This week I was going to carry on with our Social Media series but I received an email the other day that made me see red.
Having the flu may not have helped keep my temperature down but this brought up an issue we really need to address if you are to succeed in this business…
And that issue is: selling. In this case, upselling. To some people, including the sender of this email, a dirty word. To other, more sensible folk a good opportunity to serve your customer even better.
For some, selling is something that reeks of embarrassment…it’s not something ‘nice’ people do…or a job for grown-ups. As for upselling, that is positively scammy.
To that, I say absolute rubbish. Selling done properly is a valuable service that fulfils peoples’ needs and solves their problems at a price they feel comfortable paying.
Upselling, as well as cross-selling and down-selling, are all ways you can further serve your customer. Works for Amazon, works for McDonalds…works for me.
Think about it: when was the last time a fast food server asked if you’d like to go large on your order and you threw a hissy fit? Or Amazon showed you what other people had bought and you slammed your laptop shut?
Offering choice is paramount to good selling. And selling is good – for you, for your customer. Provided you do it right.
With that little homily in mind, I’m focusing this week on free resources that will help you sell and upsell better. That way you win, your customers win and we can hopefully lay some misconceptions to rest.
First up is a good piece with possibly the longest URL in the world on maximising your sales through intelligent upselling and cross-selling:
To complement that, another excellent post on how to upsell your customers properly:
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/07/01/how-to-upsell-your-customers/
This is also well worth a read, containing 10 ways to sell more to your customers via cross-selling:
And then a couple of items specifically for offline consultants and coaches on upselling services:
http://www.hoovers.com/lc/sales-marketing-education/how-to-cross-sell-up-sell.html
If you are selling digital or physical items via your site then here’s a free plugin that will help you cross sell without headaches:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-e-commerce/
And one free theme I often recommend for e-commerce is Woo Commerce along with its free plugin (although the cross and upselling extension does cost):
http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce/
There is also a free app to help you upsell so long as you are using one of the platforms it supports:
This week’s Kindle freebie is the pertinent ‘A Proven Selling System You Can Take to The Bank,’ all about how to become a better salesperson:
http://www.amazon.com/Proven-Selling-System-More-On-Series-ebook/dp/B00B3LTNFI/
For offline consultants/salespeople, I cannot recommend the Advanced Selling Podcast enough (actually, it’s good for all of us as a primer on sales) and this episode is particularly insightful on finding your prospect’s pain points:
http://www.advancedsellingpodcast.com/the-inner-game-of-pain-finding/
For our video this week, a comprehensive tutorial on ‘Video Marketing Strategy: How to Sell More Of Your Stuff.’
You know I’m a firm advocate of using video to sell and this is the sort of meaty stuff you would pay a lot to learn on a webinar…but is totally free here:
Incidentally, you can download a nice cheat sheet to complement the lessons above on their site here:
http://www.videovanguards.com/welcome
More on selling more by doing less in next week’s edition and, in the meantime, please do take a look at some of the recommended resources here.
To sell well you need to feel good about what you’re doing and it’s my mission to make sure of that before the start of the New Year with all the opportunities that brings for you.
Have a wonderful week and speak soon!
