How to Successfully Upsell Clients
Making a sale from a cold call can be an exhilarating experience. While reaching out to a stranger and winning their business is exciting, it’s very difficult to do on a regular basis. Indeed, acquiring new clients is time-consuming, costly, and tricky on a number of levels. That’s why many businesses focus so much on retaining their current clients and upselling or cross-selling them products. Here, we’ll explain how sales pros can successfully convince their best clients to make more purchases in the future:
Upselling vs Cross-Selling
First, let’s look at some definitions. Upselling a client is the process of convincing them to upgrade their existing products or services with newer, better, and more expensive alternatives. For instance, a gym might upsell a member by offering them premium services.
Cross-selling, on the other hand, involves selling complementary products that are somewhat related to a product or service the consumer already has. Consider how tech companies sell consumers protective cases for smartphones, for example.
It’s important to understand the difference between upselling vs cross-selling before you engage with a client. Knowing whether you want to upsell or cross-sell a customer is essential to forming a successful sales strategy.
Communicate Regularly
Sales is all about relationships. The more you communicate with a sales prospect (or in this case a customer), the better you’ll understand their needs, preferences, and concerns. If you want to eventually upsell a customer, you have to engage with them from time to time. People won’t respond to your tactics if you only contact them when you want to sell them something. So put in the work before you start making a sales pitch.
Offer Something for Nothing
Free trials are a great way for businesses to generate interest in a new product or service. Plus, no consumer is going to turn down a free trial for an improved product. By letting the customer see how a new product or service can improve their life, businesses can open them up to the idea of making a purchase in the near future.
Find Good Candidates
Some clients simply won’t have any interest in purchasing complementary or upgraded products from your company. And that’s okay! Rather than trying to upsell every single customer you have, try to identify potential groups or individuals who may have further interest in your brand. Retargeted advertising and sales tracking can help you out a lot in this regard.
Demonstrate Value
This may sound obvious, but, at the end of the day, sales professionals have to give their customers a good reason to make a purchase. Only try to upsell clients who could actually benefit from an upgrade and show the value your new products or services can represent. If it doesn’t make sense for the client, the upsell probably won’t work.
Conclusion
Whether you run a large B2B company like BEE International or a small hair salon, business leaders can use these tips to upsell and cross-sell effectively. Finding new customers is great but building relationships with your current clients is often even better –– keep that in mind moving forward!
