Suggestive selling is one of the most effective ways to increase your store’s revenue and profitability. Even small additions to your customer orders, such as chicken wings, a side salad or drinks can potentially add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars over a year in incremental revenue. Upselling also helps you grow your loyal customer base by raising awareness of your diverse menu and turning customers into loyal consumers of dishes items they weren’t previously aware of. And in some cases, it can even help you with inventory control.
Learn how you can maximize your revenue by upselling to each person who calls your store.
Teach Your Team How to Upsell Effectively
A large percentage of your clients still prefer to talk to a person when ordering and respond best to suggestive selling when your team recommends add-on items over the phone. Train your staff to recognize every upsell opportunity and suggest side orders or drinks relevant to each customer order.
A feature-rich phone system allows you to record client conversations, so that you can show each new team member both positive and negative examples of upselling. Understanding where the fine line lies between effective selling and behaviors that come across as pushy can help your staff calibrate their upsell strategies appropriately.
Call Monitoring and Whisper Coaching can also be effective tools for upsell training. They allow you to listen to client calls for quality assurance, coach your staff through upsell opportunities without the client hearing, and even jump into a conversation to save a sale when needed. Investing in your team’s training and providing guidance when they need it can help turn your staff into an effective selling machine.
Upsell Before You Even Answer the Phone
When your store is busy and orders need to be taken in a rush, your team may not have time for suggestive selling. But a feature-rich phone system can help you ensure that the upselling continues even during the lunch or dinner rush. Recording and playing short promotional messages to callers on hold allows you to upsell to each customer before your team even answers the phone.
Chains that have implemented pre-recorded upsell messaging have seen a 25%-30% increase in their revenue across locations. In addition, playing these gentle, yet persuasive promos not only boost the average order value, but it can also ensure that your value propositions are communicated correctly every single time.
A robust VoIP phone system can help ensure that all your upsell messages are in-tune with your client’s needs. With timed, day-of-week or time-of-day scheduling, you can push lunch and weekend specials when your customers are most receptive or advertise a promotion throughout the week leading up to a special event. Playing the right message at the right time can go a long way in maximizing each order.
Suggestive selling is one of the best ways to increase your restaurant’s revenue, whether you have a great sales team or need to rely on pre-recorded promotional messages. Ensure that you are making the most of all the upsell tools at your disposal take full advantage of each order.
