Get ready for Christmas

BIIBUSINESS Doctor, Trevor Brown has some last minute advice to give your customers a Christmas treat and to ensure you have a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Décor

Here is a golden opportunity to nestle a bottle of champagne in a festive display, your specials board (food or drinks) needs to be the most spectacular visual focus in the pub and draw your customers attention to the high margin items you want to sell. Don’t think sentimental, think pay the rental! At Christmas people tend to be more relaxed parting with their money.

Helping staff and margins

Staff are going to be rushed during peak periods, help them by offering jugs of ale, carafes or bottle of wine. Train your staff to sell the larger sizes to “avoid queuing later”. Don’t reduce the price of the larger sizes, instead add to the attractiveness by offering a freebie like a small dish of nut, crisps or mince pies.

Upsell, nod and smile

Every time one of your staff are asked for a measure of spirits or a glass of wine, they need to respond with “would you like Santa size or normal?” Train them to nod and smile when saying the words “Santa size” and not when saying “normal”. You could make it fun for your team by running a competition to see who can see the most larger sizes.

Christmas cards

Don’t just give Christmas cards, any item of print is an expense, so try and get a return on that expenditure. For ideas on how to turn a card into a sales tool visit www.plusone-dg.co.uk a major (but not only) supplier of licensed trade promotional cards.

Best business idea
Simple tips and ideas to help your business are easily gleaned through Twitter, who to follow is the question? You can follow the BIIBUSINESS doctor: @biibizdoc, and BIIBUSINESS editor; @andrewpring, also follow @BIIandBIIAB; @abvtraining, plus other trade Tweeters such as @ukpubs; @thebarblogger and @lordsugar. Also follow past Licensee of the Year Winners @chrislewisswan; @_AliCater; @beeritter