Upselling – Increase Customer Happiness And Retention, And Revenue

Upselling is a strategy to sell a more expensive version of a service that the customer already has (or is buying), or to add extra features or add-ons to that product. If I am buying a 27-inch TV and the personnel offers me a 32-inch TV or an extended warranty that is an upsell.

Upselling will make a business more profitable and make customers more satisfied. A good salesperson can add perceived value to a sale that the customer is already willing to make, as well as offer upgrades to purchases that increase the value and the bottom line, benefiting everyone.

Facts and figures:

• 60 percent of patients who are convinced with quality would try more of your services when offered.
• The probability of successfully selling to an existing customer is 60–70 percent. However, the probability of selling to a potential customer is 5 – 20 percent.
• More than 15 percent of patients would like to hear about up-sell and cross-sell offers.
• Upsell products cost should not more than 25 percent of the chosen products cost.

Upselling is more than sales; it requires perception, knowledge, and discretion. At its best, upselling can look less like sales and more like customer service and effective techniques should be subtle enough to avoid annoying the customer or making them feel pestered. 

Up-selling is most effective when:

• The patient is on the verge of accepting your services.
• Service provider is confident about the patient’s interests and persona.
• Service provider can explain how a higher-priced or advanced service will be of more value to the patient.

How to upsell: Making the smart sale

Know your products intimately. The more you know about your products/services, the more you will know about how different products/services can add value and convenience to the product your customer is buying, as well as how to recommend upgrades or alternatives. Customers want to buy from people who know more about products than they do, which means you have to know that product inside and out.

Read your customer. Listen actively before attempting to upsell them right off the bat with an expensive feature item and try to get a sense of the customer’s needs, and make yourself available for questions and assistance. Find out what it is your customer wants and use that desire to begin the process of making the sale.

Let the customer decide what is affordable. The price of the item you are going to try to upsell should not come into play until you have already made the case for the item. Connect the most appropriate selection to the customer’s desire and let them consider the price on their own. Keep your upselling activities limited and do not push them too hard.

Upselling options

Upsell features and quality: Especially in the sale of higher-end items, it is good to guide the customer through different features, highlighting the benefits of more-expensive items. It may have to do with features, but quality really has more to do with prestige. Selling quality means selling durability, craftsmanship, and brand.

Be specific and offer a variety of options: Highlight at least three price ranges of options for the customer trying to make a decision. On their own, a customer will likely go for the option they perceive to have the most value. Highlight the features, do not highlight the price. Make the most attractive thing in the transaction some aspect of the item, not the difference in the price tag.

Customer journey and experience: Ensuring repeat business

Do the customer a favor: One of the best moments is when your customer not only returns to your place of business again, but wants to find you to sell to them again, specifically. Doing everything in your power to ensure repeat business and gain a long-term customer is one of the best kinds of upselling you can do, no matter what your line of sales. If your customer perceives what you are doing as a favor, they are much more likely to return to the place where they are treated right.

Anticipate objections: Customers are likely to have lots of knee-jerk responses to the idea of spending more money. To close the deal, take the initiative to make the sale happen quickly before they think too much. Hold the items up front, ready to go.

Reassure and empathize: It is very important that you reinforce your customer’s purchase at the end of the sale. Saying something like, great choices today, I think you are going to be really happy with this. Get well soon and let me know what you think of it!

Make yourself available by providing a business card and contact info so your customer can get in touch directly, or at least give them a company card and write your name on the back of it. Best case scenario, you will form a bond with your customer and possibly win a patron.

Be yourself: Look to make connections with a customer based on genuine interaction, coming from a place of your expertise with the product, and your empathy with the customer’s desires. Be genuine and be honest, and you will consistently be able to upsell.

Marketing analytics: A full view of data enhances customer relationship

In a data-driven world, upselling has developed an entirely new image; it allows companies to have more intelligent conversations with customers while providing a higher level of service. It allows seeing that a particular customer has products A, B, and C but not D, which would enhance the experience of having the other three.

Before a company can master the upsell, it must master its data. CRM solution enables companies to aggregate, cleanse, enrich, and analyze customer data – play a key role. Consider how companies are using customer knowledge graphs, technology that integrates critical business data from different departments, as well as from sources outside the company, such as social media.

This complex data can be modeled in an easy-to-understand visual way, according to elements like the customer’s location, purchasing power or feelings about a particular brand. Data becomes a powerful selling tool when you understand the links between individuals, especially in highly regulated industries.

The leading edge of upselling is to be proactive and anticipatory rather than to simply respond to actions the customer has initiated with you. Using customer analytics, and a 360-degree view of the customer, companies have the ability to predict future needs and behavior – upsells in the making with an upside for everyone. 

Conclusion

Upselling is a skill often neglected in sales. Organizations are not only missing out on additional revenue but also missing out on opportunities to help your patients achieve their healthcare goals. However, a well incorporation into sales process can make a huge difference to an organization’s balance sheet.

While generating additional revenue is important, it is also critical to provide value to your patients. Hence, it will enhance customer retention or return to you the next time they are in need of the services you provide.

One of the most effective ways to grow your business is by expanding your services with your current clients. They know you, so the cost of upselling an existing client is much lower than acquiring net new business. In adopting this strategy, you can expect a much higher response rate because you have already established a relationship with these decision makers. And since they already understand and buy into the value of your managed services, it is a much shorter sales cycle!