The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. Continuous learning drives everyone to find a better way, every day. It’s not an expense, it’s an investment in continuous renewal.  - Jack Welch , former CEO GE The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.  - Max De Pree Economics 101: “In other words, if your outgoings exceed your income, then your upkeep will be your downfall.”  - Moe Howard of The Three Stooges explaining economics to brother Curley The haves and have nots can be traced back to the dids and the did nots. Measure what matters…the measurements that should matter most to us are the measurements that our customers use. Never get into fights with ugly people because they have nothing to lose.  - Jim Buelt CLICK HERE To order the animated QuoteZILLA  Meeting Energizer

“I could motivate my employees with fear.  I could motivate my employees with incentives.  What I have chosen to do, though, is to motivate by offering the opportunity for growth and change.  When you offer the opportunity for growth and the chance for someone to change his life, you have an employee who is working with you, someone who sees your goal and his goal as the same one.  Such an employee brings enthusiasm to the workplace that is hard to equal.” - Paul Saginaw, cofounder of Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, Mich., As seen in The Motivational Manager, January 2004.

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If you’re not out selling
you’re being outsold.
From Jim Sullivan, CEO
Copyright 2004 Sullivision.com

For many foodservice operations, the period between Labor Day and New Year’s Day is the four busiest months of the year. So now’s the time to “make hay while the sun shines” relative to your team’s suggestive selling and upselling skills. Here’s a few basics that go a long way to both improve service and increase sales.

First things first. Cleanliness and order accuracy are prerequisites to selling anything. The cleaner the table, the more you sell, and if the order isn’t right, it’s irrelevant what you “up-sold”. Keep it clean and double check every order before inputting into the POS system.

Use the Sullivan “Nod”. This great piece of body language can increase incremental sales as much as 60%. Salespeople should smile and slowly nod their head up and down as they suggest an item to a customer. You’ll be blown away by the fact that over 60% of the time the customer nods right back with you and takes your suggestion! For instance:

Customer: I’d like a vodka/tonic please.
Server:  Would you like to try Stolichnaya (nod) or Absolut (nod) in that, sir?
Customer: (mesmerized) Sure. Put em both in there!

The Sullivan Nod even works over the phone for room service orders. It is a powerful tool. I always teach it in my seminars (and it’s featured in our popular MYOB Live! DVD for servers) and I’ve got a file folder of no fewer than 200 hundred letters from salespeople and their managers testifying to its effectiveness.

Sample Before the Shift. Try this tip from Larry Griewisch, owner of the multi-unit Jackson’s Sports Grill concept in Denver, CO.: If you want your sales team to sell more salads, entrees, appetizers, or desserts, let them try bite-sized samples before the shift. Tasting creates commitment and endorsement. Larry also recommends that your team then practices describing the items out loud to one another after they taste them in a pre-shift meeting so they can use the right words with their guests.

Think “Capture Rate”. In a recent issue of Promotions newsletter, Brian Williams from the Doubletree Hotels offered this advice: “If you only look at straight [volume] numbers, then your busy shifts will always produce the ‘winners’.”  Instead Brian suggests focusing in on the up selling “capture rate.” He explains: “If a server sells three out of ten people a featured product, then the capture rate is 33%. You want to reward the employee who is most successful with increasing these numbers.”

Have Servers Compete With Their Own Sales “Records”
“Selling competitions succeed when a server competes with his or her own track record,” says Jay Cone, former director of human resources for East Side Mario’s in Dallas. Jay gives this example: if your records show that a particular server usually sells one appetizer for every seven entrees, challenge her to increase the ratio to one in every five, then split the additional profit with the server 50-50. 

Pair up suggestions. This means training your sales team to practice selling in “pairs”. You can do this by playing a simple game before each shift for 60 seconds called “I Say/You Say”. The manager begins: “I’m a customer and I say I’ll have a Hershey’s chocolate brownie, what do you say in reply, Mary?” Then hopefully Mary says something like: “I say, how about some vanilla ice cream or coffee with that?”

What isn’t tried won’t work, train your team daily!
 

Looking for the best speaker in the industry for your next manager conference? Click here to see Jim Sullivan’s Seminar Demo Video.