In this manual you will learn about Suggestive Selling.
 
This is not the same as up-selling, but rather a sales technique taking our Guests’ specific needs and preferences into account, while not aggressively pushing for a sale. We can maximize the Guest’s experience by suggesting an additional item that complements their order. We make these suggestions by educating the Guests about different products instead of trying to make a ‘hard sell’.

In this manual you will learn more about the importance of suggestive selling by focusing specifically on how it relates to the food and beverage industry.
 
We will look at the differences between suggestive selling and up-selling and at some great opportunities for implementing suggestive selling.
 
We will learn how to read the Guest and understand the journey of suggestive selling as well as the principles of suggestive selling.

To be successful in our suggestive selling efforts we need to be prepared in terms of our menu and beverage knowledge, as well as our ability to pair dishes with beverages successfully, using flavor words, texture words and advanced menu knowledge.

We will look at the execution of suggestive selling by starting right at the beginning with the welcome and seating, moving to apéritifs, the orientation, doing a fantastic menu presentation, following up, and ending off with digestifs and desserts.

Then we will look at suggestive selling and how it can be a negative experience for the Guest. We will achieve this by focusing on the ‘don’ts’ and by looking at a few scenarios. Lastly, we will focus on advanced suggestive selling by looking at how we can serve repeat Guests and how we can make sure we continuously improve their experience. We will learn how suggestive selling can improve Guest loyalty, ensuring that Guests return to our properties again and again.