When Upselling Drives No Selling!
I hope that you are able to tell — I love writing and my inspiration for blog topics appear to me at any time that I am paying attention.
Let me begin today’s blog by relaying a recent story…
I went in for the continuation of a service that I had pre-paid for when I inquired about purchasing an add-on service. The salesperson quoted a price but it was a small service, so price wasn’t a driver for my decision. I extracted my credit card and had it in my hand as she continued to talk.
She talked and talked, ever making it more complicated with additional items that I hadn’t requested. When I asked her if all of that was included in the quoted cost, she told me no. She then started throwing out numbers “this is $3; this is $12, this is…”
I became completely confused and a little aggravated so as she (still talking) continued, I put my credit card back in my wallet and moved forward with the original service only.
Sales opportunity lost.
I would’ve paid the price if she would’ve told me what it was originally. I just have low tolerance for lack of disclosure from the beginning.
This is a good example of how salespeople get it wrong! It wasn’t her fault; in fact, I actually feel sorry for her as it’s indicative that she probably has a manager who misguided her. That manager was likely misled as well by either an upper level manager or by someone who read an outdated guidebook for sales and/or business development.
Research has shown that we (as consumers) think and are motivated differently due to the impact of ever-evolving/ever-infringing technology. That influences the way that we now procure.
“You now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish,” Time magazine declared in 2015, citing a study by Microsoft Canada.
In the words of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, “The true scarce commodity is increasingly human attention.” According to the study, the average human attention span is now 8 seconds!
The Microsoft Canada study did recommend possible solutions for sales/marketers:
Be clear, personal, relevant and (quickly) get to the point.
Defy expectations, leverage rich media and movement to grab attention.
Embed calls to action, be interactive, use sequential messaging, and build cohesive, immersive experiences across screens.
The moral of the story: Keep it simple silly!
Upselling Techniques
And if you do decide to deploy Upselling Techniques, then make them client-centric.
In the article 9 Upselling Strategies to Employ, the author Karla Cook shares that “when you focus primarily on your customer’s experience and goals, upselling benefits both you and your customer tremendously.”
If you’d like to discuss this or other Business Development Strategies and Techniques, please contact me at dlandry@authentizity.com.
