On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’ll talk about upselling as part of our monthlong conversation about closing. Specifically, we can increase sales faster by upselling.
Upselling
McDonald’s uses its world-famous hamburger to upsell its customers. Once they have the customer’s attention, they work to sell the products that have higher margins. It isn’t that the company loses money on the burgers; simply that it makes more money off the fries and drinks.
Once the customers are in the restaurant, they encourage them to upsize their meals, which adds a couple of extra dollars to the overall bill.
That’s an important concept for sales professionals. We should focus on the customers who are right in front of us in addition to working to find new customers.
Existing customers
I was listening to Russell Brunson recently, the genius co-founder of Click Funnels, talking about his first experience with funnels.
He was selling a product, and he went through his competition’s buying process to discover what they were doing. As he moved through the funnel, he noticed that the company worked to upsell him three or four times after he placed a product in the shopping cart.
If, for example, the product was $19.99, the company showed its customers how buying two or three bottles would save them even more money.
That makes sense for the customer because he is saving money, and he doesn’t have to come back and reorder next month. The customer came to the website to spend a certain amount of money, but he spent twice as much as he originally planned.
Now imagine doing that with multiple customers.
Encouraging people to buy more increases the company’s revenue tremendously.
Missed opportunity
Sales reps might be so focused on getting customers to buy a product that we overlook the opportunity to upsell them.
Maybe you’re trying to familiarize your customer with your brand or product and you need a strategy to invite them to purchase something more.
Here’s an exception: Don’t sell your customers something they don’t need. Understand your customers and their needs and focus on what they are trying to accomplish.
If it makes sense for them to buy additional products, it’s your moral obligation to invite them to do just that.
You’re their advisor. Your job is to help them solve problems.
Don’t focus only on money. Instead, help them find value by giving something they truly need. When you do that, you’ll benefit from it as well. You’ll make more money and hit your quota more easily.
Options
McDonald’s gives its customers options. Are you giving your customers options or are you taking options away from them because of your insecurity or fear?
There’s always the possibility that your customers will say no to additional products, but if you never give them the chance to say yes because you’re afraid of rejection, you might miss an opportunity to provide even more value.
Consider whether there are complementary products that you can add to your customer’s transaction that will make it easier for them to implement your solution. If you’re selling a scanning software, can you sell the customer a scanner as part of the transaction?
Is there another product or service that customers typically purchase within 6 months of their original purchase? Is there a way to bundle that product with the original purchase?
If that isn’t possible, can you build your account management strategy so that you follow up with existing customers at month three to offer them this additional purchase?
McDonald’s successfully uses upselling. Airlines offer upgrades.
Not everyone will take advantage of the opportunity but a percentage of your customers will. Invite them.
“The Upsell” episode resources
This episode is brought to you in part by Maximizer CRM, personalized CRM that gives you the confidence to improve your business and increase profits. To get a demonstration of maximizer, go to the sales evangelists.com/maximizer.
Click on the link to get a free demo of what Maximizer CRM can do for you. Maximizer is intuitive, simple, and personable. Maximizer integrates your marketing campaign as well as your CRM, and it works whether you’re a small organization or a large one.
This episode is brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach and it allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.
We’ll use prospect.io in the upcoming semester of TSE Hustler’s League to focus on prospecting. We’ll give you insights and tools that will help you gain new customers and provide training and strategies that you can implement today to ensure constant flow in your pipeline.
Check out TSE Hustler’s League and apply to see if it’s a good fit.
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