Acquiring new customers is costly and time consuming. Maintaining repeat customers is almost just as difficult. It’s more cost effective to focus on getting more out of the money originally spent to obtain leads and funnel them to a final sale.
Adding an upsell to your sales funnel is a great way to increase the value of the lead. This sales strategy increases income and customer satisfaction. Visit https://www.clickfunnels.com/blog/sales-funnel-copywriting/ to learn more about how an upsell funnel can benefit your profits. Upselling must be done in a tactful, well considered manner to avoid sounding like a money grab. There are a few tactics that must be applied to make the funnel flow as smoothly as intended toward a higher value conversion.
What is an Upsell Funnel?
Upselling is a complementary or upgraded product offered by a company that gives more value to the customer while increasing revenue. It makes more money without spending more on lead acquisition than you already have.
When you are about to check out of an online store and an offer pops up for your product with additional features, for just a little more money, that is an upsell. When McDonalds used to offer to supersize meals, that was an upsell as well. It doesn’t seem like that much more money for extras on a product you were in the process of buying anyway. The business offers consumers a higher value deal, while also getting more bang for their buck with the original money spent on acquisition.
An upsell funnel is a mini sales funnel within the original funnel that leads to not just a sale but an upsell. Popular ways of adding this practice to a transaction are:
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The Order Bump
- At the end of the checkout process, during the order summary, the upsell is usually right near the order button. Just a few words promising a little more if you click on it makes it easy for customers to agree to the addition.
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One-Click
- These occur just after the buyer has ordered. Usually, these upsells are onetime offers that are presented just after purchase. Here the buyer is one click from accepting or denying the offer.
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Down-sell
- This is an offer that is presented after the upsell has been rejected. It is often the lower priced version of the first upsell item.
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Free Trial
- A week or a month of a free trial service is a great way to show off your product or services and generate leads without asking a potential conversion to commit. After the free trial, the customer is offered a better, paid version on their trial.
Best Practices for a Successful Upsell Funnel
Creating a sound sales strategy takes time and planning. It takes understanding what sales and conversion funnels look like and how your clients think. There are some basic practices and recommendations for building an upsell funnel that will help your message soar instead of falling flat.
- Understand the Needs of the Customer: If you don’t know what the goals and expectations of your customers are, you will never be able to sell them your products. They might not buy at all, let alone take an upgrade or additional offer. Take time to research and understand your client’s needs and problems so you can increase their satisfaction.
- Understand that an Upsell is a Help not a Requirement: Never make a client feel forced to buy an upsell. The offer should be helpful to them, not make them feel cornered into helping your bottom line. A sale might fall through or you might risk losing a repeat buyer if this is the case.
- Understand Price Dynamics: Don’t let the upsell cost more than 25% more than the original product. Too high and customers will not even consider taking the offer. Many consumers are on a budget, the new offer’s price must feel reasonable enough to allow for some budgetary wiggle room.
- Understand the Relevance: The new offer has to be related to the original product. Make it an enhanced or upgraded experience. Offering a completely unrelated product is confusing. Upselling is not cross selling. Cross selling is showing what other customers bought at the same time in hopes of inspiring the buyer to purchase related items. The upsell is an offer to upgrade the item already in the buyer’s cart.
- Understand the Value: If you don’t know how the upsell will be of value to the buyer, how will they? Figure out how it will benefit them, so you can present it in a convincing manner. People hesitate less about accepting offers if they believe it is in their benefit to buy them.
- Understand Proper Timing: Pushing extra purchases at the wrong time does more harm than good. There are three different times to make an offer: Pre-sale, In-sale, and Post-sale. Pre-sale is before a purchase decision has been made. The customer compares prices and values between different tiers of the same product. In-sale is during the actual sale. The decision has been made so offering new options can confuse the matter. Now is the time to add complementary products. Post-sale is at the point after the purchase has been made. Entice a one-time customer to return with offers of the premium version of their product as well as additional items. Choose your timing wisely to ensure the best chance of increased value and customer satisfaction. Go here to learn more about building a successful upsell funnel.
- Understand the Value of a Happy Client: Perhaps you’ve heard the adage “Happy wife, happy life.” Think of upselling as “Happy customer, happy bottom line.” These two come in hand. Your profit cannot come before customer satisfaction. That is how you lose customers instead of building brand loyalty.
Metrics show that it is easier to sell to someone who is already in the process of looking for and buying a product than it is to generate a new lead. Get the most value out of the effort put into each customer by studying and practicing careful upselling and focusing on customer satisfaction.
