Lead of the Week: A Cold Email Leads to a Board Presentation

Most operators write cold outreach to a job title. The person who reads it has a whole life outside that title, and sometimes that is where the opportunity is.

Restaurant: Are you open to new catering options for your team lunches?

At [restaurant], we offer a variety of BBQ options like brisket, chicken, and house-made sides that are great for office settings.

We're based in the Memphis area and regularly cater local teams and events. If there's any interest, I'd be happy to help with an upcoming lunch.

Situation

A regional restaurant was running automated cold email to local businesses. One message reached a contact at a professional services firm.

The email asked whether the firm was open to new catering options for team lunches. It introduced the restaurant, described BBQ catering suited to office settings, and offered to help with an upcoming lunch.

Buyer: An organization I am a member of will be having an event at the end of next month for around 15-20 people. I would love to have some catering options to present at our next board meeting if you can send me some additional information.

What Happened

The contact replied, but not about her own team.

She wrote that an organization she belongs to has an event at the end of the following month, roughly 15 to 20 people, and asked for catering options she could present at their next board meeting.

The email targeted team lunches at her firm. The reply surfaced a separate organization, a separate event, and a decision that runs through a board.

Restaurant: Thank you so much for reaching out, this sounds like a wonderful event and we would love to be part of it!

For a group of 15-20 people we have some great options that would work perfectly. You can view our full catering options and place an order directly here: [link]

If you would like to discuss specific menu selections or pricing to present at your board meeting, I would love to help put together the perfect package for you. Please feel free to reach out to me directly at [email] or [phone] and we can get everything squared away!

What the Restaurant Did

It answered the question she asked.

The follow-up sent catering options with a direct ordering link, offered to help build a specific menu and pricing package for the board presentation, and gave her a direct contact for anything that came up. No attempt to steer the conversation back to team lunches at the firm.

A board presentation is a specific job. The contact needs something she can put in front of people who were not in this conversation, and a bare menu link does not do that. Offering to build the package removes the work standing between her and a yes.

Result

A qualified event opportunity with a concrete next step.

Confirmed: a 15 to 20 person event, a named decision point in the board meeting, and a contact who asked for materials to bring to it. This post covers the lead. The order is the next step, no menu has been finalized, and no revenue figure exists yet.

What This Means for Other Operators

Cold outreach reaches a person, not a job title.

The person who reads your email sits on boards, belongs to associations, and plans events for groups that have nothing to do with where she works. When the reply comes back about one of those, the targeting did not fail. It found someone who buys catering in more than one context.

The operators who lose these are the ones who reply to the pitch they sent instead of the question they received. She asked for options to present to a board. Answering with "and would your team like to try us for lunch?" tells her the restaurant is working its script, not her event.

Answer the question actually asked. Make the next step easy to take. The event she brought you is the event you get.

Catering Funnels is a done-for-you lead generation and automation platform built for restaurants with active catering operations. One contact and one event is where the corporate catering flywheel starts. For the mechanics of writing messages like this one, see the catering cold outreach templates. The full approach is in the guide to getting corporate catering clients.

For every source of leads and what each costs, see how to get catering leads for your restaurant.

See how this fits the bigger picture in our outreach data from 29,000 corporate catering buyers.

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