From Klia Bassing:

Reminder: Seedbed Potluck this Saturday the 4th, 6-8pm

On Mar 15, 2:49 pm, Klia <kbass...@visityourself.net> wrote:

> *Next Seedbed Potluck - Upselling: Increase revenue from existing

> customers*

> Saturday, April 4th, 6-8pm at Klia's (address below).

> Agenda: (i) Share stories of upselling successes & challenges; (ii)

> Writing exercise on upselling opportunities & challenges in our

> businesses (bring notebook or paper); (iii) Small group sharing of

> writings. Also, if you know of a sales expert that might like to speak/

> Q&A on Upselling, please email me at kbass...@visityourself.net.

>

> *What is Upselling?*

> It's a sales technique whereby the customer is encouraged to purchase

> more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons in an attempt to make

> a more profitable sale (paraphrased from wikipedia). The encouragement

> may happen at the time of the initial sale (i.e., "Do you want fries

> with that?") or after some time, as in my personal example below.

>

> *Klia's Personal Example*

> For two years I was providing Mindfulness Meditation courses that

> lasted five weeks (there were gaps of 2-4 weeks in-between the

> courses) for a federal agency in one of their two buildings. At one of

> the agency's health fairs, I met employees who worked in the second

> building. They asked if classes could be held in the second building

> as well and I encouraged them to request this from HR; I also

> personally passed on the suggestion to HR. After about a year (with

> continued haranguing from the employees in the second building), the

> agency agreed and my business effectively doubled service and revenue.

> The difference? A 100% increase in that client's service/revenue with

> zero marketing costs and minimal extra admin!

>

> Was that just a lucky break?

>

> After another six months at the same agency, I asked the attendees of

> the classes if they would prefer to not have gaps in-between the

> classes as this would support a consistent meditation practice. The

> attendees' response was positive and I told HR that the attendees

> desired on-going classes. HR looked at their budget and approved the

> on-going classes. I.e., we jumped from 30 classes/year to 52. The

> difference? Another jump in annual revenue--a 52% jump--again, with

> zero marketing costs and minimal extra admin!

> - Pizza Upselling: "Most pizza shops can easily generate an extra

> $7,000-$37,000 every year just from upselling. In fact, 30 percent to

> 67 percent of all people can be up sold at the time of purchase. And,

> of those customers, ticket increases of 15 percent to 25 percent are

> common."

> Sourcehttp://www.pizzamarketplace.com/article.php?id=2358

>

> - What stops us from upselling?: (i) Fear based thinking - “Will I

> risk the order I just received if I ask for more?”, (ii) Lack of trust

> - “I’m not going to confuse this account by pitching a bunch of new

> products.”, (iii) Delay - “I’ll ask for a referral later - once we are

> in a better position with this account.”

> Sourcehttp://www.stormsassociates.com/files/Cross%20Selling%20&%20Up%20Sell...

>

> - Make Upselling Automatic: "Upselling is easy if you think of your

> main business as helping customers. Think about the problems your

> customers come to you with. What does it REALLY take to solve their

> problems?"

> Sourcehttp://www.smithfam.com/news/nov01x.html

>

> - Upselling Basics: "Spend a little time thinking about additional

> options for add-on sales. A great upsell product is less expensive

> than the original purchase but is in some way related to it."

> Sourcehttp://www.insiderreports.com/storypage.asp?ChanID=MR&DeptID=&StoryID.