Many moons ago when I was beginning college, I needed a way to pay for books, tuition, hidden fees and many other costs I didn`t account for beyond the normal tuition fees. Because of that, I took on the job of delivering pizza for the local chain pizza store.
I can honestly tell you, to this day, it is still one of the most fun jobs I ever had. It was challenging when it came to finding a customers house. Unfortunately not all customers lit their homes up with a sign that read, "Hey Pizza guy, RIGHT HERE!". No it truly didn`t work that way.
However, beyond the fun of the job itself, I learned quite a bit about different sales and marketing techniques, one of which I want to share with you today.
One of the most, or at least I thought, dreadful parts of the job, was answering the phones. You never knew who would be on the other line, and the longer you were on the phone with them, the more time it ate into you being on the road, making deliveries and of course tips.
My manager told me the best people on the phones were the ones that could not make up their minds. He told me why. The reason is people who could not make up their minds as to what they truly wanted, left themselves up to a technique called up selling.
Up selling is the process by which you offer to the customer an additional product (or service) at an additional cost. In the delivery business it was key to try and maximize the amount of money you would make from each home. If a customer was indecisive as to what they want, you would go on to sell them a large, with toppings they like, some soda, breadsticks, fries, you name it. So what could have been a $10 one pizza order, has now turned in to a $15 order with a pizza and some wings.
Regardless of whether or not you are selling products or providing a service, there is room to up sell. A friend of mine runs a rental property repair business. He tells me that using this up selling technique has added additional revenue to his bottom line that he didn`t even know existed. By doing more work on one house as opposed to many houses, it has cut down on travel time, gas, and so on.
If you are not implementing up selling in your business, you need to start. Every customer you or your sales team interacts with is potential for additional revenue and by you not implementing up selling, you could be costing your company, hundreds if not thousands of dollars per year.
Now put your up selling program in place, and remember the next time you are in a fast food restaurant and they ask if you would like a large soda instead of the medium for twenty cents more, you will know they are trying to up sell on you.
By: Bruce A. Tucker
About the Author:
Mr. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.Indocquent.com, an online resource where you can advertise your business, products or services throughout the world.
http://www.Indocquent.com/freeaccount, will also publish any article that you write in regards to your business on their website as well as disseminate it throughout various media outlets.
Published By: Indocquent.com- An online resource where you can promote your business, products and services around the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment