How a Real Business Owner Wants to Be Sold

Bill’s note: While searching for a blog topic last week, I was Googling various topics and the following piece popped up. It is a recent blog post by the owner a restaurant in Provo, UT, called The Old Towne Grill. With the permission of the author, I am sharing his insight with you.

You might think I liked the post because Mr. Copeland sticks up for print. But, I liked it more because of the feedback he gives those of us in sales. My thanks go out to Josh.

A Letter of Advice from an Owner to a Salesman/Woman

by Joshua Copeland, The Old Towne Grill

This is a hot topic for us right now. I know, it has nothing to do with food so you’ll have to bear with me.

I have now owned businesses for almost 20 years. I have been on both ends of a sales presentation. I never really understood the inner working of a sale or how to make a sale until the last few months here in Utah (I don’t think it has anything to do with location; it may be just the timing in my life that I am able to see it).

Since we opened Old Towne Grill five months ago, we have been bombarded with marketing “opportunities” (salesmen won’t leave us alone!). From a few weeks before we opened untill now, we have spent about $10,000 on marketing, printing, advertising and such. We have tried advertising in two newspapers and a magazine, sponsored many special events, printed and handed out over 15,000 of our own flyers, and the list goes on and on.

We keep coming back to our own flyers; they are the only thing that has worked on a regular basis or at all.

Be patient, I am getting to my point. My point is that nothing besides our flyers has worked. Those wonderful salesmen/women came into our restaurant and sold us the moon, and we bought. They won. We lost.