10 Proven Ways to Build Restaurant Sales and Profits (1 through 5)

Tip No. 1: Marketing: Keep it in the Neighborhood
Imagine a circle around your restaurant with a radius of three miles. Now, imagine that everyone outside that ring disappears. You would hardly notice the effect on your business!

Research shows that nearly 80% of restaurant sales – whether a one-store independent or a member of a major chain – come from within the three-mile radius that represents your neighborhood. Are you directing 80% of your marketing efforts toward that critical area? Or even 50%?

The mass marketing myth that the more people you reach, the more business you will attract just does not work for neighborhood businesses like restaurants. The battle for the heart, mind (and pocketbook) of the local patron must be won block-by-block, store- by-store and purchase-by-purchase through what we call neighborhood marketing.

Tip No. 2: Get Flexible, Get Cozy, Get Wealthy!
Guests are no longer willing to sit in dining rooms that are less than half full and deadly quiet. (Ever notice how everyone ends up in the kitchen at parties?) Please your guests with guaranteed cozy dining and your sales will grow as a result.

You cannot control the number of guests who arrive, but you can control how full the room looks and how cozy the guests feel. It takes a willingness to re- organize your seating, the wisdom to change service policies, and the ability to reconfigure the dining areas to match your volume of business. It will not happen with huge open dining rooms, rigid seating policies or by using the dreaded “This Section Closed” sign.

Tip No. 3 Expectations and Guest Satisfaction
Hospitality is a business based on expectations. The more a consumer spends, the greater expectations he or she will have. Meet those expectations and you will succeed; exceed them and you will prosper.

Let’s say you eat out and your meal costs $5.00. What are your expectations? You expect a “no-frills” experience – ready quickly, the food hot or cold enough, probably wrapped in paper and handed over a counter to be eaten with disposable utensils in an environment dominated by plastic.

If these expectations are met, a sort of unspoken contract has been fulfilled between the customer and the restaurant. The value received corresponds with the price charged. The expectations have been met. The guest is satisfied.

Now consider a $20.00 meal. Your expectations will be both different and greater. This time you will probably expect a china plate, a tablecloth, glassware, metal flatware and personal table service. Make sure you are meeting (or exceeding) the customer’s expectations.

Tip No. 4: Pre-Shift Sales Briefing
In full service operations, one opportunity to build volume lies in increasing sales through improved selling skills at the table.  There are virtually hundreds of tactics to assist the waiter or waitress in selling more. But to really make a difference, today’s operator must focus on selling strategies that unfold within the restaurant’s four walls, from the time that a guest crosses the threshold until leaving the building. A realistic goal is to improve communication between management, the kitchen team, and the server/salespeople who are actually talking to the patrons.

The better prepared servers are to explain, promote and merchandise food items – whether the core menu or specials – the more they will sell. Tips will be incrementally higher, add-on sales will build, and extra profit will be banked.

The approach is to create an environment conducive to selling, replete with information and data about what is being served. This can best be accomplished by developing an effective pre-shift sales briefing. Most operators have a short meeting with the wait staff before each meal to relay the specials and describe the fresh or in-Season menu items, so this should be no big deal.

Tip No. 5: Build Sales through Environmental Enhancement
Did you ever think that the position of your entrance, cash register or range could impact your sales? Surprising as it may sound, the layout of your operation may position you for profound success or endless struggle. How does it work?

What we call environmental enhancement derives from the ancient Chinese art of object placement. Over 3,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered how your working environment acts as a mirror of yourself and your life’s circumstances. Challenges such as financial debt, poor morale and difficult staff relations can often be traced directly to the surrounding energy imbalances.

By tracing the flow of energy through the space, an environmental enhancement expert can locate the areas of your environment which correspond to such important issues as finances, relationships, health and career.

When the energy in these physical areas of the environment are obstructed or missing, the environmental enhancement consultant may recommend changes in the position of objects in the room, the correct application of color and much more to eliminate the problem.

Excerpted from 50 Proven Ways to Build Restaurant Sales & Profits from Hospitality Masters Press.

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