The Christmas rush starts with a quote
Christmas is one of the busiest trading periods for UK food wholesalers. Restaurants, pubs and hotels are planning festive menus, introducing seasonal dishes and ordering products they might not need for the rest of the year.
Turkey crowns. Cranberry sauce. Stuffing ingredients. Christmas desserts.
For wholesalers, that's an opportunity to sell more. But for sales teams, it also means more products to source, more prices to negotiate and more quotes to prepare.
New menus mean new sales conversations
Picture one of your sales reps visiting a restaurant.
The chef is planning their Christmas menu and needs a price for turkey. Sounds straightforward.
But your business might stock 20 different turkey products. Different cuts, sizes, suppliers and price points.
Which one is right for that kitchen? Which offers the best margin? And what happens when the chef asks whether you can knock £5 off the price?
Your rep needs answers there and then.
Now multiply that conversation across dozens of customers, each with their own Christmas menus, budgets and requirements.
Suddenly, quoting becomes a big part of the sales team's workload.
A good quote should win business, not lose margin
When customers are comparing prices, it's tempting to offer a discount to secure the order.
But small discounts add up, particularly when you're supplying the same products repeatedly throughout the festive period.
Your reps need to know what they can offer, what alternatives are available and how a price change will affect the margin.
That information shouldn't be sitting in a spreadsheet back at the office.
It should be available when your rep is talking to the customer.
The bottom line: Better quotes. Better margins.
Choco's AI Quoting tool helps food wholesale sales teams build quotes during customer conversations, rather than afterwards.
Here's how it works in four simple steps.
Step 1. Find the right products.
Your customer needs turkey, seasonal vegetables and ingredients for their Christmas menu.
Instead of searching through long product lists or making notes to check later, your rep searches your catalogue and finds the right products on the spot.
Step 2. Check your margins.
Your rep adds the products to the quote and can see the margin on each one.
That means they can recommend products that suit the customer while protecting your business's margins.
Step 3. Show the customer. Agree the price.
Your rep uses Incognito Mode to hide margin information, then turns the screen towards the customer to walk them through the quote.
The customer wants a cheaper turkey? Your rep can explore alternatives, adjust the price and check what that means for the margin before agreeing.
Step 4. Confirm the quote. Move on to the next customer.
Once the quote is agreed, the pricing can be sent directly into your connected back-office systems.
No typing everything up again at the end of the day. Your rep can get on with what they do best. Selling.
The way it enables us to produce a quote quickly, efficiently, with complete transparency and visibility for all parties. It is just massive for us.
Win the order before the rush begins.
Christmas menus are being planned now. And for a broadline wholesaler, a single customer conversation could mean quoting 20 or 30 different products.
That's a lot of decisions about products, prices and margins.
The quicker your reps can turn those conversations into competitive quotes, the better placed you are to win the business.
The menu is changing. Make sure you're on it.
See how Choco Quoting helps your reps build competitive quotes on the spot, without losing margin.