If your product or service allows you the chance to up-sell your customer at the point of sale (and seriously, what product or service doesn’t?), then you can instantly double and even triple your income if you know how to get your prospects and customers to buy more.
What not to do:
- First of all, you absolutely have to ask for the up-sell in order to get it. I know that sounds like a “duh!” comment, but take it from me – out of the thousands of sales reps I listen to each year, a very small percentage actually do.
- Ask for the up-sell as an afterthought. As you’ll see, timing is everything with the up-sell. Don’t wait until the very end of the sale to suggest one. You have to make it part of your original product offering as you’ll see.
- Ad lib it. You absolutely have to be prepared, polished and assumptive when asking for the up-sell. Again, this is where many sales reps fall short as you’ll see…
Get it right
Here are the rules for successful up-sells:
- You need to know exactly what upsell item or service you’re going to sell with what product. If you sell many different types of products or services, then you should pair them in advance and be ready to offer the product that most likely fits or goes with what it is you’re selling at the time. Take some time this week and map out exactly what specific product or service you’re going to up-sell with which product you’re selling. And then stick to that and pitch that over and over again.
- Be prepared with a scripted approach. The up-sell is one of the easiest and most important parts of your presentation to script out. So many sales reps (like 80% of them), ad lib the up-sell (if they think about it at all), and because of that they aren’t very convincing or persuasive. But the top reps have taken the time to script out the most compelling up-sell pitch they can, and then they deliver it with confidence and in an assumptive manner. This makes a huge difference. Here are some great ways to start your upsell script: “________, I’ll tell you what many of my clients are also taking advantage of….” “That’s a great choice. And did you know we’re running a special offer on two or more cases? Yes, you can get free (shipping, package of wipes, promotional posters, etc.)…” “_________while that policy is perfect for you, the smart way to go is to increase your coverage to R2 million for just a R400 more a year. That would be your best move on this….”
- Timing is everything. The best time to suggest the up-sell is right after your prospect or client has said yes to an order. Don’t talk past the close, don’t go over any other details, just go right into your up-sell pitch. The reason for this is that your client is in the “buying zone” at that moment and that is when you should make your up-sell offer. Don’t worry, they won’t cancel their first order – that’s already a done deal. What you want to do now is suggest an up-sell (that you’ve scripted out and that is compelling) at this exact moment and then hit your mute button and listen.
