The Truth About Upselling
This article “The Truth About Upselling” was inspired by a recent conversation where we were questioned about the use of ‘upselling’ in a program we promote.
It’s such an important subject that we thought it was time to set the record straight and explain the economics and the truth about upselling from a business perspective.
First of all, the question arose around an article that the person had read on a well known forum and the writer had intimated that ‘upsells’ were a scam. We actually wrote a post on Facebook to share our views and the truth about upselling and you can read that and the comments here (it’s always good to get a balanced view)
If you are lover of the famous fast food chain McDonald’s you will know that their catchphrase is “would you like fries with that“. At the most basic level that’s an upsell!
We recently flew Virgin Atlantic from London to Miami because we love flying Virgin but whenever we book our flights we’re offered various options which necessarily cost more money. They’re called “upsells” Things like more leg room seats, exit seats, premium economy seats, upper class etc …
When we fly home on the ‘red eye’ we want more comfortable seats to help us sleep through the flight and therefore we are prepared to pay for it.
Do we say “it’s a scam”. No of course not. It’s business and we as customers choose to buy or not to buy what is offered and live by our choice.
It’s exactly the same with an online business. All profitable businesses have upsells – it’s good business sense.
The Truth About Upselling – The Definition
We looked up Wikipedia to see what they have to say on the subject ….
“Upselling is a sales technique whereby a seller induces the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale …
While it usually involves marketing more profitable services or products, it can be simply exposing the customer to other options that were perhaps not considered
In restaurants and other similar settings, upselling is commonplace and an accepted form of business. In other businesses (e.g. car sales), the customer’s perception of the attempted upsell can be viewed negatively and impact the desired result”
We’re all pretty much aware as customers of the various kinds of upselling such as
- selling an extended service contract for an appliance
- suggesting that a customer purchase a faster CPU, more RAM or a larger hard drive when servicing that customer’s computer
- selling luxury finishing on a vehicle, such as leather upholstery
- suggesting a brand of watch that the customer hasn’t previously heard of as an alternative to the one being considered
- asking the customer to supersize a meal at a fast-food restaurant, or adding extra toppings to a pizza
- using mobile check-in services to send upgrade seat or service offers to flyers (we talked about that earlier and how we upgrade our seat on overnight flights to the UK from America
When looking at the truth about upselling you have to look more closely at what we call the customer journey or customer lifecycle. How your business goes about satisfying the needs of your customer by providing the products and services they want to buy from you
To understand more about the importance of a customer lifecycle and about why you should have a product staircase (sometimes known as a value ladder) we highly recommend you read DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson as this explains in greater detail (Chapter 2 Page 20)
So there you have the truth about upselling.
Seriously, upsells are not some kind of “scam” and quite honestly we’re sick and tired of hearing the same old argument over and over like a broken record and why we decided it was time to tell the truth about upselling and set the record straight.
If you put the ‘shoe on the other foot’ for just a moment and be the business owner you will see why it’s essential you have a product staircase. There are people who want to buy the higher priced products
You’re in business – you need to make sales and profits
If you don’t offer your higher end products then you are unlikely to be in business for very long.
In any business there are people who want to buy the higher priced products because they normally will save the customer time and money and get them to their objective quicker
Stop listening to scaremongers and understand the economics of business. The truth about upselling is very clear and if you question it then you probably shouldn’t be in business
Images Credit : Shutterstock
Who Are We
We’re former accountants of a certain age with 5 great kids and 3 grandchildren. We love skiing and traveling the world and have achieved a fabulous life helping others to start and build a successful business online and now speak on international stages following that passion. Our worldwide educational business is centered on online marketing education and wealth creation and a desire to help you create financial freedom online through entrepreneurship whatever your age or experience.
Authors : The Mindset Shift
Skype : chrisbeesley1 susanbeesley1
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