Let’s start with some background. My brothers and I grew up in the house of an enthusiastic salesman. Dad, the consumate sales trainer, had his boys contantly hocking everything from daily newspapers, butter toffee peanuts, and “restaurant quality” T-Bone steaks door-to-door as soon as we were tall enough to ring a doorbell.

At the age of 18, at the behest of dear old Dad, I studied for and passed the Texas State Board of Insurance – Life and Health Exam. Viola, I was a high school grad with a license to sell… Life Insurance. And, that I did with some modest success the summer prior to my freshman year at Austin College (Go Roos!). Including the sale of my venerated 1976 Black Cutlass Salon (w/ “T-Tops”), I made enough money to play very hard that year.

And, I must admit, I have my father to thank for the sales experience from which began the foundation of a philosophy for professional restaurant marketing. After all, the restaurant business is a retail SALES business. Successful, dynamic, healthy, growing restaurants know how to sell.

Austin College professor, Dr. Jerry Johnson deserves credit too for an early influence on my career. With a compelling lecture style and a love for business, his classes on Finance, Marketing and Small Business Development left an indelibile mark on my naive and developing entreprenuerial spirit. In his marketing class, Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing was one of several textbooks. This unlikely “pop” marketing book was the stimulus needed to get the marketing wheels turning. It wasn’t long before I just knew I was destined for the covers of Fortune and BusinessWeek.

Alas, 1986 was not a rosy year for any job hunting, newly minted college graduate in Texas. Remember the 80′s in Texas… oil, interest rates, and real estate?. So, with no prospects for med or law school (and no grades for them either), I floundered in a few jobs until giving in to Dad’s desire for a “family agency”. Although we fought like Tyson and Hollyfield, I learned a good deal more about prospecting, consultative sales, and asking for the business.

Working on commission that year forced me to fall back on the one industry I knew would accommodate the flexibility needed for selling and the income needed to survive. (Dad had no salary draw program). Waiting tables meant descent money and night work, leaving the daytime for prospecting and appointment setting. The best thing to come of “the year in poverty” was an introduction to Ellen Miller. “The” #1 waitress at the original On The Border on Knox in Dallas during its heyday. $100K weeks were common, that’s darn good volume for ’87.

[Fastforward: April 27, 1990. Ellen's last name changes and my devotion grows year after year.]

OK, I’m not proud of it, and OTB was justified in terminating my employment for, I’m guessing, insubordination. I admit it. I was a cocky, little sh–. I reformed, and, as He would have it, getting fired proved to be the second best thing to happen to me that year. Not only did I find Ellen, the love of my life, but Dalts Grill and Bar found a new delivery driver and, shortly thereafter, Delivery Dynamics was founded.

This is where Restaurant Marketings’ evolution begins and with any luck, your paradigm changes. Until next time…

Happy Marketing

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