These are the iconic words every teenager who worked at McDonald’s in the late 80s and early 90s said to every customer. This was before value meals and back when everything was ordered à la carte. “Would you like fries with that” was also my first exposure to the power of upsells.
If you take a look around, upsells are everywhere. In grocery stores, they are the rack of candy bars and trashy magazines. In fast food places, they are the $1 sundaes. In high-end stores, they are the pair of socks to go with those shoes.
There is a reason that nearly every business uses upsells. It’s often the difference between profit and loss; the difference between success and failure. And while we are looking at upsells, we are also going to tackle the downsell, which you don’t see as often, but can put a ton of money into your bottom line.
So let’s look at upsells and downsells and how they work in both online and offline businesses. Surprisingly enough, these are often very similar, because no matter what you are selling, the philosophy remains the same — when your customer is in a buying mood, you want to offer them something else they may be interested in. Because that is when they are most likely to buy.
Now what you offer them may change depending on what you’re testing and what business you are in, but here are some examples and rules of thumb when it comes to upsells and downsells.
1. Keep your upsell tightly related to your original product (or offer more of your original product at a discount).
Whether you sell physical products, services, information or some combination, keeping your upsell offer tightly related to the original offer will always result in more sales.
A good example of this came with a TV I recently bought….
