The Problem With Upsells

You’re in the drive through line at a fast food restaurant, you place your order & a digital voice comes through the machine asking,

“Would you like a cookie with that?”

You say yes, or no, move on with your order & probably come back to visit the restaurant again another day.

When done right, up sells are great.

When done wrong, a killer of future business.

Here are the 3 most common problems with up sells.

• Pressure

Using pressure to get someone to buy, might be helpful for getting a sale, but it’s not always great for trust.

Trust is an essential factor in a long term business relationship.

If you’re goal is to build something where people feel happy, comfortable & grateful to stay, be careful not to use pressure in the wrong way.

Imagine the drive through voice pounding you over & over & over to buy that cookie.

Not cool.

• Frequency

If your customers & team members feel like every time they get around you, you’re trying to get your hands in their wallet,

…there’s a great chance they’ll decide to keep their wallet safe elsewhere.

And who could blame them?

• Size

Yes, you can make more money selling a product that’s higher priced.

But where to draw the line?

Wallace Wattles said in his book The Science of Getting Rich, the goal should be to deliver more in use value than you take from the market in cash value.

Is someone better off for having shelled out the price you asked for your product?

In home business, they say…

“Well, if they buy something expensive, they can sell something expensive and make more money.”

I was sold that line of logic in the past and even bought into it for a while.

Here’s the rub.

Not everyone in home business makes money.

So what about those people, the one’s who, for whatever reason, don’t go on to build a profitable business.

Are they still better off for having bought your product?

I like to say, ‘no matter what happens, people win when they buy and use my products’.

I like to say, ‘no matter what happens, no one gets hurt with the business I’m promoting’.

But that’s just me.