Social Media Drives New Sales For Veteran Web Firm

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., April 13 /PRNewswire/ --

News Highlights:

• Vmeals leverages social media to drive new corporate catering sales
• Web-based technology enhances traditional internet sales and marketing
• Sales reps increase their reach, build relationships, and expand sales territories

Peter Romando is the "local" sales rep for Vmeals online catering service (www.vmeals.com) in three far-flung territories: Philadelphia, central and northern New Jersey and Boston. Thanks to social media and networking sites on the web, Romando can be in all three territories at the same time while he's working from his home office – in Charlottesville, Va.

On any given day Romando might chat with customers in Philadelphia, call on restaurant and catering suppliers in New Jersey to check on special promotions, and email prospective customers about an event in Boston. In the old days, Romando would have burned a lot of gas and lost hours in the car on the road from Philadelphia to Boston. Now, he covers all three markets from his home office or anywhere he can connect to the internet.

Just as new technologies have liberated where and when people work, social media offers sales people a way to dramatically expand their reach and networking opportunities beyond the limits of drive time, cold-calling and monthly networking group meetings. Like many businesses, Vmeals has been using social media marketing as a way to promote their brand, but they have also discovered a way to do more. By enabling and encouraging their sales force to connect and engage prospects on these platforms, they are actually driving sales.

Customers as Friends

Starting in 1999 as an offshoot of a college student meal card program, Vmeals has been on the leading edge of web-based business for over ten years. The Vmeals plan for business growth, however, had relied on a more traditional sales model: local, feet-on-the-street sales reps in each of its geographic markets to acquire customers and grow its business. These local sales reps prospected for customers in local offices, brokerage firms, doctors' offices, and colleges. They cultivated partnerships with local restaurants and caterers to supply its online catering network.

Social media is dramatically changing that sales model. Vmeals sales reps who used to spend their days driving around a local market to call on customers now focus their efforts on reaching as many customers and prospects as possible through a variety of web-based marketing tools. With low to no-cost barriers to entry, this strategy makes excellent use of limited resources.

Romando finds Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to be effective customer sales tools. "It's much more than just email now. By connecting with and following my customers and local suppliers, I've developed many more personal relationships than I ever could have by trying to email them or call on them all in person," Romando said. "They feel they know me better so there's more trust in me and my company's service."

Social marketing efforts are paying off for Vmeals. Sales in Romando's three markets are up 75% over the prior year, even in the current challenging economy. "It takes a lot of effort to get started, and there's an art to being personal and professional at the same time with social marketing, but there's no question that it works," he adds.

"Social marketing is a big win-win for us," says W. Carter Hoerr, chief executive of Vmeals. "We're proving that we can acquire new customers at 25% lower cost of sales than before. That's huge in a high volume, low margin business like ours. Peter is a good example of our sales reps leveraging social marketing to develop local relationships and drive growth in multiple territories."

About Vmeals:

Vmeals (www.vmeals.com) is an online service for business people who order group meals for meetings and events. The Vmeals website features menus and delivered meals from more than 1,400 local restaurants and caterers in more than 30 metropolitan East Coast and Midwest markets. Vmeals customers include Fortune 1000 offices, professional services firms (investment banking, law, accounting, technology, consulting, and training), pharmaceutical sales reps, colleges, non-profits, and medical centers.

Vmeals customers have an easy-to-use catering service that allows them to customize menus and business meal services with a variety of quality local and national restaurants and food services. Vmeals customers can place a single group order or allow meeting participants to order from a selected menu.

The web-based Vmeals system handles all aspects of the delivered meal transaction – marketing, customer acquisition, menu presentation, pricing, order processing, payment, and customer service – except the actual preparation and presentation of the food.

SOURCE Vmeals