The 3 Essential GTM Strategies for Restaurant Tech Success

The three essential Go-To-Market strategies for restaurant tech companies by Paul Molinari of Popcorn GTM. The strategies include: defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to focus your efforts on specific restaurant segments; mastering the sales process through clear lead qualification and team alignment; and leveraging strategic partnerships with POS systems and complementary services to expand reach and enhance product value. These strategies are critical for restaurant tech vendors to succeed in the increasingly competitive and rapidly evolving hospitality technology landscape.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey everybody, I'm Paul Mullinari. I'm the founder and principal
consultant at Popcorn GTM. You know, we work with restaurant
technology companies to help them build and execute better brand
marketing and smarter go to market strategies. Today, I'm going
to walk you through three essential strategies that every restaurant
technology company needs to get right to succeed in this market.

(00:32):
This exceptionally competitive market. So whether you're a pre launch
or scaling really fast, these are the foundational moves that
drive growth, improve sales performance, and create lasting value in
a crowded market. So when restaurant technology founders pitch their product,
one of the most common pitfalls that we see is

(00:53):
being too broad. You know, selling to restaurants that's not
a strategy category. You need to narrow it down. You know,
are you targeting to quick service chains, independent full service restaurants,
or maybe enterprise groups with fifty plus locations. Your ICP
that shapes everything from your messaging to your roadmap. It

(01:17):
also allows you to find and convert customers faster because
your solution speaks directly to their pain points, So your
ideal customer profile critical. It's incredibly important to narrow your
focus down because when you're narrowing your focus, it enables
you to make much better connections with the people that
you're trying to sell to. This gives you a much

(01:41):
more specific opportunity to address their pain points. And most importantly,
from a restaurant technology perspective, you need to understand who
your target markets tech requirements are. So, for example, if
you have a middleware solution that sits in between a
point of sale and a KDS, a kitchen display system,

(02:02):
well you can basically eliminate everybody in the market that
doesn't have a KDS. So why waste your time talking
to people that don't have a KDS? Do you follow?
So what we need to do is we need to
hone our message to our ideal customer profile and understand
exactly who they are so we can talk to them specifically.

(02:26):
So why this matters. Tailored messaging and product fit drive
faster sales cycles and a lot stronger retention. Your sales
and marketing alignment is non negotiable. You need clearly defined
pipeline from lead generation all the way through to closed deals.
That means getting precise about what counts as a marketing

(02:47):
qualified lead and what makes it a sales qualified lead.
You know, when everybody understands the criteria and handoff points,
you avoid wasting time and you can forecast growth a
lot more accurately. This is especially critical for early stage
teams trying to scale efficiently. So let's get your sales
and marketing team on the same page. What is an

(03:09):
MQL and what is an SQL. Let's all agree to it.
There's already tension there between sales and marketing. Sales is
always looking for, you know, the glengarry leads, and marketing
is always trying to support sales as best they possibly
can with content they think they need. And the tension
lies where the leads that marketing generates gets handed off

(03:33):
to sales, and sales says, wait a minute, these guys
aren't really qualified. So that's why it's so important. When
marketing understands exactly what a sales qualified lead should look like, well,
now they don't have to bother providing leads that don't
match that criteria and creating that added tension. So that

(03:55):
really ensures that handoffs are smooth, timely, and a lot
more are predictable. Right, So why does it matter because
consistency builds predictability in revenue and growth. So tech partnerships
these are not just nice to have anymore. They are
major growth accelerators. If your platform integrates with major point

(04:18):
of sale systems or other digital restaurant tools, you immediately
increase your relevance in your reach. Partnering with complementary providers
can also help you co sell, It'll allow you to
access new marketplaces, and it even enhances your product offering. Heck,
it's probably enhancing your partner's product offering. So restaurant operators,

(04:43):
to them, an integrated stack is more valuable than anything,
and it's so much easier to manage. That's why integrations
should be a core part of your go to market playbook.
This and the many many people that I speak with
in the industry all the time, we all kind of
believe that strategic partnerships are beginning to be the heart,

(05:04):
in a lot of ways, the soul of how you
are connecting with restaurant brands. Here's the reason why, and
I alluded to this earlier, is that restaurants really value
an integrated technology stack. What that means is is that
they want to work with technologies that work well together.

(05:24):
They want to know that the integrations, the ties that
bind these technologies are tight and kind of bulletproof. Right.
So these relationships that you form with other technology companies, man,
they are worth their weight in gold. They really do
accelerate the growth. And without a solid partnership strategy where

(05:47):
you're out there working with the core technologies that make
your solution. Hum. I can't stress enough how important it
is to make friends and be part of the restaurant
technology community to ensure that your solution fits with the

(06:08):
greater ecosystem. Again, why does this matter? Strategic partnerships unlock
access to new customers and increase your stickiness. So listen.
If you're building or growing a restaurant tech company and
want support refining your go to market strategy, reach out
to me Paul Mullinari at Popcorn GTM. We help founders

(06:30):
accelerate growth through focused sales, marketing, and partnership strategies. And
be sure to check out savor fm for a ton
of great content, including the most awesome Restaurant Masterminds podcasts
where I'm actually a co host. It's packed with real
world insights from leaders all across the restaurant industry, hope

(06:50):
to see you there. Take care. This is Paul signing out.