Upselling or up-serving is a sales technique to offer customers add-ons and more expensive to generate more revenue. The additions must provide something more valuable to what the customers enjoy for them to buy the idea. For example, a carpet cleaning business operator can upsell the service by inviting customers to take advantage of additional services such as area rug cleaning or upholstery cleaning.
The strategies below help to upsell services.
Identify customers who need additional services.
All customers will not embrace additional services because they do not need them. Pushing the service to those who do not need them will strain the existing relationship. A progressive strategy is to focus upsell on customers with a gap in the current plan. For example, customers planning to increase a reach for their products but lack the best way to achieve the goal are likely to buy additional online marketing software upgrades. Upsell works well for you when you identify immediate needs and tailor your offering to solve them. Find out long-term goals and offer something that will benefit customers in the future.
Pitch ideas
Upsell is not worth pursuing if you cannot explain the benefit of an additional purchase. The customers need to understand the reason for an additional purchase. If you think that a plumbing service provider should spend more on social media marketing, explain how you will spend the extra money and the role of an upgrade in getting more customers. Customers may conclude you only want to earn more money if you cannot explain the benefits of an upgrade. Use real-life examples like photos or testimonials of other customers benefiting from an upgrade or add-on. Social proof of informing target customers about those who use and benefit from the upsell convinces more people to pay for additional service.
Upsell at a strategic time
Customers will always doubt the need for more investment, but certain moments make it simpler to convince them. The best times to approach clients for upselling are when:
- Customers are finding success through your services or products. They will be more ready for your ideas since you have demonstrated an ability to help
- You are getting many referrals from customers as it demonstrates their confidence in your offerings. Ride on their confidence by giving them a chance to make more investment in your add-ons or higher grade service.
- The customers’ business is expanding because they will find it easier to prepare a budget for investing in upgrades and additions to help them grow further.
Breakdown the pricing for transparency
Customers are unlikely to pay for additional benefits even after an explanation if the pricing is vague. Transparency is essential when proposing an upsell. Customers should get a breakdown of your proposal. You should thoroughly explain the cost and timing. Customers are more likely to invest more money in products after the comfort of knowing how you will spend their resources and the returns they will get.
Set and track goals
Leverage what you learned concerning the goals and priorities of your customers to develop an action plan with measurable milestones so that you can track progress. You should have ready data to support the argument that a customer needs additional services. You should also reveal the method of measuring success for someone who signs up for an upgrade and the period when progress will start to show.
Upselling can be tricky, but the above strategies and emerging customer preferences help improve take-ups.