Would You Like Fries With That?

About the Episode:

You want to skyrocket your sales? Listen up. Today I’m dropping the greatest sales hack of all time. I learned this at McDonald’s when I was 15 years old working the drive-thru. The magical phrases? “Would you like fries with that?” and “Would you like to supersize it?” This is about the psychology of the upsell at the exact right moment – immediately after someone has already said yes to a purchase. The reason people don’t buy from you is because you’re not offering. And the reason you don’t increase your sales is because you don’t upsell after the transaction is already made. I tripled my sales at Geek Squad using this exact method. When a customer already says yes to one thing, they’re primed to say yes again. Your job today is to figure out two things: what’s your “would you like fries with that?” and what’s your “would you like to supersize it?” Do this and watch your business explode.

Listen to the podcast here:

What’s shakin? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan. Today, we’re going all in. Would you like fries with that? Never heard that? Do you eat at McDonald’s? I was at 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 two and a half decades now in my life, I got a job at McDonald’s. When I was How old was I? Jeez, 15. That’s right, I was 15 years old. I got a work permit from from my high school, and you’re able to in the state of Illinois. Anyways, I don’t know if it’s still this way, because 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 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, like, 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 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 clam shell to where you’d have to, like, lean up against it, whereas, like, you got fry oil, frying all flying all over the place, and that was way more dangerous. Let me tell you, though I was able to get a job there, and because of all that, I had to work in 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 in the fries, you 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 year or 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, though, when I was in the drive through, when I was working the front counter, but especially the drive through, because the drive through, there was, like, timing on that. 

I mean, this thing was like a huge operation, you know, like 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 stupid low like you wanted to. And this was the days, by the way, before things were made from 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 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. Figure that out, right? And then you would stack these things in there, and then you’d have quarter pounders, Big Macs, right? I need six quarters. I need six Max, or I need 12 Max, or depending you were trying to anticipate based on the amount of people that were rotating and coming in and making the owners, 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 order, stuff the sandwiches in the bag, go over 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 is 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 to 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 them out. 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 where, like, value meals came around and right when super sizing 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 chickens fresh cooked right there, never frozen. Awesome. I indulged there. Once a while. I do not eat a McDonald’s. I do not eat a taco bell. I don’t eat a burger king. I don’t eat at those, like, super low quality. Any 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 at Chick fil A, I’ll go there and 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. So when you were trained in the drive through, especially, you know, if somebody ordered a sandwich or they ordered just a drink, because people 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 just a drink and a sandwich, be like, do you like fries with that? And then you could ask them again after that, do you want to 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 them. You absolutely have them. And you need to, in 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 put in 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 Buy, it goes to the next page where it says, But wait, get 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 they will 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, the best way possible to raise up healthy children, whatever it is. You know, that’s that’s funny, right? But still, now it’s like, get the whole package, right? And now this was like, 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 because you are not offering. Did you hear me? The reason people do not buy from you is because you are not offering. That’s the biggest mistake in the world, right? Especially the reason why you don’t increase your sales is because 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 want to 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, but I’m not, no, when I was working at Geek Squad, I’ve 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, acquire one of seven test stores, you know, to make sure that this was going to be a success with the pilot. And my 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’s 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 3xwhat 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. So I go back to my story. I’m like, Have you ever worked at McDonald’s? And, like, you know, a lot of them haven’t that? Like, no. I’m like, you’ve eaten at McDonald’s? Well, yeah, of course we have, right? Yeah. 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 is, Would you like fries with that in just passing, 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 that. I’m like, Have you ever said, Would you like it super sized? You want to supersize? And like, Well, yeah, of course. So we’ve always heard that. I’m, like, exactly. That’s all I’m doing. Like, what are you talking about? I’m like, because 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 for 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 that? Well, yeah, that sounds great. That’s amazing. That’s so cool. Oh, you got it. No problem. Then I’d be looking around and I’m like, You know what? For this, for this computer you just bought right here. It has for this laptop. 

It has wireless capabilities. You know, it can connect to Wi Fi, but I don’t see that. I see that your Wi Fi signal is not very strong, and like I have a Wi Fi 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 Wi Fi signal in 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, 150 whatever the charge was for that, along with the the piece of equipment that is, would you like to supersize that 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, is whatever it is that you’re selling, if it’s a service, if it’s a product, services I love 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 of my butt right here, right right out of there and gave it to you. I’ve never bought a blanket. Never got one 50% off, but that’s something that could be very legitimate online, that you could buy right pull that example out of 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 your only two things that you have to figure out today. Go up, 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 you.