Feedback Form
Home Features Mastermind Videos About Advertise Blog Network Contact
   

Have A Suggestion?
Toronto Salsa Classes / Toronto Salsa Lessons Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
Have A Suggestion?

Featured Ebook


ebook Famous Entrepreneurs - Modern Empire Builders


Featured Ebook

More Evan Carmichael
Have A Suggestion?

Sales Lessons From Starbucks And Dell

Don't give your customers what you want



Don't give your customers what you want
   

How to make sure your products will sell

Pretty confusing main title, isn't it? I'll bet you're wondering exactly what I'm talking about.

Along with the other biggest mistakes restaurants owners make, offering customers what the owner thinks is good, instead of what the customer thinks is good, is a surefire way to lose money in the restaurant business.

Here's the scenario I've seen a dozen times.

Young couple sells their house and moves to a new city
New city doesn't have restaurants offering their favorite foods from previous city
Couple decides to leverage all their assets and open a restaurant selling the fantastic food from their last city that they know everyone will love if they would just try it
Couple doesn't realize the complexity of the restaurant business, and opens up underfunded and underexperienced
No one comes to restaurant, and couple blames their vendors, their employees, their landlord and their customers for their failure
Couple loses their restaurant, still owes $100,000 to the bank, loses their home which they used as collateral for the loan, owes $500,000 for the next 10 years of the restaurant lease, files bankruptcy and spends the next 20 years paying off their debt
Pretty sad scenario, isn't it? It's very common though. As a matter of fact, failure in the restaurant business is more common than success. Studies from Cornell University, Michigan State University and Ohio State University have found that around 60% of new restaurants fail around the three year mark. Between the 5th and 10th year, closer to 70% fail. While that is no where near the long-rumored 90-% failure rate that has been unsubstantially perpetuated for years, it's still playing against the odds.

Now you're supposed to ask, "How do I beat the odds?". I'm glad you asked, and I'm going to help you past the first hurdle, and a common mistake, giving customers what YOU want, instead of what they want. Restaurant owners are notoriously egotistical. Sorry if I'm offending anyone, but it's true. I've been this same way myself. Owners have the bad habit of projecting their own tastes on their public. They think because they believe something is delicious, that everyone else will too. Some of them are right. Many of them have eclectic tastes, and find themselves to be wrong though.

Our egos tell us that if we like something, it must be good. If we really like something, and we believe ourselves to be very knowledgable about that something, then it must be great, and will make us millions if we bring it to people who haven't had it before.

The fatal flaw with this reasoning is that people who haven't had something before will not have a craving for that something. There will be no demand for that something. So, while rotisserie fired Peking Duck may have been a hot ticket in your eclectic little community in San Francisco, that doesn't mean it will be all the rage when you move to Phoenix. I know what you're thinking, "You obviously haven't tried Peking Duck, if you had, you would love it."

You may be right. Your favorite food from your last home may be fantastic. It could possibly even spurn a following in a new community, and support a restaurant, once everyone develops a taste for it. There is the kicker. How can people have a taste for something they haven't had? They can't. You can't build a following for a fantastic new dish or type of food in an area where people don't crave that food. At least not without having a huge marketing budget to give free food to ten times the people you need to sustain your business. Until someone knows what they are missing, they can't miss it, and they won't crave it.

The moral to my point is this. Don't let your emotions and your ego decide what you are going to offer your guests. You may think something is the greatest dish, or type of food, in the world, but if the people you are trying to sell it to don't know about it, it's not going to sell. Give your customers something they already want. If you don't know, conduct a survey. Ask them if they know about a particular food, if they would go to a restaurant just to get it, how far they would drive for it, and what they would pay. Let your customers determine what you are going to offer them.

Don't give your customers what you want, give them what they want.


Don't give your customers what you want - To learn more about this author, visit Brandon O'Dell's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends
[Get Copyright Permissions] E-Mail | Print | More  


Related Articles Related Articles
For Sale: Most Expensive VC Home in Country
  Here's one way to sidestep having to raise money from LPs: Sell your house for $76-million.
Learning From Failure
  I haven't written much in the Failure series lately, but I've got a doozy or two coming soon.
10 Smoking Resources to Boost Your Data Entry Work at Home Jobs
  Besides having the necessary skills a data entry work at home agent can greatly increase their job prospects and ultimately their income by having the right equipment.
What are the 3 biggest challenges faced by supply chain/purchasing professionals today? (Survey Result 15)
  There are many factors both internally as well as externally that are affecting supply chain/ procurement practices today. From the growing talent vacuum to the continuing lack of collaboration between Finance, IT a...
Data Entry Work at Home - Right Equipment For Success?
  Part of getting a data entry work at home job is having the right equipment. Sure, websites say they will set you up, but legitimate data entry companies like to work with those who already have the right equipment....

Related Forum Posts Related Forum Posts
Re: Setting Up your Advisory Board - Steps 8 Re: Setting Up your Advisory Board - Steps 8
Re: Starting customized giftware... Re: Starting customized giftware...
How to develop sales contacts? How to develop sales contacts?
Re: Due Diligence, Market Research.. Ahead of the curve. Re: Due Diligence, Market Research.. Ahead of the curve.
Value of a Business Value of a Business
But Surely This Is Wrong But Surely This Is Wrong
Complaints... Complaints...
Setting Up your Advisory Board - Steps 7 & 8 Setting Up your Advisory Board - Steps 7 & 8

Related Forum Posts Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors
Leanne Hoagland Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales success or one of the many who have failed to change? So what are you doing to change those results? Let’s be honest, with companies moving globally and at lightening speeds, the traditional business solutions are outdated and dead. My approach moves your business out of its comfort zone and secures your competitive advantage now. If you are seeking to increase sales, build customer loyalty, create a culture of great attitudes or just achieve some sleep filled nights, then we should talk because my clients have experienced exactly those types of results. Learn more about customer loyalty at http://www.processspecialist.com/customer-loyalty.htm Give me a call at 219.759.5601 for a free strategy session. P.S. If you are seeking a motivational speaker, sales trainer or small business expert that will leave your audience smiling and remembering, please feel free to contact me at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland Smith's Website

The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.


 
About the Author


Brandon O'Dell
(Visit Brandon's Website)
Brandon O'Dell is an independent food service consultant and owner of O'Dell Restaurant Consulting. O'Dell Restaurant Consulting offers general consulting services to restaurants, colleges, private clubs and most other food service types. Our focus is on helping business owners create operational systems within their businesses that help them become for profitable and earn more free time. Work to live, don't live to work. Areas of specialty include showing owners the correct procedure of pricing by gross profit instead of budgeted food cost percentages, and helping them develop unique selling points and implement emotion based marketing tactics. Please visit our blog at b log.bodellconsulting.com for articles, Q&As, conversations and best practices. You can also learn more about our services through our website at w ww.bodellconsulting.com. Brandon O'Dell O'Dell Restaurant Consulting b log.bodellconsulting.com ww w.bodellconsulting.com brandon@bodellconsulting.com office: (316) 361-0675
Have A Suggestion?

View Author's Blog
Become An Author

View Author's Video
Become An Author

Free Downloads


Brandon O'Dell's

Complete
List Of
Franchises
Articles

First Name
Last Name
Email
 
If you enjoyed this article, get Brandon O'Dell's Complete List of Franchises Articles For FREE!

More Brandon O'Dell
Q How can I make my employees accountable
Q Is this a bad time to start up a new restaurant with a slow economy
Dont give your customers what you want
Anything worth doing is worth paying someone else to do
The biggest mistakes restaurants make and why they have a high failure rate
Creating a manageable menu
How to teach
The difference between a reason and an excuse
How to teach in 10 easy steps
Does your restaurant have an identity
Become An Author