• You can train waiters endlessly, but still not be able to increase sales in a restaurant if the menu design is made with errors. A good menu can sell itself: its layout takes into account all the psychological characteristics of the guest so that the average bill increases without any effort from the staff.

  Read about the secrets of designing a selling menu in the article.

• A common mistake made by restaurateurs is a twenty-page menu overloaded with offers. Do you think that if you offer dishes for all tastes and occasions, the more satisfied guests you will have? In fact, the opposite is true: research data confirms that the problem of too much choice creates anxiety among guests.

  And this is just one reason not to make your menu long. Read the article about why a short menu sells better than an overloaded one.

MAKE YOUR WAITS EFFECTIVE SEDUTERS

• There are sales techniques that require minimal staff training and have enormous returns. For example, the “By the way...” technique: with it, the waiter is perceived by the guest not as an intrusive salesman, but as a friend offering professional help.

  Read the article about how a waiter can delicately push a guest to order an additional order.

• The waiter's lack of knowledge of the menu often becomes the reason for poor sales. To prevent this, create an extended menu for waiters. It will help you remember the menu from A to Z with all the details.

  In such a menu, write down the composition of the dishes, the mode and features of their preparation, and the cooking time. Find out which utensils are recommended for each dish. If you can get information about the approximate calorie content of each dish, it will turn out perfect. Accompany each dish with a photo.

  However, there are effective menu memorization techniques developed by specialists. Elena Pobedonostseva talks about them in her comprehensive guide to conducting training for waiters.

APPLY YOUR COLLEAGUES' LIFE HACKS

• To boost your bar's alcohol sales, bet on... snack sales. Because an attractive snack menu offers the majority of guests in the target group exactly what they want. The bar's snacks create an atmosphere of socializing, entertainment and experimentation. Visitors stay longer and spend more. Appetizers have a lower food cost than main courses. It is easier for kitchen staff to prepare and serve snacks in a timely manner.
  

  To learn how to boost cocktail card sales using a not-so-obvious tool, read the article .

• “In our roadside cafe VZS with free-flo service, for several years we offered only standard 200 ml portions of cold drinks - fruit drinks, compotes and homemade jelly. We reasoned like this: the prices for our drinks are affordable even by the standards of roadside establishments (from 20 to 30 rubles per glass), so anyone who finds this volume insufficient can always take two drinks.

  However, we noticed that placing two glasses on a tray is not very convenient, and we decided to purchase double-sized glasses. We also made the offer for buying a large drink more profitable: for example, dried fruit compote, which cost 20 rubles, now costs 25, and a double portion - 40.

  Of course, we expected that guests would take double drinks more often than they previously took two single drinks. However, their popularity has exceeded our expectations: now guests prefer double volume to standard. Already from the first week after the introduction of new glasses, sales of home-produced drinks in VZS cafes increased by 40.89%.”

  Read about other methods to quickly increase sales in the article by Andrey Kondrashin .

DON'T MAKE MISTAKES IN BUILDING YOUR SALES PLAN

• We remind you about such a mandatory tool as. The purpose of this analysis is to increase the profit margin. This is achieved by reducing the average food cost and increasing the overall margin. You will be able to remove from the menu those items that cannot be called profitable, and increase sales of those dishes that bring a good margin.

Sometimes, to increase sales in a restaurant, you just need to take inventory of your production processes. This requires an experienced eye capable of noticing every little detail, a systematic approach, and most importantly, a persistent desire to maximize the efficiency of the restaurant.

I’ll tell you about my experience, which allowed me to speed up all work processes in the restaurant as much as possible and, as a result, significantly increase profits.

Some time ago, our company provided consulting services to a small network. In one of the restaurants (it was the first-born of the chain), due to its favorable location in a shopping complex, business was very successful. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday all tables are occupied, sign up on the waiting list an hour in advance. And at the same time, the revenue is quite good for its area and price level.

The task was this: to increase the maximum revenue so that the restaurant would bring more profit in one specific day.

But how to do that? After all, let me note again, the attendance is in perfect order, and it seems that he is working to the limit of his capabilities.

REVENUE GROWTH WITHOUT INCREASING AVERAGE BILL

INCREASE TABLE TURNOVER

The only way left is to speed up the table turnover (that is, increase the speed of service).

First of all, we focused on the work of the waiters.

• They increased their number so that there were fewer tables per employee and there were no delays in order acceptance and service.
• People who were slower by nature were replaced with faster ones.
• We installed an additional waiter terminal to eliminate the slightest delay in order processing.
• We expanded the distribution area in the kitchen to avoid crowding and confusion at this point.
• We added trays and equipment so that the waiter did not waste precious time waiting for the item he needed to become available, or running across the entire hall to get a tray that he left at the sink.
• We hired assistant waiters to work in the hall, cleaning dirty tables, ashtrays, etc., so that the waiter would primarily take care of the speedy acceptance and removal of orders, without being distracted by anything else.
• We added an additional waiter station.
• They hired a second hostess to increase the efficiency of working with tables, in no case letting them sit empty.

All these measures made it possible to increase the maximum daily revenue by 23%.

OPTIMIZE PROCESSES IN THE BAR

It would seem that everything has been achieved, but let's see what can be done next.

As the speed of work in the hall increased, the bar began to lag behind a little.

• Then we removed labor-intensive items from the bar menu, the preparation of which took a lot of time.
• The number of bartenders was increased to the maximum - exactly to the number that still allowed them to freely fit behind the bar without interfering with each other.
• We optimized the process of preparing labor-intensive items that are absolutely necessary on the menu. For example, we made sure that all the ingredients for making Mojito were at hand, ready to be placed in a glass.
• We purchased an ice maker for frappe, eliminating the need to crush ice manually using mills.
• They introduced a schedule for the preparation of fresh juices, calculating the daily traffic and workload by the hour - the juice was now squeezed out six times per shift, it was fresh and did not stagnate, and at the same time it did not require much time to return during peak hours.
• They put the bass boy on the dishes.

As a result, revenue increased by another 13.5%.

OPTIMIZE PROCESSES IN THE KITCHEN

• We replaced some of the equipment with more productive ones. For example, we installed a powerful deep fryer instead of a small tabletop one, since due to the specifics of the kitchen, many dishes were prepared in it.
• Changes were made to the arrangement of equipment - now each cook made a minimum of unnecessary movements during the preparation of a dish.
• We replaced some of the refrigerators with opaque doors with transparent ones - thanks to this, the cook could see in advance where the product he needed was located, rather than frantically fumbling around in different corners, taking out and rearranging gastronorm containers.
• We adjusted the product placement on the shelves so that the cook did not have to run to different corners of the kitchen to prepare one dish.
• We optimized the procurement by calculating the number of required semi-finished products.
• We streamlined the work of the chef and sous-chefs, moving them from the hot shop to the general regulation of the production process. After all, they must manage the entire team, and not go headlong into one workshop, without sufficient opportunity to see what is happening in others.
• Improved communication between chefs.
• We increased the number of dishes and equipment so that cooks did not have to wait for the missing plates or the necessary frying pan to be washed.
• Dishes that took a long time to prepare have been removed from the menu.

Thanks to all of the above changes, the maximum delivery time for hot dishes was reduced from 40 minutes to 20, and total revenue increased by another 19%.

Now note: thanks to all the work done, we increased the maximum possible revenue of the restaurant by 166%, from the original 300 thousand to half a million rubles a day. Although initially it seemed that the restaurant was a hostage to its small area and would not be able to earn more on these square meters. By the way, all optimization costs paid off quite quickly.

From the book by Sergei Mironov “The guest pays twice. Techniques for increasing sales in a restaurant".

Management is often faced with the task of increasing the average check.

Especially for you, Vyacheslav Taranov, the most famous Moscow restaurateur, reveals the main ways:

1. Offering drinks to the guest immediately after serving the menu. Waiters who offer an aperitif make 5-7% more turnover due to it.

2. “No empty glasses on the table!” - this is the motto of a competent restaurant manager. There is no need to wait until the guest finishes his beer and spend several minutes looking for the waiter to place an order. It will still take some time for the waiter to take the order, write it down, repeat it, and punch the cash register. The bartender also doesn't always pour the beer in a few seconds. All this time the guest does not spend a penny - he does not drink anything! Offer your guest a drink while there is 20 percent of the contents left in his glass! This is your temporary head start, allowing you to make the process of spending money by the guest continuous. Follow this and you will get about 10% more turnover.

3. Dessert. Everyone knows that it should be offered after a hot meal. But how often is this done? “Would you like dessert?” - “No, I don’t want to!” As is the question, so is the answer. The waiter should approach the guest with the menu open on the desserts page and offer his recommendations. This, in turn, will add approximately another 5% to turnover.

4. Active offer of accompanying dishes (side dishes, sauces, branded bread, pies). In terms of price, these items are not at all ruinous for the guest, and an increase in the check by 2-3% due to these items in the monthly profit and loss report gives a very pleasant result, expressed in specific figures.

5. Positioning of dishes on the menu. By providing the most interesting dishes from the point of view of turnover with high-quality photographs, you are guaranteed to increase their sales. At the same time, amateur photographs on the menu evoke a feeling of pity and a feeling of an unprofessional approach to business. Here, as in everything: either do it well, or not do it at all.

6. Ongoing staff training. Just tell the waiters “Sell!” and not teaching them the basics of sales techniques is the same as giving the order to soldiers to “Fight!” and not give them weapons. But this, as they say, is a topic for another conversation.

7. Price increases. The simplest, but not always the correct way. We will not consider it in detail.

8. Offering the most expensive dishes and drinks. The method is, in fact, very questionable in terms of effectiveness. Yes, the guest will spend much more than planned. But will he return? Will he get the feeling that he is being scammed? I categorically do not advise offering a guest the most expensive items from the menu or wine list. If the most expensive item costs $25, offer the guest a $20 item and also give him a $15 alternative so that the guest does not feel awkward not choosing the expensive fish. In restaurants where waiters are trying to sell all the most expensive things on the menu, I immediately remember the saleswomen of half-wilted flowers who offered their goods at an unrealistically inflated price in establishments of the early 90s: “Young man, buy the lady some flowers!” Here you are a loser in any case: if you bought it, you paid twice as much; if you didn’t buy it, you showed yourself to be a miser in front of the girl.

You opened your restaurant or cafe, people found out about it, started coming to you, the first profit appeared, now you have justified all the invested costs. It would seem that everything is fine, if not for a small but.

You noticed that the income, and therefore the profit from your business, stopped at some point and stopped growing. If this does not suit you and you, as the owner of a restaurant business, want to develop, improve the status of your cafe or restaurant, increase income, increase profits, then this article is for you.
Let's look at several key indicators of any business today, the increase of which will help increase profits with minimal investment of time and money.
As you know, increasing profits directly depends on the margin, the number of clients, the average check that a client leaves for you, and the number of returning visitors.
Usually, when sales stop, many try to resume them by increasing traffic (the number of new customers). But attracting new customers is the most expensive way. Statistics say (and you probably see this in your business): attracting a new client costs seven times more than working with existing ones. Therefore, we will talk about attracting traffic in one of the following articles, and today we will pay attention to margin, average check and increasing the loyalty of your visitors, that is, repeat sales.

Margin

Margin is the percentage of your profit from the cost of the product. As for the advantages, this is the least expensive method, so it’s worth starting with. The downside is that the margin cannot be increased indefinitely.
1. The easiest way to increase this figure is to raise the price. If you increase menu prices by 2-5%, then most likely your visitors will not even notice it. For example, in your menu the salad cost 320 rubles. You raised the price by 3% (which was about 10 rubles, and for the client this is not significant). With a margin of 30%, your profit will increase by 10%.
2. Another method (good for cafes and restaurants) is to reduce the portions of served dishes. As a rule, customers don’t notice this either, but you will thereby reduce the cost of producing a particular dish, and the margin will accordingly increase, and your profit will increase.

Increase in average check

The average check, roughly speaking, is how much your client leaves in your cash register, that is, the total sales volume divided by the number of visitors. The work of the staff, the location of dishes on the menu, promotions and bonuses play a big role in increasing the average bill.
3. What does it mean to correctly arrange dishes on the menu? First, divide them into categories so that it is clear where there are salads and where the hot dishes are, where the dishes are meat, and where are fish or vegetarian. Secondly, design it visually. Visual design increases appetite, and your customer will want to order more. Third, focus on high-margin items.
Be sure to focus on new items in the menu. People love to try new things. It will be great if you regularly have new dishes. This will stimulate the interest of your customers, which will make them come to you more often.
4. Upselling. You can upsell directly on the menu, recommending adding a particular dish or snack to the one already chosen.
5. Teach your waiters to upsell. If your client has not ordered dessert, then the waiter should definitely emphasize this. If you chose rolls or sushi, then recommend trying your signature sauce instead of the classic one that is on every table.
6. You can increase the average bill by offering more expensive dishes or drinks. For example, a client ordered the classic “Chicken Caesar” - invite him to try “Shrimp Caesar”, which has a more delicate, refined taste.
7. Another way to increase the average bill is to offer some kind of snack while the client is waiting for his dishes to be served. For example, you can offer a live oyster with a glass of dry wine. This will whet the client's appetite and push him to new orders.
8. If we talk about how to increase the check with the help of promotions, then you can offer the client a gift when purchasing a certain amount. The gift does not have to be expensive; the main thing is that it has high value in the eyes of the client. For example, in a beer bar, when ordering over 5,000 rubles, you get a beer mug as a gift. If you order a batch of these mugs in China, they will cost you mere pennies, and for visitors this is a good motivation to buy something up to the required amount and receive a gift.
9. If your establishment (it doesn’t matter whether it’s a bar or a restaurant) has its own concept, its own brand (and for development they must have), then you can upsell your branded items: if it’s a beer bar, then you can offer mugs or T-shirts with your logo; if you have a fish restaurant, you may have oyster knives or branded plates on sale.

Repeat sales

Another way is to have customers come back to you again and again over a certain period of time. Of course, this indicator is primarily influenced by service, maintenance, cleanliness, and how the dishes are prepared. There are a few more tricks that will bring people back to you.
10. Promotions that make customers return to you, for example: “Buy 9 cups of coffee and get the tenth as a gift” or “Order 9 set meals and get 1 as a gift.” This promotion will work even better if you limit it in time - a week, a month, two.
Well, I just can’t fit into the format of our “Top 10” article and not give you a couple more tips.
11. Attract visitors through children. The more interesting a child is in your establishment, the more relaxed their parents can relax, which means they will bring you more profit. This could include small gifts for children at the entrance, the presence of a nanny, various drawing competitions, and interestingly designed dishes from the children's menu.
When we were on vacation in Thailand with our daughter, we had breakfast not in the cafe of our hotel, but in the cafe that our daughter chose. She literally dragged us there every morning, because every day she was given gifts in the form of several small toys, of which she made up a whole collection during her vacation.
12. You can also increase customer loyalty through compliments from the establishment. While your client is reading the menu, bring him a cup of green tea.
When you bring a gift to a person, then, firstly, it will be inconvenient for him to get up and leave, and secondly, he is more likely to leave you more money. Besides, the next time he plans where to go, he will remember you first.
Your signature jam, which you serve with tea, or freshly baked bread, or your signature seafood sauce can also serve as a complement.
Here are just a few simple ways that can help develop your restaurant business, although the list can go on for a long time.
Of course, each establishment has its own concept, its own status, its own pricing policy, and its own clients. What may work well in a grill bar will not work in a seafood restaurant, and vice versa.
You need to understand your client, his desires, his needs, his financial capabilities, then it will be much easier for you to come up with features for your establishment that will attract the target audience, bring clients to you, and increase their loyalty.
Think about how you differ from your competitors, what unique feature you have, how you can stand out from the crowd of similar cafes, restaurants and bars... After answering these questions, write down a few things that you can implement today. But do not immediately implement all the ways to increase profitability that you consider suitable for yourself. Change everything gradually, so you will see what worked well for you and what didn’t.
Delight your regular customers with small but tasty treats, and they will definitely tell more than a dozen people about your establishment. And you will get new clients completely free of charge.

Vasily Bogdanov, Yana Yakupova,
business consultants

In this article, we will look at the various techniques that are used at different stages of the sales technique.

Sales techniques

1. Clarifying the Guest's needs

2. Offering alternatives (herringbone technique)

3. Nod of agreement (Sullivan nod)

4. A sentence in a positive form without using the particle NOT

5. Colorful description

6. Guide the Guest through the menu

7. First - last

Let's look at them in more detail.

1. Clarification of the Guest's needs. If you ask a guest questions, take the trouble to listen to the answers very carefully. Not only listening, but actually hearing the answers is very important, as this will help you quickly orient the Guest and help him choose. There is no need to offer the Guest Philadelphia (despite the fact that this is one of the most expensive rolls) if the Guest said that he does not like raw fish.


2. Proposal of alternatives (herringbone technique). As a rule, people answer “no” to questions in which such an answer is expected. Try to answer “no” to our questions: “Will you drink anything?” and “Would you like tea or coffee?” The answer “no” for the second option is a little strange, isn’t it? If you ask questions with a set of alternatives, the answer “no” will be much less likely to occur to you. The “Herringbone” technique, which also consists in the waiter’s ability to classify the category of dishes according to a certain criterion, which allows you to speed up the time for accepting an order, determine the guest’s preferences as accurately as possible, and also helps to offer additional ingredients, various sauces and additives.


3. If you want to keep the Guest’s “no” answer to your proposal to a minimum, use a technique called a nod of agreement or a Sullivan nod.” When offering a dish, gently lower your head down and lift it back up (as if you were nodding affirmatively). The guest will repeat your movement and agree with you. To use this technique effectively, you need to practice it on friends without warning them about it.


4. When offering dishes, you should focus on the Guest’s wishes, and not on the price on the menu. The guest may agree with your proposal and be outwardly very pleased, but conclude for himself that he was “hyped” and forced to spend extra money. Next time he will think before visiting our bar, and will definitely remember the waiter - the “offender”. And don't use the particle "not".


5. Colorful descriptions of dishes. Once you find out what the Guest wants, you can advise him on a specific dish (set of dishes) from our menu. At the same time, in the description it is worth mentioning exactly those properties that interested the Guest: “This is a very satisfying dish” (for those who are very hungry). “This dish is a masterpiece from our chef” (for gourmets). “This dish will be prepared within five minutes” (if the Guest is in a hurry). When describing the merits of dishes, it is better to present information in the form in which the Guest wants to receive it. Come up with a colorful description for each dish, and you will see how quickly your Guests will begin to decide on their order, and how easily and naturally you can sell expensive dishes and drinks.


6. Guiding the Guest through the menu is based on offering Guests dishes from each menu category. First, you need to find out for what purpose certain Guests came to our establishment. If the Guest has come to have a hearty lunch or is visiting us for the first time, here the menu is managed in full. The waiter offers dishes from each category, which will allow you to ensure your check is full and increase your revenue. An experienced waiter, when accepting an order, sees from which categories of dishes the Guest has not yet ordered and offers it himself.


7. When offering alternatives, remember the “First – Last” rule. People usually remember the first and last thing you say to them. You can convince the Guest to order a specific dish if you mention it twice at the beginning and at the end of the sentence. “We have a wonderful selection of desserts. Be sure to try (Sullivan nod) Fruit Tempura.” First you mention desserts in general, and then you give a specific example. This gives the Guest a barely noticeable psychological “push”, thanks to which he can agree with the waiter.