker, my brokerage, my own team.

I had to train my, my team to think like me, to think through my lens and how I viewed the world and how the broker should broker business should be run. So building the relationships and knowledge I needed to pass that on to my team.

If my team understood my approach, if my team understood how I'm trying to, you know, represent a manufacturer and the message and, and the service that I want to bring to them, then if my team can understand that, it's so much easier to deliver results and they can extend my influence. So first thing on how I built my force multipliers is training my team to think like me. Number two was leveraging relationships to grow business.

So it's not just selling to customers. It's selling to local distributor reps. It's.

It's selling to, you know, whoever it may be, building out that network within your market, within, within your region or within your territory, whatever it is.

When you can build relationships, strong relationships with people that can sing your praises about you personally, about your product, about your brand, that's how you start to scale your business. Another, I mean, there's a microphone that, that is available to Everybody, and that's LinkedIn. So this is the third thing.

Using LinkedIn as a digital tool, building familiarity and your own personal brand online pays dividends. I'm telling you, I'm not just some guy that doesn't post on LinkedIn. I'm just giving you some sort of abstract.

No, I post every single week, consistently going all the way back to Covid. It's been five years at this point. Building familiarity online is absolutely crucial.

When I go to a food show now or a trade show event of some sort, people come up to me, hey, I've seen your podcast. Shout out Titans of food Service. I've seen your podcast. You know, I've kind of already building that brand familiarity and trust.

Trust is so important as a sales professional. If they can trust me before they even Meet me.

Isn't that a lot better than going up and down the street on pch, knocking on doors and making cold calls? I mean, I love cold calls. They're, they're, they're great when it's pointed at, you know, the right customers and building the right relationships.

And I think it's a. It's a very valuable tool to have in our. In our food service toolbox. But building that trust online, I mean, that.

Talk about a way to force, multiply and amplify your voice. The fourth thing would be the force. I'm. May the force be with you. The force. Wow. Fourth. This is the fourth thing. Not the fourth thing.

The fourth thing. The power of asking for introductions. Sometimes your best leads, they don't come from cold calls. They come from warm referrals. When you're out.

If I'm going to go visit Angel Stadium, okay, the chef at Angel Stadium, can you, you know, maybe make a relation. Could you maybe make a connection to somebody else at another. I see you're part of Legends. You know, I know Sofi Stadium in LA is part of Legends.

Could you help make a connection there? You know, ask. If you don't ask, you're just. You're selling yourself short.

People want to help people, and so by asking, especially when you do a good job, when they trust you, when you deliver, when you.

When you deliver on your promises, all these types of things, when you sell profitability, when you understand their business, people want to help you, but you have to ask. If you don't ask, it's not always going to be given. Actually, more often than not, it's probably not going to be given. My fifth.

ltiplier was this podcast. In: 2022

in food service sales. So in: 2022

So at first it was just an idea, but now when I walk, as I mentioned, to food shows or I meet people for the first time in person, it's like, oh, hey, I see your podcast. Like, they kind of already have some sort of trust or familiarity with me.

We've kind of already built some sort of relationship, but I just don't realize it yet until I get face to face with these people. So the impact. It builds trust before a conversation ever starts.

It positions me as a leader because I want to be a thought leader in the industry and it keeps me top of mind when potential clients, when they're buying cycles open. So for me, it's representing a food service manufacturer. It may not.

They may never change, or they may change every five years, every couple of years, or maybe every six months when that window opens for them to make a decision or a change in broker representation. Or maybe they're a direct sales force, wanted to come broker. I want them to think Portillo sales and marketing. I need to reach out to Nick.

If I'm going to be successful in food service sales, I have to reach out to Nick. That's the, that's the message and brand I'm trying to build.

I'm trying to be a resource for these brands because I know that I can help them and our company is phenomenal what we do. But if I don't do this, no one's. You're like the greatest thing that, that no one's ever heard of.

I want people to, I want people to know who we are and reach out and say, hey, you guys are doing a good job. Let's work together, let's partner together, let's build something as one. So the full force multiplier in action is not just selling, it's scaling.

Wow, my singing voice was not good. If you want to grow your business, stop thinking only about sales one at a time. Start thinking about it on a bigger scale.

What systems can you build to amplify Your Reach? Is LinkedIn a part of that? I don't know. That's really up to you. But you have to determine what, what is my force multiplier?

Whether it's your team or your content or your network, I'd love to hear how you're scaling your business. Send me a note, leave a comment, please. If you'd share my content. If you could leave me a five star review, that really goes a long way.

I appreciate you. Thank you. I'll see you next week.