Glossary / Upselling & Suggestive Selling
What is Upselling & Suggestive Selling?
Also known as: suggestive selling, add-on selling
Upselling (or suggestive selling) is when a server guides a guest toward additions or upgrades — an appetizer, a wine pairing, a premium cut, dessert — that improve the meal and raise the check. Done well it feels like helpful hospitality, not pressure, and it depends entirely on menu knowledge.
Suggestive selling is one of the highest-leverage skills a server has. Recommending the right add-on — 'the shishito peppers are perfect while you wait,' 'this Malbec is made for the ribeye' — raises the check average without adding a single guest or changing prices. Across a shift, it's real revenue.
The catch is that it only works when the server genuinely knows the menu. You can't confidently suggest a pairing you don't understand, and guests can tell the difference between a real recommendation and a scripted upsell. Knowledge is what makes the suggestion land as hospitality instead of a sales pitch.
This is the commercial case for menu training in one line: trained servers describe items better and suggest add-ons with confidence, and that shows up in the numbers. Fat Tommy's saw an 11% check-total lift with the same menu and prices after training — the difference was servers who knew what to suggest.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between upselling and suggestive selling?
They overlap. Upselling usually means moving a guest to a higher-priced version (a premium cut, top-shelf spirit); suggestive selling means recommending additions that complete the meal (an appetizer, a pairing, dessert). Both raise the check and both rely on the server knowing the menu.
How do you train servers to upsell without being pushy?
Build menu knowledge first. When a server truly understands pairings and standout items, suggestions come across as genuine recommendations rather than a script. Guests respond to confidence and relevance, not pressure — and that only comes from actually knowing the menu.
Related terms
About the Author
Terry Psaltakis is a 30-year restaurant operator who has opened more than 20 concepts across multiple markets, in every role from dishwasher to Owner. He founded ShiftTrained in Chicago to solve a problem he lived for three decades: pre-shift meetings don't actually train staff. Terry writes about the operational side of restaurant training, AI in hospitality, and what works on the floor.
LinkedIn · terry@shifttrained.com
Last reviewed June 2026
“Since we started using ShiftTrained, wine sales for both bottle and by-the-glass are up 34%. The staff is not scared to talk about the wine anymore.”
George G. · Black Barrel · Chicago
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