HIGH-END LIQUOR — THE ART OF THE UP-SELL
Tags: Restaurant Business, Operations, Wine, Higher Education, Restaurant

HIGH-END LIQUOR — THE ART OF THE UP-SELL

LOUIS XIII

Are your margins tight, up-selling should be a natural go-to, for increasing revenue and making your employees more money from tips

Guest:

“I’ll take a vodka and 7 please.”

Server

“Grey Goose fine?”

Guest

“Sure”

Right there you went from making $1.50 on that drink to $5 in just three words. Your Guest will spend more with you, you just have to ask them for it.

Most Guests won’t be offended by you offering them a choice, they will actually appreciate it. Employees should want to learn this skill as well so as an operator it shouldn’t be hard to get your staff on board with the up-sell. Bigger checks equal bigger tips so it benefits the server to up-sell any chance they get without gauging the Guest in turn ruining their experience.

The art of the Up-Sell

Transparency with your guests is always important. I have worked in many high-end establishments where bottle water is $12 a bottle that fills two glasses (no free refills). I’ve seen $500 plus water bills on checks before, it’s not always the happiest of transactions when a Guest sees that water bill and didn’t ask for it or acknowledge that each bottle will be charged to them. Pop it like it’s hot takes on an entire new meaning at that point. Just make sure the Guest knows what they are getting into so there are no surprises at the end of the meal.

Necessity, excitement, true feeling, the authentic sell. People know when you are just selling them, so you must believe in the up-sell’s value. If you are a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, you might have seen the movie Wolf of Wall Street. There is a famous part in the movie where Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) ask his sales team to sell him a pen. Long story short it became necessity that sold the pen and not the pen itself. So, are you finding out what your Guests necessities (NEEDS) are, then selling it to them? If your employees believe in what they are selling it won’t even feel like it’s an up-sell, because the Guests perception feeds off the staff. Have you been to a restaurant and asked the server what is their favorite dish? If the server gets excited about a dish it’s amazing how the Guest gets excited as well without even previously seeing or having tried the dish at all. –

Guest — “Are there any specials today?” or “What’s your Favorite dish?”

Server — “You have to try this!” “It’s our special of the day, I just had a sample before pre-shift and the lobster topping on the filet makes all the difference in the world…!” “I highly recommend it!”

Guest — “That sounds amazing, ill have that”

That was a $14 up-sale for your business and for the servers check and it took no longer than a regular run of the mill order. How are you being creative each day providing value to your Guests in ways to up-sell them?

Knowledge is the final key attribute to the art of the up-sell. The more you know about your food pairing(s) with certain drinks the better you can educate your Guests. This is true across the board in any type of restaurant. A Guest just ordered, duck confit salad to start, seafood alfredo and his date is having Cioppino. You might recommend, that it looks like this is a special night, why not have some champagne or sparkling white wine, it will pair perfectly with the duck confit salad. Then we can move to a sauvignon blanc, I know this amazing vineyard that produces only 2500 bottles a year. We are so lucky to have a case of it here in house. I mean for $125 a bottle for something that only produced 2500 bottle total then it’s gone forever, it’s an amazing value for that wine. This is where memories are made!. In the up-sell.

Do I have to carry Louis XIII to up-sell?

This should be a server’s regular vocabulary speech pattern.

Would you like, Bottled Fiji Water or tap? Would you like 5 ribs or 10? You can add a salad for $3 dollars? Want an extra side for $2? I usually but blue cheese on my filet, would you like to add that?

The process cannot go like this:

Guest — “I’d like the BBQ chicken please.”

Server — “Sounds good.”

Guest — “I’ll take a coke as well please.”

Server — “Ok anything else?”

Guest — “nope that’s it”

You should be up-selling this order!

So what do you start to up-sell? It’s not for me to tell you, you’re not going to find it in an article. This is part of the art, knowledge, right. What is your best seller, what is your worst seller, can you create an up-sell special on your best item? If you know people are buying glasses of a certain wine, do a special on two glasses of wine, the up-sell on could be at 2x rather then the normal 3x. Now the guest sees more value in getting two glasses of wine. So look at what items are a good fit for the up-sell then create a plan to implement it on the floor with your servers.

How are you up-selling your Guests before they even get in the door

What are you selling to your Guests when they are on your website? How many visitors do you get on your site daily, why are you not selling to them? There are so many revenue streams the are passive for a restaurant, but many operations are not taking full advantage of this opportunity.

Creating awareness through documentation, process building and better guest experiences

As you read the end of this article if you can say that this has helped you in some way and you want to continue the DESIRE for something MORE something better for your customers, staff, management and yourself. Ask yourself Do you have the DEDICATION to achieve it and the DISCIPLINE to stay with it? We want to help you succeed in your journey of operating and running a successful restaurant. Are you ready to start achieving what you deserve!

To understand more about what Ghostdocs can do for your restaurant operation go to www.GhostDocs.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog so you can stay up-to-date on the latest restaurant processes, disciplines, and routines for a better guest experience and profitable restaurant business.