Jessica Lehrer is co-founder of Adam & Joe Knows Lunch in Fort Lauderdale, and a real CaterZen catering software customer. Here's a move she told me about in her podcast interview that's worth stealing.
She stays connected with local business contacts on LinkedIn. When one of them gets promoted or lands a new job at a company in her area, she messages them directly: "Congratulations - I'd love to stop by with some cookies for your new team." Then she shows up, in person, with the cookies and her menus.
That's it. No big pitch. Just showing up to celebrate someone's win - and leaving them with a reason to remember her.
Here's the problem: that move is nearly extinct.
We call it a cookie drop. It's not new. I've been teaching it for over a decade.
I don't believe in silver bullets. I believe in sequences.
Years ago I laid out a system called the Sales Tempo - four steps, run over eight to twelve weeks, aimed at qualified prospects, not two thousand random businesses you cold-called off a list:
The cookie drop is last on purpose. It's the most expensive step - cookies, gas, marketing materials, somebody's time - so you save it for the prospects who've earned it: the ones who didn't respond to steps one through three but are still worth the drive, or the ones who just gave you a perfect reason to show up.
Everybody's inbox is full. Nobody's front desk is.
Every decision-maker you're chasing gets dozens of cold emails a week. Almost none of them get a real person showing up to celebrate something good happening in their career.
That's the whole game. You're not competing with other caterers anymore. You're competing with an inbox - and an inbox can't remember your name.
You don't need a long list. Three sources work:
Nothing fancy about it:
The follow-up matters as much as the drop-off. The visit gets you remembered. The follow-up is what books the tasting.
Treats, a few decent notecards, gas money. That's it.
Run enough of these consistently and one recurring corporate account pays for a year of them.
The operators who get results here don't treat this as a one-off. They treat it as the last gear in a repeatable sequence - mail, call, LinkedIn, then a visit for anyone who hasn't responded, or anyone who just gave you a reason to celebrate with them.
We're building something we're calling CRM Sales Pro, and Sequences are the heart of it.
A Sequence lets you build a real, multi-step follow-up plan for a prospect - an automated email on day one, a call task a few days later, a to-do task, like a cookie drop, a week after that. Set the spacing once and CaterZen keeps the whole thing moving. Every step lands right on the prospect's timeline. Nothing sits in a notebook. Nothing gets forgotten because you got slammed on a Tuesday.
You'll also see how each sequence performs - emails sent, who replied, who completed the whole run - so you know which follow-up plan is actually landing accounts and which one's just busywork.
It's in testing right now. Want early access? Contact us and we'll get you on the list.
There is no silver bullet for landing corporate accounts. Just showing up.
Jessica's proof of that - she's a real CaterZen customer, and you can hear more from her on our podcast.
If you're not already in CaterZen, the best way to see how all of this fits together is to get inside the system. Start a free 30-day trial today - no hand-holding required. See how the CRM keeps your prospects and follow-ups organized, so nothing falls through the cracks.
Or if you'd rather have someone walk you through it, book a demo and we'll show you exactly how CaterZen can work for your operation.
Your best prospects don't wait around for you to remember them. The right system does that for you, so you can go show up.