How to turn your front of house from order takers into sales stars, and why your guests will thank you for it.
The difference between a good night and a great night in most independent restaurants is not the menu, the décor, or even the kitchen. It is what happens in the 30 seconds after a server walks up to the table.
In a recent RunningRestaurants.com webinar, veteran operator Roger Beaudoin and I dug into one of the most expensive habits in our industry: order taking. Roger put it bluntly. "Order takers leave lots of money on the table, and sales stars rock."
Here is that webinar snippet as a podcast episode, plus read on for more...
After more than two decades of walking into restaurants and watching service up close, I agree completely. And here is the part many operators miss: selling well is not pushy. Done right, it is simply better hospitality. Guests who walk in for the first time want someone to tell them what is special. When your team does that, check averages climb and so does the guest experience.
Here is how to build a team that sells, step by step.
The Iceberg Problem: Most of Your Revenue Is Hiding Below the Surface
Roger uses an analogy I love. Most people picture an iceberg as the chunk of ice they can see. In reality, the largest piece sits below the waterline, out of sight.
The visible tip is what an order taker does. They hand over a menu, assume the guest will order whatever sounds good, and write it down. That is the entire transaction.
Below the surface is where the real money lives. Roger calls it "the land of the sales star," and it includes:
- Upsells and add-ons
- Your most profitable items (your hooks and cash cows)
- Bottles of wine instead of glasses
- Desserts, coffee, and after-dinner drinks
- Retail merchandise
- Live music and events, if you offer them
- Private parties, catering, and other profit centers
None of these sell themselves. If your team does not know about them and does not suggest them, those sales simply never happen. Nobody notices the loss because it never shows up on a report. It just quietly caps your check average night after night.
So ask yourself Roger's question: what do you want on your floor, order takers or sales stars?
Knowledge Is the Foundation of Every Sale
You cannot recommend what you do not know. That is why Roger starts with product knowledge, and why one phrase drives him crazy: "Oh, I don't know. Let me go ask my manager."
Every time a guest hears that, you lose credibility and a sales opportunity in the same breath. Your team should know the menu inside and out: ingredients, preparation, what pairs with what, and what the kitchen is proudest of.
Product knowledge is only half of it. Your team also needs restaurant knowledge. What makes your place special? What is the story behind the signature dish? Why should a first-time guest come back? As Roger put it, a new guest made the choice to walk through your doors but does not know the first thing about you. Your team's job is to walk them through what is great about your place.
This applies to everyone in the front of house, not just servers. Hosts, bartenders, bussers, and food runners all interact with guests. Each of them should be able to answer a question confidently and make a suggestion that improves the experience.
The Five-Minute Pre-Shift That Pays for Itself
Training is not a one-time event at orientation. In Roger's restaurant, pre-shift meetings were mandatory every single day. But they were not 20-minute lectures, and they were not just "here's the chef's special, try this."
They were short strategy sessions, five minutes at most, focused on the skills that actually move the needle:
- Reading tables. Is this guest in a hurry to catch a movie? Is it a birthday or an anniversary? Each situation calls for a different approach.
- Role playing. Roger would call on people at random. "Host, you're a server now. This person is the guest. Tell me something I don't know as a first-time visitor. Bring it to life and make me want it."
- Practicing the language. Saying a description out loud in front of peers builds the confidence to say it at the table.
The random element matters. When anyone might be called on, everyone pays attention. And because the sessions are short, they fit into even the busiest schedule.
Try this: Pick one menu item and one service scenario per pre-shift. Have two team members role-play it in front of the group. Done in five minutes, repeated daily, it adds up to dozens of reps a month.
Keep Them Sharp with Pop Quizzes and Friendly Competition
Knowledge fades if nobody checks it. Roger ran pop quizzes constantly to keep his team on their toes. His reasoning was simple: they need to know this information, and they will not know it unless you quiz them.
Quizzes keep standards high. Incentives make it fun. Roger's favorite was a sales bingo game:
- Every team member got a bingo card.
- Each square was an item the restaurant most wanted to sell: hooks, cash cows, high-margin items, retail merchandise.
- Servers worked to complete a row, column, or diagonal by selling those items, and a completed bingo earned a prize.
Sometimes it took a day or two to hit a bingo. But the team loved it, and here is the key point: every square they filled meant a guest heard a great recommendation. Healthy competition drove sales and better experiences at the same time.
You do not need a big budget for this. Prizes can be a preferred shift, a gift card, or bragging rights on the whiteboard. What matters is that the game points your team toward the items that matter most to your bottom line.
Stop Asking Yes or No Questions
Listen to your servers at the end of a meal. You will probably hear some version of: "Does anyone want dessert?" or "Can I bring you anything else?"
Those are yes or no questions, and most guests default to no. Worse is the version I hear all the time: "You don't want dessert, do you?" That server has talked the guest out of the sale before they even had a chance to think about it.
Roger's fix is to offer two specific choices. Instead of asking whether the table wants dessert, the server describes two:
"Before you go, our two favorites tonight are the warm bourbon bread pudding with salted caramel and the lemon olive oil cake with fresh berries. Can I bring one for the table, or one of each?"
Roger frames the odds this way: with a yes or no question, you have roughly a coin flip. With two appealing options plus "no," two of the three possible answers are a yes. It is a rule of thumb rather than a lab statistic, but anyone who has worked a floor knows it holds up.
Two things make it work. First, give your items memorable names. Second, train your team to describe them so vividly that guests can taste them before they order.
Introduce Yourself by Name: Your Team Are Brand Ambassadors
It sounds basic, but it is skipped constantly. Roger insists that everyone on the front of house team introduce themselves by name and work to build a relationship with the guest.
The payoff is real. Guests who feel a personal connection leave better reviews. They come back. And very often, they ask for that server by name on their next visit.
Roger's framing is worth posting in your break room: think of your team as brand ambassadors for your business. Every interaction is either bringing guests back or sending them to the competition. There is no neutral.
Treat every guest like the most important guest in the building. That mindset, more than any script, is what turns first-time visitors into regulars and regulars into raving fans.
Quick Hits: Six Places Easy Money Is Hiding
Once the foundation of knowledge, training, and relationships is in place, these tactics deliver fast results:
- Arm your team with one-sentence upsells. Do not expect servers to improvise. Give them a short, tested line for each key item so they always have something ready.
- Sell the second drink. This one cannot be overstated. There is a small window when a guest will happily order another beer or glass of wine. Miss it, and that sale and its profit are gone.
- Improve appetizer and dessert attachment. Track how often tables order a starter or a sweet, and coach to raise it. Use the two-choice approach from above.
- Sell premium options and add-ons. A protein upgrade, a premium spirit, or a side can lift a check meaningfully with very little effort. Consider profitable menu bundles too.
- Feature one high-profit item per shift. Make it part of your pre-shift strategy. When the whole team focuses on a single item, you will see its sales grow.
- Make your online ordering sell too. If you take orders online, make sure the platform offers suggestive add-ons during checkout. From everything I have seen, this can be a big win for average online order size.
The common thread across all six: train your staff to recommend, not recite. Reading the specials off a card is not selling. Telling a guest what you love and why is.
Selling Is Hospitality
Some operators worry that pushing sales will make their restaurant feel transactional. Roger offered a distinction that settles the question: hospitality is absent when something happens to your guest. Hospitality is present when something happens for your guest.
An order taker lets the meal happen to the guest. A sales star makes something happen for them: the perfect wine, the dessert they would never have tried, the story that makes them want to come back. That is not upselling for its own sake. That is service.
Hospitality is the foundation of our business, and true guest service is a competitive advantage. For independents competing against chains with bigger budgets, it may be the best advantage you have.
Your Action Plan for This Week
- Audit your front of house: how many order takers versus sales stars do you have right now?
- Quiz every front of house team member on five menu items and three things that make your restaurant special.
- Launch a daily five-minute pre-shift with one role-play scenario.
- Write a one-sentence upsell for your top five profit items.
- Retrain the dessert and drink approach around two specific choices.
- Start a sales bingo or similar contest built around your highest-margin items.
- Check that your online ordering platform suggests add-ons at checkout.
Start with one or two of these, make them habits, then add the rest. Your guests will have a better experience, and you will see it in your check averages.
