Corporate Catering Sales: A Catering Sales Team for Your Restaurant

You have the food and the kitchen. What you don't have is someone whose job is to call the law firm two blocks away, drop off a sampler at the medical building, and follow up with the office that ordered last month. So corporate catering stays at a few orders a month from whoever happens to find you, and the one office that did order twice never became the account it could have been.

FlashCater is that person. We act as your catering sales team: we build the list of offices near you, win the first order, and follow up until it becomes a standing account. $400 a month, no commission, month to month.

The catering strategy we run

Corporate catering is an accounts business. The money isn't in a $500 order but in the office that places a $500 order twice a month for two years, and everything we do is built around getting to that point:

1. Pick the right buyers. Offices, clinics, schools and firms within your delivery radius, with 20 or more people on site and a reason to feed them: meetings, trainings, staff who can't leave for lunch.
2. Make the offer easy to say yes to. Three to five packages priced per person, a stated minimum and lead time, a way to order without a callback.
3. Win the first order. Email, call, sampler drop-off, first-order offer. Four weeks, six touches, from a named person on your behalf.
4. Turn it into an account. Same-day check-in, a reorder prompt two weeks later, a standing-order offer at 30 days.

What is included for $400 a month

Not included: delivery and the food.

How an office becomes an account

This is the part most restaurants skip, and it's where the revenue is. Here's the cadence we run after every corporate order:

We save what we learn about every account, headcount, dietary needs, who to call at the front desk, delivery instructions, which package they liked, so the next time they order it's one message. That's the difference between an office that ordered once and an account.

What we need from you

1. Approve the packages, per-person pricing, minimums, lead time and delivery radius we draft. One call.
2. Send your menu, a few photos of real group orders, and your logo.
3. Name one person who receives order details and gets them to the kitchen.
4. Reply the same day when a buyer wants to talk to the restaurant. We handle the first response; the close comes from you.
5. Tell us how each order went. Late, short, perfect. It feeds the follow-up.

The first 30 days

Week 1. We map the businesses near you, build and score the list, draft the offer if needed, set up ordering, and write the outreach emails, call script and printed menu.

Weeks 2 to 3. Outreach starts and in-store materials ship. First replies and sampler requests.

Weeks 3 to 4. We keep working the list and start the follow-up sequence on every order. First new orders usually land here. You get your first monthly report.

Most restaurants see first orders within two to four weeks. Standing accounts take two to three months, because they depend on second and third orders.

Where marketplaces fit

If you get corporate orders through ezCater today, keep the ones that are profitable. The buyer's contact details stay with the marketplace, so those orders can't become accounts on their own. We build the direct channel next to it and move the repeat business to you. Our ezCater fee breakdown shows what that repeat business costs you now.

Pricing and terms

$400 a month, flat. No commission, no setup fee, month to month, cancel anytime. Multi-location pricing on a call.

The full service is described on the increase catering sales page. If you want to run this yourself, the templates and the weekly plan are in our guide to growing a catering business.

Common questions

What does a catering sales team actually do?

It builds a list of businesses near the restaurant that order food for groups, contacts the person who places those orders, wins a first order, and follows up until that office reorders on a schedule. FlashCater does all of that for restaurants for $400 a month, without adding headcount or paying commission.

What is a good catering strategy for a restaurant?

Target offices, clinics and firms within your delivery radius, sell three to five packages priced per person, make ordering possible without a callback, and follow up after every order. The goal is standing accounts that order monthly, not one-off events. That's the strategy we run.

How do restaurants get corporate catering accounts?

By reaching the office manager or executive assistant who orders lunch, with a short email, a call, a drop-off sampler and a first-order offer over about four weeks. First orders usually land in two to four weeks. Accounts form over two to three months as the follow-up produces second and third orders.

How much does corporate catering sales cost with FlashCater?

$400 a month, flat. No commission, no setup fee, month to month, cancel anytime.

What is a corporate catering account worth?

An office that orders a $400 lunch twice a month is worth close to $10,000 a year. Ten accounts like that is a catering business. That's why our follow-up work is built around the reorder, not the first sale.