How to Find Restaurant Leads: The Complete B2B Guide for Foodservice Suppliers

If your business sells to restaurants, whether you offer food products, packaging, technology, cleaning services, or equipment, finding qualified restaurant leads is essential to growth. But in today’s fast-moving market, the question isn’t where to find restaurants. It’s how to find the right ones, with accurate data and verified contacts.

The first step to any effective sales strategy is reliable, current data. Outdated lists and scraped directories waste valuable time and cause missed opportunities. That’s why top-performing sales and marketing teams turn to the CSG Foodservice Elite Database, the industry’s most comprehensive resource for restaurant and foodservice operator intelligence. This database provides detailed, regularly updated profiles that include chain, franchise, and independent restaurant listings, decision-maker contacts like owners and purchasing managers, corporate hierarchies, sales volume, unit counts, expansion plans, and contact details verified by research analysts. With CSG’s Foodservice Elite Database, you get actionable insights, not just names on a list.

Once you have verified leads, create an audience in LinkedIn for outreach and relationship-building. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator or LinkedIn Ads to build campaigns targeting restaurant owners, purchasing managers, or franchise executives by region and role. Follow their pages to understand their brand and recent news. Craft personalized messages that speak to their challenges. For example: “Hi [Name], I noticed your restaurant group recently expanded to [City]. We help multi-unit operators like yours streamline sourcing and operations using data-driven insights from CSG. Would you be open to a short call next week?”

Trade shows like the National Restaurant Association Show, FS Tech, and International Pizza Expo bring together thousands of restaurant decision-makers looking for fresh solutions. Use these opportunities to collect leads, demo your product, and build relationships, then cross-reference those contacts with your CSG Foodservice Elite data to ensure accuracy and follow-up consistency.

In addition to outbound prospecting, attract restaurant leads with digital marketing. Publish high engagement content like “How to Improve Menu Profit Margins” or “Reducing Food Waste in 2025.” Offer lead magnets such as free downloadable guides or templates to capture emails. Use targeted ads on LinkedIn, Google, or Meta focused on restaurant industry job titles and regions.

Restaurant owners receive countless pitches every week. The ones that get noticed are relevant, specific, and value-focused. When contacting leads, mention something unique about their operation, such as their concept type, location, or growth plans, which you can find in CSG’s data. Personalization builds trust and increases response rates dramatically.

To manage and nurture leads effectively, integrate your CSG restaurant data into a CRM like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zoho. This allows your team to track every interaction, segment by region or concept, automate follow-ups, and analyze conversion rates. The result is a structured, efficient sales pipeline backed by verified, high-quality data.

Finding restaurant leads is no longer about quantity. It’s about quality, accuracy, and timing. The most successful B2B companies in foodservice use a data-first approach, combining verified information from the CSG Foodservice Elite Database with strategic outreach and personalized engagement. Whether you sell ingredients, software, equipment, or services, success starts with knowing who to contact, what they need, and when to reach them. CSG makes that possible, helping you connect with the right restaurant decision-makers, at the right time, with confidence.