The Catering Goldmine You’re Ignoring
Would you rather sell 30 people one meal each or one person 30 meals every damn month?
Let’s talk about the massive gap in your restaurant’s marketing plan when it comes to catering and bulk orders—and more importantly, what we’ve uncovered at America’s Best Restaurants after catering Free Lunch Friday every single week for the last 52 weeks.
Spoiler alert: You are all dropping the ball.
I’m Matt Plapp, Chief Energy Officer at America’s Best Restaurants, and my mission is to help restaurant owners finally get to where they want to go. More than that, I’m looking for the real hustlers in this space—the ones who actually want to win. If that’s you, let’s dig in.
The Sad Reality of Catering Sales
For an entire year, my team has catered lunch every single Friday at our office in Florence, Kentucky. We order from different restaurants—sometimes pickup, sometimes delivery—but always as a catering order for 30 to 40 people.
Here’s the sad part: NOT ONCE has a restaurant owner followed up to say thank you or to ask if they could cater for us again.
Not one.
One of these restaurants was even on Facebook a few months ago complaining about how their sales were down. I commented on their post, tagged Desiree from my office (who places our orders), and told them point blank that we cater every Friday and would order from them next week.
We did.
And guess what? No follow-up. No call. No effort to lock in repeat business.
If you have customers who are clearly showing you they have a need for catering, and you’re not doing anything about it, guess whose fault it is that your restaurant sales suck? Not the customer’s. Yours.
The $450,000 Catering Secret
Last week in Las Vegas, I was at a David Scott Peters event, talking with 15 restaurant owners about marketing funnels and untapped opportunities.
I brought up catering, and one owner, Chris, proudly said he did $450,000 in catering last year. I asked how many of those customers he followed up with.
His answer?
“Probably none.”
This is exactly why catering is such a massive opportunity. Most restaurants don’t have a plan in place to capitalize on it.
What You Should Be Doing Instead
If I had a business that commented on my Facebook post saying, “Hey, we cater every Friday,” and then they actually ordered from me the next week, you know what I’d do?
I’d personally deliver that order.
I’d drop off coupons, bounce-back gift cards, and free meal vouchers for everyone in their office.
I’d ask them if we could lock in a recurring catering order every fourth Friday of the month.
Guess what their answer would be?
Hell. Yes.
Why? Because it would simplify their process. And even more importantly, it would show them that someone actually gives a damn about their business.
The Rapid Fired Pizza Lesson
A few years ago, I worked with Rapid Fired Pizza in Florence, Kentucky. One Friday morning, the owner, Michael, was hyped up because they had a huge catering order—25 pizzas for a local company.
I asked who placed the order. He had no idea.
I checked the receipt and saw that the customer’s email had a company domain. A quick Google search showed they were an automotive engineering company nearby.
When the guy came to pick up the order, I asked him, “Hey man, why’d you order from Rapid Fired today?”
His answer?
“Oh, we do lunch every Friday, and each week someone picks their favorite place.”
I immediately saw the opportunity and said, “So if we were to ethically bribe you, could we get in the rotation more often?”
He laughed, gave me a fist bump, and said, “You know it.”
The problem? Rapid Fired had no system in place to track or follow up on big orders like this. And that’s exactly what’s happening at your restaurant.
Build a Restaurant Marketing Funnel for Catering
Every catering order—whether it’s pickup or delivery—needs to trigger a different response than a standard order. If an order is above a certain dollar amount, it should raise a red flag and enter a different marketing system.
Here’s your action plan:
Pick up the damn phone and say thank you.
Ask why they placed the order and if there’s potential for repeat business.
Drop off something with the food—coupons, bounce-back cards, free meal vouchers.
Follow up the next week to lock in more business.
If you have 100 people enjoying your food at a catered event, what’s stopping you from giving all 100 of them a free sandwich card to come try your restaurant?
Catering isn’t just about today’s order—it’s about locking in predictable, repeat business for the future.
The Bottom Line
If you’re not actively working to turn one-time catering orders into repeat business, you’re leaving thousands—maybe hundreds of thousands—of dollars on the table.
The restaurants winning in this game have a process. They follow up. They build relationships. They make it easy for customers to keep ordering.
Now it’s your turn.
If this lit a fire under you, do me a favor—like, comment, and subscribe. And check out MattPlapp.com to see how we’re helping restaurants take control of their marketing and dominate their local markets.
Let’s stop leaving money on the table and start building a real catering strategy that works.
