Building & Paying a Sales Team

Introduction

When you run a restaurant or pub, your “sales team” isn’t always people in suits—it’s your host, reservations coordinator, events coordinator, bar manager, and even the server who persuades a walk-in to book a table for later. As you grow, founder-led selling (you doing the outreach, answering every call, closing every group booking) becomes a bottleneck. The goal is to build a team that can consistently turn inquiries into booked covers—without you being the closer.

In practice, this means three things:
1) Recruiting the right people for customer-facing selling and service recovery.
2) Training them on exactly how you sell your pub nights, menu highlights, and private functions.
3) Paying in a way that rewards the behaviors that drive revenue—so performance stays high even when you’re not watching.

Recruiting the Right Talent

In restaurants and pubs, “sales ability” usually shows up as confidence, clarity, and fast service recovery—not flashy charisma.

Hire for:
- Comfort talking to guests on the phone and at the host stand.
- A calm tone when someone complains about timing, seating, deposits, or dietary needs.
- Pride in your brand: they understand what makes your venue worth choosing.

Interview prompts that work:
- “Tell me about a time you fixed a guest’s problem quickly. What did you say?”
- “If a guest asks for a cheaper menu option for a group, how do you respond without killing the vibe?”
- “How do you handle a no-show or a last-minute cancellation?”

Look for people who can follow your process. A great hire follows the script when it matters, but still sounds human.

Training and Development

Your training should be built around real pub situations.

A practical 14-day program for reservation and events sales roles can include:
- Day 1–3: Your product knowledge—menus, drink packages, deposit rules, table sizes, group dining flow, and the difference between dine-in bookings vs. functions.
- Day 4–7: Role-play selling—phone calls, email replies, and in-person inquiries.
- Day 8–10: Objection handling—late arrival, weather for outdoor areas, dietary changes, price concerns, and “we’ll think about it.”
- Day 11–14: Shadowing and live coaching—new hires listen to real calls and then take over with your feedback.

Train to a standard outcome: the guest leaves the conversation knowing (1) what they can book, (2) when they can book it, (3) what it costs, and (4) how to lock it in (deposit or confirmation).

Use tools that reduce confusion:
- Reservation system notes and deposit templates.
- A simple “functions menu” PDF with drink package options.
- Toast POS for menu visibility and tab consistency (especially if your team communicates offers that map to what’s actually on the POS).
- 7shifts for scheduling so your “sales wins” don’t create chaos on the floor.

Compensation Plans

In the restaurant/pub world, you’re not only paying for “sales”—you’re paying for booked covers, deposits, and reliable confirmations that reduce last-minute gaps.

A strong structure is usually:
- A baseline hourly rate for stability.
- Commission tied to *booked* revenue outcomes, not just “conversations.”

Examples of pay that works:
- Host/reservations coordinator: incentive for net booked covers that show up for the shift (or that reach a deposit threshold).
- Events coordinator: incentive for successful function bookings with deposit paid.

Make it tiered so effort pays off:
- Starter tier: commission for reaching a monthly booking target.
- Higher tier: larger percentage when they exceed that target.

Also pay for quality:
- If your team books lots of large groups but they frequently cancel, your floor gets wrecked. Reward confirmations that actually convert into committed attendance.

Overcoming Challenges

The biggest sales-team problem in restaurants/pubs is not lack of friendliness—it’s inconsistency.

Common failure pattern:
You hire a confident “closer,” but they don’t understand your seating capacity, your prime time demand, your deposit policy, or how you handle allergies and timing.

Fix it with:
- A sales manual tailored to your venue.
- Scripts for objections and for “closing the booking.”
- A repeatable workflow: inquiry → qualify (date, headcount, dietary needs) → recommend (package/table setup) → confirm (deposit + time) → record in your system.

Reference standards from industry guidance (like Toast’s POS/operations insights and National Restaurant Association framing on service, cost control, and guest experience): your sales process is only as good as the operational ability to fulfill it.

Conclusion

Scaling your restaurant or pub sales engine is a systems job. Recruit people who can communicate clearly, train them using your real booking scenarios, and pay incentives tied to booked, confirmed covers. When the team can replicate what you do—consistently—revenue grows without you burning out.