Commercial Role (Sales/Partnerships)

Overview

You're selling Flipdish's all-in-one restaurant management platform to independent restaurants, takeaways, and small chains. The product bundles online ordering, POS systems, self-service kiosks, branded apps/websites, and delivery integrations. You'll be convincing restaurant owners to consolidate multiple vendors into one platform, which means longer conversations about switching costs, integrations, and change management.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Growth stage (257 employees, established product with AI features suggests Series B/C equivalent)

Size: 257 employees

Growth: Actively hiring for commercial roles, adding AI-powered features to differentiate

Market Position: Challenger in crowded restaurant tech space competing against point solutions (Toast, Square, ChowNow) and legacy systems

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 40% Inbound - restaurants searching for online ordering or POS alternatives, some from content marketing and partner referrals
• 50% Outbound - cold calling restaurant owners, LinkedIn outreach, attending food service trade shows
• 10% Partners/Referrals - some channel through restaurant consultants and industry associations

SDR/AE Structure: Likely self-sourcing or shared SDR pool given company size - you'll do significant prospecting yourself

SE Support: Shared demo/implementation specialists for technical demos, but you'll handle most product walkthroughs solo

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Toast (dominant in US), Square for Restaurants, ChowNow, GloriaFood, various regional POS providers

How They Differentiate: All-in-one platform angle (vs point solutions), AI-powered features for menu optimization and forecasting, European roots with family business positioning

Common Objections: "We already have a POS system", switching costs and downtime fears, "our current setup works fine", integration concerns with existing delivery partners

Win Themes: Consolidation play (one vendor vs many), cost savings from eliminating multiple subscriptions, better data visibility across all channels, commission-free online ordering

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting (35%) | Active Deals (40%) | Demos & Implementation (15%) | Internal (10%)

Key Activities

• Cold calling restaurant owners: You're calling 30-40 restaurants per day. Most owners are busy during lunch/dinner rushes, so timing matters. You're trying to book discovery calls with owners or managers who actually make buying decisions.
• Discovery and needs analysis: You're asking about their current tech stack, pain points with online orders, delivery commissions they're paying, manual processes they're doing. Most restaurants have 3-5 different systems cobbled together.
• Product demos: You're walking through the platform—showing how orders flow from app to kitchen, demonstrating the POS interface, explaining kiosk setup. Demos are 45-60 minutes, and you're often doing them on-site at the restaurant.
• Handling objections and pricing negotiations: You're addressing switching cost concerns, coordinating with their current vendors for data migration, negotiating on implementation fees and monthly subscription costs. Many deals stall here because owners get cold feet about changing systems.
• Implementation coordination: You're not doing the technical work, but you're project managing the rollout—coordinating with their staff for training, ensuring hardware arrives, troubleshooting first-week issues.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Restaurant owners are notoriously hard to reach and incredibly busy. You'll leave dozens of voicemails and send follow-up emails that go unanswered. Decision cycles drag because they're focused on daily operations.
• Switching costs are real—restaurants fear downtime, staff training headaches, and potential order errors during transition. You'll lose deals in final stages because they decide it's not worth the risk.
• You're selling against "good enough"—many restaurants tolerate inefficient systems because changing feels harder than the current pain. Building urgency is tough.
• Deal sizes vary wildly based on restaurant size and module adoption. A single location might be $12K ACV while a 5-location chain could be $80K+, making forecasting difficult.
• You'll need to understand technical integrations (delivery platforms, payment processors, accounting software) well enough to credibly answer questions, even if you're not implementing.

What Success Looks Like

• Closing 2-3 new restaurant deals per month consistently (mix of single locations and small chains)
• 30-40% demo-to-close rate on qualified opportunities
• Average deal size trending upward as you learn to identify better-fit prospects (multi-location, higher volume restaurants)
• Low churn in your book of business because implementations went smoothly

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Restaurant owners (independent operators, often immigrant entrepreneurs running family businesses)
• Operations managers or GMs at small chains (3-10 locations)

What They Care About:

• Reducing commission fees paid to third-party delivery platforms (often 20-30% per order)
• Simplifying operations—fewer systems to manage, one dashboard for all order channels
• Implementation risk—they cannot afford downtime or order errors during transition
• Cost vs current setup—need clear ROI story on consolidation savings
• Staff training burden—system needs to be intuitive for high-turnover restaurant workers

Requirements

• 2-4 years selling B2B software or services, ideally SaaS with implementation component
• Comfortable with consultative sales—you're not order-taking, you're diagnosing problems and prescribing solutions
• Resilience with rejection and long follow-up cycles—restaurant owners ghost frequently
• Ability to learn technical product quickly (POS systems, API integrations, payment processing)
• Willing to do on-site meetings and demos at restaurants (could involve evening/weekend availability)
• Experience selling to small business owners who make emotional, risk-averse decisions (not corporate buyers with formal processes)