The Secret of the Top-Selling HORECA Distributors: What Do Your Bars and Restaurants Really Think of You?

In the HORECA sector, the pace is frantic. The daily routine of a food, beverage, or supply distributor relies on speed and repetition: pre-sales visits, phone calls to secure recurring orders before routes go out, delivery notes, trucks, and boxes moving in and out of the warehouse constantly.

At this speed, it is alarmingly easy to fall into the routine of “What can I get you this week?”. We take the order, deliver it, collect the payment, and move on to the next client. Hardley anyone stops to gather feedback and ask: how are we really doing?

Leveraging daily momentum to gather fresh insights provides a brutal competitive advantage. In a market where margins are tight to the penny and competitors lurk around every corner, the one who listens to the business owner best, keeps the account.

The Danger of “Silence” in Hospitality

In the hospitality industry, there is a golden rule that every distribution manager should remember: an unsatisfied customer rarely complains, they simply switch suppliers. If a bar faces recurring stockouts, if the delivery driver arrives late three times in a row during peak hours, or if product quality drops, the business owner (who is already overwhelmed managing the kitchen, staff, and tables) often won’t call the office to file an official complaint. Instead, next week they will simply order from the competitor who walks through their door with a smile.

Gathering continuous customer feedback is your protective shield. It allows you to spot the fire before it completely burns down the commercial relationship.

The Harsh Reality of the Streets: The “WhatsApp Effect” and Lost Information

When it comes to gathering feedback, many think of complex systems or sending digital email surveys. Let’s be realistic: that does not work in HORECA. A busy hospitality client is not going to open an email to fill out a satisfaction test.

Valuable information happens face-to-face. And this is where the closest link to the customer comes in: the delivery driver.

The delivery driver goes right into the kitchen, enters the storage room, and shares maximum trust with the client. They hear firsthand remarks like: “Hey, last week this cheese format didn’t work for me” or “Tell your rep I urgently need some samples of the new beer.”

Since the delivery driver is dealing with double-parked trucks, tight schedules, and heavy boxes, they do the best they can: they pull out their phone, record a quick 15-second WhatsApp voice note, and send it to the local pre-sales rep.

They do their part. But here begins the great black hole for distributors:

The pre-sales rep receives the audio while driving to another client or in the middle of a visit. They listen to it, think “I’ll write it down later”… and that message gets buried under 40 other chats throughout the day. In reality, the sooner it’s logged, the better for everyone, because we never know if the client might call the main office in the meantime.

WhatsApp is a fast internal channel, but if the information isn’t registered in a centralized system, it gets blown away by the wind. And the client is left waiting for an answer or a solution that never arrives.

The Keepers of Information: Pre-Sales and Telesales

For this flow to work, we must understand that the delivery driver is only the “receiver” of the alert on the street. The ones responsible for bringing that information into the company’s control loop are the pre-sales rep and the telesales team.

• The pre-sales rep as a filter: At the end of their daily visits, one of the rep’s tasks must be to review those WhatsApp messages from their area’s drivers and log them cleanly onto the client’s file (whether in the CRM or the company’s ERP) before they fade from memory. A traffic-light alert system can be a massive help for the sales manager to spot what important events took place and see if they have been resolved. For this reason, logging these notes is fundamental to customer service excellence. This way, anyone who opens the client’s file can see the latest status and act accordingly.

• Telesales as the closer: When the phone support team calls to lock in the recurring order, they will have the note right on their screen. That is where the magic happens and the account gets secured: “Hi Manuel, the driver mentioned you had an issue with the cheese format on Tuesday. I have it noted right here and we have corrected it for the delivery coming your way tomorrow.”

The business owner will feel they are dealing with a professional company that coordinates internally and truly cares, rather than disconnected departments that don’t talk to each other.

The Role of the Sales Manager: Stop Leading from the Office

None of the above will happen if sales management doesn’t take charge. The sales manager cannot just look at revenue charts at the end of the month; they have to be the human bridge between the warehouse and the street.

When information gets lost, it’s often because leadership hasn’t built the habit or motivated the team. The Sales Manager must lead this shift in two directions:

1. Raise awareness and value the driver: You need to head down to the loading dock and talk to the delivery team. Explain why their role is so vital: “Team, your eyes at the venue save our accounts. If you see a client is upset or that a competitor is bringing in a new product, let the rep know. Your WhatsApp is vital.” When drivers see their insights matter and are taken seriously, their involvement multiplies.

2. Audit and demand accountability from reps: The sales manager must banish the phrase “I forgot what the driver told me.” Their job is to audit that sales reps process street data and leave it registered so the rest of the company can act on it.

Conclusion: The Coordinated Distributor Faces Less Competition.

In the HORECA sector, catalog pricing matters, of course. But service, reliability, and empathy matter much more. When you stop being a mere “order taker” and ensure your delivery driver, pre-sales rep, and telesales team speak the same language and share local insights, you stop competing over pennies. You become the owner’s trusted partner. And a trusted partner who makes life easier is a partner you never replace.