Which is greater: passion or knowledge?
In a restaurant, upselling is essential to get incremental revenue, but it also enhances the customer experience. Add-ons and upgrades makes the customer experience better and puts extra money in your pocket. The challenge lies in making these upgrades appealing and worth it to your customers. Passion for selling the menu will always supersede knowledge of the menu. Knowing the ingredients inside and out, while important, does not connect on an emotional level. Commonly, sales training is purely about what you sell and what is in it. I’d argue you can get further with a passionate server with nearly no knowledge, over the most knowledgeable server who’s “over it.”
Imagine talking about your favorite band. No one tries to explain how incredible The Rolling Stones or Metallica are by just listing lyrics to Satisfaction or Master of Puppets. There’s no context, no draw. To convey what you dig about them, you have to convey the energy, not the data. The same rules apply to selling menu items. When a bartender lists off the ingredients, tasting notes, lager or ale, they completely miss the mark of creating an experience. That’s because there is a power in passion. It’s deeply contagious. When your staff genuinely loves what they serve, it will resonate.
With a passion for the menu, your servers can better influence the customer. They don’t want to miss out on enjoying that item because your staff enjoys it so much. This inevitably leads to incrementally better revenue and the customer is more stoked to eat something other people enjoy rather than just another basic menu item. Instead of simply saying, “This item comes with mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes,” it should be, “This has imported San Marzano tomatoes that I absolutely love, and we get our basil fresh each day. This is the thing I eat every time I finish a shift and I love it.” It’s completely different. By selling with a story and connection, customers have less purchase anxiety and more purchase pride, which is what they came for.
The term “upselling” has a negative connotation. It’s assumed you’re tricking the customer into buying something they don’t want or need. Rather, upselling is a way of helping inform a customer of the ways your restaurant goes above and beyond, ensuring they get the best experience possible. Yes, they’ll pay for the privilege, but it’s a win all around. That’s what happens when upselling is an extension of the conversation, and the only way to get to that extension is through passion.
Even at the bar, instead of giving a monotonous list of the wine and where it comes from, going in-depth about the family that owns the vineyard, what you love to pair this wine with, and why it’s special is going to create a connection. To foster this kind of passion in your staff requires role-playing and it helps to curate base stories you, as the owner, would use to connect with a customer. This way your staff can mimic what you’re passionate about and get a baseline for their own opinions on the menu. Do this and you will create a staff that is more excited to work with their customers, more appreciative of the menu, and darn near zero investment for massive ROI to the bottom line.
Mike Bausch is the owner of Andolini’s Pizzeria in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Instagram: @mikeybausch
