How to Sell Microgreens to Chefs (Boston Microgreens’s Proven Restaurant Sales Approach)
- Feb 23
- 6 min read
If you’ve ever wondered how to actually get paying customers for your microgreens business, not just grow better trays, you’re not alone.
Most microgreens content online focuses on growing, racks, lights, and yields. But the truth is, sales is what turns a hobby into a business that pays the bills.
In this post, I’m breaking down practical restaurant sales advice from Oliver Homberg of Boston Microgreens, who built a $500,000+/year microgreens farm selling almost exclusively to chefs. Oliver shares how to approach restaurants, build relationships, read the room, and turn samples into recurring weekly orders.
This isn’t theory. It’s a real world sales process that works.
Let’s dig in.
🎥 Prefer to watch? Check out the full video here: Watch on YouTube
Why Boston Microgreen’s Chef Sales Advice Matters
✅ Built a real farm selling mostly to restaurants
Oliver grew Boston Microgreens into a $500K+ farm with chef focused sales.
✅ Focuses on the part most farms skip
Sales strategy, relationship building, and closing.
✅ Restaurant specific tactics
Timing, who to talk to, what to ask, and how to follow up.
✅ Practical and repeatable
This is a system beginner growers can actually use.
✅ Relationship first approach
Authenticity and trust are central to long term chef accounts.
What New Microgreens Growers Usually Get Wrong About Sales
Mistake #1: Focusing only on growing
Growing is critical, but sales is equally important if you want a real business.
Mistake #2: Talking too much and listening too little
Chef sales work better when you ask thoughtful questions and pay attention.
Mistake #3: Not asking for the sale
A great conversation with no next step is a missed opportunity.
Mistake #4: Taking rejection personally
A “no” often has more to do with timing, systems, or logistics than your product.
Mistake #5: Being overly pushy or overly passive
Oliver Homberg’s Core Advice: Know Your Crop First
One of Oliver’s biggest recommendations is simple:
Know your crop deeply before trying to sell it
Not just the name and flavor, but how it behaves in the real world.
That means understanding things like:
How it holds up in a walk in cooler
What dishes it works well on
How chefs might use it
How long it lasts
What size or stage is best for your market
Oliver also recommends starting with a smaller selection instead of trying to grow everything for everyone.
Why this works
If you’re growing 5 crops instead of 30, you’ll usually:
learn faster,
grow more consistently,
and sell with more confidence.
That confidence matters when talking to chefs.
Know Your Customer: Which Restaurants Should You Target?
Oliver recommends being intentional about who you’re selling to.
Start by identifying your target restaurants
Think about:
Medium to high end restaurants in your delivery radius
Restaurants whose plating style fits microgreens
Chefs who value local products and presentation
Places already using garnishes (check their Instagram)
Oliver’s tip: study the restaurant before you walk in
Before pitching, look at:
Their Instagram photos
Their menu style
What kind of food they serve
Whether microgreens are already being used
The chef’s style and aesthetic
This helps you pitch the right products and sound like someone who understands their world, not just someone trying to make a sale.
Best Time to Approach Chefs (Oliver’s Restaurant Timing Tips)
This is one of the most useful parts of Oliver’s advice.
Timing matters a lot
If you show up at the wrong time, even a great product can get ignored.
Oliver recommends:
✅ Avoid Fridays and Saturdays (busy service days)
✅ Visit during prep windows, when the kitchen is calmer
✅ For dinner only restaurants, try roughly late morning to mid afternoon (before pre service chaos)
✅ For lunch plus dinner restaurants, avoid lunch rush and aim for a quieter prep gap
✅ Be aware that Mondays may be hit or miss (head chef may be off, depending on the restaurant)
Key idea: read the room
A kitchen in full chaos is not the time to pitch. A kitchen in a calm prep window, with people chopping, prepping, and not rushing, is usually your best sales opportunity.
Who Should You Talk To?
Another big takeaway from Oliver: find the real decision maker.
Different restaurants buy differently. Sometimes the person choosing microgreens is:
the Chef de Cuisine (CDC)
the Executive Chef
the Owner
or occasionally someone else involved in ordering
Why this matters
If you pitch the wrong person, the conversation may go nowhere, even if they like your product.
Your goal is to identify:
Who makes purchasing decisions
Who controls menu direction
Who can approve a new supplier
Advice for Getting Past the Front Host Stand
This is one of the most practical (and real) things Oliver talks about.
A common barrier is the host or hostess, because they’re doing their job by protecting the restaurant from interruptions.
Oliver’s recommendation
He explains that walking in confidently, like you belong there, and getting to the kitchen at the right time can work far better than asking the front host to “go check with the chef.”
Why?
Because if the chef cannot see you, your product, or your energy, the easiest answer is often:
“Come back another time.”
Important note
This only works when paired with:
good timing,
social awareness,
and respect for the kitchen environment.
If it’s clearly a bad time, back off, leave a sample or card, and come back later.
How to Pitch Microgreens to Chefs (Without Being Annoying)
Oliver’s advice here is gold:
Keep it short, human, and product focused
You do not need a long speech.
A better approach is:
Introduce yourself briefly
Offer a sample
Let them taste and touch the product
Ask if it’s a good time
Keep the interaction efficient (often 5 minutes is enough)
Oliver recommends tactile selling
Instead of over explaining, let the chef:
touch the greens,
taste the greens,
and immediately imagine how they’d use them.
That is almost always more effective than a long verbal pitch.
Build Real Rapport
Oliver emphasizes that chef sales is not just technique. It is also psychology and people skills.
His advice: talk to chefs like humans
That means:
Pay attention to tone and body language
Notice if they seem open or rushed
Ask real questions (not fake sales questions)
Build genuine connection over time
Sometimes that means spending part of the conversation talking about something other than microgreens. And that is not wasted time. It is relationship building.
Why this works
Chefs often prefer buying from someone who is:
reliable,
personable,
easy to work with,
and genuinely trying to meet their needs.
That relationship becomes a competitive advantage.
Questions Oliver Recommends Asking Chefs
Oliver’s approach is not about asking random questions just to sound salesy.
He recommends asking questions with the real intention of understanding their needs.
Helpful questions to ask
Are you currently buying microgreens?
Who are you buying from?
Are you happy with what you’re getting?
Where do they come from?
Are there any issues with your current supplier?
What concerns do you have (quality, consistency, packaging, delivery, etc.)?
The goal is to identify real problems you can solve.
How to Close the Sale
This is where many growers freeze up.
Oliver is clear on this:
You’re there to add value and yes, to sell
You do not need to be aggressive, but you do need to move the conversation forward.
Oliver recommends trying to close on the first conversation
For example:
Start small
Suggest a recurring weekly trial
Make it easy to say yes
Make it easy to back out if it is not a fit
A low pressure offer works well, such as:
one box per week,
recurring on a fixed day,
with flexibility to change later.
This lowers the risk for the chef and gets your foot in the door.
3 Touch Rule for Restaurant Sales
One of the most actionable parts of the advice:
Oliver recommends giving a restaurant about 3 attempts
If they still do not buy:
Back off for a while (for example, a few months)
Timing changes. Menus change. Suppliers fail. Budgets shift.
You want to stay on their radar without becoming a nuisance.
Smart follow up idea
Occasionally drop off a small sample so they remember you.
Final Thoughts
If you want to sell microgreens to restaurants, Oliver Homberg’s advice is a strong blueprint:
Know your crops deeply
Target the right restaurants
Visit at the right time
Talk to the right person
Read the room
Keep it human
Ask smart questions
Try to close
Follow up consistently
Build real relationships
That is how a small farm turns samples into steady weekly orders.
If you want a full step by step system for building a profitable microgreens business, including growing, pricing, selling, and scaling, check out the Microgreens Business Blueprint at www.microgreens.ai.
It includes everything you need to sucessfully start from home including the most powerful software for microgreens, a prebuilt designed website and marketing funnel, professionally designed product labels, monthly group coaching and so much more.
Comments