Catering Sales and Event Producer

For consideration, please submit a resume/ cover letter describing your background, experience, availability, and anything else requested in the job posting to our staffing team: recruiting@bitecatering.net

Please note that the post may contain elements we ask you to include in your application - we consider those heavily as a mark of your detail-orientation and design thinking.

Please, no phone calls, and principals only (no recruiters/ staffing agencies)!

Who Should Apply

An entrepreneurial mix of account exec, sales, and planner. You should be excited to develop accounts, close deals, and plan the events you’ve sold.

Bite Catering Couture is looking for a thoughtful and detail-focused Sales & Event Producer (Catering + Venue).

We are looking for somebody who loves food and thoughtful design and wants to bring that combination to clients throwing events in Los Angeles (both at their chosen locations (off-premise) and at our venues).

While many companies separate sales and planning, at Bite you get to combine both – allowing your creative ideas to land in the sales process and providing you with a really talented set of chefs and event staff to pull it all off. We have been doing this since 2007 and have a regular stream of customers calling in, so it's possible to leverage warm small leads as an intro to significant accounts. We depend on you to turn those initial conversations into streams of ongoing, excited, regularly repeating customer or partner accounts.

You'll want a robust job (approx. 50 hours/wk) with a base in the West LA and/ or Long Beach area that gives you the ability to build your own a book of corporate, wedding, and social clients in an atmosphere focused on delivering a high-quality service and product. We use a challenger sales methodology that makes us a partner of choice for those looking for thoughtfully designed events with clear definitions of success.

Success in this role generally looks like:

• Previous history of meeting and exceeding quota in a non-retail/ transactional setting
• Experience in high end sales and catered events
• An ability to listen intently, take exceptional notes, and have a detective’s eye for hidden clues – applied both to landing sales as well as in the development of a high potential account
• Experience breaking down problems and turning them into a range of different potential solutions
• Previous history of successfully developing accounts in a sales/ business development role
• Significant exposure to fine dining and 5-star hospitality environments
• Ability to both accept and provide constructive feedback

Why work at Bite

Because we allow you to contribute in a meaningful way to the biggest events in peoples' lives while being supported by a talented team who can deliver on the events you have designed.

Bite Catering Couture is a high-end, design-focused catering company that prides itself on offering thoughtfully designed and beautifully presented catering to the most discerning clientele. Whether it's a dazzling downtown corporate gala, a gorgeous Malibu baby shower, or a wedding highlighting the fusion of different cultures (and food!), you help us shape the memories for each client you touch.

We offer the warmth of a small business and team with the organization and stability of a more established company. We also offer industry-leading marketing support and sales leadership (we are involved with and speak at national conferences, industry groups, etc.)

The role

We seek a mix of catering salesperson and detailed planner for our event producer role. The job is to essentially build your own book of regularly repeating clients within Bite to ~$1.75-$2+ M in annual revenue – it’s a mix of closing inbound leads, developing high potential accounts, and executing the planning for the events you’ve sold.

We supply a steady stream of inbound leads in proportion to your ability to keep what’s on your board clean, with work that is high quality and high yielding.

Please note: given that this is the event industry, please do not expect M-F 9-5.

Our sales philosophy/ approach to catering

Our tagline is “Designed Thoughtfully. Crafted Lovingly. Presented Beautifully.” Our events reflect this across a range of different service levels (delivery to high end full-service) and themes (we’re known for a number of our thematic menus like high tea, small bites, and holidays).

We use a “challenger” sales philosophy so we’re focused on making thoughtful, compelling pitches and proposals (post-qualification) and providing helpful advice on how to help clients achieve their goals (every event has a purpose, otherwise people wouldn’t host them at all).

Our account approach is a farming model…since we have a high number of inbound leads, the majority of your account work will be developing high potential accounts in tandem with a live opportunity.

We operate in a paperless/ transparent model by working out of Salesforce, Dropbox, Word/ Excel, and other software. This requires you to be able to work clean and keep your systems up to date on a daily basis.

Working out of your email is not an option.

If this is not how you want to work, or any of these tools scare you we’re not the right place to apply.

Requirements

• Must have a reliable method of transportation, valid license and clean driving record.
• Must be able to lift 50 lbs.
• Fluent in English
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word and general ability to use software
• Able to taste and describe all foods
• Live within reasonable driving distance of Palms/Culver City Area - We have found that people who live outside of our service area really struggle with the commute

Preferred Education/ Experience

• 4-Year College Degree with a history of achievement
• Minimum 5 years of progressive experience within the hospitality industry that includes quantifiable success within a sales role (ideally > $1M in catering annually coming from large accounts)
• Proven experience converting sales leads and/ or accounts into booked revenue
• Comprehensive knowledge of off-site catering and event operations
• General interest in food, menu design, and creative event development

Compensation

Base hourly (plus overtime) + Commission + Performance Bonus

• $25/hr base
• Year 1 OTE: $90K - $125K
• Year 2 OTE: $125K-$175K+ (uncapped commission)
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Benefits

• PTO
• Health Stipend
• Warm leads in proportion to what you have shown you in terms of landing clients, developing accounts, generating new opportunities, keeping your board up to date, and following our process.

IN ORDER TO APPLY:

Please apply by email. No phone calls or "drop-bys"

Email resume in body of email - no attachments please! Please include cover letter covering the following:

1. Please describe any sales quotas you have been responsible for meeting or any annual sales revenue numbers you have generated to date.
2. What is your approach to developing high potential accounts so that they turn into repeat business? (i.e., What work allows you to recognize an account's potential? How have you taken a high potential account and turned it into regular repeat business? How do you expand beyond your initial contact to multiple customers who are champions in the account)?
3. Please describe a situation where the customer wanted to buy something that wasn’t the right fit for them. How did you know? How did you convince them to move in a better direction?
4. Please describe an event you planned and the elements/details you were particularly proud of -- Tell us what made the event special
5. Why are you looking for a catering sales role?

Last Updated: Dec 10, 2023

Estimated Pay: $125K-$175K Total OTE (w/Hourly, OT, bonuses, commission)

Location: Los Angeles, CA (near Culver City/ Palms)

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