Increase Restaurant Sales
1. Restaurant Coupon Contest for Servers
Create coupons (2-4-1, 50% Off, Free Dessert, or any other restaurant promotion you want) and give them to your employees to hand out to their friends. Mark the coupons so you know which employee handed the coupon out after you get them back. The employee who gets the highest return rate wins. Put a time limit on it on the contest so the employees push their friends to come in soon to take advantage of the coupon. Start the contest after all coupons have been given out and the servers give you a list of who received the coupons (this will prevent the servers from giving out the coupons during their shift).
2. Show your Servers how to earn an Extra $50 per month
Have a server sales meeting and conduct it as follows: Go around the room and ask everyone if they had an extra $50 per month, what would they do with it? Start their thinking process out by suggesting such things as; if you could afford it, would you join a health club, would you upgrade your cable TV options, would you take golf lessons, would you treat your mom to a dinner and a movie every month, would you join a CD of the month club, would you get to party and extra night .etc. You will be surprised with what they come up with. Write their choices on a chalk board or flip chart so they can see their choices during the whole course of the meeting.
If the average price of a dessert is, $4.00 and you get a 15% tip or .60 cents per dessert and you work 5 shifts per week
To afford that extra goodie every month, you would need to sell 4 extra desserts per shift.
$50.00 divided by .60 cents = 83 desserts
divided by 20 shifts per month = @ 4 desserts
If the average price of an appetizer is $6.00 and you get a 15% tip or .90 cents per appetizer and you work 5 shifts per week
To afford that extra goodie every month, you would need to sell 3 extra appetizers per shift
$50.00 divided by .90 cents = 56 appetizers
divided by 20 shifts per month = @ 3 appetizers
If the average price of a bottle of wine is $20.00 and you get a 15% tip or $3.00 per bottle and you work 5 shifts per week.
To afford that extra goodie every month, you would need to sell 1 extra bottle of wine per shift
$50.00 divided by $3.00 = 17 bottles
divided by 20 shifts per month = @ 1 bottle of wine per shift
Other Catagories: Gravy, Cheese, Bacon, Add on Salads & Soups, sautéed Onions & Mushrooms.
Before the meetings pull out the sales figures for the previous month and figure out how many desserts, appetizers and bottles of wine are sold per shift, per server. If, for example, they currently sell 4 bottles of wine per shift, per server - they must then sell at least 5 bottles of wine to attain their goal.
Ask them to pick one category and if they attain their goal for that category for that month, you will give them an extra $50. Whoever accomplishes their goal for that month would be eligible to pick 2 categories for the next month to hopefully receive an extra $100. Make up a chart to keep track of the sales and place it so they can always see it during the entire shift.
This type of contest makes it possible for everyone to be a winner. They are not competing against one another; they are competing against last month's sales figures. They will feed on each other's sales and enthusiasm. The enthusiasm of your best salespeople will especially encourage, and improve upon the sales of, the least experienced servers.
As an owner, you should consider this more as a training device than a contest. When the contest ends, their sales will most likely unconsciously continue. Everyone wins in this scenarho...the customer, the server and, especially, the owner.
by Steve "Animal" Gaul