How to Upsell Catering Packages to Corporate Clients

Landing a corporate catering client is the hard part. Once they're ordering, the job is making every order worth more. A $400 weekly lunch can become a $600 weekly lunch with the right upsells, and that $200/week is $10,000/year from one account.

Here's how to upsell without being pushy.

The psychology of catering upsells

Corporate buyers are spending the company's money, not their own, and that changes everything. They aren't price-sensitive the way individual consumers are, they want to look good (picking the premium option reflects well on them), they'll pay more to skip the planning, and their budget is usually bigger than what they're spending with you.

Make the upgrade feel obvious, not forced, and they'll take it.

Strategy 1: Good/Better/Best package tiers

The single most effective upsell in catering. Offer three tiers for every occasion:

Example: Corporate Lunch Packages

When the tiers are clearly different, many buyers land in the middle, because it gives them an easy way to spend more without feeling sold to. So make the middle tier the obvious "right" choice by giving it the best value for the price. The top tier exists to make the middle one look reasonable.

Strategy 2: Add-ons at checkout

Add-ons are the easiest upsell there is. The customer's already decided to order, and $30-$50 on top of a $400 order feels like nothing. These are the ones worth putting front and center in your online ordering checkout.

• Beverage package: $3-$5/person (bottled water, canned drinks, or premium beverages)
• Dessert platter: $35-$75 per platter (cookies, brownies, fruit)
• Breakfast pastry add-on: $4/person for morning meetings
• Extra protein: $3-$4/person for additional options
• Serving supplies: chafing dishes, utensils, linens ($25-$50 rental)

Strong margins, almost no extra kitchen work. If a decent share of orders tack on drinks and dessert, your average order climbs without your operation getting any harder.

Strategy 3: Suggest for the occasion

When you know why someone's ordering, you can suggest the right thing.

Regular team lunch: "Would you like to add beverages? Most offices add our drink package."

Client meeting or board meeting: "For client-facing events, our Executive package includes premium presentations and setup."

Celebration (birthday, milestone): "We can add a custom dessert platter for $45 - popular for celebrations."

Holiday party: "Our holiday catering menu includes seasonal items - would you like to see the upgraded options?"

Catering software that keeps order notes and customer context makes these prompts easy to automate.

Strategy 4: Seasonal and limited-time upgrades

Seasonal offers give people a reason to order now. A BBQ package upgrade available June through August, a new harvest lunch with seasonal sides in the fall, premium holiday party platters that have to be booked by Dec 1, Super Bowl and March Madness packages for game day.

They also give regulars a reason to try something different (and usually pricier). Push them through email marketing to your CRM list.

Strategy 5: Volume incentives that increase order size

Don't discount. Reward the bigger order instead.

• "Order for 30+ and get free dessert": more heads on the order
• "$500+ orders include free delivery": pushes order value up
• "Add 10 extra people and we'll include setup": captures the whole meeting, not just leadership
• "Monthly accounts get priority scheduling": rewards commitment, not one-off orders

These read as rewards, not upsells, and the customer feels taken care of.

Strategy 6: Make reordering and upgrading easy

Friction kills upsells. If adding dessert takes a phone call, nobody adds dessert. Your ordering system should show add-ons prominently during checkout (not buried in a submenu), display the tiers side by side so the comparison is visual, allow one-click reorder with easy changes (last order plus dessert this time), and save customer preferences so you can suggest upgrades that fit.

Strategy 7: The "post-order" upsell

The order's placed. You're not done.

• Confirmation email: "Great choice! Want to add beverages? Reply or click here."
• Day-before reminder: "Your lunch is confirmed for tomorrow. Last chance to add a dessert platter!"
• Post-delivery follow-up: "How was everything? For next time, check out our Premium package."

These touchpoints work especially well through automated email workflows.

Measuring upsell success

Track these monthly:

If average order value is flat, test new add-ons, tweak tier pricing, or fix how the options show up in your ordering flow.

The revenue impact

Say you do 10 corporate orders a week:

That's $62,000/year more from the same customers, just by presenting better options.