Getting More From Your Customers

It is common knowledge that there are 3 ways to increase your business revenue:
1. Bring in more customers
2. Get your current customers to buy more products
3. Get your current customers to buy more expensive products

In this article, we are going to discuss the third item in that list: getting your customers to buy higher value products. This technique is also known as “upselling”.

In this technique, you are doing exactly what is implied: trying to convince the customer to buy a different, more expensive product from you. Although successfully upselling a customer might add just a few dollars to the sale, over time (and many customers) it can really add up and significantly increase your revenue.

Here are three guidelines to help you become more successful at upselling your customers.

Make it Easy for Them

The first part of upselling your customers is making it easy for them to buy more expensive products. If you have a website, put upselling messages right on the checkout page. That way, when a customer is checking out, you might be able to convince him to check out some other, more expensive items before the transaction is completed.

For offline materials, the concept still applies. On your brochures, emphasize the products that give you the best value. On your next poster printing project, accentuate the benefits of your most valuable products. Make it easy for your customers to justify spending more on better products.

Steal a Page From Amazon

Amazon.com, the original giant of online stores, is a master at upselling. Whenever you select a product on their website, you immediately see a link that says “Customers who bought this product also bought…” followed by several more products. This is a tremendous way to increase sales. If you have a website, try to incorporate this technique into your pages. On each product page, list other similar products that your customers might be interested in. Try to include the most valuable products that you have.

Use a Bit of Misdirection

When you are trying to upsell a product, be careful how you present it to the customer. Instead of telling the customer how much that more expensive product costs, tell them how easy it would be to upgrade to that product.

For instance, say a customer is looking at an air conditioner that costs $150. You are trying to convince the customer to buy a better, more expensive unit that costs $200. But you don’t want to tell the customer that the other unit costs $200. Instead, emphasize that it would take only $50 more to buy the better, more reliable unit. Make it easy for the customer to justify the extra cost to himself.

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