Ok, you got into business to make money right?
You may have had other, more intangible reasons, ranging from philanthropical to personal but lets be brutally honest with ourselves for a second: on the most base level, the main goal of a business is to earn income for its owners.
I think we need to run this like a 12 step meeting:
My name is Marc Goldman and I am a business owner who is out to make money with my business. (whew that felt good)
So, with that off my chest, lets begin our meeting.
Since my goal is to have my business produce substantial and lasting profits, I am constantly on the lookout for new and improved ways to add more income to the balance sheet.
We have tried and tested many different ideas, techniques and strategies to increase our cashflow and without a doubt, there is one method above all others that we have discovered to increase our sales:
Adding upsells to our order form.
That's right, regardless of all the different traffic techniques in the world, even with proven sales copy and conversion methods in place, even with years of studying and applying various direct and indirect marketing approaches, the one thing I have found that brings in the most money to our company is the ability to upsell each individual customer on an additional item they did NOT intend to originally purchase.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the term "upsell", let me use an example from one of the world's most famous companies to illustrate the point:
When people walk into fast food giant McDonalds to order a simple hamburger or a Vanilla shake, without fail they are presented with the phrase that has helped this company to dominate the fast food market:
"Would you like fries with that?"
Other fast food outlets will ask you, "Would you like a drink or an apple pie with your meal?" This is another very effective example of an upsell.
These fast food giants sell millions of dollars worth of extra food and drinks worldwide every year, because they know how to effectively use an upsell.
So now you may be saying that's all well and good for McDonalds but I am in a totally different business. I don't sell fast food.
Guess what? Upselling is a sales technique that can work for any business.
And the best part is, if you are selling online, you don't have to train staff like McDonalds does in order to get them to remember to present an upsell to every single customer who walks in the doors.
Our business has been using upsells for the past 7 years to increase the revenue we make from each individual customer (and we don't sell anything close to fast food, instead we sell software and digital information).
When a potential customer comes to our site, reads our sales material and makes a decision to purchase our software or information products they are then taken to our point of sale (aka checkout or an order form etc).
At this point a customer is always presented with the opportunity to add one or more related products to their order.
That's a very important point, for an upsell to be most effective; it has to be related to the current order.
Could you imagine if McDonalds offered you a gallon of gasoline instead of a side order of fries?
Or perhaps a tennis racket?
It just wouldn't sell.
But the idea of purchasing additional related products makes sense to the customer so the overwhelming majority of them, when presented with an upsell, will take advantage of it.
The reason upsells work has to do with human psychology. You see, when we as human beings make a decision to buy, it's usually an impulse driven one fed by emotions. So, once you as the seller have pushed that button to buy, you can easily increase your revenue from each individual sale by simply asking the customer to buy more.
So does it work for us, in an industry that has nothing to do with food?
You bet it does. Upselling accounts for increased revenues of 40% a week on average.
And because we have everything set up to be automated and managed by our shopping cart system, we don't have to employ additional staff (let alone train them), nor do we have to manage this to make sure its working right.
We just set it up ONCE and then let it constantly add to our bottom line profits week after week.
So how can you do the same thing for your business?
Assuming you sell products or services online here is an easy four step formula for you to follow to immediately experience the benefits of upselling:
Step 1. Have a process in place to drive targeted traffic to your website so you bring prospects to you who are interested in what you sell.
Step 2. Have an effective sales process in place that pushes these targeted prospects emotional buttons and offers compelling product benefits and encourages them to want your product or service so bad that they can't wait to click your order now or buy now button.
Step 3. Use a shopping cart that makes the ordering process uncomplicated and easy.
For example, once they click your order now button and go to your shopping cart, don't force them to create a new account or ask them to login now before they can order.
Quick and easy is the key in todays rushed society.
Step 4. Use a shopping cart that lets you automatically present your related upsell offers to the customer at the point of sale.
The customer has now taken the leap of faith and is ready to purchase from you, they sit at their computer, credit card in hand, ready to buy something that appeals to them and then you offer them a related product or service with another, shorter compelling reason to buy.
For example, if you sell chainsaws, couldn't you also offer chainsaw lubricant? Motor oil? An extended service warranty?
A good shopping cart will offer you the ability to present your upsell offers in a clean, sensible fashion that helps your customer to simply check a box to easily add this "upgraded offer" to their purchase.
An even better shopping cart system will allow you to offer multiple upsells so you make EVEN MORE on each sale.
That's it. With that simple process in place, you could be immediately on your way to increased revenues every single week. Try it out, I am quite sure that this will become a very significant part of your business and you will continue to use upsells on a regular basis to give an instant and consistent boost to your sales.
Marc Goldman is the CEO of Goldbar Enterprises, LLC. Their flagship product GoldbarOne is the best Shopping Cart/Ecommerce/Marketing system that has ever been built. That's because it was built by marketers for marketers. Take a free 30 Day Trial today at http://www.goldbar.net
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