Go to a new-car showroom, a clothing boutique or a building-supply store and you\u2019ll be waited on by a salesperson. Someone who\u2019ll answer your questions, probe your needs, identify your options \u2026 and quite likely try to upgrade you to a pricier solution.<\/p>\n
You know, just like a waiter or waitress is supposed to do.<\/p>\n
So why do we persist in calling our front-line personnel waitstaff and not salespeople?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why the label matters. All too often, the term waitstaff becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. For employees, it translates to \u201cI\u2019m doing this while I\u2019m waiting until something better comes along.\u201d For the customer, it can come to mean \u201cI\u2019m waiting for someone who likes their job to take care of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now consider this definition of \u201csalesperson\u201d from reference.com: \u201cThe duties of a salesperson include customer communication, customer assistance, demonstrating product knowledge and completing transactions. Communicating with the customer, the primary duty of a salesperson, includes greeting the customer, assessing needs and answering questions. These duties revolve around the ability to provide information and offer guidance regarding specific products. A salesperson must have a friendly disposition and excellent communication skills to effectively assist the customer.\u201d <\/p>\n
That sounds like a terrific job description for a great new job title: \u201cRestaurant salesperson.\u201d Let\u2019s look at how the definition can apply to your staff: Provide information.<\/strong> A salesperson should never use the word \u201cspecial.\u201d To a customer, \u201con special\u201d sounds like something that needs to be used before it turns bad in your cooler. Instead, you want to draw attention to \u201cfeatured items.\u201d Of course, a salesperson always knows what additional items complement the featured selection.<\/p>\n Assess needs and answer questions.<\/strong> Fabulous salespeople answer customer questions with questions of their own, to help them discover which menu items they should recommend. Consider this common exchange: Customer: \u201cWhat\u2019s good here?\u201d Waitperson: \u201cEverything!\u201d<\/p>\n This is a far better approach: Customer: \u201cWhat\u2019s good here?\u201d Salesperson: \u201cWhat types of foods do you like?\u201d Customer: \u201cI never walk away from beef.\u201d Salesperson: \u201cWe have many choice steaks on the menu; how hungry are you?\u201d Customer: \u201cI haven\u2019t eaten yet today. Got anything besides a small filet?\u201d Salesperson: \u201cYou bet. Do you like a rich flavor?\u201d And so on.<\/p>\n Offering guidance.<\/strong> Appetizers and desserts remain the least-sold menu categories in restaurants. It\u2019s all in the presentation. The waitperson asks, \u201cCan I interest you in something from our appetizer menu to get things started?\u201d Customer: \u201cNo thanks.\u201d The salesperson phrases it so it\u2019s not a yes-or-no question: \u201cNow that I have your drink order, I\u2019d like to tell you about two very popular items to get things started.\u201d After he describes them, he asks, \u201cWhich of these two would you like?\u201d<\/p>\n As for desserts, most waitstaff either forget to present them or do it after the main meal. But the best time to sell desserts is while the customer is still hungry. A salesperson turns in the entr\u00e9e order, then returns to the table to present dessert options before the entr\u00e9e is served.<\/p>\n Greeting the customer.<\/strong> Today\u2019s attention spans require a salesperson to stop by a customer\u2019s table within 20 seconds. Even if they\u2019re on the way to something else, they should stop and introduce themselves and tell the customer they\u2019re taking care of another patron and will return promptly. <\/p>\n Once the salesperson returns to the table, they have 60 seconds to establish a friendly rapport. I suggest a \u201cperiscope search\u201d of the table, briefly engaging the eyes of each guest while extending a personal welcome.<\/p>\n Getting the sale.<\/strong> There is one more wait vs. sales distinction. Waitstaff earn tips; salespeople earn commissions. That instills a different mentality. Help your team transition to a sales mindset by challenging them to upsell every table by $5 more than the table is prepared to spend. The average tip (commission) is 20 percent, so an additional $5 on an order should net the salesperson an extra $1 in commission income. That doesn\u2019t sound like a lot, but if they have 25 tables during a shift, that\u2019s an extra $25 in their pocket.<\/p>\n Sales are the lifeblood of any business. If you want to do better, you need to sell more. Referring to your front-line personnel as salespeople rather than waitstaff\u2014and training them accordingly\u2014will change the way they think about and approach their jobs \u2026 to the benefit of your bottom line. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Based on everything they do, salespeople seems a much more fitting definition for waitstaff.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":4685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-running-your-business"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Build product knowledge.<\/strong> No one can sell what they don\u2019t know. Your sales staff must try every item\u2014preferably as a group, in the kitchen, with everyone offering comments. People learn how to sell an item by hearing others describe its taste, flavor, consistency, appearance and other attributes. A great salesperson can sell an item without even mentioning it by name.<\/p>\n