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Choosing the right food broker to help develop your business is a critical task that can be made a lot easier by adhering to some basic principals.

First of all you should start with an in-house analysis of your requirements including all the tasks which you wish the broker to perform.

Once you have this analysis completed, you can produce a written brief for the broker that you plan to interview. By using a written brief, there can be no misunderstanding about what is to be provided by the broker.

You should make sure that the broker fully understands the services that you require, and most importantly they can provide them.

Brokers come in all shapes and sizes, national, regional, independent and even group members. They can specialise in just some areas: retail, foodservice, merchandising or provide additional services such as marketing, warehousing and even space management.

For companies who are evaluating brokerage, the AFBA can provide information on the range of services available. Trade buyers can also be a useful contact to discuss brokers and in particular which brokers are representing clients in a category. The AFBA also places brochures in buying office foyers listing brokers for each State.

Of course the Australian Food Broker Directory is a useful source of information as it lists the menu of services provided by each broker.

Some suppliers prefer a national food broker, whilst others like to deal with a strong regional broker in each State. Neither option is better than the other. It simply comes down to how you want to run your business. And of course, you may only be looking for a broker in a single State, or particular States.

National brokers usually have a National Business Manager which means that you can deal with just one contact. Regional brokers these days however, are also prepared to have one member of their group act as the national contact.

Trade references are important and retailers are dealing with food brokers on a daily basis. Existing Principals of the food broker will often be given as references and these should be contacted if the broker has provided details.

In response to your written brief brokers will have submitted their company profile and presented answers to any specific questions which have been asked. This material, plus reference checks can be used to create a short list for interview.

These days, most AFBA brokers use Activity Based Costing software to correctly cost the services requested. Wages are usually the largest component of a broker service.

Brokers can make some minor adjustments to the quoted cost based on revising the options to be provided, but you should beware of a cost quoted that is too low. Make sure in such cases that the broker has fully understood, and costed, your requirements.

It is important that you meet all the relevant people in the brokerage company that you may be working with, the Principal of the business, the Account Manager that will be your regular contact, and the senior field sales person.

The information flow from your broker is vital to the relationship. Brokers use a variety of field reporting systems including hand-held data capture units.

Ask to see samples of reports that are used regularly. Do not ask for customised reporting unless you are prepared to use and respond to them, and pay for them. The emphasis should be on exception reporting and not on chopping down the forests.

Once you have found a number of brokers who can meet your requirements at a similar cost then it really comes down to personal choice as to the best team that generates the inter-personal chemistry that you feel confident about.