As business owners, we tend to focus all of our energy on constantly finding new leads. While this makes sense, new customers are not the only potential source of income in most cases. In fact, there is a much easier and smarter way to make money.
to your bottom line. Upselling can set you apart from the competition, boosting your overall brand image, while generating more money for your business from existing customers. Not to mention that people who have already bought from you, are far more likely to do it again. Therefore, less effort is required altogether to land an upsell than a new sale.
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The immediate upsell.
This one is probably the easiest upsell technique as it takes place at the time of the initial purchase. Always remember to encourage your customers to buy additional products or services to complement their purchase. Major brands such as McDonald’s use this strategy at every opportunity
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Cross-selling.
This is slightly more complex, but still pretty straightforward. Simply think about which products or services is the buyer likely to need after their initial buy and recommend those. For best results, focus on products that share some common ground with what the customer’s already bought. Cross-selling is commonly used by all the large online retailers such as Amazon and eBay.
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Bundles & Packaging.
Offering bundles of your products or services in nice enticing packages is a great way to sell more to each person. Buying in bulk offers higher value at a lower cost to the end user, therefore customers are more likely to purchase.
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Downselling.
This is the one we forget about the most. When a customer is looking to decrease a package or even leave, instead of letting them go, the best strategy is to offer them a more affordable alternative as a final attempt to win them over. It is important here that we still offer them enough value to ensure they remain willing to buy again in the future.
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Memberships & Subscriptions .
If your product or service allows it, a great upsell technique is to try and tie the customer up into a subscription service. This is a great way to secure a recurring income from your regular shoppers.