Alan’s Corner: Sales tips to drive your hospitality business

Every global trend has winners and losers. Let’s spare a thought for those that were most disrupted in the pandemic. My heart goes out particularly to those in the travel and hospitality industries and of course, non-food retailers who rely on physical stores to survive and thrive.

This month, I would like to share a few ideas to help hotels, food and beverage outlets, including restaurants, to develop their selling rhythm again. I have worked with countless hotels over the years and I liken their business to that of retailers. The disciplines used by great retailers will also work in the hospitality sector. 

Here’s what you can  do…

Check your product offering. Retailers classify their overall merchandise mix into ‘good, better and best’. I went to a supermarket on Saturday last to buy an iron. They had a Russell Hobbs for Dhs59, a Tefal for Dhs217 and a Philips for Dhs420. Retailers do that to appeal to a wider catchment within their market segment. It also gives the sales team ‘ammunition’ to upsell. For a restaurant, the good, better, best equivalent might be a salad dish, a fish dish and the ‘best’ being a fillet steak. While all that might seem obvious, hospitality floor staff need to be educated on this concept, so that they can be encouraged to engage with their guests and up-sell.

Look at your place from a customer’s perspective. New regulations demand hygiene signage. But how can you make your premises look easy on the eye rather than like an infirmary? Remember that ‘place’ includes everything to do with the physical environment, which links to our senses.

That starts from your entrance all the way inside your premises. What message does your restaurant send to potential customers walking past? Retailers have merchandise presented in their windows. But a restaurant needs to present a hygienic and attractive front that suggests a great atmosphere.

Once inside your premises, all the other senses become important. Are you conveying a pleasant and appealing environment with a sense of comfort and relaxation? Are your standards of housekeeping and hygiene unquestionable, all the way through to your toilets?

Support your own people to be the best they can be. Many hospitality businesses are struggling due to the unavailability of good staff. So if you have good staff, consider how you can give them the best experience so that they will be engaged, productive and remain with you. A highly engaged team is more likely to give great service.

Train your team on how to give customers the best experience possible in the circumstances. At the very least, talk to them regularly. Many retailers start each day or shift with a five-minute huddle. The team stands in a circle while the manager informs them of whatever is important. The training should also include selling skills. For example, when a customer asks for a menu, show them two-three options across the ‘good, better, best’ selection.

A professional salesperson will skilfully encourage and upsell to a customer by talking up the added benefits. Take inspiration from the beauty brands in a department store. They are masters at this, so go and learn by mystery-shopping some for yourself. Training will give your people the skill and the confidence to do this in a non-pushy way.

Aim to link-sell an additional course or drink to every customer. Retailers might encourage a customer to buy a belt with a pair of trousers. For a bar-restaurant, it might be a starter or a dessert or another drink. Picture this, if you link-sell an extra item to every fifth customer (to the value of say 15 per cent of their main order), that adds 3 per cent to your overall sales.  

The Last Word

F x C x A = S: The fundamental levers that drive sales for all type of retailers are in this formula. But it also applies to all businesses in every sector.

Here, ‘F’ stands for footfall, which is the number of customers entering a store (or you might call them prospects). Multiply that by ‘C’, which is conversion (the percentage of those that actually buy rather than just browse) multiplied by ‘A’, which represents the average transaction value. This gives you your ‘sales’ number. 

After doing the hard work that’s required to attract customers to your business in the first place, your next priority should be conversion and ATV (average transaction value). Even with lower footfall which may be outside your control, you can still try to increase the conversion rate and average transaction.

Alan O’Neill is an author, keynote speaker and owner of Kara, specialists in culture and strategy