Clearly, the long knives are out in the local kitchens of the transnational restaurant chains. And, from Pizza PizzaExpress to TGIF to even the mid-scale Pizza Hut, it's not the brand, but the billboys -- call them waiters, dub-dubs (TGIF), stewards (PizzaExpress) or crew members (Pizza Hut) -- who are bringing home the bacon.

Admits TGIF chief executive operations Vilas Pawar: ``We want to take the average cheque from $8-9 to at least $10-12. It's a big challenge which will depend mostly on the waiters.'' Adds PizzaExpress projects manager Vivek Suri: ``We are trying to increase our average cheque from Rs 200 perhead to Rs 250-300, but not by raising prices. Instead, we want to boost desserts, salads and repeat orders of drinks.''

The recipe: knead waiters into a motivated and trained sales force. To do that the chains hire only graduates from the country's top catering colleges. Then, along with product familiarisation, comes a crash course on up-selling: using recommendations to convince a customer to order beyond the main course and have a starter, drink, dessert or coffee.

TGIF even trains its dub-dubs on body-language: crouch down to the customer's eye level, put the bill-pad on the table, be cool. Usually the waiter will start by warning the customer that as the main course will take 20 minutes would she like to have an appetiser first? Pawar says: ``We train them to look for an opportunity and capitalise on the split moment.''

At PizzaExpress, every shift starts with a sharing of strategic information. The manager tells the waiters about the stock position, which items were slow or fast-movers, whichitems have to be pushed today. In return, waiters discuss why they were not able to sell specified quantities of each item.

Says Suri: ``Waiter feedback is critical for deciding on strategy to move products up the ladder.''

Two months ago, for example, hardly 10 Giardiniera pizzas (toppings: tomato, mushrooms, olives, pepperonata, leeks, parmesan and green peas) sold a week, against a total of 1,500 pizzas. PizzaExpress waiters soon pinned down the problem: guests tended to confuse the red capsicum, pepperonata, with the non-veg topping, pepperoni, and shied away from the pizza.

Then, the waiters began drawing the attention of customers to the colourful pizza, explained each ingredient, and finally, promised to take back the pizza if the customer did not like the taste. Today, the Giardiniera accounts for 12 per cent of total sales. At TGIF, says Pawar, ``My entire menu is based on waiter feedback.''

A steward's salesmanship also ties in with his performance evaluation at PizzaExpress. Each waiterhas to ensure that he gets at least five customer feedback forms filled a day. Out of a total of 22 questions, three measure the waiter's salesmanship: Were you offered a drink with the main course?; Were you offered a dessert?; Were you offered coffee? For every positive the customer marks, the waiter gets one point, for every negative he loses 10 points. At the end of the shift the numbers are analysed for each waiter.

Says Vikrant Pathak, restaurant manager, who incentive sells daily -- a free slice of cheesecake to the steward who sells more than 20 cheesecakes in one shift: ``It's the waiter who does the selling. My job is to see that he doesn't over-sell but better-sell.''Each PizzaExpress waiter is also issued a bill-pad with his personal code on it. At the end of the shift, an MIS report is generated on sales according to each waiter-which, in turn, allows the restaurant manager to track who is selling how well. Every month, the top performer is awarded a Rs 1,000-gift, like a steam-iron or agrill-toaster. TGIF's daily awards for meeting targets range from T-shirts, caps, a movie ticket, or just a letter of appreciation-on the basis of a special online transaction processing software called Heartbeat. Based on touch-screens, Heartbeat terminals are placed in strategic points like the kitchen and food bays, and monitor every second, each waiter's sales, his average cheque size, the number of people served, break-up per item, etc.

At Pizza Hut too waiters are tracked and trained to sell, but the focus is more on quick recommendations. The hard-sell is then restricted to pushing on-going promotions -- get two Pizza Hut Mugs free on a Rs 400 order -- to customers. Says Pizza Hut and KFC marketing manager Pankaj Batra: ``As we are not a premium restaurant, when the restaurant is full, the focus is more on a faster turnaround. There is less of suggest-selling.'' Well, not quite.

This month, Pizza Hut waiters are sporting special badges which say: ``If I didn't recommend salad, it's free.'' Forgetthe service charge. Next time, take a tip from your waiter- on salesmanship.