The Greatest Sales Hack of all Time

Watch the episode here:

• Have you heard, “Would you like fries with that?”
• Biggest lesson that you need to learn
• Getting customers at window on a Drive-thru
• How Fast food taught me the best sales lesson
• Reasons people don’t buy, lack of..
• How to Increase your sales, after already selling.

What’s shakin’? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan and today we’re going all in. Would you like fries with that? Have you ever heard that dew eat at McDonald’s? Yeah. I was in an event a couple of weeks ago speaking on stage and this was one of the points that I made as one of the biggest lessons that I’ve learned over the last, you know, two decades, really like, uh, two and a half decades now of my life. I got a job at McDonald’s when I was, uh, how old was I? Geez, 15. That’s right. I was 15 years old. I got a work permit from, uh, from the, my high school. And you’re able to, in the state of Illinois anyways, I don’t know if it’s still this way cuz I, I lived in Illinois at the time. You were able to start working without anything right when you were 16 years old. 

But if you, you could work as early as 14 if you wanted to, if you got a work permit from your school, which means you had to have, you know, not failing any classes and like you had to have your parents sign off on it, of course. And then you also had to adhere to underage work restrictions that existed. You couldn’t work past 10 o’clock at night, you couldn’t work more than 18 hours a week, something like that. There was a whole bunch of things, but I just wanted to work and I was like, cool, I can go get a job. And McDonald’s hires, at least they did at that point, 14 and 15-year-olds. And you couldn’t even do, uh, certain activities there, right? You couldn’t work in the grill area, you couldn’t operate the machinery. You had to be at least 16 for that. 

Which, uh, even, even though, I mean there’s really no danger. It’s just they were like freaking flat tops. There’s no fire, there’s the fryer, right? But you could work the fryer, which had 400-degree oil, but you couldn’t work the grill, right? There was this clamshell to where you’d have to like to lean up against it, whereas you got fry all, fry all flying all over the place. And that was way more dangerous, let me tell you. So I was able to, get a job there, and because of all that, I had to work at either, the front counter or the drive-through area, right? And either that or you’d be like on fries if it was a rush, right? And, then the fries, you would just continuously make fries. I can, oh my god, there were so many fries that you would pump out, but you had to have so many small fries made, so many large fries made and you just, during a lunch rush on a Saturday, if you were on fries as a 14 or a 15-year-old, you were just pumping those things in the fryer for like an hour and a half straight. 

It was crazy how many fries would go out of that place. You know, they had a fun little salt thing and all that. But anyways, so when I was in the drive-through when I was working the front counter, but especially the drive-through, cuz the drive-through there was like the timing on that. I mean, this thing was like a, a huge operation, you know, like the well-oiled machine and there was timing up there that you had to have somebody through certain points of the drive-through in a certain number of seconds, right? And I can’t remember what that was, but I want to say it was stupidly low. Like you wanted to, and this was the days by the way before things were made from so pseudo scratch, like almost, you know, put together and assembled right then and there for each order. Back in those days, McDonald’s had, it was called the bin and you would call back to the grill like, I need 12 regs cheese plus, you know, and I, I don’t know why the heck that, you know, or 12 regs cheese minus, you know, or just 12 regs and what that meant, 12 regs was 12 hamburgers, 12 regs, cheese plus was obviously cheeseburgers. 

I mean that’s not rocket science to try to figure that out, right? And then you would stack these things in there and then you’d have quarter pounders, Big Mac, right? I need, uh, six quarters, I need six Macs, or I need 12 Macs. Or depending, you were trying to anticipate based on the number of people that were rotating and coming in and making the orders, how fast these things were going out. But that’s why it was 90 seconds. I don’t know if they can do that now, but the food was literally ready to go. So from a drive-through perspective, all you had to do was go to the bin for the older stuff, the sandwiches in the bag, go over to the fry station where there was a 14 or 15-year-old making the fries, grab the fries that you need, put those in the bag, and then the order’s ready to go. 

You could assemble an order that was on the screen in like 12 seconds flat, you know, super, super fast. And that’s why you could get somebody through the drive-through in under 90 seconds. And I’m talking from the point that they complete saying their order at the speaker to taking their money at the first window of processing the transaction to going into the second window, which is where you would hand it out. And in that process, the second window person was also making the drinks and stacking those up and then just handing ’em out. A super, super well-oiled machine. It was amazing, really. Now that I think back at this, now there was a job that I had, right? And they taught you this because I worked there during the point when value meals came around and right when supersizing was starting to happen. But I’m sure this happens to this day, you know, I mean, I know I do this, right? 

If I eat a Chick-fil-A, which by the way is my favorite fast food restaurant in the world, their chicken’s freshly cooked right there, never frozen. Awesome. I, I indulge there once in a while. I do not eat a McDonald’s. I do not eat a Taco Bell, and I don’t eat a burger can. I don’t eat at those super low-quality places at all because the food is just crazy. It blows my mind how fries from there can sit out for like three weeks and not develop mold. It’s really, really freaking weird. But like a Chick-fil-A, I’ll go there and I’ll order just a chicken sandwich. That’s it. I’ll have water in my car and I’m cool, right? I don’t get anything else but the sandwich. And that happens at McDonald’s a lot too. Know when you were trained in the drive-through, especially, you know, if somebody ordered a sandwich or they ordered just a drink because people would come by, you know, just order a coke, that’s it. 

They’d come by and order a Coke. You would always ask the question, would you like fries with that? Or if they rolled up to the window, right? And they ordered, uh, just a drink and a sandwich, be like, do you like fries with that? And then you could ask ’em again after that. Do you wanna supersize it? Right? So these are two questions that really shaped how I look at sales and still look at sales and will look at sales for the rest of my life. No joke. Because the idea with this is as soon as somebody makes the purchase in their mind decides I’m moving forward with this purchase. And even more so when they give you a credit card or process the transaction, at that point you have ’em, you absolutely have ’em. And you need to at that moment have some sort of an upsell right then and there. 

As soon as you get that. So if this is an online funnel, you see this all the time, right? It’s like, hey, you know what, you just bought this one. Or you know, as soon as you hit, you know, purchase or buy after you’re putting your credit card information, maybe it’s just for like a blanket or something like that, you know, this amazing new blanket that you saw on Instagram ad for, but then as soon as you hit by, it goes to the next page where it says, but wait, gets a second one right now for 50% off. You’re like, holy crap, that’s a great deal. So you just click one button again and then it’s like, awesome, you just got another one for 50% off, then it’ll go. So that, that one thing right there is the, would you like fries with that? Even though you already bought something, it goes to the next page with another deal. 

Would you like fries with that? In my theoretical example, it’s a second blanket, right? For 50% off. Then after that, if they’re good, they will hit you with one more offer because you’ve already said yes twice. This is the psychology of this. You’ve already said yes twice. And then we’ll say, Hey, you just got two blankets, now it’s, would you like to supersize? Now it’s like, hey, would you like, instead of the two-pack, would you like a four-pack of these blankets, blankets for the entire family along with this ebook? How to cuddle with your kids in the best way possible to raise healthy children? Whatever it is, you know, that’s, that’s funny, right? But still, now it’s like getting the whole package right? And now this is almost kind of like an expensive upsell is what you can have as an offering, but people will buy this. 

The reason people don’t buy is that you are not offering, did you hear me? The reason people do not buy from you is that you are not offering. That’s the biggest mistake in the world, right? Especially the reason why you don’t increase your sales is that you don’t upsell after the transaction is already made. You have to, one, always ask for the offer and second, always offer an upsell after they’ve purchased. And sometimes two upsells, which is the first one, do you want fries with that? And then the second one, after they’ve agreed to commit to the fries from the first purchase, like, do you wanna supersize that? As long as you’re here, it’s just another blah blah, blah. That is the biggest hack in sales that ever existed and ever will exist is that strategy of would you like fries with that? And then would you like to supersize it so they already say yes to something? 

Then it’s, would you like fries with that? Whatever that looks like for you. And then, oh, would you like to supersize it? Whatever that is for whatever you’re selling. Biggest hack ever for sales. It works. Do it. Watch your business skyrocket. Now you think I can end the episode right there, right? I’m not now. When I was working at Geek Squad, I told this story a few times, right? When I was working at Geek Squad, I was the first Geek Squad agent in Chicago after Best Buy acquired one of seven test stores, you know, to make sure that this was gonna be a success with, with the pilot and my, uh, my, my sales were just like through the roof and you had people coming from corporate to talk to me and asking me, it’s like, Rick, we don’t, we just don’t get it. You know, there are other ones that are like struggling on this, you know, the other six stores actually, but you’re the only one. 

You’ve got three times your ticket sales are three x what the other stores are comparatively what the other test markets are doing. And they’re like, how are you doing this? Can you please like tell us what you’re doing here to generate this much revenue on every single transaction? And so, so I go back to my story, I’m like, have you ever worked at McDonald’s? I’m like, you know, a lot of ’em haven’t, but the like, no. I’m like, you’ve eaten at McDonald’s? Well yeah, of course, we have. Right? And they would come back and say, well, what does this have to do with what we’re talking about? I’m like, well, have you ever heard the question? Would you like fries with that? Like, well, yeah. And still, it just doesn’t seem to click. I don’t know why it just doesn’t click. Which is why I’m going through an episode specifically on this. 

I’ve told this tip before, would you like fries with that in, in just passing in, and some other stories? But I’m doing just this episode on this great sales hack today because it’s important and I want you to get it. I want you to be successful. They told me, well, yeah, we’ve heard them. Like, have you ever said w w would you like it supersized? You wanna supersize? I’m like, well, yeah, of course, we’ve always heard that. I’m like, exactly. That’s all I’m doing. Like, what are you talking about? I’m like, cuz at that point it was like they’ve already purchased a Geek Squad service, right? Maybe it’s setting up a new computer, right? They bought a new computer and it’s complex. They don’t want to set it up, you know, and this was in an affluent area, so they’ll pay $250 for me to go to their home, to their business to set up the new computer for them, load their antivirus software on it, get their documents moved from their old computer to their new computer. 

We’ll get, we’ll get it all taken care of. That way when they sit down in front of this new shiny piece of metal that they just bought, it’s ready to go. There’s nothing that they have to do except sit down and enjoy it. Just like their meal from McDonald’s. They’re like, oh my God. I’m like, so when they have already purchased something and I am sitting there in their house in front of them or sitting there in their business at their desk in front of them, I’ll take a look around and I’ll be like, Hey, as long as I’m here, I see that you’ve got a printer sitting in the box over there. Is that for your secretary? Well, yeah, it is. We just got it. Can I set that up for you? It’s just another 99 bucks while I’m here. I’ll just take care of it while I’m here. Do you want fries with it? Well, yeah, that sounds great. That’s amazing. That’s, that’s so cool. Oh, that you, you got it. No problem. Then I’d be looking around and I’m like, you know what, 

For this, uh, for this computer you just bought right here, it, it has for this laptop, it has wireless capabilities. You know, it, it can connect to wifi, but I don’t see, I see that your wifi signal is not very strong. And I’m like, I have a wifi extender in my car, my geek mobile. I’d be happy to put that in for you while I’m here because it’ll strengthen the wifi signal in your entire office and you won’t have these connection problems. Like, oh my gosh, yes, that would be wonderful. Like, cool, it’s just another 99 bucks or whatever, one 50, whatever the charge was for that along with the piece of equipment that is, would you like to supersize that? Do you see what I’m doing? So your job, your job going forth from this day forward it well today, I’m gonna tell you to do this today, okay? 

Whatever it is that you’re selling if it’s a service if it’s a product service I love them because they’re easier to stack, right? Products. I already gave you the example of a blanket, which is pretty freaking easy. I mean, that’s just something that literally I pulled out on my butt right here, right, right out of there and gave it to you. I’ve never bought a blanket and never got one 50% off. But that’s something that could be very legitimate online that you could buy, right? Pull that example outta my crack for you. And it works. So your job today is to figure out whatever it is that you’re selling, what can be the answer to, would you like fries with that? And then even more so what could be the answer to, would you like to supersize that? That’s the only two things that you have to figure out today. You’ll out-add another service bundle, another product, whatever it is, and then you will triple your sales just with this one. Great. I will call it the greatest sales hack of all time. Go ALL IN.