Sales as a Bartender

In the past 7 months, I have been working as a bartender at a local bar in Grove City. Even though a bartender is more of a server position, there are still very many aspects of the Job that involve sales situations. As a bartender, most of the money that I make is purely from customers tipping me, so that creates an incentive to sell to the customer in many different ways. One of the ways I sell to customers is by conversing with them and being friendly to them. Conversing with customers creates a sense that I care about them and does a couple of things that help the business. First off, it helps the customer, more often than not, have a better experience at the bar, which will lead them to come back and spend more money at the bar in the long run. And second off, in a way, talking to the customer is selling myself to them, which can lead to them leaving a more generous tip, which is a win for me. Hypothetically, if I only served them what they wanted and then went into the corner silently and ignored them, they would be less satisfied with my service, leading to a worse experience and less of a tip. So in that sense, every customer that walks into the bar is a sales opportunity for me to help support the bar, and to help support myself as well. Also, at the bar I work at a good amount of the customers are repeat customers so it is very important to maintain a relationship with them so they keep coming back which helps the overall business. Bartending has taught me that customer service and personability are very important in making a sale and that in almost every workplace where you interact with customers you are a salesman to some degree.