Updated: Jun 6, 2018
Struggling to pay the rent?
Hate payroll?
Lost in the marketing choices?
Sales solves almost all of your problems any business. Sales is the lifeblood of a restaurant and when you are short on blood, you need that IV.
Gimme an I.V. the poor restaurant owner says! The employees think the owner is rich, but they don’t pay the bills either. Where can I get the IV?
There are only 3 ways to grow the sales at your restaurant and inject that much needed $$$I.V.. There is no bottom line without a good strong top line. Working for nothing is no fun, so what can we do?
Growing sales happens when
You get more new customers,
Bring them back again and again and
Get every customer to spend more money when they are there.
To succeed, you must understand that those 3 buckets are your only themes for any tactic you may use or learn about. Which will you focus on and get very good at?
When somebody calls you or you see something like Facebook posts for new movers, or a Yelp ad, or a grocery store receipt, you gotta know what bucket to put that in. Is it for new customers? Is it for new and existing customers? Is it an upsell?
These are all options that you use in different ways for different things.
Facebook may work for existing customers, or new customer. Instagram may work for something else. Text messages, emails and mailers all are sent to customers you know or hope to know. There’s an overwhelming amount of “social” tools out there. Don’t get lost in the pepperonis and miss the pizza!
What’s your upselling and ticket average increase strategy? Have you created the training's for your team? Do you insist on scripts that work? Have you adjusted your prices as food cost changes?
Here are a couple of ideas for each bucket:
New Customers:
Hire a company like Welcomemat to design and send mailers when people move to your area. They might be looking for a new restaurant just like yours.
Create a video that shows your team enjoying all kinds of food at the restaurant and boost it on Facebook and Instagram to a 10 mile radius around your restaurant to entice people to come try it. For bonus points include an “Order Now” button!
Getting customers back again
Create a facebook giveaway post and boost it to your audience. Use this to maintain awareness of your restaurant and subtly encourage people to come in again.
Put an offer at the bottom of your receipt with your point of sale that encourages a repeat visit within 7 days.
Make MORE money per customer:
You could create a 5 min video of a role play interaction between you and one of your team members that shows a good upsell dialogue. Send it to all your team members to watch when they clock in.
Create a poster image and send it to Walmart to print. Put it in one of Walmart’s cheap photo stand holder things and stand it by the register. This could be a deal on beer or an appetizer for customers to order.
What are your thoughts? How do you stay focused and use certain tactics and combination of strategies to win? I want to help you stay focused (& not stuck in the cheese!).
Send me an email at makingdoughshow@gmail.com and let’s talk about it.