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Beverage upselling techniques are essential if you’re striving to maximize profits for your bar or restaurant. Mastering these skills will allow you to increase wine sales, as well as gain more revenue from beer, craft cocktails, and premium spirits. If you’d like to learn about the most effective beverage upselling techniques, continue reading the remainder of this article!
What Are Beverage Upselling Techniques?
Beverage upselling techniques are the tactics used in bars and restaurants to sell more drinks. These techniques are often disguised as suggestions and recommendations. The goal is to persuade the customer to either upgrade the liquor in their cocktail to a premium alternative, buy a bottle of wine as opposed to a glass, or simply purchase a more expensive wine than what they had in mind.
Or, beverage upselling techniques could simply refer to the practice of selling more drinks. Whether it be a cocktail, another glass of wine, or a bottle of something entirely different, it’s all about increasing each and every tab.
BinWise enables restaurants to execute effective beverage upselling techniques with various data reports and inventory management functionalities. Book a demo to connect with an expert and learn all about it!
How to Upsell WIne In 5 Easy Steps
Learning how to upsell wine in restaurant settings is a skill on its own. That’s because it’s easy to upsell mixed drink recipes, as ordering more than one isn’t much of a commitment. But when upselling wine by the bottle, additional skills and product knowledge will be necessary among the wait staff or team of sommeliers.
Learn more: What is a sommelier?
Now, if you’d like to learn how to upsell wine in a restaurant, consider the tips below:
1. Suggest Wine Upgrades
Ensure that all the servers working in your restaurant know the higher-end alternatives to low and mid-tier wines. This way, they can suggest appropriate upgrades when customers place an order. For instance, a customer ordering a steak may opt for a glass of a sweet red blend from the United States. But if the server is aware of what’s stored in the wine cellar, they might be able to suggest a slightly more expensive bottle of Chianti from the Chianti region of Tuscany. Or, if two or more people at a table are ordering a glass of red or white wine, and the server knows of a replacement that they can sell a bottle of, this type of decision change can help maximize revenue for the establishment.
2. Create a Wine Pairing Selection
Consumers tend to purchase what they’re familiar with, and understandably so. If they’re comfortable with a particular wine for example, why would they opt for something they’ve never tried or heard of before? And let’s not forget that they might not be aware of which beverages pair well with the dishes on your menu. But that’s where a wine-pairing menu comes into play.
Start by creating a regular menu featuring the appetizer list, entree food, and dessert menu. Underneath each dish, list one or two wines that pair well with it. Or, simply create a one-page prix fixe menu for simplicity. If you go this route, you can design it in such a way that guarantees high profits per meal. This idea is especially true if you list the wine recommendations as entire bottles, which makes sense if two or more customers are buying from the pairing menu. As you can already see, there are many ways to structure a menu to encourage upselling each party.
3. Highlight Expensive Wines When Giving the Menus
In many restaurants, the server will present the menus and verbally go over a selection of the chef’s specials. So, why not offer a list of picks from the sommelier? The introduction to the menu is right before customers even have a chance to browse the selection. Therefore, the restaurant server is more likely to impact each customer’s final decision.
If you’d like to take this idea one step further, you can go the traditional route and mention dinner specials but include which wines pair with each dish. This way, you’re encouraging wine sales right off the bat. Meanwhile, it’s also a way of telling the customer that the staff is familiar with pairing wines with various types of food, which can initiate conversation from either side throughout the meal.
4. Release Limited-Time Offers
While it’s not standard protocol to discount expensive bottles of wine, restaurants can offer a limited-edition food and wine pairing menu. These can serve as a profitable and fun way for customers to try various wines. Plus, it’ll quite literally give them a taste of what it’s like to pair certain wines with the perfect dishes. If you can leverage something like an email list to offer this to past customers only, marketed as a way to reward them for their loyalty, that would be even better.
Many consumers opt against ordering multiple glasses or bottles of wine simply because they’re not familiar with the variety on your menu. But if there’s an opportunity for some of your most loyal customers to learn more about your wine list, their future spending habits can look a bit different.
5. Use Descriptive Language
Language and tone are two elements of selling that contribute to upselling beverage techniques. Therefore, servers and sommeliers should be trained to use compelling verbiage that emphasizes the pairing of a particular wine with the dishes each customer will consume. It’s also beneficial to talk about the region where the wine comes from, and how its climate impacts the final product. Extensive background information on a type of wine will enhance its appeal, enticing individual customers and entire parties to give it a try.
Bonus: Additional Bar Upselling Techniques
Upselling techniques in bars is a bit different than in sit-down restaurants. But we understand that at almost every restaurant that sells wine, there’s a bar where the staff serves liquor and popular cocktails. So, it’s important to be equipped with the knowledge to upsell all types of alcohol.
Here’s a brief list of more generic bar upselling techniques:
- Suggest top-shelf liquor
- Create signature cocktails
- Offer various types of drink flights
- Promote limited-edition drinks
- Encourage after-dinner beverages
As you can see, beverage upselling techniques are more creative when dealing with beer, cocktails, and liquor. When it comes to wine, the staff members doing the upselling must be sales experts. With this in mind, we recommend learning about sales-related skills and keeping them in mind when hiring servers, bartenders, and sommeliers. A restaurant marketing consultant can be valuable, too.
Frequently Asked Questions About Beverage Upselling Techniques
Beverage upselling techniques are a major part of a restaurant’s success. Considering that alcohol has a higher markup than anything else you can find in an eatery, it’s vital that your staff has the know-how to drive revenue to its highest potential. The following FAQ section should provide you with a bit more information regarding the skills and resources needed to sell the utmost amount of wine and spirits in your restaurant! Read on.
Are Beverage Upselling Techniques Taught In Sommelier School?
Yes, there is a small focus on beverage selling techniques in sommelier schools; however, the curriculum primarily revolves around all things wine-related. Sommelier School teaches its students the basics of wine, pairing wine and food, wine service, and so much more.
But here’s the thing–in knowing how to pair wine and food together, along with the ability to distinguish different flavor notes in wine, sommeliers can recommend wines with confidence. After all, that’s their expertise. This knowledge allows them to suggest better, more expensive wines. So, even though upselling materials might not be its own module during a sommelier certification program, master sommeliers inherit the ability through other sommelier classes.
What’s An Example of Upselling In a Bar?
An example of upselling in a bar would be if somebody orders a standard White Russian recipe, and the bartender suggests upgrading to a premium vodka with a smoother finish. The additional $3 for the higher-end vodka might not seem like a lot to the customer, but it can lead to hefty profits for the establishment if the bar staff is successful enough times.
Or, if someone orders a glass of wine and seems to enjoy it, you can upsell an entire bottle of it. This situation is ideal, as wine sales are where the massive profits exist! But regardless of the beverage, upselling techniques in bars are all about driving the total bill for each party.
What Are the Four Stages of Upselling?
The four stages of upselling are as follows:
- Approach the upsell with knowledge of the customer’s original purchase.
- Find a product that will pair with the customer’s previous purchases.
- Introduce the new product and explain why you believe the customer will enjoy it.
- Follow-up after making the sale to check and see if the customer is satisfied with it.
Are Servers Trained to Upsell Wine and Spirits?
Yes, many servers are taught to upsell wine and spirits as part of their sales training. By focusing on product knowledge as well as language, servers will end up with the ability to sell more, increase their tips, and drive profits for the business.
Is Learning How to Upsell Drinks In a Bar Difficult?
Knowing how to upsell drinks in a bar isn’t necessarily difficult, but does require a knack for sales. You need to understand the customer’s original purchase before attempting to upsell. For instance, if they ordered a classic martini, you might not try to upsell a bottle of chardonnay. Instead, you’d push for them to try one of the other vodka cocktails on your menu. The same rule of thumb applies to wine varieties as well. That’s why it’s so valuable to understand wine pairings, as this information can allow you to suggest appropriate bottles of wine for each course.
Leverage Beverage Upselling Techniques for Optimal Sales
With the right beverage upselling techniques, you can reach every one of your sales goals. Before you know it, your restaurant will be one of the most upscale eateries in your area. Not only will profits soar, but the high-end customer experience will be quite memorable.