17 Best Upselling Techniques and Tips to Boost your Revenue

How can you make more sales with your company’s products? Increasing product costs is also a method, but this method contains many risks that not all businesses can accept. So is there any other way to help enterprises still increase profits without losing loyal customers? It is Upselling.

Upselling is one of the most applicable sales techniques; even some businesses accept losses of products and services to facilitate sales and make profits. Upsell not only helps trader code increase profits but also helps improve customer loyalty. The more customers buy, the more customers will stick with the brand. Upselling is always recommended by current sales experts because it helps keep customers amid fierce competition in the market and increases profits for the company and is less annoying to customers.

So in today’s article, we will learn about 17 techniques and tips Upselling to increase sales for businesses. Let’s dive in.

What is Upselling?

Upselling is a technique of selling products that sellers will use their selling skills to offer to customers, introducing and persuading customers who need to buy products to use advanced products to improve product features and build product expansion. It is possible to introduce customers to products and services related to the desired product, but the price is higher, or offer a sales tactic with other products to receive coupons to create higher value orders. The essence of Upselling is to encourage guests to spend more money than originally intended.

For successful Upselling cases, the sale’s profitability can be increased by more than 30% without causing any discomfort to the customer. Another advantage of Upselling is that businesses only cost about 10% to 20% of the cost compared to attracting new customers. It is convenient, right?

Perhaps you didn’t notice, but this is how Upselling has happened to us a hundred times.

If you have ever eaten McDonald’s or other fast-food brands, you are probably quite familiar with the employee’s question: “Would you like more chips?”

French fries are almost set in our minds to be eaten with other fast-food, and we will simply say “Yes.” Now Upselling is again used by the seller by asking you: “Do you want to upsize your chips?”

Thanks to that simple method, McDonald made more than $ 28 million per year. From there, it can be seen that integrity is a prerequisite for deciding whether your Upselling is successful or not. Customers are willing to pay more and feel that they are enthusiastically being cared for if the seller makes such a clever sale.

To be able to Upsell effectively, you can use the following principles:

• Choose the right time: To increase sales, you need to judge what is an effective upsell time. Depending on the situation and different stages, employees have upsold ways accordingly

• Welcome customers with warmth and kindness: Talking softly always smiles to create sympathy with customers and make customers want to hear from you.

• Regularly communicating with customers through eye contact: Exchanging eye contact with customers will help you capture guests’ psychology from which to give appropriate advice.

• Refer to customers’ needs by asking questions: Through the information gathered from customers’ answers, you will know how to put upsell products accordingly.

• Referring to the benefits before the price: Customers’ psychology always wants to buy a quality product. So the secret to upsell success is that you should be open about the benefits of the product before it comes to price.

• Compare products: Comparing products will help customers see more of the product and make better choices.

• Thank customers after successful upsell: This will create sympathy for customers, and maybe later, customers will continue to return to buy.

Upsell is a matter of helping businesses or sellers increase profits and increases the number of loyal customers for the business, creating a stable and reputable revenue source for customers in the market.

What is the difference between Upselling and Cross-selling?

Along with Upselling, Cross-selling is also a popular selling art today. Cross-selling is a technique to sell products that come with products that customers have bought or intend to buy.

Consumers always tend to buy products from brands they have traded and have a good impression of. A study in the book Marketing Metrics shows impressive numbers: The profit earned from a new customer is 5 - 20%, the profit earned from a customer familiarity is 60-70%.

This is a huge gap in value that every business must be trying to exploit. And it can be said, Up-selling is like Cross-selling, with the benefits that they bring, are the two tactics that organizations take the most to exploit. Specifically, they help businesses: increase profits, develop customer loyalty, increase ROI, increase customer lifetime value and provide convenience and flexibility for customers.

Upsell and cross-selling are often misunderstood as homogeneous. These two concepts are completely different.

For Upsell, this trick is essentially stimulating users to choose a more expensive, premium version of the same product. For example, Netflix’s Premium plan, compared to the Standard package, is cheaper and has fewer features.

As for Cross-selling, this trick directs users to buy the types of products that come with the main product. These accompanying products are often complementary, and often users can purchase them individually and independently. When you buy an iPhone, you can buy a phone case to prevent scratches on the back and buy a power bank to take with you when you go out. These products can be purchased individually at any phone store.

17 best Upselling tips and techniques to boost your revenue

1. Choose the right Upsell

When studying examples of Upsell, you will find that there are several typical types of Upsell you can recommend to customers as follows:

• Upgrade version: As mentioned earlier, you can ask shoppers to buy other versions of the product you offer. That product could be bigger, stronger, faster, better.

• Product protection: Another favorite form of Upsell online and offline is the Upsell form that protects the product. This format requires an extended warranty so the company can effectively protect the product against a problem. For example, if you buy a mobile phone, you can usually get a replacement screen warranty.

• Customizable: Did you know that each season the higher life products are produced with a number of new custom features. It’s a form of Upsell because every customization you add increases the cost of the product.

• Long service time: Sometimes, instead of a physical product, you can Upsell by providing better value for longer contracts. And you can also offer better deals to early renewal customers.

• The bundle: The bundling usually includes both cross-selling and price increases, but if you pack the related items together and show it has a better value, you can definitely increase sales of all the items in the package.

2. Always offer the Upsell

The more opportunities you offer your customers, the more opportunities customers will buy your product. Therefore, providing your Upsell everywhere is extremely important.

3. Do not be pushy

Although you want customers to see your Upsell products, you will not want to disturb them. Upsell is not timely, and customers may not buy anything. Upsell at the right time, and you have a much better sales opportunity.

Some online retailers handle this by putting Upsell information below product information, so only those who are really interested will see it.

Another option is to show your Upsell when customers have made a buying decision. For example, if you show Upsell offers when a customer has added an item to the shopping cart before they checkout. It can be a great time to sell more products.

4. Make your Upsell relevant

Relevance is key when deciding on your success with Upsell. If customers want to buy a book about marketing, you should not recommend a book about childcare. Instead, you would suggest something else related to what they’re viewing, such as an audio version or another book with the same topic.

When you Upsell, you will have to sell the benefits of Upselling and show why it is crucial.

5. Personalize your Upsell recommendations

Recommendations are more effective if they are personalized. The latest research shows that 75% of consumers are more likely to buy product if this retailer can:

• Know their purchase history

• Purchase recommendations are based on that history

• Address them by name

6. Get the language right

Language is an important part of all successful marketing activities. And language is even more important in persuading your customers when you aim for Upselling. Some examples of Upselling succeed by making visitors imagine how they can use the upgrade or trigger the fear of missing out (FOMO) of customers. This mentality has been shown to help traders sell more.

7. Use urgency

As we can see before, using urgency can help increase the value of Upsell.

If your Upsell is only available for a limited time or limited quantities, you should highlight this in your marketing. And customers who are afraid of missing out will not hesitate to buy products from you.

8. Offer free shipping

Offering free shipping has proven to be a method to increase sales effectively. About 90% of customers say free delivery is their main driver for more online shopping.

So how does this work with Upselling? You can remind people how much they have to spend to qualify for free shipping. That is a great incentive for customers to continue adding items to the cart, especially if they are not too expensive.

9. Provide social proof

Providing social proof will let people know that others like them have found a good value product or service from your company.

The specific example is Amazon. On Amazon’s sales page, they always show customers information about what people have bought with the product you are buying, what people are interested in, the products they recommend, and what you buy. All of this creates a higher value sales opportunity. Add customer reviews for each item, and you can get customers to buy more products.

10. Limit the price increase

Bitcatcha always recommends that you should not be Upsell too high. They suggest that the upsell’s price should not be 40% higher than the item they viewed or purchased.

The Retail Doctor makes that figure even lower, suggesting a price increase of no more than 25%. Therefore, you should test different options with your customers until you find a generic formula that makes the most sense.

11. Use the rule of three

You can often hear marketers talking about the rule of three. It reflects the fact that people are often drawn to patterns, and the three seem to be the numbers that get the most attention.

In this case, we talk about the use of the rule of three in pricing. There are many studies showing that when there are three prices, people often choose the average. This is called price anchoring.

Either way, an Upselling may be more appealing to customers if it has one of at least three options available.

12. Offer substitutes

What happens if your regular Upsell item is out of stock? Don’t let that stop you from making Upsell offers. The best selling examples show that you always have a replacement.

For example, if you upsell a specific phone upgrading the memory from 64GB to 128GB, but you are out of stock, suggest 128GB phones in different models from the same manufacturer. Or, you can simply suggest a phone with similar features available for your upgrade.

13. Upsell after the purchase

Although many Upsell offers are offered on product or price pages, they are not the only place to use your Upselling. In fact, you can provide an Upselling even after customers have completed their purchase.

14. Follow up via Email

In addition to offering upsell after purchase, don’t forget that you can offer upsell via email. Email marketing has been one of the most effective ways to reach customers up to now. It will help you introduce to your customer new promotions and new products of your company.

For example, even if people don’t support them when they make a purchase, you can still provide it again via email. And you can soften the deal by offering extra discounts on upgraded products or services.

15. Leverage reciprocity

For those who do not know, reciprocal means returning a favor to a favor. That is true in Upselling. Reciprocity is a great tool when selling online. That is because reciprocity is directly connected with our psychology. Reciprocity is a very, very strong instinct. If someone does something for you, you really feel a surprisingly strong obligation to redo something for them.

So how do you leverage reciprocity in your Upselling strategy? The answer is free gifts.

For example, a supplement food brand offers a free product sample for 5 days. Not only do their customers try the product, but they also feel compelled to buy something because they are given something for free.

16. Make multiple offers throughout the shopping experience

Why should you build multiple offers through your shopping experience? It’s like you offer both upsell and cross-selling to customers, make their orders better, and make you extra revenue.

You can offer a sale on the product page and cross-sell at the shopping cart page, increase average order value, and help customers find everything they need. You can also combine the time and place you offer these offers, and even include sales channels until you find an effective method.

17. Consider Downselling

Finally, if Upselling is too challenging to perform in specific cases, consider lowering prices. Offering a product that Reduces price and features is one way to bring your customers closer to buying the product.

So consider discounts if your customers:

• View only items within a specific price range, using the sort feature on your website

• Added an item to the cart, but return to your site to find the cheaper version

• Had abandoned an Upselling in the cart and did not respond to the abandoned email

• Downs elling can help build trust by providing the right options for your customers’ pockets and showing you can meet their needs.

Conclusion

When persuading customers to use higher value-added products and services, not only will the company benefit, customers will also be able to meet their own needs. To apply the art of Upselling successfully, the core is that employees must show customers the benefits they enjoy, the more they show customers the benefits they enjoy, the ability to convince customers to buy products and services will be higher. Hopefully,, with 17 techniques and tips to increase sales when Upselling above will help your business grow and advance.