You’ve probably experienced a fast-food crew asking if you’d like to make your meal a combo, or maybe getting offers for accessories and upgrades right after buying a new laptop. These are some examples of a sales technique called upselling. Its primary goal is to convince clients to choose a more expensive, upgraded, or premium version of their preferred product.

Upselling can increase sales by 20% to 40% on average. However, if not done well, clients will feel that you’re being pushy and extorting money from them. There’s an art to it; you need to address their needs and ensure an excellent client experience so that they walk out of your door feeling like the transaction was a win-win. If you need tips on how to do this successfully, here are some of the best practices to try:

Write it down in your proposal

A great way to let your customers know about available add-ons or upgrade options is to include them in your proposal. Specifying them early on provides them with greater freedom of choice while you avoid looking like you want to squeeze every penny out of them down the line. Best of all, it doesn’t take much effort! Just remember that the goal of upselling is to maximize your profits, so it should not hurt your bottom line in the long run. Think about products or services that you already do in-house that are not time-consuming or those that can be outsourced at a minimal cost. 

Focus on the product’s value

Here’s the reality: when you analyze people’s path to purchase and what influenced their decisions, you’ll see that it’s not always the price that convinced them to make the purchase but the value the product or service gives them. So whether it saves them precious time or improves their experience and reputation, make sure you show your clients how they can benefit from it.

Prepare a check-in strategy

While your clients may not have taken the bait on your initial offer, that doesn’t mean it will always be a “no.” The planning stage can take months and clients often change their minds along the way, so don’t be afraid to mention all the add-ons or upgrade options again.

Do some indirect selling

Your office is not just a place for client meetings. When decorated thoughtfully, it can be used to effectively market your products and services. Photographs on walls, an open photo album, or a video loop can grab your clients’ attention and influence them to upgrade their packages or add elements to their events.

Share the preferences of other clients

People always want to be on-trend. When you see something new in the market, make sure you contact your clients and let them know you thought of them. It’s an incredibly sweet gesture that they’ll surely appreciate! You can also share what others have chosen at their events, so they get ideas on what they can add to their own celebration.

And there you have it! We’ve rounded up five effective ways to upsell customers. Knowing how to do this right can help you maximize the revenue potential of every customer. Remember, keep your marketing simple, and don’t oversell!