No doubt you’ve seen plenty of upsells yourself, especially in the make-money niche.
You’ve seen good methods and bad. Maybe you’ve even gotten aggravated at the whole upsell process you had to go through to get your product.
And maybe you’ve even had customers complain to you about your upsells. (Hopefully not.)
Here’s why upsells are so tricky – they can seem a bit… and let’s be honest here…
DEVIOUS.
“Buy my product and you can get XYZ benefit!”
They buy your product and you say, “Whoopsie, if you REALLY want to get XYZ benefit, then you also need to purchase this second product.”
And the third, and the fourth…
This is why some people ask ahead of time if there are any upsells.
They’ve had too many experiences where the product seller held something back from the first product in order to make more money by selling a second product.
It’s like selling someone a car, and then saying, “Wait, if you REALLY want to drive this thing, you might want to purchase a steering wheel, too.”
They purchase the steering wheel, expecting to now get their car, except you say, “Wait, if you REALLY want to drive this thing any distance at all, you might want to buy tires, too, because driving on the rims is slow and hazardous.”
And on and on.
Your upsell needs a REASON to exist beyond you making more money – a reason your seller understands and appreciates.
Building a plug-in and purposely holding back features so they buy the upgrade is not a good reason from the buyer’s point of view (it might be a good reason from your point of view, but that’s another matter.)
Your initial offer has got to be able to stand on its own two feet all by itself, without the help of any upgrades whatsoever. It’s got to give the customer everything they need to get the benefit they seek (the reason they bought the product in the first place.)
The question is, what are “good reasons?”
How about…
Your product provides the benefit, but only with a lot of work. Your upgrade is something that makes the entire process easier.
For example, the initial product teaches how to do something by hand, the upsell is software that automates the process.
Or…
Your product provides one method of achieving the benefit, and your upgrade provides more (different) methods of achieving the same result.
For example, your initial product teaches one traffic generation method, and your upsell is a monthly membership in which they get a new traffic generation method each week.
Or…
Your product provides a benefit and your upsell is something that complements that benefit.
For example, your initial product is how to convince blog owners to let you guest blog post, and your upsell is how to convert the traffic from guest blog posts into paying customers.
Be careful with this last one. If you go on and on in your initial offer about how you can convert this traffic to sales, then your customers might expect that information to be in the initial product.
Now then, I’d like to propose a slightly different, calmer and more gentle method of upselling.
Instead of inserting a, “Do not pass until you read this” type of upsell into your sales funnel, you try doing all of the following:
- Suggesting they check the offer out on your download page
- Suggesting they check it out again inside your product
- And then following up with a series of emails letting them know why it’s such a great idea to get this upsell this week
And I say “this week,” because you’ll want to offer them a special price that is only good for the first few days after their initial purchase.
I know of one marketer who uses ONLY this method of upsell. Yes, he does not make as much money on his initial sales, but he does sell a boatload of upsells.
And perhaps more importantly, his customers never get angry at him for ramming upsells down their throats. They love him, trust him, and a surprising number do get the upsell before the discount expires.
This is something you might test.
Remember, your upsell needs a reason to exist – a reason beyond you making a profit.
