A.J. Letizio and Leo Beane

From VANEEpedia

A.J. Letizio Sales and Marketing has been the fastest growing sales and marketing company in New England since Patti Letizio and Al Jr. opened it in 1988. Michael Vanee, National Sales Manager at Vanee Foods, can understand their success. “We sat down a year ago to establish a market game plan and grew unit sales by 6.7% this year,” Vanee said. “They take our business personally and demonstrate results to prove it.”

Al Letizio first entered the family business as a meat cutter in 1975. He’s come a long way as he now heads the only New England sales and marketing company that serves both retail and foodservice operators. The company now has over 40 employees. “Al Letizio has accumulated some of the best talent in the business and he lets them do their job,” said Mike Vanee.

Leo Beane, vice president of business development and Letizio’s sales executive for Vanee Foods, knows a thing or two about the foodservice industry. He’s been in the business for almost 35 years. Letizio can only describe this tenure as, “a few cycles.” Vanee says of him, “He’s one of the best salesmen in our industry – after me of course! I am glad to call him my friend.”

In this interview, Letizio and Beane answer some questions about their experiences selling Vanee product and trends they are seeing in this less-than-stellar economy.

How is the economy affecting sales? How is it affecting your salesmanship?

AL: If you look at the product we sell, our items that are mainstream products are not things restaurants are trying to cut from their menus. These items still have tremendous amount of volume going on. They (operators) are looking for products that are ready to go and of high quality. LEO: As people are going out to eat, they are looking for one thing in a meal—value. A meal has to be tasty, very well presented, and it has to be competitively priced so that they can say, ‘gee maybe I can go out Saturday night or Sunday for a brunch.’ Vanee’s price is very competitive. The quality is second to none.

What challenges do you face selling Vanee?

LEO: The biggest challenge is overcoming that canned food impression. It has to be done by sampling the product properly. You have to utilize samples that showcase the product and not the packaging of the product. We utilize the sample containers that Vanee offers in their sampling program.

When we visit an operator, we bring it as it would be served and try to prepare the product so that it’s not being judged on how its packed. Showcase the product more than the can.

What are some smart sales tips? LEO: We sell by presenting menu concepts and by pricing out a plate presentation. For example, with Vanee Corned Beef Hash, we might make a Corned Beef Hash Pinwheel Omelet. We then showcase it as a unique presentation. Then we go the next step. We completely cost out the entire plate for all the ingredients used. This way, the operator sees exactly how much that meal would cost to serve to a customer. When you do that you assist the end user with planning out how to use the product. It greatly overcomes any negative that may exist from the image of canned food.

AL: I agree. The better approach is to look at it from the customer standpoint. Provide them with a solution to a problem. We can give them an idea of ‘Here, this is what it looks like. The components of this plate are Vanee products.’ Now the customer sees it, and they love the concept—love knowing they can save money on their plates. Now they just need to know the menu code item so that they can order it. We spend a lot of time in advance on how to showcase the product. When the customer comes through there is a listing of everything on the plate and the cost of each component.