1. Write down your approximate daily customer count.
2. Now write down the number of days you’re open.
3. Multiply number two times number one.
4. Add a dollar sign to the left of your answer to #3.

Look at that last figure long and hard. How’d you like to see that number added to your gross sales this and every year without raising prices or doing any advertising? That’s the Hidden Treasure of Lost Sales in your restaurant: the result of adding only one dollar to your per person check average! You don’t have to be Indiana Jones to find it – it’s hiding in your staff’s ability (or inability) to effectively merchandise your menu.

What better way to increase check averages than by selling more appetizers? The Real-world Selling: Appetizers DVD helps servers learn the skills to increase your sales an their tips. Check it out below.

• Suggest, suggest, suggest. To be successful in sales, you don’t have to push items on customers, but you do have to recommend specific menu items. By telling a customer about your favorite dishes and making pairing recommendations, you’ll improve the level of service you deliver… and you’ll create more satisfied customers. After all, most menus have over hundred items to choose from and most guests appreciate a little guidance!
• Let the food sell itself. When you describe items well, you sell those items… without any direct sales talk. Listing ingredients, telling guests how the chef prepared the dish and describing those details with vivid language gets the guest excited about the dish… and gets you the sale.
• Ask questions. Sometimes just asking if a guest has any questions will easily open up the conversation for you to recommend items and add-ons. Then, ask your own: uncover preferences and make recommendations that will best please your guests.
• Relax. The main challenge most salespeople have is to convince a customer to buy something. You already have a customer that you know if going to buy something. Your job is just to help the customer find what he or she will really enjoy and to create an entire dining experience.
• Be sincere. Customers can tell when you’re trying to “sell” them or “serve” them. If you don’t genuinely want to make customers happy, get out of the hospitality industry.

Need more ways to help your servers become salespeople? Check out the Now That’s Service That Sells! DVD

Sales Mistake # 1: Allowing a prospect to lead the sales process. Do your servers lead the sales process or do they take orders? By asking about preferences, special events, etc., they’ll create opportunities for sales.

Sales Mistake # 2: Not doing the research. How many times does a server need to “check” on ingredients, promotions, specials or items that are no longer on the menu? One visit to the back signals to guests that they are not dealing with a professional.

Sales Mistake # 3: Talking too much. Sure, we’re supposed to entertain our guests, but do we ramble on about specials or do we ask what guests want to know and then tell them?

Sales Mistake # 4: Not being prepared. Pre-shift meetings focus employees and pass along critical information (specials, etc.). Then, it’s up to your salesperson to take the initiative and be ready (have the wine opener in the jacket, anticipate that extra napkins will be needed, bring out the silverware before the salad, etc.).

Sales Mistake # 5: Neglecting to ask for the sale. If you want additional appetizer, drink or dessert sales, you have to ask for them, but many present items without ever uttering these five critical words, “Can I bring you one?”

For ideas on how to motivate your severs and reward their sales behavior, check out Playing Games at Work: 52 Best Incentives, Contests and Rewards for the Hospitality Industry

“I don’t want to be pushy! ”
Suggestive selling is just that — giving your guests all the options that they have to enjoy a well-rounded dining experience.

“I have a lot of regulars and they know what they want.”
Many regulars do know what they want, but they also rely on you to keep them informed of things that are changing.

“I am too busy to suggest all those items.”
Good dialogue fits right into what you’re saying anyway and doesn’t take but a few seconds. Look at the results and the money you can make by just spending a few minutes a night with your guests.

Make suggestive selling fun and easy to implement in your restaurant. Give your servers dialogue that they can customize and make their own. The last thing you need is a group of servers that sound like robots, saying the same lines to each and every table.

Check out this clip from Real World Selling: Start to Finish to see how real servers use suggestive selling to increase sales and tips. Click here for more information.

Your waitstaff, however, can’t sell what they don’t know. To test their product knowledge, design a fill-in-the-blank quiz with appetizers, soups and salads, entrées and desserts listed on the left and space to write in the appropriate extras on the right. On the back of the quiz, have servers write down examples of suggestive selling dialogue pertaining to add-ons. Award lotto tickets to those with the highest scores.

Need more employee incentive ideas to help increase sales? Click here to check out Playing Games at Work: 52 Best Incentives, Contests and Rewards for the Hospitality Industry

Yes! Exactly! He was absolutely right! When the company succeeds, the employees succeed. We admit it! The best way to get to know your guests and make them comfortable is to talk to them. The best thing to talk to them about is your food and beverage. After all, that’s why they’re here. And the best way to get your customers to buy what they came in for is to train your servers to sell it to them. Anyone can be an “order-taker.” It requires service to sell.

The art of the “soft” sell

Please understand that the kind of selling we’re talking about here is suggestive selling, soft selling, not “Used-Car-Salesman-Pushy-Loud-Pinkie-Ring-Checkered-Coat-Platform-Shoes-Buy-or-Die!” selling. Suggestive selling means helping guests make decisions that are good for them. It’s recommending what’s good on the menu, asking questions about what guests are in the mood for, and then helping them choose the food or beverage they’d like.

Suggestive selling is nothing more than recommending (not “pushing”) specific extras, appetizers, sides, desserts and beverages. Suggesting specific items shows guests they’re worth your time; it’s perceived as better service. Bottom line: you and your servers have everything to gain from suggestive selling (higher sales, bigger tips, better service, more business) and nothing to lose (the worst that can happen is that the the guest says “no thanks!”).

Excerpted from Service That Sells! The Art of Profitable Hospitality, the best-selling book in foodservice history. Click here to read more.

If you suggest dessert and a party of two or more hesitates, never say: “I’ll give you a few more minutes” and then leave the table. Instead, suggest they share, using this dialogue: “You know, all of our desserts come with multiple forks!” The same strategy works well when suggesting appetizers.

Another way to guide your guests is to suggest your favorite items. Your endorsement carries a lot of clout. “Make sure you save room for one of our great desserts. The apple pie is my favorite, but the bread pudding is a close second.”

When a guest asks “What’s good today?” describe the specials, and if you’ve tried one that you especially like, remember to endorse it: “I tried the veggie quesadilla before my shift and it’s really good!”

From the interactive waitstaff training workbook Work Smarter Not Harder: The Service That Sells! Workbook. Click here to read more.

• Upselling is enhancing an item already ordered (such as “up-sizing” a value meal or a draft beer, or adding cheese and guacamole to a burger).
• Suggestive selling is describing an item guests have not ordered yet. 
• Situational selling is assessing the situation and informing guests of items or deals that best enhance that situation (let them make the choice).

Knowing why guests are paying a visit makes it easier to sell. Lose the monotone “Would you like to try our special today?” and insincere “I have to tell you about our soups or we get counted off by our mystery shopper,” or “I’m trying to win a contest — would you like to buy a gift card?”

Suggesting enhancements to the meal is a key step in the cycle of service, but the practice needs to be subject to interpretation. While guests may not like to deal with pushy salespeople, there is no doubt they like to spend money and buy things they like or want. Make it easy for the guests to say yes.

From the popular restaurant management book Now That’s Service That Sells! Click here to read more.