The Art Of The Up Sale

Business is slow - that is a fact of this economy. Bottom line is that most businesses are seeing fewer new customers and/or their existing customers are showing up less frequently.

This is just a product of consumers (businesses and individuals) being more selective with their spending. Which on the grand scale many be a needed prescription for this country yet does nothing to help your business as it struggles to maintain or grow.

How your business might combat this trend or at least attempt to preserve some acceptable level of revenue generation - is to focus your efforts on the "up sale."

Up sale or even cross sale is simply getting current customers (those that are still frequenting your organization) to either spend more money of higher priced higher margin or premium items or to purchase complementary goods and services.

Thus, instead of pulling your hair out over the fact that fewer customers are shopping with your business or shopping less often, change your mentality and focus on getting more out of those that still patronize your business.

Up selling should become a part of both your marketing and sales efforts.

For example, in your marketing messages, talk about or explain how your more expensive products can provide longer term benefits to your customers. This can be done via traditional marketing avenues or, since you are targeting current customers, via email or direct marketing campaigns or even when consumers walk into your store. The goal is to get these consumers to better understand your higher priced / higher margin goods and service thus when they return to shop with you - they are better educated about these benefits and more susceptible to up sale suggestions.

Then, ratchet up on the sales sides. Once the customer is back in your store (online or off) make sure that your sales function are designed to 1) understand why the customers is there (what need they need met) and 2) how your higher priced or premium offerings can better meet those needs. Then, don't be afraid to sale higher margin or higher priced items to them. What is the worst that can happen, they say no thanks.

Example, my wife and I just returned from a week vacation in Maui, Hawaii. Hawaii has been hit pretty hard during this recession as more vacationers have been staying closer to home over these last two plus years. Thus, in order for many of the businesses there to survive (95% + of all Hawaiian businesses are tourism based) they have no choice but to work on and, in my opinion prefect, the "up sale" - less customers means less business thus they focused on getting all they can out of every customers they have - especially in a very competitive market where nearly every business is after the same vacationer's dollar.

I saw some very amazing attempts and successes in the up sale during our visit. It started from the moment we landed at the airport and went to get our rental car. The first thing out of the rental car salesman's mouth was an attempt to get us to up grade to a luxury model vehicle citing how much more comfortable (after such a long flight) we would be.

He then went on about up grading the insurance or pre-paying gas. But, the true magic of his pitches was that they were not in your face (like the old fast food pitch "would you like to supper size that"). His pitches actually flowed with the conversation and always (repeat - always) was focused on a benefit or perceived need (like the "be more comfortable" comment - you are on vacation after all). As we stood in line waiting our turn, I would guess that he had a 90% up sale rate - meaning that he was able to get more (probably twice the amount) of money out of each customer - wouldn't you like to double your sales without spending a dime on attracting new customers or hiring more employees.

This happened to us all over the island; from the hotel to the restaurants to the attractions and even in the tourist shops - every one was focused on up selling to every one that walked through their doors.

I thought long and hard about how these businesses were able to get their sales people to actually get out there - try to understand the needs of their customers and seamlessly offer them higher priced or more goods based on those needs - while many businesses here in the continental United States struggle with just getting employees to show up.

My conclusion is that there are no other choices for these employees. If they do not up sale they may be out of a job if and when the business closes. And, being on such a small island, their ability to get another job quickly is several limited.

And, while I don't advocate holding your employees hostage, there are ways to impact upon them the seriousness and benefit to both the business and their employment if they refuse to embrace this up sale concept and attempt to help the business generate more revenue.

Know this, even in good times, it is far harder and more expensive to attract new customers than it is to service existing ones. Thus, in times like these, to either retain a certain profitable level of revenue or even attempt to grow your operations, your business should be looking at and focusing on the "up sale".

It really is more of a mentality thing than anything else. You just have to get as much as you can while you have that customer in front of you. This means actually understanding and communicating with your customers and then being willing to inform them about new or higher margin products that will better suit their needs. There is no shame in doing what it takes to preserve or grow your business - especially if your up sale offers will truly benefit the consumers - a win / win situation.

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