Audio Seminars

These are unedited recordings of Bill's live seminars on audio CD. All programs are 16.95.

How to Prosper in Tough Times
You can count on it. Every time the economy gets strong, it is eventually going to contract. You can't do much about that ... but the impact that economic ups and downs have on your business is very much up to you. Among other things, this program covers three things you need to be doing right away to protect your profits, two simple programs that can help keep your sales volume up, menu adjustments that will increase traffic, how to lower your average check and increase profitability, how to use an economic slowdown to make you stronger, where to focus your marketing efforts (and what sort of marketing to do) and how to keep your sanity while you ride out the storm.

There's GOT to Be an Easier Way to Run a Restaurant!
If you've ever thought, "there HAS to be an easier way to do this!" you are going to love this program! You know that running a restaurant is often an exercise in exertion. Devotion and dedication are certainly worthy qualities but there is more to this business than just hard work. In this politically-incorrect program, Bill shines a light on unconscious assumptions that many managers make -- notions that hinder effectiveness, increase stress, and make the game of business less fun to play.

Prospering in the Age of Service
This program can help you start to gain an entirely fresh perspective on what makes people tick and why organizations function as they do. However, the insights that will change your life are not on the channel you were trained to listen to. This is about reaching a new level of understanding rather than absorbing a body of knowledge. To get the full impact of the message, I suggest that you listen to this program several times. The first time, the ideas may strike you as things you already know. But if you are willing to keep your mind open, by the time you listen to this program the sixth time or so, you will suddenly start to hear exciting new ideas that you missed completely in the first passes -- and that is what will make all the difference.

Cashing In On Complaints
Nobody likes to get complaints but if you know how to mine it, there is gold in those gripes! Complaints are pure feed-back from your guests, telling you where your service system broke down. The operator who can respond positively to a complaint, who understands how to effectively deal with the disgruntled guest, who truly sees the grievance as good news rather than a personal affront, is in the best position to profit from the disappointed diner and tap this rich source of information to improve service and increase future sales. This program can help you gain the perspective you need to understand what your guests are really worth and the skills to deal with -- and profit from -- the complaints you are sure to receive in the normal course of business.

Why Guests Don't Come Back and What You Can Do About It
Details, details, details - famed hotelier James Nassikas calls them "monumentally magnificent trivialities" -- on which the success of your business hinges. Is there a spot on your table cloth? Is there confusion over which guest ordered which dish? Is it too dark to read the menu? Is the butter so hard it tears the bread? Are hot dishes lukewarm by the time they reach the table? Minor inconveniences such as these can ruin a guest's evening -- and your business! This program looks at some of the seemingly insignificant details that can add up to cause guests to become disenchanted and take their business elsewhere. It is a light-hearted exercise in looking at the operation entirely from your guest's point of view ... the only perspective that really counts!

50 Money-Making Marketing Ideas
Every restaurateur wants to build sales but nobody has an unlimited advertising budget and most operators have had only limited success with increasing check averages. Fortunately, there are ways to boost volume that are simpler, more effective, much less risky ... and almost free! The secret is to get existing guests to come back more often. This program will give you 50 painless prescriptions that can help you not only increase sales but gain the enthusiastic backing of both your guests and your staff in the process!

Guest-Based Marketing
Every restaurateur wants to build sales but nobody has an unlimited advertising budget and most operators have had only limited success with more traditional sales-building approaches. Fortunately, there is way to boost volume that is simpler, more effective and much less risky than anything you have ever tried before. Based on extensive, real-world experience gathered from a wide variety of foodservice operations, Bill has evolved Guest-Based Marketing, a painless prescription that will help you not only increase your gross sales but gain the enthusiastic backing of both your guests and your staff in the process!

One-on-One Marketing: The Server as an Independent Business Person
Servers are essentially independent business people with a small four or five table restaurant to run (or whatever the size of their station). The better they run their small restaurant, the more money they can make ... for themselves and for the restaurant. This unconventional program will help the service staff to better understand the concept of independent business and what they can do to make their small operation more successful and profitable!

Marketing Advantages of the Independent Operator
The foodservice market is growing ... and so is the number of restaurants competing for the dining dollar. The race is on and you are running with the big dogs. Good independent operators can take on the chains and beat them at their own game ... provided they know how to play! In this program, you will learn the rules of engagement in this battle for market share and understand the factors that determine who grows and who goes.

How I Cut My Food Cost by 10% Overnight
Have you ever wished for a way to control costs that is easy to administer, very effective and that will save you those endless days of calling vendors for their "best prices?" Food purchases are a major expenditure in any foodservice operation but the ways that you were taught to control food cost may actually be costing you money! In this no-nonsense program, Bill shares his experiences with an unconventional approach to food cost control that is so easy to administer and so very effective, it is almost embarrassing. When you understand what contributes to the cost of the food you buy, you will see the common sense of exploring a prime vendor relationship for your restaurant.

Finding the Right People
You know you can't make a quality product with substandard ingredients. When it comes to creating a high quality staff, the finished product will never be any better than the people that you hire. Most managers know they need to do a better job of staff selection, but they just don't have the time ... because they are too busy cleaning up the messes made by the last people they hired (that they shouldn't have hired) because they did not have enough time to spend in staff selection! If you want to break this vicious circle and start to staff your restaurant with the best of the best, this program can help. It outlines three simple practices that will help you get the right people -- the first time -- without making it another career!

Retention is Better than Recruitment
If you didn't lose so many people, you wouldn't need to find and hire so many people. Every foodservice operator is concerned with turnover but it is much more than just an expensive nuisance -- it has a negative effect on every aspect of your business including your reputation, your service ... and your bottom line. As it gets harder to find quality workers, you certainly can't afford to have good people leave as fast as they arrive. This program will give you some common sense ideas and insights that can help you understand how to slow the revolving door and do a better job of retaining good workers.

Five Great Ways to Build Sales ... and One Really Lousy One
There are really just a half dozen ways to build sales without developing additional sources of revenue. All six ways will work, but five of them are foolproof, inexpensive, work well and can be implemented quite easily ... while one is costly, risky, difficult to evaluate and only marginally effective. Guess what approach most operators take when volume starts to slip? You guessed it -- the lousy one! This no-nonsense session examines the pros and cons of all six sales-building techniques. Bill shares proven secrets that will help you put more money on the top (and bottom) line and open your eyes to the realities of growing volume in the real world.