Revenue Rehab: It's like therapy, but for marketers
May 15, 2024

My Journey with Neil Rogers: From Bartending to Boardrooms

This week our host Brandi Starr is joined by Neil Rogers, Author & VP of Sales at Rogers Marketing.  Neil has built a successful career in sales and marketing that spans almost forty years in a variety of industries, ranging from...

This week our host Brandi Starr is joined by Neil Rogers, Author & VP of Sales at Rogers Marketing. 

Neil has built a successful career in sales and marketing that spans almost forty years in a variety of industries, ranging from pharmaceuticals to military defense contractors. But before the multiple sales awards and accolades, Rogers spent ten years slinging beers behind the bar at some of the top establishments in and around Boston. The lessons learned during his “cocktail years” have provided him with the skills needed to excel in sales and marketing. And now, he’s sharing the knowledge gleaned from long nights of sticky floors and slinging shots that have propelled Rogers to the upper echelons of salesmanship.

This episode is a deep dive into the significance of blending traditional methods with modern marketing tactics to achieve lasting success in the fast-evolving business landscape.

Bullet Points of Key Topics + Chapter Markers:

Topic #1 The True Value of Hospitality in Business [08:22] “The essence of hospitality isn’t confined to hotels and bars; it’s foundational in creating genuine customer connections regardless of your business sector,” Neil articulates. He stresses the importance, noting, “What I learned from my time-serving drinks wasn’t just about crafting a perfect cocktail, but about understanding people and creating moments that matter. This same principle applies directly to engaging customers in any business environment.” “These minor details and personal touches," Neil adds, "can set you apart in a crowded market.”

Topic #2 Reinventing Direct Mail and Relationship Building [17:45] Neil explains, “In an age where digital noise is louder than ever, going back to basics like direct mail can cut through the clutter.” He elaborates on integrating traditional tactics with modern strategies, saying, “Direct mail isn’t just about sending letters. It’s about personalization, about being memorable. Combine that with today’s analytics, and you target not just effectively but meaningfully.” Brandi adds, “It’s about leveraging every tool in our arsenal to maintain that crucial human touch.”

Topic #3 Longevity and Ethics in Marketing [32:18] Neil emphasizes long-term success tied to ethical practices, stating, “You can chase quick wins or you can build lasting relationships based on integrity.” He further advises, “Honesty, fairness, and sincerity aren’t just moral choices; they are strategic advantages in business.” Discussing the impact of these values, Neil notes, “When clients trust you, they not only return, they become advocates for your brand. That’s the real power of ethical business practices.” 

So, What's the One Thing You Can Do Today?

Neil’s  ‘One Thing’ is to develop a process for prospecting new clients or launching new products, and stick to a multi-touch, multi-media micro-marketing campaign for 90 days, making adjustments along the way.

Buzzword Banishment:

 Neil has two Buzzwords to Banish, "dive in" and “super”. Neil wishes to eliminate these phrases because he feels, "They’re overused to the point of losing all meaning. Every meeting, every call—it's always “let's dive in” and “super.”

Links:

Get in touch with Neil Rogers:

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Transcript

Intro VO  00:05

Welcome to revenue rehab, your one stop destination for collective solutions to the biggest challenges faced by marketing leaders today. Now head on over to the couch, make yourself comfortable and get ready to change the way you approach revenue. Leading your recovery is modern marketer, author, speaker and Chief Operating Officer at Tegrita Brandi Starr

Brandi Starr  00:33

Hello, hello hello and welcome to another episode of revenue rehab. I am your host Brandi Starr. And we have another amazing episode for you today. I am joined by Neil Rogers Neil has built a successful career in sales and marketing that spans almost 40 years in a variety of industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to military defense contractors, but before the multiple sales awards and accolades, Rogers spent 10 years slinging beers behind the bar at some of the top establishments in and around Boston. The lessons learned during his cocktail years have provided him with the skills needed to excel in sales and marketing. And now he's sharing the knowledge gleaned from long nights on sticky floors and slinging shots that have propelled Rogers to be of the upper echelon of salesmanship. Welcome to revenue rehab deal, your session begins now.

Neil Rogers  01:32

Brandi, so glad to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Awesome.

Brandi Starr  01:36

Yeah, I'm excited to have you here and to learn more about your career and the lessons you've learned. But before we jump into that, I like to break the ice with the little woosah moment that I call buzzword. banishment. So what buzzword would you like to get rid of forever?

Neil Rogers  01:57

You know, it's a toss up, I got two in my head, I may just blurt them both out at once. It's a little bit of a phrase. One's a small short phrase. One's a a. A word first is diving in.

Brandi Starr  02:16

Okay,

Neil Rogers  02:17

I don't get why everything super. I'm super excited. I'm super this. I'm sure that you, you can just be excited. You don't need to be super excited.

Brandi Starr  02:28

Ah, that is so I can say I won't use diving in. But I know that I am someone who overuse is super. And awesome. Those are my two words. Because I know I have such a big personality. So I'm usually not just excited. I am super excited.

Neil Rogers  02:52

So I will try really basic fundamental. Is that it? You're super excited?

Brandi Starr  02:58

I love it. Yeah, those are two that are definitely overused. In all settings, not even just in the current corporate world. And

Neil Rogers  03:08

I can't say I'm offended by them at all. It's just kind of like, Okay, enough. I gotcha. All right. Can you come up with something else?

Brandi Starr  03:16

I love it. I am going to I'm going to try to find another word instead of super. I'm gonna be thinking,

Neil Rogers  03:23

Oh, it's not just the word super. It's how it's attached to the next word. Ah, I'm super happy to be super involved. You're super company. But something and it can be awesome. I am from Boston, by the way that everything's awesome over here, man.

Brandi Starr  03:42

Okay, well, at least you can appreciate my awesome well, awesome. Now that we have gotten that off our chest, I am super excited to have you here today as a part of our my journey series. So for those who are listening, who are not familiar with the my journey series, I find it really intriguing the journey that different people have taken throughout their careers where the path has not necessarily been what people would describe as the norm. And so as a part of my journey, I asked people that I find interesting to join me here on the couch to talk about their career progression and some of the lessons learned and So Neil, you are one of those people who I am very intrigued by your journey. And so I'm happy to have you here.

Neil Rogers  04:36

Love it. I'm super excited. We're gonna do this all day. You know that?

Brandi Starr  04:41

Yes. And I believe in setting intentions. It gives us focus it gives us purpose, and most importantly, it gives our audience and understanding of what they should expect from our discussion. And so what are your best hopes for our talk? What would you like for people to take away from hearing about Your career journey?

Neil Rogers  05:01

Well, I think with all of the bombardment we have from 24 by seven media, social media, all the hype on technology AI in the like, you know, what's it going to do to us? How are we ever going to get? You know, it's just going to take my job? Is this going to do that, and then I'm going to speech I give it's called Tech is no threat to me. Right? Move along, control what you can control. US use your fundamentals, you have basics, the stuff that the stuff that that just that just, you know, moves your law off incrementally. So you can control your little journey. So you can't worry about what, what AI is going to do. Embrace it. Find out you know, find out what it's about. Try it, see how it works for you in your business. I found in the last few weeks, it's going to do a lot for my business. So

Brandi Starr  05:54

awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So let's go back to the bar, where it all started. And so I'd love to hear I mean, I know that bartending is a very common sort of first job when folks are, you know, in their early 20s. So tell me about your start. Was it a desire to be a bartender? Was it kind of a thing to do to make money at the moment? Like, where did it begin?

Neil Rogers  06:21

Well, it started out where I was really, I was really going nowhere coming out of high school. I was 17 years old. My you know, God bless my mother and father. They were wonderful people. But it wasn't like it is today, where we've got our kids lives mapped out from DNA right up until whatever, I had challenges in school challenges with attitude, challenges with, you know, not being coachable, that type of thing. So I had all the answers basically, where I had none, in retrospect. And so I I set out on my journey, and as what it's what am I literally went to my mother may of my senior year and said, Is this something I should be doing next year? I mean, literally, it was no plan. Zero. So I stumbled through community college, you now met the first community first person in your life that has ever flunked out of two community colleges.

Brandi Starr  07:13

Goodness, and in

Neil Rogers  07:14

this in one was just kind of I've got no explanation for it. I didn't fail. I just thought going, just kind of like there was just a strange place to be I've got no, I've got no excuse for it, no answer for it. It just happens where I was at the time. And so but I always stayed involved in some way shape or form in the hospitality business. At that time, I was working in the kitchen doing making sandwiches cooking breakfast, then we got out front, a little bit busboy and then I wound up behind the bar as a barback. And so so now I'm probably this is probably I'm probably 18 At this juncture, probably halfway through probably around a year out of high school, and started barbacking. So I'm watching the guys pour the drinks. Oh, my God. That looks kind of cool. I think I'd like to do that. That was the only reason why I wanted to be a bartender at that time is that it looked cool. Right? I had no career path. I thought I there's a way to make money. It was just that was cool. So I went and I decided so my friend and I that worked in the same place. We both kind of did some started doing private parties. So we got some chops down on how to pour and we knew basically what the basic the drinks, the drinks back then are not as crazy as they are today. Yeah, we made old fashions, I mean, a 10 year Piano Bar. I think I made 10. Right now it's at now it's a staple item. And they have different, they have different flavors and different flavors of the Bourbons and the whiskies and all that. So anyways, so I did so after that I decided to set up my sights and get a bar job. So now again, self esteem being low, not really now, so I no longer I'm starting to realize, you know, maybe I don't have all the answers. Right. And so now, now I'm feeling out how do I get out of this? How do I move along? How do I make How do I make incremental changes because I know, I need to do something. So I went down and I knew in this bar called the full sail and Whitehorse beach part of Plymouth, Massachusetts, America's hometown. And I went in and I asked this guy who I knew family friend, and we became very good friends. He's actually acknowledged in the book said, Hey, can I like a bar job? Well, this place was small, and there was only three. And they were all taken up. So I'll give you five nights on the door. Alright, so I'm back to checking IDs, crowd control, but emptying trash, you know, bringing beer up. So when I'm doing barback stuff again. So the day bartender leaves, and he says, he says, Do you want the day job said sure. I'll take it. So I took it. And my first drink I poured was the Seabreeze which that bitch is not as prominent as big today as it was back then. That's vodka. grapefruit and cranberry with a lime poured the drink as I was, as I was told to put it in front of the woman, she took a sip out of it, she goes, that's pretty good. And I went, Hmm, maybe I have something here. And I enjoyed that immediate feedback from from serving someone, I solved her little, her little problem. It was, you know, I'm here to have a drink, I would like this drink, I'd like to, you know, and when, and I'd like it to be good. And here it is, it's good. Because she doesn't say that's understood. So I just started working that and became very adept at it, and recognize that, oh, my goodness, I could be good at something. It's really where I was. And my life was like, you know, I didn't know where I would go what I was going to do. And then I kind of stuck it out for a bit, I did that for a bit there for a bit. And I decided that I really needed to do more. And so most people would tell me, you know, and I would express, you know, desire to move on and do something different. They said, you don't deal with your interpersonal skills, you'd be good in sales. Okay, so I started talking to people I knew in sales, and you know, manufacturers, reps, and reps and other businesses. And, you know, of course, you know, everybody that walks in the bar, they like you, they want to be your friend, you know, the bartender, they want to be served, right. So really developed a lot of nice relationships in that fashion and decided that was the way I want to go. But I had to, I still needed a degree. So I got to solve that problem. So but now the difference between the first couple of times, as I described the flunking out, I really didn't have a passion for what I was doing. I had no, I had no route, I didn't know what I was doing. I couldn't understand, you know, today, I think, you know, I think, you know, if with under different circumstances, I would have stuck it up, just get to degree just to stay there just make it happen, right. But now, I have to move on and whatever. So but now I knew exactly what I wanted to do. So I went back to school, and developed started develop what I would call my process that made that kept going throughout my life, my six my sales life. And that was just a little program or in I guess we call it in today's parlance algorithm, right? And it's a simple one. You know, the teachers, they like you to show up. They like you to actively listen, take notes, do your work on time. Take the extra hours. If you need help, ask for it. Do the extra credit, all these things. And I did all that. And it's interesting. Kind of sounds like sales doesn't

Brandi Starr  12:46

fit. Yes, very similar.

Neil Rogers  12:50

So it's like, well show up, Be nice. Be pro presented, be organized be on time. Right? Be well dressed. So. So that's how I kind of started my little thing. And I became a very good student, I overcame my learning challenges on my own, which really what happened. And you know, to this day, I've got to go through the same systems in I mean, when I when I go to read a book, I gotta get the book, I gotta get the audiobook, and I have to take notes, then I've got a fighting chance of absorbing it, even to this day in my life, so. So it's kind of It set me up to understand the way I learned. And I use that I use that to this day. So that's kind of where it all started. And that's what the and then the, the the actual when I recognized it. What I recognized that the stuff that I had done as a bartender was what propelled my sales career really came from an a night. I live in a little bit of golf community here in Nashua, New Hampshire. And my daughter was being honored right up to the club house up the street. As one of the local chambers. The local chamber had her in his being one of the people to watch into 30 You know, the chamber, they've got to get an award for everything. The guy who brought Five Guys Burgers, the New Hampshire was the keynote speaker. Loved him, right up my alley. Bare Bones speaker, straight to the point. No big words. You know, just from the heart. And he talked about did you ever did you ever work in hospitality Bernie? A little bit. So this is thing if you ever served or whatnot, there's this thing called pre meal. And pre meal is kind of where everybody gets in. And we talked about what's our 86 which in restaurant parlance is what's out what the specials are, what we did last year, and what we hope for tonight, and then a little bit of a rah rah speech. So his rah rah speech when something like this. We're not in the burger business. We're not in the fry business. We're not the soda business. We're not in the shake business. We're in the hospitality business. I looked at my wife who for point of reference, I met as when I was a bartender, T is in Boston, she was a food waitress, I looked at her. And I said, I've never left the bar business. I've been bartending on the road for 30 plus years. That's when it just hit me. And then to COVID, looking for something, you know, when you're a salesperson, and you're used to being with people, and you're a people person. I mean, I know, it's tough on everybody. But if you're if you're, it was rough. And what I had when I was looking for things to do to make myself happy and be productive, and our business was fine, you know, we were fine. But it was just like, still you stuck in your house? And how do I, so I started, I reached out, I started reaching out to people. And to this day, I still do think of somebody in need, send them a text, whatever it may be. But at that juncture was just like who hadn't I talked to in a while. And invariably, I get a phone call back, because everybody was feeling the same way. They didn't what's going on? And we talked me out, here's what I'm doing. And so this guy called me back guy named Terry McMahon. And Terry was a wildly successful MassMutual general agent, making millions of dollars, while his success took him to behaviors that were needed life saving, kidney, liver transplant. He got it. I talked to him 18 months afterwards. And it was like this guy completely, completely changed his life. And I'm talking about Terry, I've written a book, I've done this. I said, Dude, you're my hero. Unbelievable. How did you do? Well, you sound like Bill Murray from groundhog. Right? You know, when all of a sudden Bill Murray's a jazz pianists because every day gets the practice of right. Yeah, right. That's like GS T you're like, yeah, so anyway, so he encouraged me to do it. And I was like, you know, what am I got to say, really, and I, you know, so I started examining it. And I just written a little we just had a, a birthday party for one of the people that we worked with at the full sail, which was the first party I imagined. And it was really, you know, being a commuter student, the people that I know from those years, that's my fraternity. Right? Right. Those are the people you know, I didn't live on campus. I didn't, you know, it's like, you know, I basically lived at home, it was way too late. And so, so we, it just I So afterwards, I was so emotional about it, I wrote a little ditty on it. A little short story, right. So I had that piece. And then I had a piece I had written again, from that same general area of the world, why do I speak in Plymouth, I'd written a little piece about growing up there. So I had that piece. And then I'd done some research after the after the aforementioned event at the chamber and the hole in the hospitality light bulb. I had done some research on how other businesses use hospitality in their business to engage their customers. So I had that thing done. Now, I just needed the filler part. So I started interviewing, I started interviewing people that I worked with people that own the places I used to work at other people that had been became successful in business or in sales, but how they feel is that felt as though that their, that their ground, their groundwork was really in being working with the public and in the restaurants in the restaurant business. And by the way, I think it's I think it's the same thing, if you've worked retail, if you've had to solve a problem with the general public, your a value to a to a, I've got a great story on that if we've got time, but the Euro value to an employer so that's really kind of and so we that's how we got up that's how we got the tips, you know, just things you know, what are important what is the employee so I took a count I thought about it from the time you walk in, somebody walks into the establishment, the importance of a proper greeting your how to develop a relationship with the person that you're going to be with for maybe a half hour to two hours, right? We got to be quick and you know, you got to be you know, you got to be attentive and you got to be you know, you got to use some some simple things that do to you put the cocktail napkin now you look at them, you acknowledge them. Sounds like you know, we are not splitting the atom here, but it's almost like, and it's almost like breathing brandy. But I don't know, what your what your, what your what your workout schedule is. But have you ever done yoga? Yeah. Okay, what is what is yoga and stretching and breathing? Breath to movement. Right? And what do they remind you throughout the whole class, breathe brief. You think that would just be an eight mile it is but to breathe properly. To do it well to do it functionally. You know, four in eight out. Right? So all those things these To the types of things I equate, so I take breath, the little things, minor details, random acts of kindness, all those simple simple gestures that propel happiness, achievement and success. Right? So those are those that so it's these little things that in the end you go yet nobody remembers. Yeah, you sure you might remember the big thing, but you know how they treated you they remember how you would treat it, how you walked away and said, you know, they were really nice to me. Yeah, we got a nice meal. Oh, the the service. The guys who did the roof were great. But boy, they, they took time to say hello and greet me when they saw me in the morning or whatever, whatever those little things may be. But I mean, there's a guy I'm sure you've heard of Jim Rohn. So Jim Rohn has has a little take on success that I really love. And he said, Success is neither magical, no mysterious successes, the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals, also known as everybody, the little things. Yeah. So it's not like, it's all it's all the little things that we've done in our business that has made us who we are, that we got us the sales awards that got us the Hall of Fame Award that got us all those things. We're friends with our clients, we've had clients for 27 years, we've only been in business 27 years. But I'm still friendly with old people, people that I worked with your customers I had years ago, because you just treated them good. So and

Brandi Starr  21:34

so I'd like to draw some parallels between the experiences that you've had, because I know you know, we kind of skipped over some of your experience in sales. But I know that you've done a lot of that and been successful. You know, our audience is primarily those that are leading revenue. So they are leading marketing, leading sales. They have some of those people who are like you coming, you know, still super green and getting their careers started coming into their teams. And so I'd really like to just shifts ever so slightly, and speak to those people that are you know, they are at the pinnacle, in their career, for some people highest level that they're ever going to go, what advice or insights can you share with them that you feel will be impactful? And their journey at this stage?

Neil Rogers  22:31

Oh, I don't think it's ever too late, or the most successful people in the world to remember your manners. You know, I don't I'm sorry. I'm gonna sound like the old man yelling Get off my lawn. But I can't you know, I, I know I, I really am a huge proponent of that. I want people to beat you know, when they've talking about when they're new people coming, or even the current people, if you're looking to get a new client, still, everybody's still looking to prospect because you never know what's going to happen. Don't might my my suggestion is don't rely exclusively on digital. Because look at how many emails you just be logical about it. I mean, I'm getting these emails from people in these LinkedIn, things that just are mind numbing. I go and I look at him and I my curiosity goes up. That's kind of how I get on a call with them. Every once in a while I just go, does this really work? I really, I just can't believe it. I'm like going, Oh, my goodness, okay, I'm on the phone with you. But you have not told me anything about what you want to talk about. You gave me no advance warning, but I'm just curious. I never take them further. I never do anything with them. And it's this running you down this path, running this down down the funnel, as they call it with this ridiculously ridiculously high price tag. And, you know, you know, if you told me any of this, anything remotely of this two hours ago, I wouldn't be looking for those two hours. When I meet my maker. You know, it's just like, it's, it's so I say it's never too late or never to reexamine, you know, how you how you're operating? How are you treating your clients? are you operating with with integrity, you know, fairness, I'll give you the this is inspired by Napoleon Hill. But it's a A, it's my take on it. And this is the my new little credo find might share it with your audience. So in my journey, I've come to understand that true success lasting success cannot be found on anything less than honesty and fairness, integrity. I commit to entering into only those ventures that bring benefit to everyone involved. Successful come come my way by drawing towards me the energies I need and the collaboration of others. So I'm offering also, and I'm also looking for their support. But, but the reason why I can do that, I will inspire them to join and support my endeavors, through my own dedication to serve them. That's my new little credo than it had been, it's just a it's been around for a while, but I just redid it two weeks ago. And so I think you can never, you can never, you know, because we can get, we can get full of ourselves as tops of the trees, top top rag people, and forget that, it was the little things that got you there. So reexamine the little things, I think, I mean, I, we do it all the time, I do it all the time. And part of one of the real reasons I do this, that I want to have conversations with, like people like you Brandy and share with whomever and what they do. And next week, I go to speak at Berklee School of Music on the topic. And it's just because I want to remember to do it. I wrote the book, to remind myself, this the stuff you got to be doing, it's my, it's my, it's my way of breaking, you know, telling myself to breathe, that's fine. My new little bracelet I had built in there, that's my breathe bracelet. Most of my beads, so I'm doing everything to stay on top of the same thing. So that profess that, that I suggest other people might want to do. So that's it's not, we're not It's not splitting the atom, I'm not a no, I'm not going to give you some knock, it's not going to be some crazy marketing theory, it's going to be, be nicer, reinforce that, you know, stay with it, you know, thank people send personal notes. You know, they go a long way. And don't forget, if you're trying to cut through, if you try to cut through the digital world today, and you really want to micro market and you know, who can buy what you sell, you know who that person is that that is the person that's the budget authority on that. Don't rely on email, rely put together a campaign that includes all forms of media that would include direct mail, and in our, in our world, Lumpy direct mail, because that gets opened. Dimensional pieces do I mean by that? Yeah,

Brandi Starr  27:19

yeah. Yeah. And I definitely, you know, that is one thing is that, you know, I hear people ask all the time, like, what's the one tactic that, you know, you think works, and, you know, email is what we do. But even despite the fact that like, that's our bread and butter, and we believe that it is at the core of the communication journey, it can't just be email, like it, you really do have to engage people in different ways, in order to, you know, yield what you want. And I mean, even thinking about just that human to human interaction like we do you have the nonverbal, like, you talk about just the smile, or, you know, the putting the cocktail napkin down, or those sorts of things, that is a form of communication along with the verbal. And so yeah, it is, it's very much the same within marketing as well. Yeah,

Neil Rogers  28:16

I, like I said, I think whenever I see these people, when I get an email from somebody that says, Excuse me, dear Neal P. You know what, I think, you know, when they got the lead, they scraped it off the link, they scraped it off to off the LinkedIn. It's like, I'm not responding to you on this. Right? Um, you know, I, you know, it's, you know, I don't even you know, you it's lazy marketing as far as I'm concerned.

Brandi Starr  28:48

So talking about our challenges is just the first step and nothing changes, if nothing changes. And so in traditional therapy, the therapist will give the client some homework, but here at revenue rehab, we like to flip that on its head and ask you to give us some homework. So for those that are listening, that you know, have resonated with your journey and the tips that you have shared, what's your one thing, what would be the action that you would give them that they can start doing today?

Neil Rogers  29:21

Okay, so if you're, if you're, if you're new, you're getting started. If you have if you're prospecting for a new client, if you are a if you have if you have an existing business, that you want to launch a new product, it's all the same, develop your process, put together, multimedia, multi touch, micro marketing campaigns, so that you can do and stick with it for 90 days. Adjust. You know, nothing is perfect out of the gate. Make your adjustments, but stay with it and then look back and where you are 90 days from now. You won't believe it. But you have to go through the process. It's not you can't just like buy a list, or do something, you have to do the investigation, who am who can buy what I sell. And even if it's a referral, don't think they're gonna be sitting there waiting on the phone waiting for your phone, phone call or email, you have to put them in the process. In my view, you still you still in you show them respect by doing that. Right? If somebody is referred, okay, so this is just a shoo in. No, I get him in, I get them in queue. And send them the things that you want to send them whether it's whether it's via email, or or you know, in, you know, in our world, by the by USPS, or even ups. And just be prepared, make sure that you get tracking on everything. So then you can start making your follow ups, your phone calls, but you're showing tenacity when you do that. What I mean by that is there's a difference. But I believe it's a difference between persistence, which sounds like pest for a reason. And tenacity. Tenacity is where you take a different turn, you might get where you get creative, where you put some thought into it. I mean, simple things like if you are LinkedIn to some or if you find in the LinkedIn page, or if you you know, certainly you'll know what their business is about Lord knows is a number of ways for you find information about the company information, but what's going on information, what's going on in their, in their in their vertical mean to things like parents out off, print off an article, highlight the passage that you thought was germane to them, throw a pen in there, put it in a lumpy and put it in a padded envelope, and send it with tracking, then follow up with a phone call. And if you've got their email, then you've got their email, and just keep that process going. If you know anything about them, you can see a lot about them on LinkedIn, where did they go to school? You know, is there something that happened it if they went to Iowa, have you heard of Craig Caitlin Clark, I don't know. It's like, simple things that that are just that that helped move the relationship along, as opposed to oh, boy, here it comes again. It comes in, it comes another here comes another, you know, 40 email, and I look at some of these things now. And I go, Oh, my goodness, you send me two emails a day. Me who on God's green earth is going to read to me emails a day from from their mother. Come here, it's wild. So I do look at stuff in wonderment and go. And I do say all the time, does this really work? Because you know, in our world again, my world is a swag world these days. And we we of course, we're proponents of using swag. And so but we see all of our 90% of people react to what we send them, not what we email them. So just a little no double blind study there, Brandy, but it's just anecdotal evidence of our success in our little little gig here.

Brandi Starr  33:04

Well, yeah, I definitely agree that direct mail is a lot alive and well, and still very much an effective tactic. Well, Neil, I have enjoyed our discussion. But that's our time for today. Oh, before we go, tell our audience, how can they connect with you and definitely give us the shameless plug for the book.

Neil Rogers  33:28

So you can connect with me at positive activity.net. I am Neil and the IL at positive activity.net. And that's where you will find the book, the explanation of the book because it takes you right to the spot on Amazon where you can grab it. Because Amazon's you know, the search criteria is a little tough these days. changes so often. So we like to have the link. And yeah, so I think the book, I hope, you know, I certainly don't put myself in these people's leagues, but I hope it sits beside somebody's Dale Carnegie book, you know how to win friends and influence people? I think it's, I think it's, it is the sum total of 37 years of on the road and 10 years behind the stick and, and people you know, relationship building, which is really what it's all about?

 

Brandi Starr  34:21

Well, I love it, we will make sure to link to that. So wherever you are listening or watching this podcast, check the show notes for links to be able to connect with Neil. Well, Neil, thank you so so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. I've learned some things about your journey. I did bartender for a very brief period of time, when I was 19. And thinking about some of the things you said I'm like, you know, there are some of those lessons that I realized have stuck with me throughout my career that I never really related to that experience. So I appreciate you for that. Oh, you

Neil Rogers  34:58

can tell what I can tell when somebody He's been in the business. I really can't. They're the ones that are helping clean up. They're the ones that are helping serve when you have dinner parties. There. It's just amazing. They jump in all the time.

Brandi Starr  35:13

Yeah, definitely some really great people in hospitality in my experience. Well, everyone, I hope that you have enjoyed my conversation with Neil. I can't believe we're at the end already. We'll see you next time.

Outro VO  35:29

You've been listening to Reverend rehab with your host Brandi Starr. Your session is now over, but the learning has just begun. join our mailing list and catch up on all our shows at revenue rehab dot live. We're also on Twitter and Instagram at revenue rehab. This concludes this week's session. We'll see you next week.

Neil Rogers Profile Photo

Neil Rogers

Author & VP of Sales At Rogers Marketing

Service industry work develops the “soft skills” recruiters talk about on LinkedIn—discipline, promptness, the ability to absorb criticism, and most importantly, how to read people like a book. Strong connections with customers, peers, and employees are at the heart of every successful company and the “secret sauce” employed by every great bartender.

Neil Rogers has built a successful career in sales and marketing that spans almost forty years in a variety of industries, ranging from pharmaceuticals to military defense contractors. But before the multiple sales awards and accolades, Rogers spent ten years slinging beers behind the bar at some of the top establishments in and around Boston. The lessons learned during his “cocktail years” have provided him with the skills needed to excel in sales and marketing. And now, he’s sharing the knowledge gleaned from long nights of sticky floors and slinging shots that have propelled Rogers to the upper echelons of salesmanship.

This book is not about complex processes or integrating complicated systems into your current business model but about keeping things simple and how simple power generates positive results that make you proud. It features simple concepts in simple language that you can quickly impart into what you are currently doing. The overarching mission encourages the reader to make incremental changes in current behaviors and methodology to improve desired results.

In Bar Tips, Rogers has created a framework for the reader to adapt as needed to create a fully-produced roadmap for success, ke… Read More