Welcome to Boston Company Spotlight featuring Nicholas D'Ascensao - Vice President of Sales at ezCater. Our goal is to highlight local influencers, resources, and opportunities for our Top Rep Boston Community!
ezCater is the only nationwide marketplace for business catering. ezCater’s online ordering, on-time ratings and reviews, and 5-star customer service connect business people to reliable catering for any meeting, anywhere in the United States.
NICK D’ASCENSAO - VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES
WHAT DOES EZCATER DO?
ezCater connects business people with more than 60,000 caterers across the United States. Business people who need catering get an easy, reliable, and rewarding way to order it. Restaurant and catering operators get catering orders, operational support, and insights they can act on.
We’re not just a great website. We have a team of 5-star customer support professionals who are ready to help. Call us and a real catering Ninja will answer. No “Press 1” nonsense.
WHAT PROBLEM IS YOUR PRODUCT SOLVING?
Solutions for Business People
Placing catering orders for work can be taxing and time-consuming, and it’s one of the many tasks our customers face. ezCater’s online marketplace streamlines the process so busy business people get more time back in their workday. Our customers say it best: we make their lives easier.
Solutions for Caterers
The restaurant and catering industry is tough: competitive, fast-paced, and stressful. ezCater’s off-prem solutions help restaurant and catering operators grow their revenue and customer base. Operators get a variety of efficiency-boosting tools so they can focus on what they do best: making delicious food.
WHO ARE YOU SELLING TO AND WHY IS IT A GREAT PRODUCT?
Our sales team has two sides. Caterer Sales reaches out to caterers and restaurants. National sales onboard business people and businesses. Both groups — caterers and business people — have little time to spare, and both save time and effort with ezCater’s technology and customer service. We make these people’s lives better. Their words, not ours.
WHAT MAKES EZCATER DIFFERENT THAN YOUR COMPETITORS?
We’re the only nationwide marketplace for business catering (not just major cities), we have top-notch technology, and our customers love us.
WHY WOULD I WANT TO WORK IN SALES AT EZCATER?
ezCater is where amazing people come to work with other amazing people to do amazing things. I see other companies hire a bunch of salespeople, cut the ones who don’t succeed and keep the few who do. We set the bar higher at hiring phase so when you get here you are surrounded by truly elite talent and teammates that will help bring out the best in you. We don’t have a preconceived notion of what makes an amazing rep and in an interview, it's not uncommon to not even be asked for your resume. We hire people, not paper. Which is reflected in our team. We have Ivy League grads and then we have people who never went to college. Whatever their experience level or background, we see the greatness in people and we have a proven system to unlock it.
With the greatest talent in Boston and the greatest tools and systems in Boston, we have curated an incredible and low-pressure yet high-performance sales environment. Sure, I’m responsible for a bunch of performance metrics, but I don’t impose those metrics on my team. All that I ask for is attitude, effort, and respect (we are all equal). Since my team gives me those, the metrics take care of themselves. This opens up time for discovering better ways to do things, time for personal development and mentorship, and time to prepare for the rest of your career.
WHAT DOES A TOP REP LOOK LIKE AT EZCATER?
ezCater specializes in recruiting the ‘rising elite.’ We pride ourselves on the ability to find, recruit, develop, and mentor Boston’s next generation of elite sales talent. We like to think of ourselves as the Harvard/MIT of sales education in Boston. We don’t hound our reps to make calls or send "x" amount of emails a day. The type of people we attract knows that doing the basics is part of the job. What do we push our reps to do? We push them to think. We ask them to think about what is working and what could be made better. We push them to think more broadly about what we are not doing that could help move the business forward. We want our amazing people to bring their entire brain to work and to use it to its fullest potential. Our top reps eagerly push limits, test things, and explore new ways of improving processes. They thrive in our incredible culture of flexibility and autonomy and go out of their way to take on more and help those around them.
WHAT ARE SOME SPECIAL PERKS, AWARDS, TEAM OUTINGS, ETC. AT EZCATER?
There’s always something to look forward to: the next exciting challenge, free catered breakfast every Monday, free catered lunch every Wednesday, free Beer O’Clock every Friday, a kitchen (three, actually) always full of up-for-grabs snacks, cupcakes and other treats, softball games, an annual ski trip, unlimited vacation… We’re in an awesome location in Downtown Crossing, generous commuting benefits make it easy to get here, and a great benefits package keeps us healthy and happy.
Interested in joining the team?
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About the Author - Nick D'Ascensao
Nick is an award-winning sales expert with over a decade of experience building high velocity inside sales teams at hyper-growth start-ups. He specializes in creating the recruiting systems, sales processes, and training programs that ground organizations for their next phase of growth. During his career, Nick has held sales leadership roles at companies including Yahoo!, Criteo, (IPO), Jumptap (Acquisition), Millennial Media (Acquisition), and AOL.
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