Improve Your Upselling With 4 Expert Tips
“Do you want fries with that?”
That’s the common line many think of when they consider upselling—the marketing technique in which you offer your customer additional add-on options to their purchases. But upselling sometimes requires a bit more finesse than the fast-food example implies.
One marketing expert, Neil Patel, recently offered some tips on the topic on his site, QuickSprout.com: “How to Upsell Your Customers.” In that article, Patel writes that, as a general rule, you should shoot for 70 percent of your revenue coming from new customers and 30 percent from upselling. That exact ratio may not work for florists, but it’s still a great reminder about the value of the marketing technique.
Reviewing Patel’s tips suggested some ideas to me on opportunities florists could use in their upselling efforts. Here, then, I’ve gathered the best of Patel’s tips to provide an overview and offer some specific ideas on how to implement his advice.
Start training your staff now to use these techniques during the slower summer season. By fall, their newly ingrained sales skills could give you a nice boost in profits!
1) Relate your upsells to the customer’s original purchase.
Make add-on offerings logical, Patel says. “Don’t just throw in products because you have them and want to make more money.” Instead, once you have finalized what the order will be, ask the customer if he would like to upgrade from a standard glass vase to a specialty vase; from standard roses to garden roses; from traditional greens to premium greens; etc. (You may need to first determine what you consider “standard” and what you consider an upgrade.) Then train your staff to follow these recommendations with signage at the phone or the cash register. (P.S. You can do the same thing on your e-commerce site. Your web developer should be able to work with you to offer the additional options. These types of add-ons may actually be easier because you can show the customer an actual image of what the upgrade will look like.)
2) Make the add-on easy.
Patel points out that you should never offer the add-ons until after the customer has completed the order—particularly when the customer is buying online. “The ideal way to upsell customers is to let them fully purchase the first product,” he points out. Then, once they click the “Buy” button, immediately offer them a few options. If you offer the add-ons before they approve the purchase, you’re placing barriers in front of the final sale that could cause the buyer to abandon the purchase altogether. For phone sales, if you ask the proper questions as you guide customers through purchase process, you may not need to upsell. (For advice on those questions, check out the “Five Forbidden Questions” offered by floral consultant Tim Huckabee in the article “Boosting Flower Selling Power” in Canadian Florist magazine.
3) Offer quality over quantity.
In other words, don’t offer too many add-on options. Too many will simply irritate your customers. Patel advises offering a limit of two to three quality upgrades upon checkout. He also advises retailers to “drip” additional upgrade offers after the sale via email. For a florist, this advice could translate into following up with an email reminder for future purchases. For example:
4) Learn what your customers’ needs are.
Patel tells his readers to survey their customers (using options such as Survey Monkey or Qualaroo) to discover the “pain points” customers are experiencing. After all, he points out, customers aren’t actually purchasing a product or service; they are purchasing a solution to their problems. For florist customers, those problems include fulfilling an “obligation” to give a gift, saying thanks or saying, “I’m sorry.”
Patel’s questions are fairly generic, so I’ve tweaked them to create some queries specifically appropriate for your customers:
·
What luck have you had with upselling customers? Have any specific offerings been consistently successful? Was it adding chocolates or balloons? A fancier vase? Personalized ribbon? Larger arrangements? Share your successes by describing them in the comments below.
“Do you want fries with that?”
That’s the common line many think of when they consider upselling—the marketing technique in which you offer your customer additional add-on options to their purchases. But upselling sometimes requires a bit more finesse than the fast-food example implies.
One marketing expert, Neil Patel, recently offered some tips on the topic on his site, QuickSprout.com: “How to Upsell Your Customers.” In that article, Patel writes that, as a general rule, you should shoot for 70 percent of your revenue coming from new customers and 30 percent from upselling. That exact ratio may not work for florists, but it’s still a great reminder about the value of the marketing technique.
Reviewing Patel’s tips suggested some ideas to me on opportunities florists could use in their upselling efforts. Here, then, I’ve gathered the best of Patel’s tips to provide an overview and offer some specific ideas on how to implement his advice.
Start training your staff now to use these techniques during the slower summer season. By fall, their newly ingrained sales skills could give you a nice boost in profits!
1) Relate your upsells to the customer’s original purchase.
Make add-on offerings logical, Patel says. “Don’t just throw in products because you have them and want to make more money.” Instead, once you have finalized what the order will be, ask the customer if he would like to upgrade from a standard glass vase to a specialty vase; from standard roses to garden roses; from traditional greens to premium greens; etc. (You may need to first determine what you consider “standard” and what you consider an upgrade.) Then train your staff to follow these recommendations with signage at the phone or the cash register. (P.S. You can do the same thing on your e-commerce site. Your web developer should be able to work with you to offer the additional options. These types of add-ons may actually be easier because you can show the customer an actual image of what the upgrade will look like.)
2) Make the add-on easy.
Patel points out that you should never offer the add-ons until after the customer has completed the order—particularly when the customer is buying online. “The ideal way to upsell customers is to let them fully purchase the first product,” he points out. Then, once they click the “Buy” button, immediately offer them a few options. If you offer the add-ons before they approve the purchase, you’re placing barriers in front of the final sale that could cause the buyer to abandon the purchase altogether. For phone sales, if you ask the proper questions as you guide customers through purchase process, you may not need to upsell. (For advice on those questions, check out the “Five Forbidden Questions” offered by floral consultant Tim Huckabee in the article “Boosting Flower Selling Power” in Canadian Florist magazine.
3) Offer quality over quantity.
In other words, don’t offer too many add-on options. Too many will simply irritate your customers. Patel advises offering a limit of two to three quality upgrades upon checkout. He also advises retailers to “drip” additional upgrade offers after the sale via email. For a florist, this advice could translate into following up with an email reminder for future purchases. For example:
- "Now that the blooms have faded, renew the romance with a surprise bouquet that will catch her off-guard.”
- “Don’t let that vase sit there empty! Get a special discount when you bring it back for a fresh bouquet!”
- “Want to see her face light up like that every month? Sign up for our exclusive bouquet-of-the-month delivery service."
- “Don’t miss that next special event. Sign up for our email-reminder service so that you can quick-order her next bouquet.”
4) Learn what your customers’ needs are.
Patel tells his readers to survey their customers (using options such as Survey Monkey or Qualaroo) to discover the “pain points” customers are experiencing. After all, he points out, customers aren’t actually purchasing a product or service; they are purchasing a solution to their problems. For florist customers, those problems include fulfilling an “obligation” to give a gift, saying thanks or saying, “I’m sorry.”
Patel’s questions are fairly generic, so I’ve tweaked them to create some queries specifically appropriate for your customers:
·
- What are the problems you face when sending flowers?
- What questions do you have when deciding to send flowers?
- What’s one way we can improve our floral offerings or service?
- What additional options would you like when you order flowers?
What luck have you had with upselling customers? Have any specific offerings been consistently successful? Was it adding chocolates or balloons? A fancier vase? Personalized ribbon? Larger arrangements? Share your successes by describing them in the comments below.
