[00:00:00] So we all know that one of the best ways to increase bottom line profit is to grow top line revenue. On today's episode, I'm gonna share the number one way to increase top line revenue in your restaurant. And I'm gonna give you a step by step playbook. This is short, sweet, to the point. You do not want to miss this episode of Restaurant Strategy. There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restauran Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
[00:00:52] Hey there. Thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close and this is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast dedicated solely to helping you build a more profit profitable restaurant. Each week I leverage my 20 plus years in the industry to help you build that more profitable and sustainable business. I also work directly with restaurant owners and operators from all over the world in my P3 mastermind program. So if you are generating revenue, if you've got a lot of customers who love what you do, a lot of loyal customers, you've been around for a while but struggle to generate consistent, predictable 20% returns, then I want you to set up a call with me. Go to restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule setup call with me or someone from my team. We will learn about you and your restaurant, you will learn about the program, and we'll see if you're a good fit for the program. There's absolutely no pressure. That call is 100% free. But if this sounds like you, if this is something you're struggling with, then we want to talk to you again. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com Schedule and as always, that link is in the show notes.
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[00:02:50] Now today's episode. I wanna talk all about revenue. How do you increase revenue in your restaurant? There are lots of ways. I wanna talk to you about the number one way to do it. It's through second. Be second beverage sales is the number one way to increase check average for your per guest, right? It's the number one way to increase revenue. It's the number one way also to increase profitability. I want to walk you through a very simple example, a thought experiment. You can take this to your team if it helps to convince them that you're not crazy, that I'm not crazy, that this will help the restaurant. And guess what, there's a way that it will help them as well. Here's the deal. Let's imagine a 20 seat restaurant. So a full service restaurant, let's say there are five waiters. Each of those waiters, then each has four tables, right? Five waiters, four tables. It's a 20 table restaurant, right? This is not a very big restaurant. It's sort of average.
[00:03:49] Second beverage sales is the most important opportunity you have to increase your check average. Now I'm not talking about over serving, right? That's not what this is about. Not talking about third, fourth, fifth beverage sales. I'm talking about second beverage sales. If someone comes in and gets a glass of wine and they want another glass of wine, we should help them get it. If they have a cocktail before their meal and they want a glass of wine with their meal, that's something we should get. And I want you to get your servers in the habit to focus on this. I want them in the routine of really trying to drive second beverage sales. Again, there's tons of data on this. You look it up, Google second beverage sales, you will see tons of data, 10 tons of lessons on this. But I want to walk you through a thought experiment. I want to walk you through a math problem that will help lay this out, I think a little bit more succinctly. So 20 seat restaurant, you've got five, five waiters on the floor, they each have a four table station. Let's say the average drink in your restaurant is $10, right? Because a beer is maybe 6, 7, $8. A glass of wine might be 13 or $14. So let's average it.
[00:05:00] Ease, for ease of this example, let's say the Average drink costs $10, right?
[00:05:05] If you can get one additional drink on every table over the course of the night, right? So one drink, I'm not talking about a round of drinks. If you Got a four top. If you can just focus on getting one additional drink through what we're going to walk through soon, through the, through the tactics we're talking about. If you can get one additional drink on the table, it means big, big, big money. Let me explain what I mean, right? So four table station, let's say they turn it twice, meaning they do a first seating and a later seating, right? Pre theater and then 8 o'clock seating, something to that effect. If you get one additional drink on all four of those tables in the first seating, all four of those tables in the second seating, that's $80 in additional revenue, right? We followed so far, right, $80 in additional revenue. If all five of your servers are able to do that, that's 80 times 5. That's $400 in additional revenue at the end of the night. Which might not sound like a lot because you're like, oh, you know, we do, you know, 5,000, $10,000 in a night. But if you can just get an additional drink onto all of those tables, it's $400. Which might not sound like a lot, but when you extrapolate that out over the course of a year, it's nearly $150,000 thousand dollars in additional previously unrealized revenue that ends up being huge. There's nobody I know, there's no restaurant owner I know who would turn down an additional $150,000 at the end of the year. And now maybe you're thinking, you're like, yeah, but I do, like 1.5 million. That's 10%. That's a 10% growth just by focusing on getting one additional drink on every single table. And again, not a round of drinks. You can imagine if you got two drinks on every table that doubles. Just focus on one additional drink per table, focusing on those second beverage sales, and you will drive nearly $150,000 in additional previously unrealized revenue. And there are ways to focus on that. I'm going to talk about that in a second for a minute. I want to talk about the server perspective, right?
[00:07:14] Because when you ask people, and I've done this, when I've consulted, I come in, I say, hey, who, who wants, who wants a raise? Who wants to make more money? And of course, everybody raises their hands. I'm showing you a way, you can show them a way to get a raise to make more money without having to do much more. Not working extra shifts, not having to wait on extra tables, just being more deliberate about the way that you wait on the tables. You Already have.
[00:07:41] So not extra shifts, not taking extra tables, turning your tables faster, whatever though that helps. I'm just talking about second beverage sales.
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[00:09:20] So if your server, right, has four tables, gets one additional drink on all those tables, that's $40, does two seatings a night, that's $80. We know that a server makes 20% of everything they bring in, right? So if it's $80 in additional revenue, they make, give or take, about 16 bucks in tips. And again, if you extrapolate that out at the end of the week, that's 80 additional dollars. At the end of the month it's 400 extra dollars. Which is like, eh, okay, who cares? But at the end of the year, 400 times 12 is $4,800. That's nearly a $5,000 raise. And they don't have to work more, they can just work smarter. They can just be more attentive while they're working. They can be more attentive, anticipate the needs of of the guests. So just by trying to get one additional drink on every single table, and this model was built on a 20 table restaurant, you can drive 150k in additional revenue, and you can make each of your servers roughly 5,000 more dollars this year, which is real money. I don't have to tell you that. And I don't think you're going to have to explain it very hard to your servers. $5,000. When a server is making $45,000 or $65,000 even, that's a pretty big number. That's a 10, 12% raise that ends up being real money.
[00:10:45] Okay, so I've convinced you. Let's say, how do we do it? How do we do it? The number one way to increase second beverage sales is to focus on table maintenance. So a lot of what we have to do is get the servers to understand what. What you need them to do. The number one thing you need them to do is try to get a drink on the table. On first approach, right? You greet the table. Hi, welcome to the restaurant. My name is Chip. I'm glad to take care of you. We're gonna have some water for you in just a second. Listen, I'd love to start you off with a drink. Anyone care for a cocktail or maybe a glass of champagne? Right? Does anyone care for a beer? Whatever your concept is, get the drinks ordered asap. And if there's a cocktail list or a wine list or an extensive beer list, then fine. Give them a second. Say, hi, good evening. Welcome to the restaurant. My name is Chip. Listen, here's the cocktail menu, the beer list, the wine list. I'll be back in just a minute to go ahead and get that first drink order. In the meantime, did we prefer bottled or tap water?
[00:11:44] So already you're asking a question, you're prepping them, you're cuing them about what you're gonna do next, and they say, oh, tap water is fine. Say, great, I'll be right back. You go, your busboy brings water or you bring water, you put the picture down, you come back and say, great. What can I get from. What can I get for everyone from the bar, You've cued them. The first thing I need from you is to tell me what you want to drink. The sooner you can get a drink on the table, the sooner they can consume that drink, and the sooner they'll be ready for a second drink. The number one way to sell a second drink is to get the first drink ordered and on the table quickly. If it takes too long, and then they order, and then they're sort of nursing that first one, there's a good chance that they may never get to that second drink. And again, let me be really clear. It's not about over serving.
[00:12:34] Never. It's never about over serving. It's about getting people what they want.
[00:12:40] And here we're talking about a second beverage sale. You'd be amazed when you look at the data across the entire restaurant over the given night. You'd be amazed at how many people only had one drink. And when big research companies have done surveys, you'd be amazed to see how many people only had one drink but wanted a second drink. That's what we're going for. If somebody wants a second drink, we need to serve them a second drink. Number one, it's the best way for the servers to make more money. Number two, it's the best way for the restaurant to make more money. And number three, most importantly, it's the best way for the guest to experience the restaurant to have a better time. Because their cocktail doesn't necessarily pair with their steak. They should probably have a glass of red wine because a glass of red wine pairs beautifully with their steak. That's what we have to be aware of. Number one way is to get the first drink down. And number two is to focus on table maintenance, right? Table maintenance is about anticipating the needs when they've got maybe a sip or two left of wine or beer, saying, can I go ahead and bring you another? Right. Instead of saying, did you want to look at the wine list? Come over and clear the cocktail and say, let me get that out of your way, and here's the wine list. So you can find something else. Not, do you want to? Because then they can very easily say, no, no, thanks. Bring it to them. Let them hold it. Let them look through, Let them consider it. You take the dead glassware away and you come back say, great, what did you decide on? Not, would you like something, it's what did you decide on? There is an assumption on the part of the server that of course you're going to have something else, because we've got all kinds of great stuff here. The best way to experience this place is to have something else is to have something that pairs properly with your steak, right? There's this statistic that I share a lot when I take the stage I've shared with before on this show, but I'll share it again. Especially for anybody new to the show. Maybe you haven't heard this. There's data that's, I don't know, 10, 15 years old at this point. Says something to the effect of this, right? You need to get the second beverage ordered or on the table before the entrees hit that. There's data that shows that 60% of tables will turn down a second bottle or a second glass of wine if the entrees have already hit the table. Right. So three out of five tables will say no, but four out of five tables will say yes if you hit them before the entrees have hit the table. So you really want to anticipate the needs and stay on top of the table. Be in control of the pacing of the table as much as you possibly can. I know it's not possible in every restaurant, but you need to be aware of what's going on with the pacing of the food, what's going on with the table. So you can try to get that second glass, that second cocktail, that second bottle of wine ordered and down on the table before the entree is hit. Because if entree is hit and you pour out the wine, you say, hey, can I bring you another bottle? They're like, I sort of have a full glass now. No, because by the time the wine comes, we're going to be just about done. Even if that's not true, that's the impression that the diner has.
[00:15:54] So what you need to do is be in control and focus on the pacing and the timing. We have to anticipate what the guests will need and get there before they need it.
[00:16:06] So again, focusing on getting that first drink down, and most importantly, focus on table maintenance. You should always be circling the room and teach your bussers, your servers, your managers, your bartenders to always be clearing dead glassware if it's dead, meaning there's no more liquid, there's no more product in there. There's no reason for it to be on the table.
[00:16:26] Number one, this is just nice. You're just cleaning the workspace, cleaning the table for the guest. But number two, you're reminding them is that you're missing something.
[00:16:33] Let me get that out of your way. Can I offer you another cocktail? Are we ready for another glass of wine? Did we want to switch from white to red? Can I make a recommendation?
[00:16:43] Can I recommend this to go with the steak? Can I recommend that to go with the halibut? You can do that. Your servers can and should be in control of the table.
[00:16:53] There are ways to do this to get the second beverage on the table. The number one way, though, is for them to simply be aware of it. You can help them make themselves more money, and you can help them make you more money. That's what I wanted to talk about in Today's episode, the importance of second beverage sales as it relates to revenue, driving additional revenue, increasing check average, and yes, improving the profitability of our restaurants. Because for the most part, wine, beer and liquor have better cost than food. So rather than getting additional food on the table, let's focus on drinks. There's only so much food that the human stomach can fit in there. We can always have a second drink. And again, I'm not talking about third, fourth, fifth drinks. I'm simply talking about getting people a drink that pairs with their next course.
[00:17:44] I'm talking about making sure that if somebody wants a second drink, that they get a second drink.
[00:17:51] So again, I want to thank you taking the time out of your day to be here again. Remember, two episodes every single week. The whole point of this show is to help you increase the profitability of your restaurants. What does that mean? We're helping you make more money. Again, if you get any sort of value from this show, please take a couple of minutes. Go. Leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. That more than anything helps us grow our community, which just helps all of us. Again, go to Apple Podcasts. Leave us a five star rating and review. Review. Just let other people know what you get out of the show. Listen, I appreciate you guys being here each and every week. Thank you very much and I will see you next time.
