Upselling Techniques
There are many opportunities for upselling in your restaurant. Not taking advantage of these opportunities can cost you a lot of money. It is important your wait-staff is trained on how to capitalize on these opportunities, as it will increase sales — thus your bottom line. This along with good management can be done when you follow these various techniques.
Three basic areas to outline for upselling are:
1. Set opportunities
2. Upsell
3. Spontaneity (monitor customer needs)
Set Opportunities
A set opportunity means that there are set times that are best to suggestive selling, from the time the customer enters the restaurant to when they leave.
Opportunity # 1 — When the customer is first seated at his/her table – this is the best time to let them know about drinks and mention any specialties, whether it be wine by the glass or a new kind of martini.
Opportunity #2 — When the order is taken — Rather than ask what would you like to order – suggest specialties of the day, signature dishes or favorites of the restaurant.
Opportunity #3 — When desert is ordered — Desert orders can be tricky as customers can be a bit full and worried about their waistline. However, training your wait-staff to seductively describe available deserts or describe their favorite can sometimes entice customer/s to order desert.
Upselling
As a general rule, when a customer orders one thing, make sure to train your wait-staff to upsell and offer side dishes with their entrée ie; ala carte items (sides) to go with the main course. And if they decline desert, offer after dinner drinks.
Down Selling
An opposite and different approach is down selling. Down selling is suggesting a higher priced and/or quality item when customer is first ready to order – this can work especially if the customer is indecisive.
Spontaneity
This works when the suggestion is made impromptu. An example might be a “top up” on a half full wine glass. A good bar wait-staff or bartender are usually good at this. With training, spontaneous suggestive selling will improve product knowledge, confidence and team motivation.
