January 14, 2026 • 39 mins
In this episode of Barbecue Catering Smarts, Michael Attias sits down with Linda Bogach, Catering Director at Central BBQ—one of the most iconic barbecue brands to ever come out of Memphis.
Linda brings a true operator's perspective to catering. Her path wasn't linear—restaurant management, bartending, raising a family, and eventually stepping into catering leadership. That real-world experience shapes how Central BBQ delivers high-volume catering while protecting the food quality and guest experience that built the brand.
In this episode, Linda shares how Central BBQ successfully takes barbecue from the pit to the party—executing catering for corporate events, weddings, and large-scale orders without chaos. She explains why catering success comes down to systems, consistency, and disciplined execution, not gimmicks or guesswork.
Michael and Linda also dig into what it really takes to scale barbecue catering, how to set clear expectations internally and with guests, and why the right tools and processes save time, reduce stress, and drive repeat business.
If you're running—or trying to grow—a barbecue catering operation, this episode delivers practical, battle-tested insights from someone who lives it every day.
Barbecue Catering Smarts is sponsored by CaterZen Catering Software.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:06):
Welcome to Barbecue Catering Smarts, the go-to podcast for barbecue operators looking togrow and streamline their catering operations.
Every episode, we're serving up expert advice, proven systems, and flavorful strategiesstraight from top leaders in the barbecue and catering world.
So fire up the pit.
(00:26):
It's time for another sizzling episode.
Again, I'm Michael Attias, your host of Barbecue Catering Smarts and today's guest isLinda Bogash, Catering Director at Central Barbecue with hands-on experience building and
(00:47):
running high-volume barbecue catering operations.
Linda helps Central Barbecue deliver the same crave-worthy smokehouse experienceoff-premise, whether it's corporate lunches, weddings, or large-scale events.
From streamlining ordering and execution to creating a guest experience that keeps clientscoming back, she brings a practical operator-minded perspective on what it takes to grow a
barbecue catering program.
(01:07):
the right way and we're excited to have her on the show today.
But before we get started, let's take a minute to recognize our sponsor, CaterZen CateringSoftware.
They help barbecue restaurants turn their catering chaos into calm.
Discover why barbecue restaurants trust CaterZen to save them time and increase cateringsales.
Go to caterzen.com and sign up for a walkthrough of the software.
Now let's dive into this episode of Barbecue Catering Smarts.
(01:30):
Linda, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
How are you, Michael?
Great.
Good to see you again.
I know we're
We live in each other's backyards.
I'm out of town today, but not too far from each other.
I'd like to start off with an icebreaker question.
Give me a number between 1 and 300.
21.
(01:50):
21.
What makes me laugh is...
What makes you laugh?
that's a hard one.
Everything, I find everything funny.
Do you have a favorite TV show?
oh Seinfeld was always one of my go-to laughs.
(02:15):
Have you uh have you watched Curb Your Enthusiasm?
Yes, that's a good one too.
So are you more Team Seinfeld or Team Curb Your Enthusiasm?
Seinfeld.
I'm definitely more Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Okay.
It's something I relate to a little bit more.
I have a friend that reminds me of Larry David and it's just...
My brother-in-law looks like Gary Seinfeld.
(02:36):
Does he?
oh Yes, very much so.
Well, we should let my friend and your brother-in-law meet.
So let's talk about, let's take a step back here with Central Barbecue and definitely someMemphis roots we can talk about at some point.
I know the guys who started, I went to high school with the blondes family and worked forthe Pelts family, the Corkies and had a Corkies franchise.
(03:01):
So there's some connection there.
How did you get started in catering sales?
I actually am a late bloomer.
I did restaurant management for many years, bartended, raised my children.
And I was watching Undercover Boss on TV and I saw Moe Southwest Grill had a cateringdepartment.
(03:23):
And I was a restaurant manager at a restaurant in Nashville and the catering directorhappened to come in and I begged her for a job and it took me six months to get hired and
I was the catering director for
Mo's Southwest Grill and that's how I met you Michael.
Yeah I remember and it was god I can't think of her name right now, blonde.
(03:44):
Is that Michelle?
Yeah, Michelle.
Yeah, very nice work for Scott Porter.
So how long were you with most until the until the pandemic?
OK, and the whole world kind of fell apart.
That's that's for sure.
So what restaurant just out of curiosity, what restaurant did you work at before you endedup in catering sales?
It was outback.
OK.
(04:05):
Very good.
Great brand.
Very good brand.
So you've never, I'm guessing you've never sold before, before you got the catering salesposition.
Well, I worked for a Texas Roadhouse when they opened in my town, Hendersonville, and Idid some local store marketing for them.
So when I approached the catering sales job, I kind of approached it as like a local storemarketing job because I felt that's the best way to increase sales.
(04:31):
So.
it worked.
any, like, I've known you for quite a long time and you're definitely, there's two typesof catering sales reps.
There's what I call the farmers, the phone rings, they take orders, they have therelationships and they increase the sales.
Then you have the hunters that go out there and make things happen.
(04:52):
And you're definitely more of a hunter.
You you've got that killer instinct to go build sales.
Where did that come from?
My dad.
Was he in sales?
yes.
Uh, automotive stuff.
He was in the automotive business.
He sold brand prices for a big automotive company for years and...
(05:14):
Yeah.
it's very interesting.
One of my mentors says, talks about a thing, the concept called what you hear at the topof the stairs.
So, you know, if you think about, yeah, if you think about.
Parents are downstairs talking, whether it's a dinner party, cocktail party, or justparents talking.
The kids are at the stairs and they're eavesdropping.
(05:35):
And so whether it's eavesdropping the top of the stairs, or the dining room table, or acar ride, I'm sure you learned a lot from your father.
You can't be around a salesman and not have that in your DNA and not pick up some of thosethings.
Yeah.
And I was raised in a family that my dad pretty much led the dinner table conversation.
And we kind of just sat there and listened.
(05:57):
I didn't like it very much.
Probably why I talk so much now, but it definitely helped me learn the ways of sales andhow to make friends with people.
I read a lot too, you know.
Well, let's talk about the reading.
You said something.
um
God, I just, I slip, said something about your dad and talking and learning something andnow I can't remember what it was.
(06:26):
And I'll come back to it.
What books did you read that influenced?
The one that influenced me, I think my dad gave that to me when I was, you know, on theyounger side.
And just all the normal sales books, I can't even, I'm very bad with remembering names, Iapologize for that, it's not my forte.
But you know, all the basic uh ones that teach you the basic sales techniques, and then ofcourse I've tweaked everything.
(06:53):
Yeah, of course, you have to make it your own.
You know, I think what you're referring to is Dale Carnegie, how to win friends andinfluence.
Yes.
Neighbors or people.
And I remember reading that book.
And the one line that I love out of this book is
Be more interested than interesting.
Very, very true.
(07:14):
Ask people about themselves.
They'll talk and they'll think you're the best conversationalist even if you say nothingabout yourself.
That was the hardest thing for me to learn because I'm a talker and I was never a verygood listener.
And that's something that I've really grown.
from catering sales and marketing is that it's really important to build thoserelationships.
(07:34):
Yeah for sure and and I think something that I see across all boards, you know, there's alot of little gems We haven't even really gotten into barbecue per se but I can't tell you
how many people have called to sell me something Or I have a meeting and I tell themexactly what I want right like I'm a buyer I'm not a shopper right like yeah, I don't like
(07:56):
to fish.
I like to catch
So it's the same thing.
I tell a salesperson exactly what I want and they're selling me on something else and it'slike, dude, I told you exactly what I want.
If you have it, I'll buy it today.
Like I'm not playing games.
I don't have to go through a committee.
I don't have to get it approved.
I'm telling you what I want.
If you have what I want, I'll buy it.
(08:17):
If you don't.
I don't know why people don't do more of that.
What are some of the...
Yeah.
What are some of the big takeaways you got uh from your dad?
Like some lessons on selling from your dad?
(08:38):
I was just saying, being honest and upfront, just he always made friends with everybody.
He's always the funniest guy in the room.
I'd say be memorable.
Well, you definitely have you definitely have that uh lovable personality, so I'm surethat has definitely helped you garner.
(08:58):
um you know, garner trust with people.
So when you, when you, you you left Moe's, I'm assuming you had a lot of great successselling catering, a great product.
I mean, you've got to have a great product to sell.
That's a great product.
You know, you can get a lot of first time clients, but you're not going to get repeat.
um When did you start at Central?
(09:21):
So I had about a two year period where I couldn't find work, age.
also hospitality industry was kind of not recovering that quickly.
And I was fortunate enough to be approached by someone that I had worked for with Mo'sthat had taken on the role of leadership at Central Barbecue and told them he couldn't do
(09:43):
it without me.
And brought me in and I created the catering
package from the very beginning, all the directions.
all the procedures.
But the first thing I did was call you Michael.
Within the first week I got the job, I said, we need software, can't do this without it.
(10:04):
And I thought of you because Kater's End is just a easy, no brainer.
We appreciate that.
So let's talk about for people listening, you know, they want to build a catering programand we're just going to take it from A to Z because you went in there from A to Z.
even if they have this, it's still a good primer.
(10:26):
You know, so you came to us and you say I need good software and you know, lot of people,they don't understand the importance of good systems, right?
Like you can't keep up with customers on a piece of paper if you're trying to build abusiness and you know, you have to have and you have to look professional and you need to
be able to access stuff.
And it's, you know, unfortunately, a lot of people don't look at that and catering out ofa restaurant, they go, when I get bigger, I'll need it.
(10:51):
But you don't say I'll buy a point of sale system when I have 200 covers a day, I'll justdo it on a piece of paper and hand a piece of paper to the kitchen and have it make the
food or, you know, I'll buy a smoker when I have enough business.
In the meantime, I'll just put a big green egg in the back and cook on the big green egg.
you know, you're either, it's like pregnant.
(11:11):
You're either pregnant or you're not pregnant.
You can't be half pregnant.
But let's talk about some of the basics.
So you go into central barbecue and these just,
Just for clarification, the blondes family still owns their stores in Memphis and then theWilson family expanded or bought the rights and so they own the one in Nashville.
(11:32):
So it's sort of like the blondes.
The blondes family still owns the original, but the Wilson family owns the others inMemphis and the one in Nashville.
I got you.
So what did you do?
You know, what did you come in?
What was the besides calling me?
What's the first thing you did?
you know, just start a catering program and build a program.
(11:53):
sure that I had staff.
Okay.
And Joe had brought in a couple of people that we also worked with with Mo's.
So was very blessed to have a staff that I knew I could trust immediately.
Nice.
And then we sat down and we created a catering menu.
And we said, I said, it's only going to work if I have a CRM to work with and we need toget a software package that we can get everything done together.
(12:19):
So.
And I had
I was still connected even though it had been a few years, so I just went out there andhit the pavement again.
So let's wait to get to the pavement part.
sorry.
No, no, no.
That's OK.
Let's talk about the menu.
Any tips for creating a barbecue catering menu or a catering menu in general?
(12:40):
Yeah, look at everybody else's.
I know that that sounds crazy, but you don't want to be the cheapest and you don't want tobe the most expensive.
And you want to make sure that you are
your price points in line and that you can execute the food that you're going to sell,that it's going to carry well.
Like we don't offer French fries or chicken tenders and a lot of restaurants do, but thosedon't carry well.
(13:04):
So we make sure that the product's going to be perfect so that we can always have happycustomers.
You know, it's very interesting you talk about look at look at your competitors menus andyou can be a direct competitor, right?
Like in Nashville and look at, you know, who's in the barbecue space.
Who are the players?
You know, you've got Pegleg Porkers, you've got Corkies, you've got Barbecue, you haveWits, you've got Central, you've got Edleys.
(13:31):
I mean, those are some of the bigger names in barbecue, I'm assuming.
So what are they doing?
What are they offering?
I would even tell you to go to the point to deconstruct how much they're giving.
You know, if they're charging $15 and everyone else is charging $20, is there a differencein the quality?
How they make it, how they hold it, is there a difference in the portion size?
(13:52):
And you do have to be charging what the market will bear, but also for your perceivedvalue of your concept.
So for instance, I'll use, because I've helped people in engineer menus, I use hamburgers.
Let's say you were going to do hamburger catering.
(14:12):
Well, if I say McDonald's hamburgers, you're thinking low price point.
low quality.
If I say Outback, you're thinking higher quality, higher price point.
And if I say Morton's or Ruth's Chris burger, you're thinking super high quality, superhigh price.
And so where does your brand stack up in the mix?
(14:33):
Right?
Yeah.
You know, in Nashville, Wits is low known for low price barbecue.
um And, know, you've got somebody central as least
peg legs higher up on the food chain.
So you need to see where you fit in with those guys.
Because you can't be, you might be the same price a little bit higher, but you can't be 50% higher if you're perceived as the same type of thing.
(15:03):
And portion size is very important.
Talk about that.
Yeah, very important.
You have to make sure that you're giving the people a decent amount of food, but not overserving them either.
Right.
Yes.
And I think we did a good job with that.
You know, in the full service events, we did all you can eat, which technically, if you'reportioning properly, it's all they can eat anyway, because if you run out of food, you're
(15:29):
going to look like a fool.
So you, you know, you might as well call it all you can eat and charge a little bit morefor that perceived.
I'm not going to run out of food.
So that was something that worked really well for us.
We had a guarantee with that.
If you ran out of food, we give you your money back, which we never ran out of food.
And then on the drop off stuff, we always said it was enough for one and a half good sizesandwich as a person.
(15:55):
And, the analogy that I used to use, God, I'm reminded of these talks.
I haven't been on the phone in years is, you know, most men will go through most, mostwomen will go and have one sandwich.
Most men will come back and maybe have a second sandwich.
So one and a half is enough.
And then, um,
So they have a perception like, okay, that makes sense.
(16:15):
don't wanna limit, know, people want a second sandwich I wanna have, not for everybody tohave two sandwiches, but whatever.
Did you structure a menu that was more per person or more a la carte?
It's a buffet per person and we have very structured portion sizes.
So it's to play around with.
(16:37):
And I think that that's really, really important when you're working catering to betransparent with your portion sizes and how many people it's going to feed.
Cause there's nothing worse than them having a ton of food leftover.
That's worse almost as bad as running out because they feel ripped off.
Yeah.
You want a little food left over.
Yes.
Because that way some of the people at the company can take home and feed their family fordinner.
(17:00):
That's always nice.
You don't want to be scraping the last spoon of beans out of the pan.
But I agree with you.
You don't want, you know,
five pounds of pork left at the end of a luncheon.
One of the biggest issues with barbecue that I find is brisket, because everybody wantsbrisket.
And it's heavier in weight.
And it's more expensive.
(17:22):
And they never go for the extra.
And it took me against people if you order to meet buffet and it's half brisket and halfpork, you're gonna run out of it.
Right.
And so I work with people.
tweak that and that's
thing with barbecue that you need to really understand the difference in weight and thedifference in portions and what people are going to more of you learn need a lot of mac
(17:48):
and cheese you don't need as much barbecue beans right now exactly you know it's justtweaking it to make sure that the customer is so happy that you know you talk about
something and you have it named it but I'm gonna name it I call it authenticity andselling
Because if you think about old school salespeople were known as selling you stuff youdidn't need, right?
(18:09):
Knock it on the door and telling you a vacuum cleaner or selling you aluminum siding orused car or whatever.
Very seedy sales persona if you think about old school selling.
But if you think about new school selling, people go, oh, you're a great salesman.
I go, I'm a terrible salesman.
I'm a good educator and good consultant.
(18:30):
so the marketer.
Yeah.
I'm okay, but the key is, is I remember when I sold catering and even when we sellsoftware, I had a meeting with somebody who had a bakery the other day and I told them,
look, this is what you can count on us for and we'll do well.
And this is what you can't count on us for based on what you're telling me.
If you can work with this, we're a good fit.
(18:50):
Don't come to me thinking you're going to change.
It's not.
And the same thing is sometimes you have to tell people when you're selling catering,look,
You want to go half pork, half beef, you're going to run out of brisket.
I'm telling you right now, if you were my best friend, I'd tell you order 20 % more on thebrisket side and have a little bit more because the brisket's going to, you know, it just,
(19:14):
it's going to melt and it's going to be gone in two seconds.
And it's true.
You know, a pound of brisket doesn't go as far as a pound of pork.
And as much as you want it to, I don't know if it's less dense or what it is per whatever.
But anyway,
I've earned a lot of business by underselling people and also shooting them straight andsay, look, I wouldn't do that if I were you.
(19:36):
It's a waste of money.
And I think when you have that authenticity, people want to do business with you and theywant to refer you because you're trustworthy.
There's nothing worse than you feel like somebody's taken advantage of you.
hate that.
So I agree 100%.
Okay.
So you've got the packages.
(19:56):
Do y'all do more full service events or drop off events?
We do a lot more drop-off events and we do a lot of box meals.
um so, I didn't say this on TV.
Anyway, um we do help a lot of these sports teams that come in and we do the individualmeals.
Like I fed LSU basketball this past weekend and they had 70 individual meals and theydidn't want catering.
(20:24):
They needed like a platter for each person.
So I had to go in and do open food on Kater's Den for every single one, type in exactlywhat they wanted and their name.
It took me forever, but they were thrilled, you know?
And Kater's Den made it easy.
I mean, it was time consuming, but I don't know how I would have done it without.
(20:45):
Well, that's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
mean, you do have to have, you know, well, you don't have to have flexibility, but if youwant to be successful in catering.
You want to have some level of flexibility.
You have to take care of people.
Give them what they want.
I mean, there's so much competition out there.
If you don't give people what they want, they're going to go to the next person.
Yeah, I mean.
they remember when you go out of the way for them, they remember.
(21:06):
Yeah, I mean, I think you have to stay in your wheelhouse and what you're good at.
can't, you're not going to put caviar on a barbecue platter.
But no.
But if they want individual meals for athletes.
And they're gonna have box meals with ribs, but they wanted ribs and you know, they wantedplates with eight ounces of meat, not five ounces.
They're athletes.
(21:27):
They're gonna eat.
They're gonna go through a lot of right?
And I'm sure they paid for it.
wasn't, you you didn't give it to them for free and you know, you made a good profit onit.
I'm not a big fan of individually boxed meals, but I get it.
I don't think the food travels as well.
Now, you know, if you're doing a deli sandwich all day long.
you know, barbecue, it's a little more difficult.
(21:49):
We've got it down.
Honestly, like I've been to events where I've eaten a box meal and they're still reallyfresh.
I don't know how but they really stay the way we package it.
Yeah.
So let's talk.
Let's say that I came to work for you today and you were going to train me on how to sellcatering, right?
(22:10):
um No sales experience, you know, no coursework.
What are the
first two, three, walk me through some of the things you would teach me to be successfuland, you know.
Number one is you have to work in the restaurant for a few days and learn the menu.
Okay.
And then I would have you shadow the catering person to see how they put together cateringorders and study the catering menu.
(22:37):
And then I would have you go on a few deliveries and then I would take you out and showyou how to talk to people about it.
Okay.
So together, but it's training on
zen is super important.
Okay, so let's let's let's walk through.
Okay, I understand the menu.
I've been out on catering.
I've seen it set up.
I understand a day in the life of the operations part, right?
(22:59):
Because you do have to understand how operations work because you have to use what yousell operations has to deliver you can't oversell it.
You can't undersell right?
Because if you promise the world and operations goes out there and screws it up because
you're overselling it, you make everybody look bad and you lose, you know, we're not inthe one catering business, right?
(23:21):
It's in the repeat catering.
That's where the money's at, right?
Even if you have big events, it's all in the repeat.
So let's talk about prospecting.
You know, I'm, I'm new to Nashville.
You and I just opened up a barbecue restaurant and you go, Michael, this is how we'regoing to build our catering business.
Now you were lucky you had connections at your last place.
a Rolodex.
I didn't with Mo's.
I didn't with Mo's.
(23:42):
I started from the ground up.
Okay.
So let's take.
Yeah.
Okay.
do you do?
What do you do?
How do you get a, what kind of list of people are you looking for?
What are you doing?
Let's walk everybody through.
Because I think people leave a lot of money on the table by not hustling catering.
I hustled it because I knew that was significant revenue for the restaurant, which equaledsignificant profit.
(24:04):
Because overheads high, labor's there.
It doesn't take anything to run two or $3,000 through the register before you open themarket.
sales.
Right.
sales.
it's not location dependent.
You could drive 10 miles to drop off the food.
People aren't driving 10 miles for lunch to come to your restaurant.
They're just, unless they're passing through or you have a really, really good draw, I'mnot driving 10 miles to go eat lunch.
(24:29):
That's very key what you said, because it's very true.
There's no reason you can't deliver and bring people and then they may drive because theyhad you at lunch at work and said, my God, that's
Yeah, or though, you know, when I'm going to that part of town, you live in HendersonValley, live in Eastern Nashville, it could be someplace in Franklin.
Hey, I'm going to be close to Franklin.
I had this food at Linda's, the daughter's party, and now I want to eat there.
(24:52):
Exactly.
Or, hey, I'm having something for my kid.
I'm going to get them to cater because the food was great at Linda's.
So it's it's definitely cross promotional.
So where do you go start building a list and going after people?
first thing that you do is you do a search.
all the businesses that have more than 10 employees in a three mile radius of your store.
(25:13):
It's a great way to start.
start.
Are you buying a list?
No, you just Google it.
You don't have to spend any money.
I've never in my life paid for lead, that I will tell you.
I've always generated myself.
So you've never paid for a prospecting list?
No.
Okay.
Never.
Great.
(25:33):
So I go out and I find 100 businesses that have 10 or more employees.
Mm-hmm.
Where do you go from there?
I?
Personally like to go visit them but today's day and age with security the way it is it'snot easy to phone call So you start off on the phone you try to get the decision maker You
introduce them and you ask if you can come by with samples and some coupons Okay, okay, ifyou can try to get away just stop by with some coupons and stuff But if you have to bring
(26:01):
samples you bring samples
the other thing that you do is you put a fishbowl at your cash register and you askeverybody to drop a business card in.
because anybody coming in your business is more likely to cater with you and you make sureyou utilize those Leads those are all those are hotly Yeah, because they know your food
(26:23):
and if they like you they're gonna tell you who to do you Do you look up the name of thedecision-maker?
You just call them the receptionist?
I usually, I try to look it up, but I found that there's always someone that answers thephone and they are mostly gonna be nice and give you the information.
It's a lot faster.
I try to both ways.
The calling seems to be better.
(26:44):
And you do you look for like I know I would look for human resources when I going afterbigger I asked for yeah, I usually ask for human resources or event planners depending
upon what kind of business it is Yeah, but this
food is that every business and every person is a potential client.
It's not just one industry.
(27:06):
So at the beginning, you want to do a broad kind of thing.
And then you might want to find, well, my food people, the construction people love this.
So maybe I'm going to go for that kind of business or, you know,
know, it's just it really depends on your demographic.
Yeah, I think to your point, I think you've got two markets.
(27:26):
have the broad like
10 or more employees, right?
And then you have niches because you know that every year in May in Nashville, there'sthousands of kids graduating high school.
How can I get those people?
So I wanna tap back into the thing you said about the fish bowl.
So what we did when I had my restaurant is the challenge with the business card is,
(27:53):
you don't have any qualifying information, right?
So you have to call, is it the state farm agent and there's 20 people in the office orthere's two people in the office, right?
uh We had people fill out a form that they had to tell us where they worked, who was incharge of ordering, catering, how many people, how often, and they could win a we had a
(28:15):
catering giveaway for 10, catering for 10 for their office, right?
And so we were doing this manually.
um And we would send everybody a letter, know, one person would win, everybody would getsecond prize, which is free dessert.
And we would, you know, send it to the catering decision maker.
So that was more manual, but giving you a little heads up of what's coming down the pikewith our new CRM and cater zen later this year.
(28:41):
We're building QR codes m that you can put on a sign, like register to win a free cateringgiveaway for 10 people.
in your office, scan QR code, and then it takes them to their phone.
It's a mobile landing page that they can fill out the information while they're in line topick up food or sitting at the table.
(29:03):
um And then it ends up in a marketing sequence where you can automatically market to themand it fires off emails and does calls.
what you're doing- Then you merge it into your CRM?
Yeah, it comes into the CRM.
And now you have a prospecting list, right?
Yeah.
And um the great thing about that is you don't have to do any manual labor, right?
(29:27):
You don't have to key in the cards.
You don't have to fire off a sequence.
You could set that up pretty much automatically, right?
Yeah.
So that's going to save you time.
But if you think about where else do you want to collect qualified names?
You know, let's just take the city of Nashville.
Well, if you do a lot of weddings and rehearsal dinners,
(29:49):
You go to bridal shows, do some sampling.
Isn't that a great way to put out a QR code, register to win a free rehearsal dinnervalued at $600, put your name in, and then you can market to all those brides about the
rehearsal dinners.
Chamber functions, you go and you meet 200 people at the Williamson County Chamber or theSumner County Chamber.
(30:13):
All those people could send you business, right?
Because even if their office does an order,
They go to churches or members of organizations.
know, everybody, if they don't order catering, they influence or they know where cateringis.
So there's a lot of that.
And one of the things I'm most excited about is uh graduation parties.
(30:34):
So where do you get a list of all the parents of high school seniors?
Well, you can go to mailing list brokers and maybe they're good, maybe they're bad.
But, you know, your daughter went to beach high school with Jillian who works
with me, so I you're familiar with Beach.
Well, everybody who's ever had a kid who's a senior in high school, what do they do?
They have college open houses, right?
(30:57):
Like here's financial aid, we have colleges, just two or three evenings where the parentsare gonna come in and you're trying to figure out where your kid's gonna go to school, how
you're gonna pay for it, things that you need to know.
Well, why wouldn't Central go out and say, hey, we wanna bring dessert to Beach HighSchool for the parent, you
senior night, whatever.
(31:17):
And then you have the QR code registered to win a free graduation party.
And now you've registered all the people who are interested in central barbecue.
You got a whole database of those people.
So come the spring, you can start bombarding them and saying, hey, you know, we were at,you know, the senior open house.
And if you want to do something for your kids, we got this going on and low hanging fruit.
(31:37):
And so you could go to Hendersonville High School, Gallatin High School, you know, three,four high schools in that area.
you've got more more businesses that you you could pick up.
And so that's something that's going to help because people are looking to pick upbusiness and they don't want to pay a third party for business.
(32:01):
want to.
are very dependent on social media too and they think that just by having social mediait's going to change their business and it's a real combination of everything.
As you know Michael I'm a relationship builder and like what you're saying like I go to
belong to the chambers and all these organizations.
And because of the relationships I've built from attending those events live, I get a lotof catering, referrals and business, not necessarily from the person I know, but from
(32:26):
someone they send my way.
Yeah.
And that's very important.
referrals are everything for sure.
Well, if you're doing a good job, you're going to get referrals.
And if you're doing a bad job, you're not.
And that's telling you something.
Go focus on the quality and the execution.
So you go out, you see these people, you bring coupons, you bring samples.
(32:47):
What next?
I always, when I meet people, I always do a follow up email.
Within 48 hours of meeting them, I do an introductory letter.
I say, hi, so great to meet you at, and I try to name the event, so they put a face withthe name.
I offer them the discount coupon for catering.
Invite them to lunch.
(33:09):
If I think that they actually order catering, then I'll try to set up a one-to-one withthem at the restaurant so they can have my food for free.
And...
a lot of people in.
It's really nice.
You have some one-on-one time and they get a sample everything.
invite people to lunch all the time.
It's great.
Yeah, for sure.
Anytime you want to come.
Anyway, uh I appreciate that.
(33:31):
I might take you up on that when I'm back in Nashville.
So you follow up with them and send an email.
What percentage?
Then they're in my CRM.
So I send the email first and then I take the business cards and I add them all to CRM.
And then about every six to eight weeks, I do like an email thing through the CRM.
A bulk email.
(33:51):
A bulk email.
And then I do reports to find out who hasn't ordered in a while and I follow up with them.
And so it's just that it's just staying in touch with people and staying relevant.
You know, that's really the key.
I would agree.
for the events.
You know, I think it was pie in the sky.
Have you ever eaten a pie in the sky pizza?
(34:13):
used to be in that It's not around anymore, but I remember them.
They had a, they had some, I think it was artichoke and red pepper pizza.
love the guy was in the music business, super nice guy.
And he had a catering sales rep and I met with her about our software years and years ago.
She goes, yeah, my boyfriend's in sales and he taught me something very important.
The fortune is in the followup.
(34:34):
And, and.
So often people get those orders, they don't follow up.
Hey, you hadn't ordered from a while.
Hey, I brought you a free lunch three weeks ago.
What's going on?
You got to follow up, follow up, follow up and stay in front of people because you neverknow when somebody is going to want.
I mean, I've had people who've held onto my marketing material for years and then all of asudden they remember me and they come back.
(34:58):
But you're not going to get that if you don't stay in front of them.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Phenomenal.
uh
tips and you know now with AI and some things we want to build down the road is you knowthe ability to not only figure out okay on a high level you say hey if somebody hadn't
ordered in 45 days I'm gonna reach them wouldn't it be nice to know who needs to bereached out when based on how often they order and AI is going to be able to do that for
(35:26):
you and say okay Michael orders once a week haven't seen him in three weeks well I don'tneed to wait 45 days he could be off the planet
I need to reach out after two or three weeks because he has an order.
His cadence is swapped.
So I think AI is short term, know, whether Elon Musk is right and nobody's going to haveto work again or robots are going to take over the whole world.
(35:48):
I don't know.
You know, the Jetsons, I don't know.
But I can tell you short term, the software and the businesses that adapt AI to makebetter decision-making, they're the ones that are going to have an unfair advantage in the
market.
It scares me a little bit.
AI, the whole thing is a little bit...
(36:08):
Did you write that or did AI write that, you know?
know, probably a combination.
I haven't really used it.
I've been trying not to, but I'm going to have no choice after a while.
I tell you one thing, I don't even use Google.
The only time I use Google now is if I need to look up something like on Google Maps orplaces.
(36:28):
But I use chat GPT.
I went to the doctor last week for my annual checkup.
and I took all my blood, you all the test results.
I copied them, put them in a document, uploaded Chachi BT and I said, hey, you're one ofthe top concierge doctors for men, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
want you to analyze these test results and tell me.
(36:51):
And literally I got a better report than my doctor would have given me.
That's how good it is because it takes everything and blends it together.
And you're getting like the best physician on the planet.
I mean, you know, I'm not going to go see a doctor GPT today.
(37:13):
One day there might be a device you hook yourself up.
But to have it take all your test results and next year you can say, here's my testresults.
Am I doing better or worse?
It's it's crazy what's out there.
crazy.
We use it for everything.
OK, so we're getting towards the end of our time together.
Any other tips for building a catering sales program that you want to share?
(37:38):
You need to also make sure that you call every client the day after their order and makesure that everything was great and ask for feedback.
And if you get a voice message, leave a message saying, I would like feedback, good orbad, it would really help us.
And try a second time if you don't hear from them because the customers really appreciatethat attention.
(38:00):
It's really, I think that
that has been my main source of success is that I always.
follow through with my clients, stay in touch with my clients and make sure that they'rehappy from beginning to end.
I think that's, that's very sound advice.
mean, this is just good common sense stuff.
Why do you think a lot of people in our industry aren't proactive building their cateringprograms?
(38:26):
Whether it's them or how much, how important it is for their business.
I don't think people realize that in today's day and age with everybody not wanting to goout still, and everybody's doing this delivery stuff, that if you don't have a good
catering business, you're not going to make it in the restaurant business.
mean, the overhead's just too high.
(38:47):
I would agree.
I mean, I did a third of my business in catering and obviously led me to helping otherpeople with catering and then, you know, starting the software business.
I could not imagine a restaurant unless you're in a captive place like a arena or anairport where catering...
Like Assembly Hall in Nashville where it's all tourists.
(39:09):
Right.
I mean where you know you have a set foot traffic and you're going to be swamped from opento close.
I couldn't imagine not having catering.
I agree.
Well Linda, as always, it's good to kibitz with you and catch up and...
appreciate your business and appreciate you sharing a lot of gems on here.
(39:32):
Well, it's my pleasure.
I'm a fan of your company, so I'm happy to be on here.
We're a fan of you.
Thanks, Linda.
Thanks.
You've been listening to Barbecue Catering Smarts, where we bring you the best ideas,stories, and strategies from across the barbecue catering industry.
We hope today's episode sparked new insights to help you refine your systems, elevate yourcustomer experience, and grow your catering profits.
(39:59):
For more episodes and insights, be sure to subscribe, share, and join us next time.
Welcome to Barbecue Catering Smarts, the go-to podcast for barbecue operators looking togrow and streamline their catering operations.
Every episode, we're serving up expert advice, proven systems, and flavorful strategiesstraight from top leaders in the barbecue and catering world.
So fire up the pit.
(00:26):
It's time for another sizzling episode.
Again, I'm Michael Attias, your host of Barbecue Catering Smarts and today's guest isLinda Bogash, Catering Director at Central Barbecue with hands-on experience building and
(00:47):
running high-volume barbecue catering operations.
Linda helps Central Barbecue deliver the same crave-worthy smokehouse experienceoff-premise, whether it's corporate lunches, weddings, or large-scale events.
From streamlining ordering and execution to creating a guest experience that keeps clientscoming back, she brings a practical operator-minded perspective on what it takes to grow a
barbecue catering program.
(01:07):
the right way and we're excited to have her on the show today.
But before we get started, let's take a minute to recognize our sponsor, CaterZen CateringSoftware.
They help barbecue restaurants turn their catering chaos into calm.
Discover why barbecue restaurants trust CaterZen to save them time and increase cateringsales.
Go to caterzen.com and sign up for a walkthrough of the software.
Now let's dive into this episode of Barbecue Catering Smarts.
(01:30):
Linda, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
How are you, Michael?
Great.
Good to see you again.
I know we're
We live in each other's backyards.
I'm out of town today, but not too far from each other.
I'd like to start off with an icebreaker question.
Give me a number between 1 and 300.
21.
(01:50):
21.
What makes me laugh is...
What makes you laugh?
that's a hard one.
Everything, I find everything funny.
Do you have a favorite TV show?
oh Seinfeld was always one of my go-to laughs.
(02:15):
Have you uh have you watched Curb Your Enthusiasm?
Yes, that's a good one too.
So are you more Team Seinfeld or Team Curb Your Enthusiasm?
Seinfeld.
I'm definitely more Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Okay.
It's something I relate to a little bit more.
I have a friend that reminds me of Larry David and it's just...
My brother-in-law looks like Gary Seinfeld.
(02:36):
Does he?
oh Yes, very much so.
Well, we should let my friend and your brother-in-law meet.
So let's talk about, let's take a step back here with Central Barbecue and definitely someMemphis roots we can talk about at some point.
I know the guys who started, I went to high school with the blondes family and worked forthe Pelts family, the Corkies and had a Corkies franchise.
(03:01):
So there's some connection there.
How did you get started in catering sales?
I actually am a late bloomer.
I did restaurant management for many years, bartended, raised my children.
And I was watching Undercover Boss on TV and I saw Moe Southwest Grill had a cateringdepartment.
(03:23):
And I was a restaurant manager at a restaurant in Nashville and the catering directorhappened to come in and I begged her for a job and it took me six months to get hired and
I was the catering director for
Mo's Southwest Grill and that's how I met you Michael.
Yeah I remember and it was god I can't think of her name right now, blonde.
(03:44):
Is that Michelle?
Yeah, Michelle.
Yeah, very nice work for Scott Porter.
So how long were you with most until the until the pandemic?
OK, and the whole world kind of fell apart.
That's that's for sure.
So what restaurant just out of curiosity, what restaurant did you work at before you endedup in catering sales?
It was outback.
OK.
(04:05):
Very good.
Great brand.
Very good brand.
So you've never, I'm guessing you've never sold before, before you got the catering salesposition.
Well, I worked for a Texas Roadhouse when they opened in my town, Hendersonville, and Idid some local store marketing for them.
So when I approached the catering sales job, I kind of approached it as like a local storemarketing job because I felt that's the best way to increase sales.
(04:31):
So.
it worked.
any, like, I've known you for quite a long time and you're definitely, there's two typesof catering sales reps.
There's what I call the farmers, the phone rings, they take orders, they have therelationships and they increase the sales.
Then you have the hunters that go out there and make things happen.
(04:52):
And you're definitely more of a hunter.
You you've got that killer instinct to go build sales.
Where did that come from?
My dad.
Was he in sales?
yes.
Uh, automotive stuff.
He was in the automotive business.
He sold brand prices for a big automotive company for years and...
(05:14):
Yeah.
it's very interesting.
One of my mentors says, talks about a thing, the concept called what you hear at the topof the stairs.
So, you know, if you think about, yeah, if you think about.
Parents are downstairs talking, whether it's a dinner party, cocktail party, or justparents talking.
The kids are at the stairs and they're eavesdropping.
(05:35):
And so whether it's eavesdropping the top of the stairs, or the dining room table, or acar ride, I'm sure you learned a lot from your father.
You can't be around a salesman and not have that in your DNA and not pick up some of thosethings.
Yeah.
And I was raised in a family that my dad pretty much led the dinner table conversation.
And we kind of just sat there and listened.
(05:57):
I didn't like it very much.
Probably why I talk so much now, but it definitely helped me learn the ways of sales andhow to make friends with people.
I read a lot too, you know.
Well, let's talk about the reading.
You said something.
um
God, I just, I slip, said something about your dad and talking and learning something andnow I can't remember what it was.
(06:26):
And I'll come back to it.
What books did you read that influenced?
The one that influenced me, I think my dad gave that to me when I was, you know, on theyounger side.
And just all the normal sales books, I can't even, I'm very bad with remembering names, Iapologize for that, it's not my forte.
But you know, all the basic uh ones that teach you the basic sales techniques, and then ofcourse I've tweaked everything.
(06:53):
Yeah, of course, you have to make it your own.
You know, I think what you're referring to is Dale Carnegie, how to win friends andinfluence.
Yes.
Neighbors or people.
And I remember reading that book.
And the one line that I love out of this book is
Be more interested than interesting.
Very, very true.
(07:14):
Ask people about themselves.
They'll talk and they'll think you're the best conversationalist even if you say nothingabout yourself.
That was the hardest thing for me to learn because I'm a talker and I was never a verygood listener.
And that's something that I've really grown.
from catering sales and marketing is that it's really important to build thoserelationships.
(07:34):
Yeah for sure and and I think something that I see across all boards, you know, there's alot of little gems We haven't even really gotten into barbecue per se but I can't tell you
how many people have called to sell me something Or I have a meeting and I tell themexactly what I want right like I'm a buyer I'm not a shopper right like yeah, I don't like
(07:56):
to fish.
I like to catch
So it's the same thing.
I tell a salesperson exactly what I want and they're selling me on something else and it'slike, dude, I told you exactly what I want.
If you have it, I'll buy it today.
Like I'm not playing games.
I don't have to go through a committee.
I don't have to get it approved.
I'm telling you what I want.
If you have what I want, I'll buy it.
(08:17):
If you don't.
I don't know why people don't do more of that.
What are some of the...
Yeah.
What are some of the big takeaways you got uh from your dad?
Like some lessons on selling from your dad?
(08:38):
I was just saying, being honest and upfront, just he always made friends with everybody.
He's always the funniest guy in the room.
I'd say be memorable.
Well, you definitely have you definitely have that uh lovable personality, so I'm surethat has definitely helped you garner.
(08:58):
um you know, garner trust with people.
So when you, when you, you you left Moe's, I'm assuming you had a lot of great successselling catering, a great product.
I mean, you've got to have a great product to sell.
That's a great product.
You know, you can get a lot of first time clients, but you're not going to get repeat.
um When did you start at Central?
(09:21):
So I had about a two year period where I couldn't find work, age.
also hospitality industry was kind of not recovering that quickly.
And I was fortunate enough to be approached by someone that I had worked for with Mo'sthat had taken on the role of leadership at Central Barbecue and told them he couldn't do
(09:43):
it without me.
And brought me in and I created the catering
package from the very beginning, all the directions.
all the procedures.
But the first thing I did was call you Michael.
Within the first week I got the job, I said, we need software, can't do this without it.
(10:04):
And I thought of you because Kater's End is just a easy, no brainer.
We appreciate that.
So let's talk about for people listening, you know, they want to build a catering programand we're just going to take it from A to Z because you went in there from A to Z.
even if they have this, it's still a good primer.
(10:26):
You know, so you came to us and you say I need good software and you know, lot of people,they don't understand the importance of good systems, right?
Like you can't keep up with customers on a piece of paper if you're trying to build abusiness and you know, you have to have and you have to look professional and you need to
be able to access stuff.
And it's, you know, unfortunately, a lot of people don't look at that and catering out ofa restaurant, they go, when I get bigger, I'll need it.
(10:51):
But you don't say I'll buy a point of sale system when I have 200 covers a day, I'll justdo it on a piece of paper and hand a piece of paper to the kitchen and have it make the
food or, you know, I'll buy a smoker when I have enough business.
In the meantime, I'll just put a big green egg in the back and cook on the big green egg.
you know, you're either, it's like pregnant.
(11:11):
You're either pregnant or you're not pregnant.
You can't be half pregnant.
But let's talk about some of the basics.
So you go into central barbecue and these just,
Just for clarification, the blondes family still owns their stores in Memphis and then theWilson family expanded or bought the rights and so they own the one in Nashville.
(11:32):
So it's sort of like the blondes.
The blondes family still owns the original, but the Wilson family owns the others inMemphis and the one in Nashville.
I got you.
So what did you do?
You know, what did you come in?
What was the besides calling me?
What's the first thing you did?
you know, just start a catering program and build a program.
(11:53):
sure that I had staff.
Okay.
And Joe had brought in a couple of people that we also worked with with Mo's.
So was very blessed to have a staff that I knew I could trust immediately.
Nice.
And then we sat down and we created a catering menu.
And we said, I said, it's only going to work if I have a CRM to work with and we need toget a software package that we can get everything done together.
(12:19):
So.
And I had
I was still connected even though it had been a few years, so I just went out there andhit the pavement again.
So let's wait to get to the pavement part.
sorry.
No, no, no.
That's OK.
Let's talk about the menu.
Any tips for creating a barbecue catering menu or a catering menu in general?
(12:40):
Yeah, look at everybody else's.
I know that that sounds crazy, but you don't want to be the cheapest and you don't want tobe the most expensive.
And you want to make sure that you are
your price points in line and that you can execute the food that you're going to sell,that it's going to carry well.
Like we don't offer French fries or chicken tenders and a lot of restaurants do, but thosedon't carry well.
(13:04):
So we make sure that the product's going to be perfect so that we can always have happycustomers.
You know, it's very interesting you talk about look at look at your competitors menus andyou can be a direct competitor, right?
Like in Nashville and look at, you know, who's in the barbecue space.
Who are the players?
You know, you've got Pegleg Porkers, you've got Corkies, you've got Barbecue, you haveWits, you've got Central, you've got Edleys.
(13:31):
I mean, those are some of the bigger names in barbecue, I'm assuming.
So what are they doing?
What are they offering?
I would even tell you to go to the point to deconstruct how much they're giving.
You know, if they're charging $15 and everyone else is charging $20, is there a differencein the quality?
How they make it, how they hold it, is there a difference in the portion size?
(13:52):
And you do have to be charging what the market will bear, but also for your perceivedvalue of your concept.
So for instance, I'll use, because I've helped people in engineer menus, I use hamburgers.
Let's say you were going to do hamburger catering.
(14:12):
Well, if I say McDonald's hamburgers, you're thinking low price point.
low quality.
If I say Outback, you're thinking higher quality, higher price point.
And if I say Morton's or Ruth's Chris burger, you're thinking super high quality, superhigh price.
And so where does your brand stack up in the mix?
(14:33):
Right?
Yeah.
You know, in Nashville, Wits is low known for low price barbecue.
um And, know, you've got somebody central as least
peg legs higher up on the food chain.
So you need to see where you fit in with those guys.
Because you can't be, you might be the same price a little bit higher, but you can't be 50% higher if you're perceived as the same type of thing.
(15:03):
And portion size is very important.
Talk about that.
Yeah, very important.
You have to make sure that you're giving the people a decent amount of food, but not overserving them either.
Right.
Yes.
And I think we did a good job with that.
You know, in the full service events, we did all you can eat, which technically, if you'reportioning properly, it's all they can eat anyway, because if you run out of food, you're
(15:29):
going to look like a fool.
So you, you know, you might as well call it all you can eat and charge a little bit morefor that perceived.
I'm not going to run out of food.
So that was something that worked really well for us.
We had a guarantee with that.
If you ran out of food, we give you your money back, which we never ran out of food.
And then on the drop off stuff, we always said it was enough for one and a half good sizesandwich as a person.
(15:55):
And, the analogy that I used to use, God, I'm reminded of these talks.
I haven't been on the phone in years is, you know, most men will go through most, mostwomen will go and have one sandwich.
Most men will come back and maybe have a second sandwich.
So one and a half is enough.
And then, um,
So they have a perception like, okay, that makes sense.
(16:15):
don't wanna limit, know, people want a second sandwich I wanna have, not for everybody tohave two sandwiches, but whatever.
Did you structure a menu that was more per person or more a la carte?
It's a buffet per person and we have very structured portion sizes.
So it's to play around with.
(16:37):
And I think that that's really, really important when you're working catering to betransparent with your portion sizes and how many people it's going to feed.
Cause there's nothing worse than them having a ton of food leftover.
That's worse almost as bad as running out because they feel ripped off.
Yeah.
You want a little food left over.
Yes.
Because that way some of the people at the company can take home and feed their family fordinner.
(17:00):
That's always nice.
You don't want to be scraping the last spoon of beans out of the pan.
But I agree with you.
You don't want, you know,
five pounds of pork left at the end of a luncheon.
One of the biggest issues with barbecue that I find is brisket, because everybody wantsbrisket.
And it's heavier in weight.
And it's more expensive.
(17:22):
And they never go for the extra.
And it took me against people if you order to meet buffet and it's half brisket and halfpork, you're gonna run out of it.
Right.
And so I work with people.
tweak that and that's
thing with barbecue that you need to really understand the difference in weight and thedifference in portions and what people are going to more of you learn need a lot of mac
(17:48):
and cheese you don't need as much barbecue beans right now exactly you know it's justtweaking it to make sure that the customer is so happy that you know you talk about
something and you have it named it but I'm gonna name it I call it authenticity andselling
Because if you think about old school salespeople were known as selling you stuff youdidn't need, right?
(18:09):
Knock it on the door and telling you a vacuum cleaner or selling you aluminum siding orused car or whatever.
Very seedy sales persona if you think about old school selling.
But if you think about new school selling, people go, oh, you're a great salesman.
I go, I'm a terrible salesman.
I'm a good educator and good consultant.
(18:30):
so the marketer.
Yeah.
I'm okay, but the key is, is I remember when I sold catering and even when we sellsoftware, I had a meeting with somebody who had a bakery the other day and I told them,
look, this is what you can count on us for and we'll do well.
And this is what you can't count on us for based on what you're telling me.
If you can work with this, we're a good fit.
(18:50):
Don't come to me thinking you're going to change.
It's not.
And the same thing is sometimes you have to tell people when you're selling catering,look,
You want to go half pork, half beef, you're going to run out of brisket.
I'm telling you right now, if you were my best friend, I'd tell you order 20 % more on thebrisket side and have a little bit more because the brisket's going to, you know, it just,
(19:14):
it's going to melt and it's going to be gone in two seconds.
And it's true.
You know, a pound of brisket doesn't go as far as a pound of pork.
And as much as you want it to, I don't know if it's less dense or what it is per whatever.
But anyway,
I've earned a lot of business by underselling people and also shooting them straight andsay, look, I wouldn't do that if I were you.
(19:36):
It's a waste of money.
And I think when you have that authenticity, people want to do business with you and theywant to refer you because you're trustworthy.
There's nothing worse than you feel like somebody's taken advantage of you.
hate that.
So I agree 100%.
Okay.
So you've got the packages.
(19:56):
Do y'all do more full service events or drop off events?
We do a lot more drop-off events and we do a lot of box meals.
um so, I didn't say this on TV.
Anyway, um we do help a lot of these sports teams that come in and we do the individualmeals.
Like I fed LSU basketball this past weekend and they had 70 individual meals and theydidn't want catering.
(20:24):
They needed like a platter for each person.
So I had to go in and do open food on Kater's Den for every single one, type in exactlywhat they wanted and their name.
It took me forever, but they were thrilled, you know?
And Kater's Den made it easy.
I mean, it was time consuming, but I don't know how I would have done it without.
(20:45):
Well, that's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
mean, you do have to have, you know, well, you don't have to have flexibility, but if youwant to be successful in catering.
You want to have some level of flexibility.
You have to take care of people.
Give them what they want.
I mean, there's so much competition out there.
If you don't give people what they want, they're going to go to the next person.
Yeah, I mean.
they remember when you go out of the way for them, they remember.
(21:06):
Yeah, I mean, I think you have to stay in your wheelhouse and what you're good at.
can't, you're not going to put caviar on a barbecue platter.
But no.
But if they want individual meals for athletes.
And they're gonna have box meals with ribs, but they wanted ribs and you know, they wantedplates with eight ounces of meat, not five ounces.
They're athletes.
(21:27):
They're gonna eat.
They're gonna go through a lot of right?
And I'm sure they paid for it.
wasn't, you you didn't give it to them for free and you know, you made a good profit onit.
I'm not a big fan of individually boxed meals, but I get it.
I don't think the food travels as well.
Now, you know, if you're doing a deli sandwich all day long.
you know, barbecue, it's a little more difficult.
(21:49):
We've got it down.
Honestly, like I've been to events where I've eaten a box meal and they're still reallyfresh.
I don't know how but they really stay the way we package it.
Yeah.
So let's talk.
Let's say that I came to work for you today and you were going to train me on how to sellcatering, right?
(22:10):
um No sales experience, you know, no coursework.
What are the
first two, three, walk me through some of the things you would teach me to be successfuland, you know.
Number one is you have to work in the restaurant for a few days and learn the menu.
Okay.
And then I would have you shadow the catering person to see how they put together cateringorders and study the catering menu.
(22:37):
And then I would have you go on a few deliveries and then I would take you out and showyou how to talk to people about it.
Okay.
So together, but it's training on
zen is super important.
Okay, so let's let's let's walk through.
Okay, I understand the menu.
I've been out on catering.
I've seen it set up.
I understand a day in the life of the operations part, right?
(22:59):
Because you do have to understand how operations work because you have to use what yousell operations has to deliver you can't oversell it.
You can't undersell right?
Because if you promise the world and operations goes out there and screws it up because
you're overselling it, you make everybody look bad and you lose, you know, we're not inthe one catering business, right?
(23:21):
It's in the repeat catering.
That's where the money's at, right?
Even if you have big events, it's all in the repeat.
So let's talk about prospecting.
You know, I'm, I'm new to Nashville.
You and I just opened up a barbecue restaurant and you go, Michael, this is how we'regoing to build our catering business.
Now you were lucky you had connections at your last place.
a Rolodex.
I didn't with Mo's.
I didn't with Mo's.
(23:42):
I started from the ground up.
Okay.
So let's take.
Yeah.
Okay.
do you do?
What do you do?
How do you get a, what kind of list of people are you looking for?
What are you doing?
Let's walk everybody through.
Because I think people leave a lot of money on the table by not hustling catering.
I hustled it because I knew that was significant revenue for the restaurant, which equaledsignificant profit.
(24:04):
Because overheads high, labor's there.
It doesn't take anything to run two or $3,000 through the register before you open themarket.
sales.
Right.
sales.
it's not location dependent.
You could drive 10 miles to drop off the food.
People aren't driving 10 miles for lunch to come to your restaurant.
They're just, unless they're passing through or you have a really, really good draw, I'mnot driving 10 miles to go eat lunch.
(24:29):
That's very key what you said, because it's very true.
There's no reason you can't deliver and bring people and then they may drive because theyhad you at lunch at work and said, my God, that's
Yeah, or though, you know, when I'm going to that part of town, you live in HendersonValley, live in Eastern Nashville, it could be someplace in Franklin.
Hey, I'm going to be close to Franklin.
I had this food at Linda's, the daughter's party, and now I want to eat there.
(24:52):
Exactly.
Or, hey, I'm having something for my kid.
I'm going to get them to cater because the food was great at Linda's.
So it's it's definitely cross promotional.
So where do you go start building a list and going after people?
first thing that you do is you do a search.
all the businesses that have more than 10 employees in a three mile radius of your store.
(25:13):
It's a great way to start.
start.
Are you buying a list?
No, you just Google it.
You don't have to spend any money.
I've never in my life paid for lead, that I will tell you.
I've always generated myself.
So you've never paid for a prospecting list?
No.
Okay.
Never.
Great.
(25:33):
So I go out and I find 100 businesses that have 10 or more employees.
Mm-hmm.
Where do you go from there?
I?
Personally like to go visit them but today's day and age with security the way it is it'snot easy to phone call So you start off on the phone you try to get the decision maker You
introduce them and you ask if you can come by with samples and some coupons Okay, okay, ifyou can try to get away just stop by with some coupons and stuff But if you have to bring
(26:01):
samples you bring samples
the other thing that you do is you put a fishbowl at your cash register and you askeverybody to drop a business card in.
because anybody coming in your business is more likely to cater with you and you make sureyou utilize those Leads those are all those are hotly Yeah, because they know your food
(26:23):
and if they like you they're gonna tell you who to do you Do you look up the name of thedecision-maker?
You just call them the receptionist?
I usually, I try to look it up, but I found that there's always someone that answers thephone and they are mostly gonna be nice and give you the information.
It's a lot faster.
I try to both ways.
The calling seems to be better.
(26:44):
And you do you look for like I know I would look for human resources when I going afterbigger I asked for yeah, I usually ask for human resources or event planners depending
upon what kind of business it is Yeah, but this
food is that every business and every person is a potential client.
It's not just one industry.
(27:06):
So at the beginning, you want to do a broad kind of thing.
And then you might want to find, well, my food people, the construction people love this.
So maybe I'm going to go for that kind of business or, you know,
know, it's just it really depends on your demographic.
Yeah, I think to your point, I think you've got two markets.
(27:26):
have the broad like
10 or more employees, right?
And then you have niches because you know that every year in May in Nashville, there'sthousands of kids graduating high school.
How can I get those people?
So I wanna tap back into the thing you said about the fish bowl.
So what we did when I had my restaurant is the challenge with the business card is,
(27:53):
you don't have any qualifying information, right?
So you have to call, is it the state farm agent and there's 20 people in the office orthere's two people in the office, right?
uh We had people fill out a form that they had to tell us where they worked, who was incharge of ordering, catering, how many people, how often, and they could win a we had a
(28:15):
catering giveaway for 10, catering for 10 for their office, right?
And so we were doing this manually.
um And we would send everybody a letter, know, one person would win, everybody would getsecond prize, which is free dessert.
And we would, you know, send it to the catering decision maker.
So that was more manual, but giving you a little heads up of what's coming down the pikewith our new CRM and cater zen later this year.
(28:41):
We're building QR codes m that you can put on a sign, like register to win a free cateringgiveaway for 10 people.
in your office, scan QR code, and then it takes them to their phone.
It's a mobile landing page that they can fill out the information while they're in line topick up food or sitting at the table.
(29:03):
um And then it ends up in a marketing sequence where you can automatically market to themand it fires off emails and does calls.
what you're doing- Then you merge it into your CRM?
Yeah, it comes into the CRM.
And now you have a prospecting list, right?
Yeah.
And um the great thing about that is you don't have to do any manual labor, right?
(29:27):
You don't have to key in the cards.
You don't have to fire off a sequence.
You could set that up pretty much automatically, right?
Yeah.
So that's going to save you time.
But if you think about where else do you want to collect qualified names?
You know, let's just take the city of Nashville.
Well, if you do a lot of weddings and rehearsal dinners,
(29:49):
You go to bridal shows, do some sampling.
Isn't that a great way to put out a QR code, register to win a free rehearsal dinnervalued at $600, put your name in, and then you can market to all those brides about the
rehearsal dinners.
Chamber functions, you go and you meet 200 people at the Williamson County Chamber or theSumner County Chamber.
(30:13):
All those people could send you business, right?
Because even if their office does an order,
They go to churches or members of organizations.
know, everybody, if they don't order catering, they influence or they know where cateringis.
So there's a lot of that.
And one of the things I'm most excited about is uh graduation parties.
(30:34):
So where do you get a list of all the parents of high school seniors?
Well, you can go to mailing list brokers and maybe they're good, maybe they're bad.
But, you know, your daughter went to beach high school with Jillian who works
with me, so I you're familiar with Beach.
Well, everybody who's ever had a kid who's a senior in high school, what do they do?
They have college open houses, right?
(30:57):
Like here's financial aid, we have colleges, just two or three evenings where the parentsare gonna come in and you're trying to figure out where your kid's gonna go to school, how
you're gonna pay for it, things that you need to know.
Well, why wouldn't Central go out and say, hey, we wanna bring dessert to Beach HighSchool for the parent, you
senior night, whatever.
(31:17):
And then you have the QR code registered to win a free graduation party.
And now you've registered all the people who are interested in central barbecue.
You got a whole database of those people.
So come the spring, you can start bombarding them and saying, hey, you know, we were at,you know, the senior open house.
And if you want to do something for your kids, we got this going on and low hanging fruit.
(31:37):
And so you could go to Hendersonville High School, Gallatin High School, you know, three,four high schools in that area.
you've got more more businesses that you you could pick up.
And so that's something that's going to help because people are looking to pick upbusiness and they don't want to pay a third party for business.
(32:01):
want to.
are very dependent on social media too and they think that just by having social mediait's going to change their business and it's a real combination of everything.
As you know Michael I'm a relationship builder and like what you're saying like I go to
belong to the chambers and all these organizations.
And because of the relationships I've built from attending those events live, I get a lotof catering, referrals and business, not necessarily from the person I know, but from
(32:26):
someone they send my way.
Yeah.
And that's very important.
referrals are everything for sure.
Well, if you're doing a good job, you're going to get referrals.
And if you're doing a bad job, you're not.
And that's telling you something.
Go focus on the quality and the execution.
So you go out, you see these people, you bring coupons, you bring samples.
(32:47):
What next?
I always, when I meet people, I always do a follow up email.
Within 48 hours of meeting them, I do an introductory letter.
I say, hi, so great to meet you at, and I try to name the event, so they put a face withthe name.
I offer them the discount coupon for catering.
Invite them to lunch.
(33:09):
If I think that they actually order catering, then I'll try to set up a one-to-one withthem at the restaurant so they can have my food for free.
And...
a lot of people in.
It's really nice.
You have some one-on-one time and they get a sample everything.
invite people to lunch all the time.
It's great.
Yeah, for sure.
Anytime you want to come.
Anyway, uh I appreciate that.
(33:31):
I might take you up on that when I'm back in Nashville.
So you follow up with them and send an email.
What percentage?
Then they're in my CRM.
So I send the email first and then I take the business cards and I add them all to CRM.
And then about every six to eight weeks, I do like an email thing through the CRM.
A bulk email.
(33:51):
A bulk email.
And then I do reports to find out who hasn't ordered in a while and I follow up with them.
And so it's just that it's just staying in touch with people and staying relevant.
You know, that's really the key.
I would agree.
for the events.
You know, I think it was pie in the sky.
Have you ever eaten a pie in the sky pizza?
(34:13):
used to be in that It's not around anymore, but I remember them.
They had a, they had some, I think it was artichoke and red pepper pizza.
love the guy was in the music business, super nice guy.
And he had a catering sales rep and I met with her about our software years and years ago.
She goes, yeah, my boyfriend's in sales and he taught me something very important.
The fortune is in the followup.
(34:34):
And, and.
So often people get those orders, they don't follow up.
Hey, you hadn't ordered from a while.
Hey, I brought you a free lunch three weeks ago.
What's going on?
You got to follow up, follow up, follow up and stay in front of people because you neverknow when somebody is going to want.
I mean, I've had people who've held onto my marketing material for years and then all of asudden they remember me and they come back.
(34:58):
But you're not going to get that if you don't stay in front of them.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Phenomenal.
uh
tips and you know now with AI and some things we want to build down the road is you knowthe ability to not only figure out okay on a high level you say hey if somebody hadn't
ordered in 45 days I'm gonna reach them wouldn't it be nice to know who needs to bereached out when based on how often they order and AI is going to be able to do that for
(35:26):
you and say okay Michael orders once a week haven't seen him in three weeks well I don'tneed to wait 45 days he could be off the planet
I need to reach out after two or three weeks because he has an order.
His cadence is swapped.
So I think AI is short term, know, whether Elon Musk is right and nobody's going to haveto work again or robots are going to take over the whole world.
(35:48):
I don't know.
You know, the Jetsons, I don't know.
But I can tell you short term, the software and the businesses that adapt AI to makebetter decision-making, they're the ones that are going to have an unfair advantage in the
market.
It scares me a little bit.
AI, the whole thing is a little bit...
(36:08):
Did you write that or did AI write that, you know?
know, probably a combination.
I haven't really used it.
I've been trying not to, but I'm going to have no choice after a while.
I tell you one thing, I don't even use Google.
The only time I use Google now is if I need to look up something like on Google Maps orplaces.
(36:28):
But I use chat GPT.
I went to the doctor last week for my annual checkup.
and I took all my blood, you all the test results.
I copied them, put them in a document, uploaded Chachi BT and I said, hey, you're one ofthe top concierge doctors for men, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
want you to analyze these test results and tell me.
(36:51):
And literally I got a better report than my doctor would have given me.
That's how good it is because it takes everything and blends it together.
And you're getting like the best physician on the planet.
I mean, you know, I'm not going to go see a doctor GPT today.
(37:13):
One day there might be a device you hook yourself up.
But to have it take all your test results and next year you can say, here's my testresults.
Am I doing better or worse?
It's it's crazy what's out there.
crazy.
We use it for everything.
OK, so we're getting towards the end of our time together.
Any other tips for building a catering sales program that you want to share?
(37:38):
You need to also make sure that you call every client the day after their order and makesure that everything was great and ask for feedback.
And if you get a voice message, leave a message saying, I would like feedback, good orbad, it would really help us.
And try a second time if you don't hear from them because the customers really appreciatethat attention.
(38:00):
It's really, I think that
that has been my main source of success is that I always.
follow through with my clients, stay in touch with my clients and make sure that they'rehappy from beginning to end.
I think that's, that's very sound advice.
mean, this is just good common sense stuff.
Why do you think a lot of people in our industry aren't proactive building their cateringprograms?
(38:26):
Whether it's them or how much, how important it is for their business.
I don't think people realize that in today's day and age with everybody not wanting to goout still, and everybody's doing this delivery stuff, that if you don't have a good
catering business, you're not going to make it in the restaurant business.
mean, the overhead's just too high.
(38:47):
I would agree.
I mean, I did a third of my business in catering and obviously led me to helping otherpeople with catering and then, you know, starting the software business.
I could not imagine a restaurant unless you're in a captive place like a arena or anairport where catering...
Like Assembly Hall in Nashville where it's all tourists.
(39:09):
Right.
I mean where you know you have a set foot traffic and you're going to be swamped from opento close.
I couldn't imagine not having catering.
I agree.
Well Linda, as always, it's good to kibitz with you and catch up and...
appreciate your business and appreciate you sharing a lot of gems on here.
(39:32):
Well, it's my pleasure.
I'm a fan of your company, so I'm happy to be on here.
We're a fan of you.
Thanks, Linda.
Thanks.
You've been listening to Barbecue Catering Smarts, where we bring you the best ideas,stories, and strategies from across the barbecue catering industry.
We hope today's episode sparked new insights to help you refine your systems, elevate yourcustomer experience, and grow your catering profits.
(39:59):
For more episodes and insights, be sure to subscribe, share, and join us next time.
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