Upselling... here's how and when to ask
Upselling. It's the old... "Would you like fries with that?" Do it
right and you'll increase sales by as much as 40%. Do it at the wrong
time and you'll blow the whole deal. Here's how to avoid one of the
biggest marketing blunders of all time.
It's no secret that fast food joints spend millions of dollars in
research. What they discovered was, if they upsold at the time the
order was placed... Would you like a drink with that today? How about
fries sir? By doing so, sales increased greatly, sometimes as much as
40% of the total order.
But they also learned that timing is critical. Never say a word during
the money exchange. Once the enter key is hit on the cash register, the
total announced and the cash handed over, there is a legal contract in
place. Buyer agrees to pay seller said price for said goods. Change is
given and the buyer is wished a good day and encouraged to come again
soon.
In the dirt world, the upsell takes place at the time of the actual
order. This is the equivalent of placing the upsell on the order form.
This works in the dirt world and for commodities like CDs and books.
But never ask for an upsell on the order form, when you're selling a
digitally delivered information product. You'll lose more customers
than you'll keep.
Think of it. You've already done all the hard work. You got the visitor
to your site. Your sales letter converted them from prospect to
customer. They have their credit card in hand, ready to buy, they click
the order form, suddenly see multiple products listed, instead of the
one on the sales letter...
Woop! Woop! Shields up! Red alert! The whole process comes to a
screeching halt. You blow the deal and the customer abandons the order
form, never to be seen again.
So what went wrong? You lost their trust.
When a customer sees additional products at the last second, especially
with info products, they're wondering what you're "not" telling them.
If there is a gold and silver version available as well, be sure to
tell them before they get to the order form, or offer it as an upgrade
at a later date.
When you have multiple versions, best results will come when you tell
them on the actual sales letter itself. Spell out the benefits of each
level - bronze, silver, gold - and tell the prospect exactly what they
can expect at the order form. But never upsell on the order form, or
thank you for ordering page.
(Same deal goes any time there are additional products required, in
order to make yours work... in other words, don't promise a car, when
all you really deliver is the engine. Or another biggie is, don't
promise f r e e shipping, then surprise them at the order form, it's
only on orders over a certain dollar value.)
Remember, when it comes to actual payment on the order form, to grease
the chute as much as possible. Minimize the steps. Remove all friction
from the buying process. Get the money first, then soft sell, or
recommend additional products, that are directly related to the one the
customer just purchased.
Some marketers find increased sales by having upsells on the thank you
for ordering page. They list up to four additional - but related -
products. The logic being, the customer just purchased from you, trusts
you, still have their credit card in hand, and are four times more
likely to continue shopping.
But I found that, if you give a password on the thank you for ordering
page, it's not a good idea to list additional products on that same
page. If you do upsell on the thank you page, be sure to tell the
customer how to bookmark the page, or add it to favorites, so they can
find it again later.
When I had additional products on my thank you page, many people lost
the download link to my product, creating a lot of customer service for
me. There were also more returns and complaints about me trying to sell
them, "so many other things."
When I cleaned my thank you for ordering page to nothing but the
username, password and download link, I found that it immediately
reduced customer support and refund requests.
After testing and tracking each step of the process, I decided to move
the upsell into my product download area. It was only after I proved
that I could deliver my digital product, that people trusted me and
were "four times" more likely to purchase an additional product related
to mine.
It also allowed a much softer sell of the related goods through product
reviews. I found that once customers downloaded my PDF ebook and had it
safely on their hard drive, they were far more likely to stay on my
download page and read about the additional offers.
So even though you've seen it done a million times before - asking for
additional sales at the time of the order - it's great for fast food
and commodities, but never ever do it with digital products. Either
tell them ahead of time on the sales letter, on the thank you page, or
better yet... wait until the download area.
What's on your order form? Are you upselling? Is you're timing right?
Are you greasing the chute and removing all friction from the buying
process? Are you soft selling in your download area? Try it, and your
sales could go up... way up. And who doesn't want more sales?
by Michael Campbell
Author
of....
Revenge of the Mininet...
Advanced search engine linking
strategies and
diagrams for
increased revenue.
Clickin' it Rich... The
complete work from home business
training system for new affiliates.
Nothing but 'Net... Simple internet marketing
strategy that made
$750,000 in less than a year.
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