If you are in the business of revenue generation, the week's PROSALESGUY BLOG will be of special interest to you. We live in a world of growing expectations. Our buyers expect more value for their dollar and the companies we represent want higher revenue growth.
Let's try make the task of bringing in more dollars easier to understand. When you really think about it, there are only 2 ways to generate additional revenue. This week, we'll deal with UPSELLING...
Increase the spend from your current clients
Commonly referred to as the UPSELL, this has you spending more time focusing on your current client base in an attempt to encourage them to SPEND MORE of their budget with you.
It's been estimated that it's 4 to 5 times easier to do this than to establish new customers. Without considerable time and effort spent in UPSELLING, you'll never reach the higher levels of billing that you are capable of.
Also consider that if you are too timid to ask for more dollars, your clients will not experience the highest level of relationship with you and the products and services you have to offer.
You need to understand your clients from all business perspectives, not just the obvious buying path that you are currently on. A complete Customer Needs Analysis should be done on at least once a year, as market situations change. Too many salespeople pick the low hanging fruit and take the path of least resistance, accepting the status quo year after year happy to take what they get.
This goes above just asking the questions that most salespeople ask. Typically, we all will ask SURFACE LEVEL QUESTIONS to gain a basic understanding of our clients. While this is a necessity, to be an effective UPSELLER you need to probe further to find the REAL NEEDS your clients have.
This was something I learned from selling life insurance door to door many years ago. In order to move your client emotionally into new grounds of discussions, you need to UPSET THEIR COMPLACENCY. Don't expect the decision maker to make any attempt to spend more of their budget with you. You have to be the one to ENGAGE the conversation.
If you're selling advertising services to business owners, you would probably ask the question...
"Who is your target market? Who typically buys your product or service?"
After getting the answer, ask these questions...
"Out of 10 prospects that walk into your store, how many on average would your salespeople complete a sale with?"
"Based on the ones that don't buy....why don't they and where do they go?"
You will know if you are upsetting your client's complacency if they stop for a second, give you a thoughtful look, and respond with something like....
"That's a great question....I'm not sure I really know the answer..."
Ask them to bring someone into the meeting who might be able to shed some light on the situation. The more great questions you ask, the more you are on the right track to finding some REAL NEEDS that point to a potential UPSELL OPPORTUNITY.
UPSELLING is part of the PROSALESGUY TRAINING platforms. Feel free to click on one of the programs and scroll down to the one that interests you.
Subscribing to the PROSALESGUY BLOG is a smart idea. Why miss one? Next week, we`ll tackle the area of PROSPECTING and NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT.
Thanks for reading!
Dave Warawa - PROSALESGUY
Great follow up questions for the client.
Here's a good one for sales people. I think most know it easier to get more $$ out of an existing client than get the first $ out of a new one. So, here's the question for each salesperson: How much time do you spend upselling every week? I'll bet the answer is very low since most sales people want to beleive they got as much of the client's budget as they possibly could in the annual buy.
