Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Restaurant Partnership and Sales Representative

🎯 Role Definition

The Restaurant Partnership and Sales Representative is a field- and/or inside-sales role focused on sourcing, closing, onboarding, and expanding relationships with restaurants, cafés, and foodservice operators. This role owns the end-to-end partner lifecycle from prospecting and demos to contract negotiation, technical onboarding (POS and menu integration), go-to-market promotions, and ongoing account management to maximize order volume, partner satisfaction, and lifetime value. The ideal candidate combines consultative sales skills, operational empathy for restaurant workflows, and the ability to collaborate cross-functionally with operations, marketing, product, and analytics teams.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Restaurant Manager or Multi-unit Operator transitioning to sales/partnerships
Business Development Representative (BDR) or Sales Development Representative (SDR)
Account Coordinator or Customer Success Associate in hospitality tech

Advancement To:

Senior Partnership Manager / Senior Account Executive (Restaurant Partnerships)
Regional Sales Manager / Area Director, Restaurant Partnerships
Head of Partnerships / Director of Strategic Accounts (Food & Beverage)

Lateral Moves:

Customer Success Manager (Restaurant vertical)
Product Specialist (POS integrator / partner enablement)
Merchant Operations Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Drive new merchant acquisition through a mix of cold outreach, inbound lead qualification, warm leads, and referral programs—closing restaurant partners to meet or exceed monthly and quarterly targets for partner count, Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), or incremental revenue.
Conduct consultative sales discovery calls and in-person visits to understand owner/operator priorities, inventory and menu constraints, peak hours, margins, and integration needs; present tailored solutions that align with their business objectives.
Negotiate partnership agreements, commercial terms, and promotional programs with restaurant owners and decision-makers, ensuring favorable unit economics, pricing accuracy, and clear implementation timelines.
Deliver engaging product demos and walk-throughs (remote or onsite) that highlight POS integration, online ordering flows, delivery/fulfillment options, menu management, and revenue uplift opportunities.
Manage the full onboarding process for new restaurant partners, coordinating onboarding checklists, menu imports, POS/API integrations, staff training, test orders, and go-live support to achieve activation SLAs.
Serve as the primary account owner for a book of business—building deep relationships with operators and staff, running regular business review meetings, and proactively recommending actions to increase order frequency and average order value.
Monitor partner performance metrics (orders per day, average basket, repeat customer rate, cancellations, and activation velocity) and use data to create customized growth plans and targeted promotional strategies.
Collaborate with product and engineering to prioritize merchant-facing feature requests, POS integration fixes, and reporting improvements that remove friction and increase conversion and retention.
Coordinate cross-functional launches with marketing, operations, and partnerships to execute co-marketing activities, local promotions, and high-impact campaigns that drive traffic and awareness for partner restaurants.
Implement and manage promotional mechanics including discounts, featured placements, limited-time offers, and loyalty schemes; measure lift and iterate to maximize ROI for both the platform and partners.
Resolve merchant escalations and technical issues by triaging with support and engineering teams, providing clear status updates, and ensuring swift resolution while documenting root causes and preventive actions.
Maintain accurate, up-to-date records in the CRM (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot), track pipeline metrics, forecast monthly revenue/activation numbers, and provide weekly status reports to sales leadership.
Develop territory and account plans that prioritize high-potential restaurants, cluster opportunities by cuisine and service model, and allocate time for in-person visits versus remote selling to improve close rates.
Drive incremental revenue through upsell and cross-sell opportunities (premium listings, advertising, subscription services, delivery/fulfillment upgrades) by presenting value-backed proposals and ROI scenarios to partners.
Educate restaurant partners on operational best practices for online ordering, menu engineering, packaging for delivery, labor optimization, and cost control to improve partner profitability and platform performance.
Lead menu-mapping and SKU reconciliation projects to ensure accurate item availability, pricing, and modifiers across POS and online ordering channels to minimize order friction and cancellations.
Track competitive market intelligence, local promotions, and pricing trends; translate insights into differentiated offers and sales tactics to maintain a competitive advantage in assigned markets.
Participate in contract renewals and retention negotiations to preserve revenue, identify churn risk early, and recommend product/operational adjustments to improve partner satisfaction and lifetime value.
Collaborate with analytics and finance to validate partner revenue contribution, calculate unit economic metrics, model payback periods, and inform executive decision-making on incentives and investments.
Attend and represent the company at industry events, trade shows, local restaurant association meetings, and community networking opportunities to build brand awareness and identify pipeline opportunities.
Create and maintain scalable onboarding materials, playbooks, training guides, and voicemail/email templates that accelerate ramp time for new partners and improve consistency across the sales organization.
Mentor and share best practices with junior sellers, provide feedback to refine outreach sequences, and contribute to continuous improvement of the sales process and enablement resources.

Secondary Functions

Coordinate with marketing to design and execute partner co-branded campaigns, seasonal promotions, and localized awareness activities; analyze campaign KPIs and share learnings.
Support ad-hoc reporting requests from regional managers and product teams; provide merchant anecdotes and qualitative feedback to supplement quantitative analysis.
Act as the voice of the merchant in cross-functional forums—feeding product roadmap priorities, reporting integration pain points, and validating beta features with pilot partners.
Assist operations and support teams during peak rollout periods (new market launches, holiday promotions) to ensure merchants are prepared and trained.
Maintain and update the internal knowledge base with common merchant questions, troubleshooting steps, and onboarding checklists to reduce time-to-resolution.
Participate in product and process beta tests as a merchant-facing subject matter expert and collect structured feedback to improve user experience and activation outcomes.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

CRM proficiency (Salesforce, HubSpot, or similar) — pipeline management, opportunity qualification, and forecasting.
POS and restaurant technology fluency — understanding of POS systems (Toast, Clover, Square, Lightspeed) and experience coordinating POS integrations or menu syncing.
Strong data literacy — ability to read and interpret merchant dashboards, CSV exports, actionable KPIs, and conversion funnels; comfortable using Excel or Google Sheets for analysis and reporting.
Commercial contract and pricing acumen — drafting or negotiating commercial terms, rebate structures, promo mechanics, and legal/operational constraints.
Familiarity with online ordering, delivery platform mechanics, and last-mile logistics to advise restaurants on fulfillment strategies.
Experience with presentation tools (PowerPoint, Google Slides) and virtual demo tools (Zoom, Loom) to conduct polished product walkthroughs.
Basic SQL or analytics tool competency (Looker, Tableau, Mode) is a plus for ad-hoc merchant analysis and segmentation.
Experience using scheduling, route-planning, and territory-management tools to optimize in-person visit cadence.
Knowledge of local and federal regulations impacting foodservice operations (health & safety, packaging, labeling) preferred.
Ability to document technical onboarding steps and create scalable enablement artifacts for non-technical users.

Soft Skills

Consultative selling and active listening — uncovering root business problems and diagnosing opportunities for platform-driven solutions.
Strong interpersonal skills and relationship building — earning trust with operators, managers, and kitchen staff to become a strategic partner.
Exceptional verbal and written communication — crafting concise emails, proposals, and reports; delivering persuasive presentations.
Negotiation and influence — balancing partner economics with platform ROI to arrive at mutually beneficial agreements.
Problem-solving and operational empathy — understanding kitchen workflows and creatively troubleshooting integration or fulfillment pain points.
Time management and territory prioritization — balancing inbound leads, demos, onboarding, and account management with limited travel windows.
Resilience and persistence — handling multi-step sales cycles, objections, and long decision timelines in the restaurant industry.
Cross-functional collaboration — working effectively with product, engineering, marketing, operations, and support to drive merchant outcomes.
Data-driven mindset — using metrics to prioritize accounts, build cases for promotion strategies, and measure impact.
Customer advocacy — representing merchant needs internally and ensuring follow-through on commitments.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or equivalent; strong candidates will demonstrate restaurant operations experience, sales success, or a relevant certificate.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Hospitality Management, or a related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Hospitality Management
Marketing
Sales / Commercial Strategy
Data Analytics (preferred for analytics-driven sales roles)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

1–5 years of B2B sales, business development, account management, or restaurant operations experience. Prior experience selling to restaurants or working in the foodservice industry is strongly preferred.

Preferred:

2+ years in merchant acquisition or account management for a restaurant-tech platform, POS vendor, delivery marketplace, or foodservice supplier.
Demonstrated track record of meeting or exceeding quota, onboarding complex merchants, and coordinating POS/technical integrations.
Familiarity with local market dynamics, ability to work flexible hours (including occasional nights/weekends for events), and comfortable with field travel for in-person demos and visits.