Suggestive Selling Can Be Risky

I realize that I may be trifling with a religious tenet of modern restaurant management here but we are squarely in the age of service and I must point out an unpopular truth - suggestive selling techniques can be dangerous to your restaurant's survival!

(Take a minute to catch your breath and still your pounding heart!)

I know you don't want to hear it. I know you want to believe that the salvation of your restaurant will be assured if only your staff would get with the suggestive selling program and pull up those check averages. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the truth is that the emperor doesn't have any clothes on . . . and probably never did.

This obituary might be easier to accept if you didn't have so much time, energy, money and professional ego invested in pushing the idea of suggestive selling to your staff. But the clues have been there all along. See if any of the following strikes a familiar chord:

• You have invested at least 38,000 man-hours lecturing your staff about the importance of increasing the check average.
• You have held close to 1300 suggestive selling training sessions.
• You have put thousands of dollars in books, tapes and posters about suggestive selling.
• You have made detailed financial calculations showing how much your service staff can increase their tips if they would only sell appetizers to one party in four.
• You have changed everybody's job title from server to salesperson.
• You have kept track of check averages and rewarded those with the highest averages or greatest increases.
• You have given the best stations or the choicest schedules to the people with the highest check averages.
• You have run sales contests with fabulous prizes - a few people do well and everyone else ignores you.
• You have fired (or threatened to fire) people because their check average was too low.
• You have lamented to your staff that sales were declining and hinted that if the check averages didn't improve, you might not be able to stay in business.