How often have you requested the bill at the 'end' of your meal, without being asked if you would like a dessert by your waiter?

It never fails to surprise me that any restaurant, especially an Indian or Chinese one for example, would pass up the massive opportunity to tap into the profitability that desserts - and liqueur coffees, cognacs or malt whisky - can be to their bottom line.  

Let's think for a moment about the costs involved in selling a steak or even a chicken tikka masala: 
• You have to invest heavily in a marketing campaign to get the customer in the door. 
• You have to invest substantially in the fixtures and fittings to get the venue right. 
• You have to invest in your linen, menu printing, crockery, cutlery and glassware to get the presentation right. 
• You have to ensure great ingredients to get the product right.  
• And you have to invest heavily in your team and your training to get the customer experience to the right standard. 

All this to sell that main course before simply allowing a lazy or incompetent waiter present the bill and letting them walk away without a further sale.    

With just a tiny addition to one or two of the above investments, your ability to sell a dessert makes the enterprise far more profitable, since the hard work has already been done in getting the point of sale already. 
 
With this in mind, lets think about the additional costs of tagging on that dessert on their bill:
• other than an engaging dessert menu, no extra marketing is needed since you all ready have your clientele 'in situ'. (Although more diners will be attracted on the promise of a decent pudding selection to round off their meal.)
• the fixtures and fittings have been admired so nothing extra required there. 
• The additional linen, menu printing, crockery, cutlery or glassware required is negligible since it was required anyway and therefore already in place.  
• There is an added cost due to the extra ingredients required, however this is instantly converted to profitable revenue with each sale. (In fact I would almost consider this an investment  - chefs will disagree, unless they gratefully count the cash at the end of the night.)
• The service staff are already in place. (And with these happier customers consequently paying bigger bills (and therefore leaving bigger tips), they will be highly incentivised to take on board the small additional training required to make that sale.
• And I have yet to meet a chef who does not want to do more with their knowledge and skill in the area of patisserie. Development in this key area could be just the incentive they need to stay longer with your team. 

If you want to enjoy your 'just desserts' through increased dessert revenue, here are three simple rules:
• Mobilise your team: if they believe they have a fabulous product, they will sell it.
• Sell the experience: an engaging menu that tells a story will pique the imagination. (Perhaps you recently served a celebrity... Share that story and people will want to try the dish they had.) 
• Keep it simple: reasonably priced, homemade, classic puds served elegantly will always win through.