Sales Training Seminars and Tips

Up-Selling Sales Tips

Here are some up-selling sales tips to help you grow your business.

There are not too many entrepreneurs and salespeople who can boast a sales increase of 25+% this year. You would think that everybody is doing everything imaginable to increase his sales, but if I had to guess, I estimate 81.5% of all entrepreneurs and salespeople leave money on the table every single day.

And here's how they do it! They make no attempt at up-selling at every opportunity.

I was reminded of this just two weeks ago. You might even want to call this a viral up-selling example.

I got a telephone call at 10:15 AM from a company who is washing my neighbor's windows - inside and out. This is an excellent example of intelligent marketing.

The caller said they were washing my neighbor's windows and while they're on the block would I mind having them quote on doing our windows? Later that morning they looked at our home and gave us a written proposal for doing our windows. It was reasonable and our windows needed washing - ca ching! Ten days later the husband/wife team came back and washed our windows and they did a very good job.

Before leaving Hugo said he also details cars on the weekends and gave me his card. Now I had been thinking about getting our cars detailed for the last three months - and just never got around to doing it - so his timing was perfect. I asked him how much he charged if he detailed two cars and he said $200 and that's for detailing the interior and exterior of both cars.

Up-selling, when you think about it, is really soft selling. This guy didn't push me to do anything.

Here's another example. A couple of weeks ago I was watching the golf Channel and saw an advertisement for a Medicus doubled hinged driver. And so I went on-line to place my order. Before I could hit the "Submit" button, they made six attempts at trying to sell me something else. I declined. But I bet a lot of their customers don't.

The day after I placed the order, Medicus called me to confirm and thank me for my order. The woman, in customer service, also told me to look for the CDs that would be taped to the inside the box - a nice touch. And then came the up-selling. She said, "People like you who purchased the driver also purchased the five iron for an additional $$$ - can I add this to your order?"

Have you ever been to a McDonald's restaurant, placed your order, and had someone ask you if you want to supersize your number seven meal?

I remember being at Starbucks at the Tampa airport ordering a tall coffee of the day, and the cashier asked, "Would you like one of our homemade chocolate chip cookies to go with that?"

Classic up-selling examples.

Imagine being a server at a restaurant. Your customer says, "I like to order a martini on the rocks." The server responds, "We carry Tanqueray and Bombay gin - which do you prefer?"

In another restaurant the customer orders the Veal Piccata entree. The server then asks, "Would you like to add a soup or a salad to your entree? Today's homemade soup is lobster bisque."

Please don't think these up-selling sales tips won't work in your business - because it can work in every business. Just because you're not doing it, doesn't mean your competitors aren't going to the bank with the money you're leaving on the table.

If a part of your product line includes selling supplies you can end every sales call by saying something like this:

"Before I leave, what low inventory supplies can I help you restock while I'm here?"

Depending on the specific situation, this could be considered either cross-selling or up-selling.

This sure beats saying, "Before I go, are there any other problems I can help you with?" Duh!

You can apply these up-selling sales tips to any business. In fact, I could employ up-selling strategies if I were selling single-ply toilet tissue.

"Our basic roll of toilet tissue comes with a plain white wrapper. For a few pennies more, you could add one of three colors, along with your logo. Which color do you like best?"

Up-selling is really a win-win for you and your customers. Your customers get everything they want and you walk away with a bigger sale.

One final thought to make these up-selling slaes tips work for you. Prepare your up-selling strategy in writing and then practice it a few times before you try it on your customers.

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Article Content: Sales Tips; Up-Selling