My client was a busy Cuban restaurant in Yonkers, New York we had worked with since they opened their doors. Lunches were huge from day one, especially in this part of town, down by the waterfront they were re-developing. Among other dishes, the classic Cuban Sandwich had become a signature item that was driving both new and repeat business. It didn’t take long for those same customers to come back for dinner. What we saw during dinnertime was a lot of people making very predictable decisions, ordering the same things, including the Cuban Sandwich.

We knew one of the ways we could drive revenue was to get customers to try something new, because there were plenty of other options on the menu that were priced a bit higher. The problem was, it turned out to be a sacrifice a lot of people weren’t willing to make and it had nothing to do with the price. Once people found a dish they loved, they struggled when it came to ordering anything else. (We all know that feeling.)

We could have done the lazy thing and just raised the price of the popular dishes each time the question of increasing sales came about, but we knew there was a better way. We knew we needed to figure out how to create value AND encourage customers to try something new. That was THE path toward increased revenue.

What we did was we took our most popular menu item, made it shareable and gave it a new name. We called it Cuban Bites and we featured it in the Appetizer section so there was no way to miss it. We essentially took the same sandwich and instead of cutting it once, we cut it a few times and put it on a bigger plate so everyone could get a taste. The idea was for customers to have a “taste” of what they were always inclined to get anyway, making their game-time decision that much easier.

People loved this, and sales increased. It was the perfect Win-Win. This was a process we would repeat again and again.