Food & Beverage & CPG

Lead Generation for Food & Beverage Companies

Selling food and beverage products into retail and foodservice is a constant fight for attention, shelf space, and repeatable reorders—while juggling brokers, distributors, and strict spec requirements. Buyers move on category timelines, not yours, and every new SKU faces scrutiny from procurement, quality, and ops. SalesHive builds targeted lists and runs consistent email + calling campaigns that create qualified buyer conversations and keep your pipeline full between line reviews.

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We Target Your Ideal Food & Beverage Buyers

Your SDR team is trained on the language of category reviews, distribution models, and vendor onboarding so outreach sounds credible to retail, distributor, and foodservice stakeholders. We position your offer around the metrics buyers care about—velocity, fill rate, margins, and operational simplicity—to earn meetings instead of getting ignored.

Decision-Makers We Reach

Grocery Category Managers (Retail & Club)
Retail Buyers (Grocery, Beverage, Refrigerated/Frozen)
Director of Foodservice Procurement (QSR, Hospitality, Healthcare)
Distributor Purchasing Managers (Broadline & Specialty)
Co-Manufacturing / Co-Packing Sourcing Managers

The Challenge

Why Food & Beverage Sales Development is Hard

Between category review cycles, private label pressure, and documentation-heavy onboarding, it’s difficult to create consistent buyer meetings without a specialized outbound motion.

Category cycles move slowly

Retail and foodservice buyers often engage only during category resets, line reviews, or contract windows—so timing matters as much as the pitch. Without persistent, structured follow-up, opportunities die quietly while you wait for the next review period.

Margins and promos dominate

Food & beverage deals are won and lost on price packs, promo calendars, trade spend expectations, and margin targets. If outbound messaging doesn't speak directly to profitability and operational impact, buyers will default to incumbent brands or private label options.

Vendor onboarding is paperwork-heavy

Even interested accounts can stall when procurement and QA request specs, COAs, allergen statements, food safety certifications, and traceability details. Sales teams lose momentum when outreach creates interest but no process exists to drive the next step across stakeholders.

Risk and compliance slow decisions

Quality incidents, recalls, and labeling mistakes carry outsized consequences in this industry. Buyers are cautious, and new vendors must prove reliability, food safety discipline, and consistent service levels before they'll commit.

Too many stakeholders influence

Deals rarely hinge on one person—brokers, distributors, procurement, quality, operations, and merchandising may all weigh in. If you aren't mapping the account and sequencing outreach to each role, you'll get stuck with "check back later" and no clear path forward.

Shelf space is a battle

Retailers are rationalizing SKUs while expanding store brands, so "new" is not automatically welcome. To win meetings, you need precise targeting by channel and category, plus a differentiated message that ties to shopper demand and retailer strategy.

Our Approach

How We Generate Leads for Food & Beverage

We combine buyer-accurate list building, channel-specific messaging, and disciplined multi-touch outreach to consistently book meetings across retail and foodservice.

Channel-specific prospect lists

We build targeted lists by channel (grocery, club, convenience, foodservice) and by category responsibility so your team isn't wasting touches on the wrong buyer. We also include the surrounding influencers—procurement, QA, and ops—so deals can move once interest is created.

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Personalized buyer email outreach

We write outreach that aligns to how food & beverage buyers evaluate vendors—margin, reliability, differentiation, and operational ease. With SalesHive's personalization workflows, we tailor messaging by category, channel, and account context to drive replies and real buying conversations.

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Persistent calling and follow-up

Food & beverage buying teams are busy and heavily gated, so calling is critical for breaking through and confirming timelines like line reviews and contract windows. Our SDRs use structured call cadences to qualify interest, identify the full stakeholder map, and secure meetings.

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Pipeline visibility and iteration

We track what's working by channel, persona, and message theme so your outbound improves each week instead of resetting every quarter. You get clear reporting on activity and outcomes, plus fast iteration when categories shift, promos change, or priorities move.

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