EMT #16 with Neil P. Rogers - How Small Touches Create Big Wins at Trade Shows

In this episode of Event Marketer’s Toolbox, Neil P. Rogers, a marketing and sales expert with over 37 years of experience, shares powerful insights on how small yet impactful gestures can create significant results at trade shows. 

Neil draws on his extensive background in sales, promotional products, and his experience as a bartender to offer fresh perspectives on how event marketers can engage attendees and maximize ROI at trade shows. 

From using creative pre-show mailers to ensuring proper booth staff training, Neil walks listeners through effective strategies to elevate their event marketing game.

🔹 The Power of Lumpy Mailers (Dimensional Mail)

Lumpy mailers, or dimensional mail, are incredibly effective for grabbing attention and driving traffic to your booth. These physical mailers have an exceptional open rate, as people are compelled to open them due to their unique shape.

“When a box shows up or a dimensional piece of mail, guess what? They're gonna open that thing. The open rate is a hundred percent.”

🔹 Using AI to Enhance Engagement

Neil discusses how combining traditional marketing tactics with AI can make a difference. For example, using a promotional item with a QR code that leads to a chatbot or landing page can encourage more interaction long after the event.

“The engagement starts right away and lasts long after the show.”

🔹 Hospitality at Trade Shows

Treating attendees with the same care and hospitality you’d give a guest at a bar or restaurant can make a lasting impact. This mindset, centered around kindness and attentiveness, translates into better engagement and follow-ups.

“How do you want to be treated? If you've come to a show, how do you want to be treated?”

🔹 Personalization Wins

Small personalized touches, like including the recipient’s name in a piece of promotional material (e.g., a calendar with their name on it), go a long way in making your audience feel valued.

“The sweetest sound somebody ever hears is their name.”

🔹 Post-Show Follow-Up: Go Beyond Emails

Follow up with prospects after the show in a way that makes them feel valued. Sending handwritten notes or including a small “lumpy” piece can differentiate your brand and leave a lasting impression.

“Shoot for a hundred percent. If somebody came by your booth, follow up in some form or fashion. Don’t be lazy.”

Neil P. Rogers offers timeless sales advice that resonates just as much at trade shows as it does in everyday business. 

The key takeaway from this episode is simple: small touches, whether it's a lumpy mailer, a personalized gift, or a genuine interaction, can create big results. It’s the little things that make the difference between a forgettable experience and one that drives long-term success.

👉🏼 Join us for more insightful discussions like this by tuning into 'Event Marketer's Toolbox,' where industry leaders share the tools, tactics, and trends driving success in the event world.

This Show is sponsored by Blue Hive

📅 Join us LIVE every Friday at 10 AM ET on LinkedIn

Follow Us on LinkedIn and YouTube

Subscribe to our Newsletter!

Chapters

• 1:40 Meet Neil P. Rogers: A Marketing Expert and Author
• 4:10 What are Lumpy Mailers and Why Do They Work?
• 6:40 The Power of Personalization at Trade Shows
• 9:40 Integrating AI into Traditional Marketing Methods
• 13:40 Hospitality in Trade Shows: Creating Memorable Experiences
• 16:40 Importance of Follow-Up and Going Beyond Emails
• 21:40 Why Post-Show Follow-Up is Crucial for Success
• 25:40 Real-World Examples: Turning Small Gestures into Big Results
• 32:40 Final Takeaways for Event Marketers
• 37:40 Where to Learn More About Neil and Rogers Marketing

Transcript

Chris Dunn: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome to the Event Marketers Toolbox. I am Chris Dunn. I am with BlueHive Exhibits and we've got a great show in store for you today. So if you haven't been with us before, uh, event Marketers Toolbox is building a community of event folks who are here to basically help each other. Um.

Chris Dunn: Kind of best practices and raise the bar and raise all, you know, raise the tide that, uh, that lifts all ships. So that's what we're trying to do. We're building this community. We appreciate everybody's, uh, uh, participation and, um, questions. And, uh, we look forward to continuing to grow. So we, me today, I've got my co-host, Dana Esposito, also happens to be part of the BlueHive family.

Chris Dunn: So Dana, tell us a little bit about yourself. 

Dana Esposito: Sure. So Dan Esposito, I've been in the exhibit industry for over 30 years, and on, I've been, it was originally as an exhibit designer, but I'm really, um, on the creative team, creative leadership, and corporate [00:01:00] strategy and leadership. And today we have with us Neil Rogers.

Dana Esposito: So Neil, can you introduce yourself? 

Neil P. Rogers: Sure. I am Neil Rogers and I am, uh, I'm a sales guy, former bartender, author. Speaker all on the same topics about sales and how to grow sales and how to do things the easy way.

Chris Dunn: Well, I look forward to hearing. We look forward to hearing about how to do things the, the easy way. So little kind of a backtrack story about how, uh, Neil and I ultimately met. Um, it was on a podcast as a matter of fact, or I, I learned about him through a podcast. Uh, I was listening and I kept hearing, uh, no Oz.

Chris Dunn: There were no, ah, in the words that I, that I was listening to. Um, so I initially identified him as somebody from the New England area. Uh, the, the deeper he told his story about his bartending, and, uh, ultimately, you know, wrote the book [00:02:00] and, and everything. Um, we found out, I, I reached out to him, connected on LinkedIn, found out that he was, uh.

Chris Dunn: Uh, resident of the great state of New Hampshire, myself, uh, only 10 minutes from the border. So, um, you know, since that initial meetup, I've, uh, I've had a great time getting to know him. We've hooked up for, uh, for beers a couple times, had some great chats, and, uh, talked a lot about his book. And, um, when we started the podcast, he was one of the first guys that I thought about.

Chris Dunn: Uh, he's just got a great story, a lot of great experiences. Uh, he and his wife run a promotional products company, so they're naturally really involved in the trade show and event field. Um, and we just wanted to, uh, to bring him on to, to tell a little bit of that story and before we kind of kick it over to Neil to kind of pontificate a little bit more and answer some of our questions.

Chris Dunn: Uh, we wanted to just. Talk a little bit about our sponsors. So Dana and I work for BlueHive. We are a custom exhibit house. We are located in the outside of the Boston area. We've been around for 20 years. We also have a West coast [00:03:00] location and we do everything from helping you kind of create your idea, uh, design your booth, build the booth, manage the property, handle the logistics, all of the things to wrap our arms around that so that we can become an extension of your marketing team.

Chris Dunn: Um, and on the flip side, uh, the folks that actually help us run the podcast itself is a group called Fist Bump. This is a great agency. They helped, uh, our entire team really uplevel our, our LinkedIn presence. And, uh, really kind of as that progressed, the next logical step was we need to start a show. We need to kind of create a little bit more thought leadership online through social and through other channels.

Chris Dunn: And Fist Bump was the group that, uh, that we kind of have partnered with. They help us put this. Together. They produce, uh, not only the show, but then they basically are able to get us all of the content and we can use that for outreach. So it's become a wonderful sales tool. We could not do it without the folks from fist bumps.

Chris Dunn: So, enough about our sponsors. Let's kick it back over to, uh, Dana and uh, [00:04:00] Neil. I think there's a couple questions that we want to ask. 

Dana Esposito: Yeah. So I'm gonna start us off with, uh, and it's a phrase I've never heard before. So Neil, I don't know if you coined this or if I'm just late to the party, but lumpy mailers.

Dana Esposito: Um, so what's, talk to us about the power of lumpy mailers in trade show marketing. Um, what, you know, what they are, why they're effective at grabbing attention, um, and how they used to drive booth traffic and pre-show engagement. 

Neil P. Rogers: Well, lumpy mail is also known as dimensional mail. Right. So that's probably the more term you might have heard before.

Neil P. Rogers: Um, lumpy is just a cute way of saying it, I guess. Right? I like lumpy. 

Dana Esposito: I'm gonna say lumpy. Yeah. It's just 

Neil P. Rogers: like you Oh, I, I know what you, you know, it's like, oh, dimensional sounds a little too, you know. Right. The, um, lumpy seems more in my, more in my speed, but the, uh. As Chris says, with my, with my boss and our, our problem and stuff.

Neil P. Rogers: So it's, uh, bro, dude, right? So it's really about, it's a simple thought process. I mean, if you think about it and, and when you [00:05:00] take your customers through it and we take our customers through it, you say, okay, you want to get somebody's attention. How are you gonna do that? Are you gonna be in a sea of social media posts?

Neil P. Rogers: Are you gonna be in a sea of emails where they, nobody's reading this stuff. However, I. When a box shows up or a dimensional piece of mail, well guess what? They're gonna open that thing. The open rate is a hundred percent. Let, let's, uh, uh, no question. The response rate is very high. I. So, and if you, and depending upon how creative you are and how much time, how thematic it is back to the demo of the, of the show and what you're gonna be doing will be, will, will help, will help enhance all of that.

Neil P. Rogers: So, and it will drive in some sort of bingo, if you will, that come to the booth and do this. Come to the booth and do, bring this to the booth. Bring this postcard to the booth and you will get x the mo. The one thing that I know that's happening recently that we're really starting to talk about a lot [00:06:00] is, um, the use of use of ai.

Neil P. Rogers: And we have a right here in our, our positive activity site. If you go to our QR code, that'll take you to our site. On, on the positive activity side, which is not getting a lot of, it's not really our action oriented place just yet. We're still promoting our promotional business. Mm-hmm. Do you immediately get, you get, um, you get engaged with the bot, so questions can be geared around your event that's coming up.

Neil P. Rogers: It could be just a landing page for the event. And, and, and, and also. So the, the engagement starts right away and it lasts long after the show. So the people still go back and they look at, look at what they, what they found. I don't know if it's curiosity, I, if they're showing it to their friends. But that's a new, new wrinkle that we're, we're starting to really start promote.

Neil P. Rogers: Um, and it's been, um, it's been, been, been, well, we see [00:07:00] it's, is is as prominent as AI is. It's still a little tough to get your arms around it, like, you know, okay, so what does that mean? How are we gonna do that? And all that. But it's something up and coming that I would encourage people to at least give a look.

Neil P. Rogers: And we'd be happy to do that for you. Mm-hmm. So 

Dana Esposito: do you see, like, are you able to track, um, you know, the Yes. The, the, the times when people are actually interfacing with that QR code or how many times they go back? Like, is there data and metrics that people can Yes. Retain from that? Yeah. 

Neil P. Rogers: And it's staggering with the metrics are 

Dana Esposito: Yeah.

Neil P. Rogers: I mean even like, again, a sim so for, for, again, for your audience, this pen in this, in this way, the, uh, it is I think 79 cents. You put that in a simple padded envelope, throw a little sticker on the outside, open me whatever you want to say. Don't, does. Yes. If you have a big creative team and whatnot, that works great too.

Neil P. Rogers: But if you go in simple, maybe you're just getting started out. You're a startup, you [00:08:00] haven't got the, you haven't got the funds. This little baby could bring, could bring a lot of engagement right outta the gate. And this, by the way, I don't know if you know this, but a pen has about seven owners in its lifetime.

Chris Dunn: Oh yeah, there's some interesting data right there. 

Neil P. Rogers: How about that? Probably made up by the, uh, by the association, but we'll, we'll go. 

Chris Dunn: Nah, I love that. I love that. Um, I mean, just so we'll talk about this a little bit later, but, uh, BlueHive just executed our, our own. Trade show, uh, or we participated in a show called, uh, exhibitor Live just about three weeks ago.

Chris Dunn: Um, so we are literally eating our own dog food as far as what we are preaching to our clients all the time, which is, listen, you can't just build a pretty booth, send it to the show and expect everybody to kind of, I. Come in and give you accolades and, you know, start pos start raining outta the sky.

Chris Dunn: Right? This is a multi-step process that, uh, that really you need to employ in order to ensure that you get the ROI that you need. And it starts on that front end with the [00:09:00] outreach prior to the event itself, right? It's like we can't just expect these folks are gonna show up, so we're. We're reaching out to them, email, campaign, social, all that.

Chris Dunn: But this lumpy piece, right, this dimensional element is a whole new, as you mentioned, I love the word wrinkle. You know, adding that to your arsenal, to your toolbox as it were, right? Like we're doing here, um, to increase the chances that we're gonna get that, uh, that traffic. Now, before the show, we were talking about some of the challenges that come along with this, and I will agree with you.

Chris Dunn: One of the biggest challenges you're gonna, that you're gonna potentially en encounter is getting a hold of that, that show list. Right. It's um, it's, it's the 79 cent pen and the pad envelope in a stamp. Not a problem. Right? Right. It's getting a hold of the show list. Incorporating that into your CRM and making sure that you're doing that mailing on the front end.

Chris Dunn: But, uh, talk about, you know, the steps that are needed for suc for success to set you up for success. That is absolutely a place that you need to start. 

Neil P. Rogers: And then also I think you [00:10:00] need to be, uh, my suggestion would be, I don't wanna do any your shoulds. Uh, my suggestion is, is that even up USPS is very, they're very reliable with their tracking.

Neil P. Rogers: So if you go in USPS to keep it, to keep the cost down, great. Mm-hmm. Get it, get, get your, if you, you know, depending upon the size of your company and, and how you get your data, make sure that they email you the, the, the tracking numbers because they come linked and you can check on 'em. And see. See who got delivered.

Neil P. Rogers: Opportune time for a phone call. Gang. Hey, by the way, did you get me my, did you get my pen? You know, it's kind of a funny thing about this pen, that QR code, it's gonna take you to a merch bot. When you get there, we're gonna ask some, some questions about what your desires are about, about the show, what you're looking for, how we can, you know, how, how you believe we might be able to help you, what guidance you might need from us in order to navigate the show.

Neil P. Rogers: Probably. Whatever you want to come up with that engages the client, the, the client [00:11:00] thinking, thinking, hospitality the whole time. How can I help you? Would you like to seat by the window? Would you like to sit at the bar you see here? So we haven't quite gone onto the book yet, gang, but that's, that's my, my mindset is always around hospitality.

Neil P. Rogers: How can I help you? Yeah. Fantastic. Do you have any 

Dana Esposito: other ideas, um, that you could share, uh, examples or case studies of successful campaigns that you have worked on with your clients? 

Neil P. Rogers: Yeah, so there was this, it was a, it was a brewery and, um, they did this, this thing where they gave, they were giving away beard oil.

Neil P. Rogers: Who knew that beard oil was even a thing like beard oil. Okay. Okay. Little thing. And they were going after their demo, assuming that there, that most of the people were, were guys, right? And that there might be a, maybe might be a lot of bearded ones as well. [00:12:00] Well, the thing worked. And they three times they, they three x their, their participation at the booth.

Neil P. Rogers: 'cause they were amongst all of these other people. So it's, it's different enough, right? Come by and get your beard oil. What is it? If you don't even have a beard, what the heck is beard oil? I'm coming by. Right. And so, and so that's, that's, that's precisely what happened. And it, and it was, it was quite a, uh, quite a, quite a decent, uh, return.

Chris Dunn: What about, go ahead. I'm sorry, Dana. Before we just get to that, next, next question is, um, one of the things that we kind of bang the drum about is knowing your ICP. Right? So that's exactly what the brewery did, right? They looked at their data and they thought about and pictured all the people who were gonna be potentially participating, right?

Chris Dunn: So they understood that they were primarily male. A lot of the folks, you know, had had beard, so Yep. Simple stuff. Right. But know your customer. Know your audience. Yeah. Know your audience. Audience. You talk about it all the time. When we're designing exhibits, uh, [00:13:00] it's, it's a lot about like, who are we talking to and what's the message that, that they wanna hear or need to hear.

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. 

Dana Esposito: Um, so I have another question. So creativity and personalization, can you talk to us about how that wins over like a traditional invitation?

Neil P. Rogers: We've been giving away, well, where am I here? Every year we give our clients something, right? And we, we would multiple times throughout the year, uh, really because we, uh, um, you know, we believe we're, especially if it's something new, but around holiday, like everybody else, we want to give 'em something. So we would, we'd give away, I don't know, 20, $30 items, you know, whatever it might be.

Neil P. Rogers: You know what we get the most buzz about? The calendar missed variable data calendar. 

Chris Dunn: There you go. For those of you listening on the podcast later, he's holding up a calendar 

Neil P. Rogers: calendar with my name on every month. Okay. I'm seeing your name in lights is [00:14:00] just one of those things. So you're, you're talking about getting attention and all that?

Neil P. Rogers: Whenever we can, whenever we can, uh, personalize our stuff that goes out to our clients, we do it. 

Chris Dunn: So, so to date Neil, or to, to this point in the show, you've talked about groundbreaking and, and amazingly newfangled things, pens, lumpy, mail calendars. Right. So what's, is it kind of a, what's old is new or just the tried and true stuff is more pertinent now in this digital age when everybody's just looking at screens and no one's touching tactile things anymore.

Chris Dunn: Is that. I mean, just when 

Neil P. Rogers: you think everybody's got all the Tumblr they can need, they need send 'em a Tumblr. I'm telling you. It's, you know, I mean, how I, how long do we keep these things? I, I get 'em for, I, you know, I get 'em, I don't get 'em, you know, most of 'em I get for free, but I, you know, I use a, uh, a Camelback water bottle for working out.

Neil P. Rogers: I gotta change those out. You know, I, I, I beat 'em up. I mean, I'm, I'm in the gym. [00:15:00] I'm in the gym or in, in a yoga studio or a Pilate studio six days a week. So it's like, you know, I, it's gotta go. So yeah, I mean, we always tell where's the new, we haven't seen anything truly new since the spinner. The, the thing, everything was spin spinner, and it was like, and we keep on, we keep on, everybody goes to the shows and go, well, well, there's no spinner, spinner again this year.

Neil P. Rogers: Well, it doesn't, you know, it's not, you know, it's not really, not really, uh, not really, uh, not really, not really necessary. Mm-hmm. So it's really about how you present it. You know, packaging is big. You know, again, because you want, you want that thing to get opened, you want some sort of action that that's coming out of it.

Neil P. Rogers: I think this AI play is big. I. I think that that's something that, you know, if you, if, if you can, you know, steer the ship right to get, to get people to understand it. I was working with, working with a new prospect and it came to me [00:16:00] from a pretty, pretty reliable source, and I decided to go creative with the merch bot.

Neil P. Rogers: I lost them. I lost them because they just couldn't wrap their arms, wrap their heads around it. So I've now gone back. To the old stuff. Okay. 

Dana Esposito: How can, 

Neil P. Rogers: well, what's 

Dana Esposito: nice though, you're calling it the old stuff, but the, the new spin on it is even something as simple as the, the branded pen is you're incorporating a hands-on tactile moment with technology, right?

Dana Esposito: So now that pen takes, has a QR code, right? So you're taking newer technology with something simple turning into something. Something that's a little more elevated than just a regular pen. Right. Right. And it also gives you an excuse, an opportunity to reach out to somebody. Right. Um, and then depending on what you have at that landing page for that QR code, um, that's another opportunity for some type of engagement.

Dana Esposito: Whether that's information they learn something from. Is there another opportunity to [00:17:00] get something to, I mean, even if there's something just snarky. There. Right. And that makes them laugh. That's an opportunity to be memorable, right? Humor really goes a long way, um, because people don't always use it. And in business, something lighthearted or snarky or sarcas.

Dana Esposito: I'm a big fan of s sarcasm, right? That I would remember that. Right. Well, you know, Massachusetts, Boston, right? So, um, in New Hampshire, so, but also the, even the calendar, um, we had done something simple as well. Just recently this year we did a pet calendar. So we had an opportunity for employees and our clients to send in a picture of their favorite pet.

Dana Esposito: And, um, they had an opportunity to get their pet on our calendar. And then we sent those out to our employees and our. Clients, so it's personalized, not with their name, but with something they love. Right. Um, so again, there's a feeling attached to that. Um, so your version of the calendar is really interesting because you're, again, [00:18:00] kicking up a notch with the personalization effect.

Dana Esposito: And what I love about the Percell effect, and I say this to, uh, my mentor exhibit design students, and when we're talking about. Audience and people and attendees. One example I use a lot is humans love to hear like their name. That's their favorite word, right? We're all still just little kids really and just big bodies.

Dana Esposito: And if I were to show you a picture of you in a group of 20 other people, the second I hand you the picture, the first thing you do is you look for yourself. It's just an automatic, natural human just characteristic, right? So you setting out those calendars and not just calendar, you have a name on it right now, it makes it something that they wanna hold onto 'cause.

Dana Esposito: It's personalized to them. So just two very simple examples you've given us, but you've amplified them, you've kicked them up a notch. So that, that's, those are interesting, um, examples and case studies. 

Neil P. Rogers: Well, what did Mr. Carnegie say right over there? The sweetest sound somebody ever hears is their name.

Neil P. Rogers: Remember [00:19:00] the names as best you can. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. 

Neil P. Rogers: Folks out there in, uh, event land. Little hack. My little hack is on, my little hack is on my phone. My notes, my notes on my phone has got, yeah, I live on a, I live in a golf community here in New Hampshire now, and, uh, there's 600 people here. Everyone, I gotta have some sort of descriptor who is this?

Neil P. Rogers: And you're still, it gives you a fighting chance. You know, you're not gonna bat a thousand, but 

Chris Dunn: yeah. Wait a second. Are you guy with hat and, uh, big ears? Yes, it is him, Steve, Steve. Yeah. Yeah. So, hey, um, let's, uh, let's, let's kind of transition a little bit 'cause we've talked really briefly about, you have a lot of, speaking of hats, uh, you wear a lot of hats.

Chris Dunn: You are an author, you wrote a book, uh, bar Tips for Sales Success from Bartender to Business Leader. So I. You had a number of years experiences behind the bar led you to, you know, the process of kind of [00:20:00] exploring, writing the book and so forth. Can you take us through that a little bit and, you know, what were some of those lessons about sales that became self apparent once you started to write 'em down?

Chris Dunn: So. About, 

Neil P. Rogers: I guess now, oh, six years ago, right here on this campus, my, my daughter was honored by the, by the chamber, you know, 30 to, you know, the 30 to watch, under 30 routine. You know, the chamber, they've got an award for everything. So of course there's good doting parents. We go and the guy who brought five guys burgers, New Hampshire was the keynote speaker.

Neil P. Rogers: Just my kind of guy when I speak. I'm gonna use the word Ghana 'cause I'm gonna do it, right? So be that kind of guy. I mean, you know, I, I did go to Harvard, I went to the Harvard of state schools, Salem State, right? So it's like, what am I, what am I doing? Am I gonna impress you with my, my, my, my vocabulary?

Neil P. Rogers: No. So anyways, he got up there and he was talking, I dunno if you've guys have ever worked in hospitality, but part of hospitality is, especially if you're serve or whatnot, it's thing called [00:21:00] premium. And pre is where, you know, you get this what's out, what the wine of the night is or whatever. Those types of things talk about last year, what we did, things like that.

Neil P. Rogers: And then there's a bit of a rah rah speech. So this guy's rah ra speech went something like this. We're not in the burger business, we're not in the fry business. We're not in the soda soda business. We're not in the shake business. We are in the hospitality business. Now from point of context, my partner in life and in business, my wife Lori, and I met at Tia in Boston when she was a food server, when I was a bartend.

Neil P. Rogers: I looked at her and said, I've never left the bar business. I've been bartending on the road for 30 plus years, and it just hit me. Because the way that we, the way that we serve people, we overdeliver those types of things. So fast forward in a few years, uh, you know, during, you know what, and I won't say the word 'cause I get PTSD, every time I do, [00:22:00] I would reach out to people with this guy via text.

Neil P. Rogers: How are you doing? Invariably. I get a call back, Hey, how's it going? What's going? Everybody's feeling the same way. You know, what, what are we doing? So there's one guy calls me back, Terry McMahon. And Terry McMahon was a wildly successful, um, MassMutual general agent here in New Hampshire. And by the way, Massachusetts director so well his, his success brought him to behaviors where he needed lifesaving surgery.

Neil P. Rogers: So this is 18 months after he got the New liver. And, uh, what had gone on in 18 months staggered me. I said, I said, Terry, do you know the movie, uh, Groundhog Day? Does everybody know the movie? But Groundhog Day, you know where Bill Murray all of a sudden is a jazz musician? That's what I felt like. So you like Phil Murray from Groundhog Day.

Neil P. Rogers: How did you do all this crap coming out of a death bag? Oh, I wrote a book. I did this, I [00:23:00] did that. I wrote a process. Okay. He says, you should write a book. What am I gonna write on? What do I have to say? And of course, another author will always tell you, everybody's got a story to tell, right? So I, um, I started thinking about it.

Neil P. Rogers: I had just gone to a, um, an event where one of the guys who we worked at, uh, worked, I worked with at a place called the Full Sail in White Horse Beach, which is just about to be torn down. Um, he, he, uh, turned 70. I was, at the time I was 50 8:00 AM I. You were 12 years older than me when we were doing this.

Neil P. Rogers: Holy crap. I thought you like, you know, he was one of those guys that always just melded in, but we had this really emotional night. So as a commuter student, the people in the bar business, my, you know, like my fraternity, if you will. You know, so it's all that. So I, I, I, um. I had written a, I had written a little Diddy on the evening, just a little memory, you know, blah la la la and all the feeling of being back there and all that.

Neil P. Rogers: And I, and then I wr, [00:24:00] I had written something else about this place, uh, where this place, the full sail was in White House Beach, which part of Plymouth Mass. And I had written about growing up there. So I had these two pieces. And then I, after I learned, after I discovered that I've been in the hospitality business, I did some research on hospitality.

Neil P. Rogers: So there's three chapters. Now I had to figure out what the rest of it was gonna be. And so I started examining what are the traits of, of a bartender that directly apply to sales. And I started up with the importance of a proper greeting. You walk into a bar or restaurant you want, you want somebody down here in their phone or do you wanna look up?

Neil P. Rogers: Good evening, how are you? What's going on tonight? What would you like today? Would you like table? Would you like the bar? Oh, great. Let's find you a table. How many you have in. So now you're going, what, what, what, what are plans later? What do you like? Whatever. So you're just engaging, and I always use this example of why that's important and that is the Home Depot example.

Neil P. Rogers: You know, who remembers when Home [00:25:00] Depot came to town? Right? You walked in, there was a sea of, of orange aprons ready to help you. Now it's a ghost town. Ghost house, you know, you can't find anybody. A hundred thousand square foot warehouse. And a guy like me, who's not a real DIY guy is trying to figure this whole thing out and there's nobody like leading me along.

Neil P. Rogers: So I, um, so now whenever I do something, I go to Beate. He's the local guy. 'cause guess what happens? When you walk through the door, what's happening? How you doing? What do you need? Oh, you know what, that's bill over in, uh, in paint. As a matter of fact, the paint guy took care of me so well that I remembered him.

Neil P. Rogers: Like I was out. I was out. One of my favorite lunch spots, I look at him, I said, you're the paint guy from Beate aren't. She goes, yeah. I said, thank you very much. You were unbelievable. He gave great hospitality. 

Chris Dunn: I'm buying you lunch. 

Neil P. Rogers: So things like that, you know, uh, you know, then organ being organized, the [00:26:00] most organized one, if your station is not set up properly, you know, you guys travel a lot.

Neil P. Rogers: If you, if you don't have your stuff with you or if you're having a meeting, you, you're starting to have a meeting with somebody you know, and your materials are all over the map, how does that make you look? So the most organized of the chapter is called the most organized Wins. The third is on time management.

Neil P. Rogers: You know, and because you're, because you've got your organizational skills down, your time management skills come a lot better because you're, you have the ability to show up when 15 minutes early, which is what on time. I 

Dana Esposito: have to ask you a question because I'm on a call with two salespeople. What, do you have any advice, since you're talking about being organized?

Dana Esposito: Uh, like may, maybe a tidbit, uh, to help salespeople be more organized? Because by nature a lot of them aren't. I'm not gonna say all of 'em. A lot of 'em aren't. Do you have like a little advice on that? 

Neil P. Rogers: [00:27:00] Um, I would encourage them if they wanna sell more, they should be organized. I mean, and so, and basic. So now you go back to the basic premise of the book though.

Neil P. Rogers: It's the little things. You don't have to tackle it all at once. Make sure you're purging, cleanse, you know, a good thing to do. Declutter. I. Start with decluttering your desk, decluttering your, your, your inbox, making sure that stuff goes away. That gives you a sense of satisfaction. Who was the guy? It was a, um, it was a, uh, it was someone from the military that gave a, uh, a, a commencement talk that said, make your bed in the morning.

Neil P. Rogers: It's that 

Chris Dunn: type of thing. 

Neil P. Rogers: Clean up, you clean. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. Amazing. Start with, yeah, you wanna, you want to dominate the world. Start by making, so you're not, 

Neil P. Rogers: you're not behind the eight ball. You're prepared, right? So. I had a, I had a 1230 today and I was hyperventilating, [00:28:00] hyper. You heard that, right? Hyperventilating.

Neil P. Rogers: You know what, I thought I lost it by moving up here, but I guess I haven't, it's not, it certainly isn't salty, bro. And I know that for sure. Right. 

Dana Esposito: We could negative condition that right out of you if you want. 

Neil P. Rogers: So. So, uh, why? And the, the, the meeting was about my son and, and, and all this that we're doing for, you know, it was, it was one of those things.

Neil P. Rogers: So I couldn't, like I said, oh my gosh, I only have an hour to prepare for this thing. And I had all my stuff out and I had it with me and I had gone over it, but then I had a fine tune it. It was what, how am I gonna, I gotta answer these questions and wanna set, I gotta make sure this all, but I was, but because I'm also skilled at it.

Neil P. Rogers: I can, I can get it done. So they, I think it's just, and one of the things is I would see, one of the things I would suggest that, um, if you do, if they do go to my, uh, our web Positive activity website, one of the things that we do every day is we prepare our mind, our [00:29:00] mindset, so we don't just jump into it, right?

Neil P. Rogers: So we do things that make ourselves more positive. And it's some simple strategies, again, from one of the books I really like and I I is a bible of a happiness advantage and it talks about simple strategies you can do to get your mindset in a place of creativity. So you're now, so if you're, if you're, you're, you get product, you get positive.

Neil P. Rogers: So these, and, and we can go over those or you can just see 'em on the website and now you're, it gives you an opportunity to be an open-minded, divergent thinking solution providing. Creativity. So part of your productivity every, so now you wanna go to your productivity pieces. What are those? In business development, we have a whole process we take people through, but I did the same thing in learning the piano.

Neil P. Rogers: How am I gonna, how am I gonna stand? How am I gonna get up on that stage and play and sing a song? 90 days later? There I was. 'cause I, I, I put it [00:30:00] in the process. I would suggest that's part of their productive process after they've gotten to a place where they, before they've, and by the way, all of that stuff, the positivity stuff, is before you open up your inbox, before you tackle something, you, you're, now, you're open.

Neil P. Rogers: So I, we literally, you know, we've had a special needs son and we've been, he's 34 years old. And on top of this, that, and the other thing, we're, we're very rarely nodding in creative mode around here. My wife and I, we don't, we don't see problems. We only see solutions. So, and I think, I think part of that, you know, so that, that kind of, that, so if they, if they make that part of their productivity piece.

Neil P. Rogers: You know, let's, that's a step I've gotta make. So this, clean my inbox, get my desk set up, you know, where's my list of whether you're using a CRM or an old guy like me, still using a, a, a yellow pad. You know, how are you gonna do it? Or spreadsheets. [00:31:00] So I think that's a, that might be a step there. Uh, Dana, that would be, would be, um, and, uh, you can find most of that stuff, right?

Neil P. Rogers: We can find, you can find the process on, um. On positive activity.net, and you can have Lori come and talk to you about it too. So. 

Chris Dunn: There you go. Starts with, start with mindset. Dana, I know you're, I know you're looking at me. I know you're thinking about my mess. 

Dana Esposito: You are a psychic. That was crazy. That was crazy.

Dana Esposito: Oh my God. 

Chris Dunn: Because I literally, 

Dana Esposito: I was sitting here trying not to be a jerk and say anything. 

Chris Dunn: Uh, so good. So good. All right. Well Neil, you over, you, you over-delivered on that one. Um, Dana, you're gonna jump in with the, the next piece. I think we're gonna swing back a little bit and talk a little bit more about, uh, about giveaways and, and how they can impact kind of your, your experience in, in a booth.

Dana Esposito: All right. So I'm going to, I have a list of questions here and I'm trying to figure out which one I think would prompt Neil to go down a road. [00:32:00] So how about. Beyond lumpy mailers. Right. What are some practical tactics to bring more traffic to your trade show exhibit? 

Neil P. Rogers: Well, I think like, this is in your guys' world.

Neil P. Rogers: I mean, positioning for sure. You know, where, where, where's the traffic gonna be? I think you should be open. Everybody in the audience should get maybe that one of those, uh, pre-game deals, pre meal deals, real conversation about what we're trying to do today, you know, about what we, um, so you're inviting.

Neil P. Rogers: You're, you're open. How many times again, how many times do you walk by a booth? Somebody's on the phone and they're texting or they're doing whatever. That's not open. That's not say, come in and see me. Right? So it gets back down to the basic fundamentals of hospitality and how, how do you wanna be treated?

Neil P. Rogers: So ultimately, again, if I had to put an overarching, and I, if I write a R one on this book, it'll be the overarching theme of it is the [00:33:00] golden rule. You know, how do you, how do you want to be treated? 

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. If you, 

Neil P. Rogers: if you've come, if you've come to a show, if you, you, you know, you're walking around with your briefcase or your backpack or whatnot, and you go and buy booths, someone's gonna be engaging.

Neil P. Rogers: So that's, so you gotta draw them into the booth and everybody should be on the same page. I don't care if it's in his territory, her territory, it's, it's, it's whatever the company is and you take 'em, you make it. Oh, you wanna see some? You want, oh, you'd rather see your rep. Well, hang on, let me see if I can't get you an appointment.

Neil P. Rogers: Let me see what her schedule. Okay. She's available at two. Can you come back at two? Should it, should she te, you know, so now you're just, you're taking 'em along and, and it, it, it's not a magic, it's not a magic potion here. It's not like, you know, yeah, sure. You could throw some goofy thing up or, you know, pop a shot or, you know, uh, uh, um, corn hole or something of that nature where there's activity, which I think I think does draw, uh, people in.

Neil P. Rogers: Mm-hmm. You know, some sort [00:34:00] of, uh. Something, you know, some gamification, if you will. That's mm-hmm. That does, that does great stuff. So, but I think overall, overall it just, it's just about be the bartender. 

Dana Esposito: Yeah. Some of that goes back to basic human nature, um, and even just reminding us of how important booth staff training is as well.

Neil P. Rogers: You know, and it's the most fun if you've gotta be here. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. Right. 

Neil P. Rogers: It's almost like when you, it is the same deal you walk in. I, I am offended because I loved bartending so much, and I like serving people in that fashion that when they're, when somebody is just not, not getting it, it's like, you know, I'm not mad at them or whatnot, but it's just like, you know, what if you, it's disappointing.

Neil P. Rogers: Well, if you engage, it's fun. 

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. 

Neil P. Rogers: Again, what did we say earlier? People wanna talk about themselves. Let them, 

Dana Esposito: yep, let 'em, let them. 

Neil P. Rogers: By the way, it's a Mel Robbins. Have you ever do that? 

Dana Esposito: [00:35:00] Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. 

Neil P. Rogers: That's one of her books, my wife saying. Now I'm saying it all. Let. Right. 

Dana Esposito: Yeah. Well, and uh, also another human nature thing.

Dana Esposito: I thought that was really interesting, which ties back to let them, and, and just even like, I am actually more introverted by nature. Um, but I've had some really great conversations with people. Not because of me, but because of them. And that's because if you prompt people to, um. With a question that's not a yes or no answer, and it's prompting them to answer things about themselves.

Dana Esposito: They'll walk away and they'll be like, I had just, well, I just had a really good conversation. I, I didn't say anything interesting. I let them talk about themselves. But, um, their automatic gut subconsciously that they had a good conversation with me. It's just that they, they, they spoke to me, but they think they had a good conversation.

Dana Esposito: It wasn't me, it was them. 

Neil P. Rogers: Well, sure. You know why. You were listening actively, and if you, if you show any, if, if you really show true interest [00:36:00] and nod where appropriate. 

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. And I'm 

Neil P. Rogers: not saying plastically, I mean, you know, if you, you truly, I mean, if you're, if you get that practice down and I practice it everywhere.

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. 

Neil P. Rogers: I mean, um, so I stopped in, I stopped in to the, uh, I'm a member of the, uh, Elks here in, uh, Nashua. And I stopped in there on Sunday. 

Chris Dunn: There was a 

Neil P. Rogers: guy standing there, I was having a beard, this guy sitting, sitting at a table and I don't know how we engaged, but we started talking about New Haven Pizza.

Neil P. Rogers: Oh wait, where are you from? New Haven. I said, oh, pizza. Pizza Capital of the world. Oh yeah. And then now we're down the New Haven Pizza Path. Right. And so they, they, um, oh, this will be another good one. We'll tie in on this one. So the, uh, so he, he starts talking about, you know, ironically enough, I just got a, I just at a, an event the other night of charity event, I won a, a pizza oven.

Neil P. Rogers: Isn't that ironic? I've made pizzas for years. I've made this stuff. So he's rolling, right? Look it, I know, I know all about the guy. And he's father, he's, uh, uncle Guido, right? [00:37:00] To all his, all his, uh, you know, so, so then his wife shows up. And she has this desire to come back to the hospitality business and be a bartender.

Neil P. Rogers: I said, well, that'd be great to have you as a bartender. So of course, what is, what do I do? Well, hold on, let me go out to my car. I went out, unfortunately, I didn't have a copy of my book, so I came back in with two bar tips, pens, and I gave 'em each bar tips pen, and I said, if you write down and give me, give me your address.

Neil P. Rogers: I will send you a book. Now, what we don't subscribe to here in, uh, Roger's Marketing slash Positive Activity, world Beer Plans. You know what beer plans are? Beer plans are the ones you make at 11 o'clock at night with somebody you haven't seen in a while. You're, you know what? We need to get together.

Neil P. Rogers: We'll get to, let me get, you know what? I'll call, I'll call, I'll call you. [00:38:00] So I told the story. So the story goes like this story at a last sales meeting I went to, I, uh, the event here, here, here we are, you know, it was a huge event. The event was at the, um, the, um, Holly Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. So you're supposed to have brought some sort of biker type.

Neil P. Rogers: Well, I had no biker stuff and I'm not gonna go find anything. But on the way outta the trade show, there's a guy with a, um. With a a a D sublimated. I know you guys know the, the World D sublimated jacket with all sorts of, you know, logos on all biker logos. And I said, Hey, what you gonna do with that jacket?

Neil P. Rogers: He goes, I don't know, I'm take it home. I guess. I dunno, what do I said? What do you want for it? He goes. How about 35 bucks? Wow. I'll give you 35. He says, you know, gimme your card. Do a deal with me, right? Sure. That's fine too. Whatever you want. So I take, I take the, take the jacket, go to, I go to the event.

Neil P. Rogers: The thanks Killer. I mean, it's great. So this kid, he's 

Chris Dunn: Slant. [00:39:00] 

Neil P. Rogers: He's a new guy, new, new, new sale. Young, young guy. He used to, he works in a, in, in, in a, in a, uh, ownership of a guy. I used to know that, uh, he sold the business. So nice kid Taylor, I don't know. He's not yet 30. And so he says, uh, Hey Neil. That jacket is awesome.

Neil P. Rogers: What are you gonna do with that? I said, I will never wear this again. And he says, can I have it? He said, sure. Now the night goes on, right? Like the 66-year-old man. I am. I was 65 at the time. I'm in bed by 10 o'clock and I know this kid's probably out till who knows when. Right. So the next day is the, is the Goodbye breakfast.

Neil P. Rogers: So you know how those can be. It's a ghost town. You know, there's a few people left. Most people are on planes, so there he is, sitting by himself. I brought the jacket with me, right? I walked over to the table, I said, Hey, Taylor. Great, great, great, great meeting, huh? Right? Great speakers. [00:40:00] Inspiring. Uh, the trade show was great, wasn't it?

Neil P. Rogers: One? Oh yeah, yeah. I said, I'm gonna give you. The best tip you've had all week. I took the jacket, I threw it on the table and I said, always do what you say you're gonna do. No beer plants. And I walked away like in my best, John Wayne, Mike. So I sent that woman, Christine Balone. I sent her my book with a note, but on the outside.

Neil P. Rogers: Ever address in quotes, no beer plans. Now, is that a business opportunity for me? I don't think so. But it's a practice, right? Mm-hmm. So it's a practice that you keep using. So we engaged, we have this wonderful conversation. It was memorable. I wrote, you know, I wrote 'em a little note on it, and, you know, above pizza and this, the, that and the other.

Neil P. Rogers: I said, oh, you make a wonderful bartender and sometime tomorrow she's [00:41:00] gonna open, she's gonna open coke. The guy wasn't full of it. So did what he said. That's one of the, uh, actually that's one that didn't make the book, which in retrospect should have been, should have been in there. So it's one that I speak about a lot.

Neil P. Rogers: As a matter of fact, I, if you check out the site, I've got a whole blog post on 

Chris Dunn: maybe it's book number two. Yeah, continuation book number 

Neil P. Rogers: two is gonna be the one about special needs, but uh, yeah. 

Chris Dunn: Awesome. Awesome. Hey, um, this has been great. So we try to keep our, our pod, you know, around 40 minutes or so, just so it doesn't, uh, you know, kind of start encroaching on the hour.

Chris Dunn: But, um, I mean, hey, your, your storytelling has, has, uh, delivered and, and exceeded expectations. So we like to wrap up our, uh, our visit by asking our, our, uh, visitors, you know, if you could drop. Three key takeaways or something along those lines to, to our, to our audience, to our event planning audience. You know, are there three things, whether you've [00:42:00] already mentioned them, but kind of put a bow on it and, uh, and give us three, like little golden little nuggets here that we can, uh, use as a, as an exit strategy.

Neil P. Rogers: So, yeah, so we did talk about them, but they're worth repeating and that is your environment of which you know, which is the stuff you guys do, you know, and how the booth flows and how of the story it tells, and how you can take somebody down the path to of the story that, okay, so here's where it started, then we move it to here.

Neil P. Rogers: Boom. So it's like, and then you have some flow in the booth. And uh, the other thing is, uh, all teammates on the same hospitality page. Right. So that's that pre-show that, uh, booth training and whatnot. They'll have more fun. It'll be more rewarding. You'll get more leads, they'll do more sales. Um, the pre-show mailers is huge.

Neil P. Rogers: One thing we didn't talk about, which kills me post-show follow up. 

Chris Dunn: Mm. 

Neil P. Rogers: Shoot for a hundred percent. [00:43:00] There's no reason why if somebody came by your booth. Express interest in what you have to say, that you don't follow up in some form or fashion. And don't be lazy. Don't just send them an email. Send 'em a handwritten something.

Neil P. Rogers: Send them, if you have a lumpy piece, lumpy piece you could throw in it. Do that. That'll give them memory of value, memory of your time together. And they're gonna go just like this guy followed up. That's a person you wanna do business with. Simple. Remember what, remember what Jim Rowan said? Natural consequence of just applying the basic fundamentals, also known as the little things success.

Neil P. Rogers: Yeah. 

Chris Dunn: Right. You know, I think looking back or lets just thinking about the things we talk about. That's, that's a great way to, to end that because it's been. Every story you've told, there's been nothing like, oh my God, I've never heard or even thought about doing that. But we need those reminders and we [00:44:00] gotta, we gotta collate 'em, we gotta put 'em all together and remind ourselves that these are the little things that make the difference whether you're, you know, embarking on, uh, on a, on a.

Chris Dunn: You know, your sales career, taking your findings, uh, you know, to the trade show, uh, and working that booth and engaging with people or whatever it is that you know, that you do in that, in that field. Um, it's the little things that, that make a difference. So, 

Neil P. Rogers: and remember what Leo said? 

Chris Dunn: What did you say, 

Neil P. Rogers: Doug?

Neil P. Rogers: Just, just buy books on it. Do it. There you go. Make it happen. 

Chris Dunn: All right. Awesome. Well, thanks for, uh, tuning into the event Marketers Toolbox. We appreciate it. Neil, you've been a fantastic guest. Uh, this has been a great story. You're a, you're a master storyteller and, uh, we appreciate you coming on with us and, uh, and keeping everybody, uh, thinking and laughing and, uh, following along.

Neil P. Rogers: Great time, guys. Enjoyed it. 

Chris Dunn: Awesome. Alright. Thanks very much. Take care [00:45:00] everybody.