Foodshow Frenzy

This past month was a busy one for sure. I was travelling on the road a lot, doing food shows, meeting new customers, working more with the sales reps. I felt great to finally be doing work and having an impact on my company. I thought I would share with you what exactly i've been up to these past few weeks and how my job is going....

People always ask me, what exactly do you do? Well i'm here to tell you. Officially I am a customer sales representative with Kraft Food service Global North America Division. What does that job entail?? Let me explain. You go to a restaurant, cafeteria, coffee shop, whatever it may be where you are being served your food (hence food service). You sit down enjoy your meal, not wondering how everything comes together so nicely to be delivered to your plate. (I know this because I never wondered or even thought about how the food got to my plate.) Well here it is..... The customer we'll call it Julie' Restaurant just opened and needs a menu. In order to get a menu she needs food. Where does the food come from? A distributor, we'll call it JC Foods. What is a distributor? A distributor is a big place that holds tons of food products as well everything a restaurant may need, from plates, paper towel, napkins, toilet paper, etc. The distributor then "distributes" these items to customers that need them. And where do they get the food from? Kraft, along with thousands of other companys sell their products to the distributor, these companies are known as vendors. There are tons of distributors all over Big ones and small ones all fighting for the same business; Julie's Restaurant. Every week shes has a Sales Rep from JC Foods coming into her restaurant to take down the orders for the following week. She needs to take into consideration what she needs to have restocked, if she wants any specials, if she wants to change the menu and add something new, whatever it may be this sales rep from JC Foods will help her with.

Where do I come in in all of this? Well Kraft is a vendor that sells their products to Distributors all over the country such as JC Foods... For example on the retail side Kraft will pay money to keep their products on the shelf (if they are not on the shelf, then customers can't buy them). In foodservice, its pretty much the same story, Kraft pays JC Foods money to stock their products. With this money we are entitled to attend all of the JC Foods sales meetings, where we can then train their sales reps on our products and then motivate them (offering them prizes, etc.) to sell our products. With that comes food shows. Food shows are held twice a year (spring and fall) and are basically a big event for the customers (Julie's Restaurant) to come and see whats out there, get new ideas, get special deals and pricing, and eat a lot of free food. Along with the sales meetings and foodshows, I will also do "ride withs." Ride withs are basically when I ride a long with the Sales rep from JC Foods to each of their customers that day. As I ride along, I am introduced to the customer and I can then show them my products and tell them what I have to offer. Hopefully, out of the ride withs I will make an impact on the customer to buy Kraft products and also develop a relationship with the sales rep to have him/her sell Kraft products. Basically, its all about building those relationships!!!

So far, thats my job. That is what I've been doing the past few months non-stop. Theres a lot more too it as well, things like trackers and paperwork etc. but I don't need to get into that. I will also be working with more contracts and things like that, but I'm still learning and it takes time!!! So, in a nutshell, that is what I do with my time everyday. Everyday is something different and everyday I meet someone new. I love it, I'm still trying to remember everyones name or at least their face, i still have a long way to go, but I've also come a long way since December!!! Things are looking up, I just have to keep working hard and keep going to prove that I have what it takes to one day be president of Kraft!! (haha maybe thats just a dream, but a girl can dream!!!)