Friday, April 3, 2009

Lower Your Price and Upsell

I recently got my car serviced at Jiffy Lube. I only went because I wanted the $24.99 oil change, but I ended up spending over $300. How is that possible?

Well, they lowered their price to draw me in and then upsold me on other services when I got there. This strategy doesn't always work on me, but it worked this time.

McDonald's does this too. All of their marketing focuses on their dollar menu items, but as soon you proceed to order - they ask you if you want a combo meal.

My company utilizes a similar technique for our press release distribution service. We market the affordable $150 price to distribute your press release, but our hopes are to get people to upgrade with options that go as high as $450. 75% of the time, they will upgrade to at least the $200 or $250 options.

Examine your business model, and experiment to see if there is a way for you to implement this concept. It really does work! Remember though not to mislead your customers, and to be 100% honest. The price you're using in your marketing efforts should match the services or products that you describe. However, you do want to have additional options that consumers can upgrade to for more money.

According to BusinessKnowHow.com, here are the three biggest mistakes made in upselling:

1) No attempt is made to upsell.
2) The salesperson comes across as being pushy
3) The upselling is made in an unconvincing manner so the customer generally refuses.

Keep all of these in mind whenever and however you decide to upsell your customers. As far as being "pushy", remember to always let the product sell itself.

I've found that 9 times out of 10, people are not offended when you attempt to upsell them - and in many cases, they don't even realize that that's what you're doing.

3 comments:

  1. I must be that 1 out of 10. It irritates me when people attempt to upsell me. My thought is that I've asked you for what I wanted. If I didn't ask for an apple pie, front-end alignment, etc. when I placed the order then please don't bother asking me. I understand and realize that the employee is trying to upsell me and that in many cases they are just doing their job (i.e., asking because they've been instructed to ask); however, it irritates me nonetheless.

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  2. Hey Dante,

    My name is Jerome and I am an advid reader of your blogs (love them..very informative)and I was just wondering if you were going to be attending George Fraser's 'PowerNetworking Conference' in Atlanta at the end of June?

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  3. Excellent article. Business 101. I spoke at a women's business event last week and that is exactly what one of the most successful women there stated. Thanks for the reminder

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