The purpose of a business is to create a customer
There is one New Yorker, a Long Islander, that probably never read this sage comment from the famed management consultant – Peter Drucker. Well, at least not until he was well into building, and eventually sold his J. Kings Food Services business to one of the industry’s global leaders – SYSCO; for tens of millions in 2019.
The J. Kings Food Service is storybook, especially if you like long reads. It was just 45 years in the making. Starting in his parents German-style deli in Oceanside when he was in high school, he eventually created a tri-state hospitality empire with more than $150 million in annual sales.
This astonishing entrepreneur is John King, the founder, Chief Customer Officer, and CEO of Grapes & Greens. G&G is an importer and distributor of fine wines. He began incubating G&G in 2015.
Understanding the wine import and distribution business today can be like unpacking an MIT multivariant algorithm. There is critical, often conflicting input from restauranteurs, sommeliers, restaurant staff, regional/state regulators, and most importantly diners on the best things to do and how to do them. It can get tricky and complicated.
Remember, your first algebra classes in high school? The teacher scratches out an equation on the blackboard (or whiteboard or tablet, depending on the era) to solve. She says, “Solve for “x.”
Hmm? How do you do that?
Easily, and elegantly isolating the variable, she shows a very simple factor realignment among the numbers, adds, or substracts, and multiplies or divides and the result magically appears; there you have it, x = 3.
“Ok, that was easy, right? Any questions?” Nobody says anything.
“Great, here is your homework.”
You get home, start on the assignment and, you freak, it was like you were watching a magic act in class. What, how did she do that?
Eventually, you get it, some more than others, but the important fact is the best teacher and communicator turns out the best students. It is the same way with King. When things get tough to
understand, he makes it easy for his customers and leans on his experiences and the thought leadership he developed over 40 years.
“This is where John is at his best,” according to James Metzger, Chairman and CEO of The Whitmore Agency. Whitmore is a leading insurance brokerage on Long Island and a partner agency of the Acrisure $3.8 Billion global insurance and financial services network. “It is my pleasure and privilege to support John’s insurance needs for his growing Grapes & Greens business,” said Metzger.
There are 3 King’s Keys to Success.
Work Hard | Work Smart | Create & Innovate
- The working hard part is easy to understand, as King once said, “It’s amazing how lucky you get when you work 80 hours a week”
- Creating and innovating is an outcome of working hard and working smart
- Working smart is a special, developed talent on its own
Smart is ‘Knowing Your Retail Customer’ and straightforwardly, asking them how you can earn their business, and contribute.
Smarter for King is ‘Knowing Your Customer’s Customer.’ The manifestation of this is improving consumers retail experience with our products and service ideas.
According to King, “Thinking you know you what you need to know, isn’t enough. You must have the facts.” Late last year, in the middle of the COVID pandemic, King embarked on a fact-finding mission developing and implementing an exhaustive survey with almost 200 of his G&G customers. With data and insights in hand, earlier this year, King wrote to all his customers and certain prospects, talking to them like they were at the family kitchen table.
The issues and opportunities he explored included: Covid and its lingering effects; one of which is increased costs due to a shortage of workers. Second, everything costs more. Prices are multiplying to produce and deliver every food product. Why? Not only because of labor and the natural outcomings of demand outpacing certain supply, but because of increased prices for energy and gasoline. Other “perfect storm” factors expand harsher levels of importance including global political unrest and the war in Ukraine.
Restauranteurs, both casual and fining dining establishments quickly are beginning to realize John and his team understand the dynamics of their “Wines by the Glass” business improvement recommendations. Just some of the overview data points and questions include:
When Serving Wine by the Glass
| How many wines do you feature? | What size serving do you typically pour? | ||
| Do you have a separate WBTG menu? | Do you offer a Double Pour? | ||
| Do you often change your menu? | Do you use a small carafe to measure pour? | ||
| Do you use glasses with a wine pour line? | Do you train your staff about wine? |
The survey dives deep into the nuance difference between casual and fine dining and cover Red, White, and Bubbly wines.
King happily shares the results with clients and prospects becoming an expert and trusted resource they can use to gauge what they are doing and explore things they may do differently. It is at this point the educator, salesman, and chief customer office hits his stride and separates from the competition. The end-result of this conversation is an Opportunity Analysis Grapes & Greens has developed to help restaurant owners of take advantage of remarkable wines, attractive pricing, promotion, and increased profits. This easy-to-understand magic comes together simply by asking (and having the answers there for you) the question “What does $1 per glass mean to you?
[They’ll also have the analysis for you at $.50 and $2.00 too].
For John King’s customers’ customers, it is a better experience with surprising new wines at more affordable prices. For John’s accounts, depending on the volume (bottles and 6 oz. pours) it could mean as much as $35,000 in incremental profits; and $7,000 to $8,000 in additional gratuity income. Sounds like an “All Day” menu offering worth exploring?
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Restauranteurs: Call John, He’d love to talk to you.
631.774.4145
