25 March 2010
Upselling Techniques for Restaurant’s Staff
Posted by Crystal under: Recession Tips & Tricks .
Training basic upselling strategies to your restaurant’s staff is something every owner/operators should do. By implementing successful upselling strategies, restaurants can easily sell more expensive items, add-ons, and otherwise make a sale more profitable. Upselling is a valuable marketing strategy that uses the power of suggestion to get a customer to spend more money. Consider the following important techniques:
Products to Promote. It always makes sense to promote high margin items. Make sure your staff has a thorough knowledge of menu items, drink menu, and wine menu in order to sell appropriately. Inform servers what your high profit menu items are. Also, promote high margin alcohol products, such as certain branded liquors, branded beers, snacks, and so on. Train your staff what ingredients are in a dish, and make sure the staff knows what each dish tastes like, what the best accompaniments are. However, make sure your staff promotes only those items that are of value to the customer.
Opportunity Spotting. Usually, upselling involves marketing more profitable products, such as a certain menu dish or a bottle of wine. However, upselling also helps customer identify other options that he may have not considered earlier. Train your staff to spot those items that customers forgot to order, or items that customers never thought of ordering in the first place. For instance, great opportunities for upselling are suggestions for appetizers, accompaniments, and drinks. Staff should always be ready to offer appropriate side orders. After dinner, always present diners with dessert menus, without asking if they want one. Use imaginative descriptions of dessert menu items to appeal to your customer’s taste buds. Train your servers to upsell on certain desserts, dessert wine, or after-dinner drinks, such as coffees and teas.
Promotion – Behavioral Strategies. Have your staff experience your dishes first hand so that they have immediate knowledge of the product and more willingness to promote certain items. It will also give confidence to servers to talk about such dishes, and staff will be able to give more credible presentation of certain upsell items. Teach your staff to entice customers to buy certain products by describing the ingredients, the cooking process, and the presentation of the dish. Train your staff to ask questions to identify customer’s wants and needs. Teach your staff the importance of actively listening to customer preferences, provide service staff with the best strategies regarding how to make suggestions and identify the alternatives for customers.
Incentives. Set clear objectives and incentives for your staff. While the staff should not push the customer or use hard sell techniques, do identify those menu items, wine bottles or other products that you want your staff to promote. Tie their upselling activity to incentives. For instance, provide a bonus to servers who sell a certain number of high margin items. Other incentives may include gift certificates, free wine bottles, or free movie tickets.
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