Money on the Table: 7 Ways to Master the Upsell

You strategize, hold meetings, conduct research, hire staff, work endless hours to get to one thing. One finish line.
The sale.
That magic instant a customer finally, blessedly clicks your “Add to Cart” button. Weeks, months, years of work go into gently guiding consumers through the sales funnel, transforming them from complete strangers into enthusiastic buyers.
So who would want to mess with that?
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Why push it and ask them – after they have already committed to buying something – to buy even more!? Won’t that scare them away or at the very least, leave an unpleasant taste in their month?
Maybe…but probably not.  And for every one customer who dislikes the idea of being asked to buy even more from you, there are 5 more who either happily click “No Thanks” or possibly – BUY EVEN MORE from you.

Upsell

It’s not a dirty word. It could be the most profitable thing you add to your marketing mix this year. And there’s nothing dirty about extra profit.
Here are some key tips to get you in the right mindset and help you word your upsell in the most effective, least pushy, way possible.
Consider The Hard Part Over
If it’s not too distasteful to you, think of yourself as a car salesman. You have lured the browsing couple onto your lot, you have them interested in a particular make and model, they’re sitting at your desk and signing paperwork. You got this!

So don’t worry about casually asking your customer if they could use accessory x, y or z. They probably do. And again, they’re already seated with their pens and wallets out. This isn’t just a good time to offer them something to buy…it’s pretty much the ideal time!
Keep It Simple
Now, employing the same car salesman metaphor, switch over and picture yourself in the buyer’s chair. If the car salesman asks if you if you want leather seats or GPS installed in your new car, you might turn to your spouse and consider either of these options.
But what if the salesman instead starts to laundry list 50 different options or worse – hands you a huge menu of accessories to choose from? Chances are you’d politely pass it back or simply just tune him out, wait until he’s done with his verbal catalog and offer a smiling but firm “No thanks.”
Think about this when you are building your upsell offers into your shopping cart. I know it must work for GoDaddy or they wouldn’t do it, but personally I find their endless page after page of upselling maddening and even angering.

It makes me not want to buy even the original product from them! (But again, they have cornered so much of the market they can afford to be pushy. Us little guys can’t!)
Instead, for each product you see, try to limit to one…maybe two upsell options for your customers. Keeping it simple makes the customer not feel overwhelmed and makes it easier for them to think “Sure, why not, I need that anyway.”
Use Assumptive Language
This is key. Now that you’re in the mindset that they are already spending money with you, what’s a few bucks more? Reflect that assumptive quality in the language you use to upsell.  Going back to our car metaphor, don’t try to sell car mats by asking “Would you like to buy some car mats?”
Instead, frame it in terms of “I’m sure you probably want to prolong the life of your brand new carpet with removable, easy-to-clean car mats.” You aren’t selling a brand new product, you are simply assuming that any same customer would want to protect something they just spend thousands of dollars on.

Sell Benefits
Aside from being assumptive, the language above is a great example of selling the benefits – and not the features – of the upsell.  You can list the features later if they want to click through and find out a few more details on the car mats they are about to buy. (See what I did there? What they are about to buy…not the ones they might buy. Assumptive city!)
The car mat product page is where you can talk about the strength of the vinyl and the washability of the nylon fibers. On the upsell page, you want to keep it simple and just talk about what impact these mats will have on your customer’s life. They are simply helping them to protect their investment of a new car. Period, amen.
Bundle Up
Customers love a good bundle. I know I said “Keep It Simple” and I stand by that. You shouldn’t give them more than one or two boxes to check in order to get them to their final destination – entering their credit card.
But if you have a few accessories that are complementary to your main product, and that you could easily ‘bundle’, try it out! I know that if a car salesman offered me car mats for my front seats for $100 but offered a full set of front and back car mats with a trunk organizer custom-fitted for my new car’s trunk, all at a discount…I’d be way more tempted.
Especially if the savings was spelled out for me! Make sure you make the value of the bundle crystal clear. When you list out everything you include in the bundle, for instance, try something like “Front Seat Mats $75 (reg. $100)” etc.  Bundles appeal to not only to consumers’ inherent sense of laziness and ease of buying everything at once. They also appeal to their inner bargain hunter…so make it simple to see the savings!
Tick, Tock
One of the most compelling ways to make an upsell happen is to threaten to snatch it away any minute. Make them feel like the moment they are currently experiencing – their wallet-out moment – is rarified air. A place where only the best, deepest discounts can be had.
Sure, you can say, you can turn down this upsell. Just know that if you come back tomorrow, it will vanish. If you call the dealership next week, realizing that your kids are tracking more mud onto your new carpets than you originally thought they would, guess what? Those $75 floor mats are now $100.
Snooze/lose.
If you really want to amp up the time crunch, you can experiment with adding a timer that says “For the next 60 seconds only, you can add X to your order for only Y! That’s a savings of 30%!”
Test, Test, Test
Speaking of experimenting, I am beginning to feel like a broken record with all my teachings. But it really does bear repeating. Test! Experiment!
If you offer the equivalent of floor mats and they don’t seem to be flying off the shelves, try a different discount. Try mentioning them at a different point in the sales funnel.
If they still aren’t buying the floor mats after you have played around with the language, the timing and the offer, don’t give up! It doesn’t mean that upselling doesn’t work for you. It just means you haven’t found the right thing to upsell.
Replace the ‘floor mat’ product with something as different as “anti-glare windshield treatment” and start over. Mess around with the discount amount, all of it. Rinse and repeat.
I’m a big believer that there is something that your customers will appreciate you ‘offering’ to them when they are about to check out. You just have to find out what it is!
Now It’s Your Turn
I want you to create at least one (ideally two or three) upsells and add them to your site or to your face-to-face close.  Don’t be nervous!
Fix your mindset and instead of thinking of it as more money in your pocket, think of it as a product your customer will be happy you reminded them about!  Email me the language and the offers, if you like, and I’ll help you tweak them or give you suggestions.
That’s literally what I’m here for.
Happy Upselling!
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