How to sell to restaurants and hotels as a supplier
Whether you deliver produce, wine, coffee, clean linen or kitchen equipment, new accounts come from being in front of the chef or the owner at the right moment: a new opening, a menu change, a change of owner. LeadsIt lists the restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels in any area with the phone numbers and emails they publish, so you can plan visits around the routes you already drive.
Who buys from hospitality suppliers locally
Each kind of venue buys differently and through a different person. Match your offer to the venue before you knock on the door:
Independent restaurants
The chef-owner decides, often alone and fast. They care about quality, consistency and a delivery slot that fits before service. A tasting with the chef beats any brochure.
Cafés, coffee shops and bakeries
Coffee, dairy, pastry ingredients and takeaway packaging in high volume, with deliveries early in the morning. Owners compare price per cup or per unit and reward reliability.
Bars and pubs
Spirits, wine, soft drinks, glassware and bar equipment. The licensee or bar manager chooses, and they listen to suppliers who help them build a drinks list that sells.
Hotels with a restaurant or banqueting
Food and beverage managers buy for the restaurant, room service, breakfast and events at once, and hotels need linen in quantity. One account can be worth several restaurants.
Caterers and event venues
Large, irregular orders with fixed dates. They need suppliers who can handle a peak weekend and deliver to a venue they do not own.
New openings and new owners
A venue that is opening or has just changed hands is choosing every supplier at once. Arriving in the weeks before opening is the best moment you will get.
Business types to search, and why
Your core accounts: one search per neighborhood on your route.
Daily volume of coffee, milk and packaging.
Drinks lists, glassware and bar equipment.
Restaurant, breakfast, events and linen under one buyer.
Big orders for events, on known dates.
Ingredients, dairy and packaging every morning.
Searches to run first
Signals that a business is ready to buy
Venues change suppliers when something changes in the business. Watch for these:
- Very few reviews on a fresh listing: a new opening, still choosing its suppliers.
- A recent run of reviews mentioning a new chef, new menu or new owner: the supplier list is being rewritten.
- A website with a new seasonal menu, a terrace or brunch: new products to source.
- A falling rating with comments about quality: the owner may be ready to change a supplier.
- A hotel that lists events, weddings or meeting rooms: banqueting volume on top of the restaurant.
- Venues clustered on streets you already deliver to: an extra drop costs you almost nothing.
A prospecting playbook you can run this week
- Map your current delivery routes, then search restaurants, cafés and hotels in the neighborhoods those routes cross.
- Sort the list: new openings first, then venues whose menu or style matches your range (natural wine, specialty coffee, organic produce).
- Call between 2:30 and 5:30 pm, never during lunch or dinner service. Ask for the chef or owner and when they receive deliveries.
- Offer a tasting or samples, dropped off on a day you are already in the area.
- Log what they buy today and from whom, and call back when their menu changes or before their busy season.
Opening line for the first call
Follow-up email
Subject: Samples for [venue name] on [day]
Hi [name], Thanks for your time today. As agreed, I’ll drop off a few samples on [day] around [time], before your service: - [three products that fit their menu] - Delivery [days] before [time], no minimum on the first order - Our price list attached, with case and volume prices If another day suits the kitchen better, just reply with it. [name], [company], [postal address] If you’d rather not hear from me again, reply “no thanks”.
Follow-up cadence
- Day 0: call outside service hours, then the email.
- Day 3 to 7: the tasting or sample drop, on a route day.
- Day 10: call the chef for feedback and offer a first small order.
- Each season: a short email with new products or the next menu change. Stop if they ask.
Staying within the rules
In the US, CAN-SPAM allows business emails without prior consent if the sender is accurate, the subject is honest, your postal address is included and opt-outs are honoured within 10 business days. In the UK, PECR lets you email limited companies without consent if you offer an opt-out, but many restaurants are sole traders or partnerships, which need consent: call or visit them instead, and check the TPS and Corporate TPS before calling. In Canada, CASL allows emails to an address a venue publishes when the message relates to its business and it has not said it refuses unsolicited messages.
If you sell alcohol, the trade itself is licensed: in the US through the state three-tier system, in the UK wholesalers must be registered under the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme, and in Canada each province sets its own rules. Make sure your sales pitch matches what your licence allows.
More on the rules: B2B prospecting and data rules · cold emails to local businesses
How LeadsIt does step one
Building the list is the slow part. LeadsIt does it in one search, from public business listings and the businesses’ own websites:
- Type a business type and a place, for example “restaurants” in Brooklyn. A whole region or a country works too.
- LeadsIt searches public business listings live, then visits each business’s own website to collect the emails, phone numbers and social links it publishes.
- You get each business’s name, address, phone, website, published emails, rating and review count, with signals such as no website, an outdated website or few reviews.
- Paste your own website and the AI ranks the businesses by how well they fit what you sell, with the reasons.
- Export to CSV, or work the list in the built-in CRM: stages, tasks and notes (CRM from the 10-credit pack).
What it costs
Your first search is included, with no card. After that, credit packs start at $6.90 for 5 credits, with no subscription, and credits never expire. One credit searches one business type in one city; a whole region costs 13 credits.
Frequently asked questions
How do food and drink suppliers find new restaurant accounts?
By listing every venue on and around their delivery routes, starting with new openings and venues whose menu fits their range, then offering a tasting or samples on a day they are already in the area.
When is the best time to call a restaurant?
Between lunch and dinner service, roughly mid-afternoon, or mid-morning before prep gets busy. Never call during service: the chef will not pick up, and if they do, they will not listen.
Who should I ask for?
In an independent restaurant, the chef or owner. In a hotel, the food and beverage manager or executive chef. In a bar, the licensee or bar manager.
Can I search several neighborhoods or towns at once?
Yes. One credit searches one business type in one city, and a whole region costs 13 credits and covers its largest cities.
Do I need a subscription?
No. The first search is included, then one-time credit packs from $6.90. Credits never expire, so you can search a new area whenever you add a route.