One Major Difference

I have gone out on a route truck a few times now and the biggest difference between dead fish and dirty laundry that I've seen is the number of businesses who use the product. In seafood it’s pretty easy to find the targets – open up the phone book to ‘restaurants’ or ‘grocers’ and you’ll find 90% of them. The nice thing here is that a company like this one can serve just about any other company out there. While out on the routes I’ve been to the businesses I expected to see: manufacturing plants, auto repair shops, and restaurants. But I’ve been surprised also: Bio-tech companies, a gas BBQ retailer, and an insurance agency. It’s a relief to me to see the huge opportunity out there; it’s a big world. Seafood, on the other hand, is a very, very small world. It’s incestuous. Everyone knows everyone, and if they’re not buying from the fishhouse, they’re not buying for a reason. These obstacles are very difficult to overcome, if it is even possible to overcome them in the first place. In 2004 I had been doing very well with a small grocery chain when a new buyer came in and gave all the business to another fish company whose quality & service were poorer, and prices higher than mine. When I finally got to sit down with her and get to the root of the issue I found that she didn’t like the fishhouse because of something a rep, who had left the company years ago, had done in 1996! No more of that, no more banging my head against the wall. If it isn’t going to work, I’ll just move on to the next one, love ‘em and leave ‘em. Stick & move, baby. Look out, I'm coming on like a bad cold!