Inside Sales in Tough Times

If restaurants can upsell, why can’t we?

After a whirlwind trip around the country and a couple dozen meals in places ranging from pizza to posh, I want to share an observation:  Restaurants know how to upsell.

From the lowly “do you want fries with that?” to the more sophisticated and expensive, “at least let me show you our dessert tray,” food service folks have created a culture of upselling.

Aside from the pounds I’ve managed to pack on, I wanted to gain something from the experience.  How can restauranteers train surly teenagers making minimum wage to automatically upsell when we struggle to convince professional, commissioned inside salespeople to do much more than say “thank you” and push forward?

Thinking back, I don’t recall a single moment of agitation caused by this constant upsell campaign.  When poorly done, I simply smiled and said “no, thank you.”  But, getting back to the dessert tray, I was actually glad I was re-sold.

Distributors encouraging their inside sales or customer service teams to upsell, add-on sell, or otherwise pro-actively impact business, always get pushback.  Typically, complaints fall in to five major categories:

1. My customers don’t want to be sold.
2. Our products don’t lend themselves to upselling because they are too technical, too expensive, too bulky, etc.
3. Our people don’t know what to recommend as an add-on.
4. Our inside/customers service people don’t know how to sell.
5. Our customer service/inside people revolt whenever we ask them to sell.

Our attempt at an upsell...

A few weeks ago we wrote “Tough Times Call for Tough Love.”  I believe now is the time to determine why your team isn’t upselling.  If your company falls into category five, something needs to change.

Some Thoughts on Starting

Start simple.  Instead of asking for a product sale, ask if the customer is aware of some new program, training event or if they receive the company newsletter.

Develop a list of add-on, lower cost commodities.  For example, electrical distributors might want to consider asking for wire markers or the multi-color tape used for identifying cables.

If your computer system allows for “suggested other products,” invest in populating the data fields for your top 200 items sold.  

Hold a weekly “Inside Sales Huddle” to reinforce the need for add-on sales.  Ask each rep to share their successes.  Talk about the customer value of properly done suggested sales. 

Here are a couple of topics to discuss with your team:

1. The phrase “Would you like to supersize that order?” has been estimated as generating over $1.3 Billion in added sales.
2. Amazon recommends additional products (add-on sales) by saying “customers who bought this item also bought…” and lists other products.
3. The young lady in Chicago who suggested that I “just look at the dessert tray” ended up adding $14 to my bill.
   You'll notice these are all examples of painless ways to upsell.  They are not forced, but rather have a natural flow.

We need to begin the journey now…
Times are getting tough.  I just read a great report on the Electrical Trends Blog indicating the electrical market is trending downward for the first time in seven years.  For years, distributors have talked about getting started in with upselling.  A few have been successful.  Most have simply allowed the topic to wither on the vine.  Now is the time to make it happen.