rabhuja design

This post is part 3 of 5 in our four-author series on perfect pricing and rates.

As I step up to the counter to place my order for a tall skim-latte at Starbucks, the woman behind the counter immediately responds with, “would you like to make that a grande for only 50 cents more?”

I thought for a moment, then bit on the up-sell and went for the bigger-one.

I then heard the barista repeat the same process with the next five people behind, asking each one if they’d like to bump up one-level from whatever they ordered. Three out of five did.

So, if every person behind the counter in this Starbucks was trained to ask this same question, that simple act would effectively increase the gross-revenue of the location by 60%. If it started with $1 million, then, asking the question would raise revenue to $1.6 million.

Why do you care? Because…

Up-selling also works phenomenally with many types of freelance work.

Many of the big advertising, marketing, design and copy service-providers have been doing this for decades. Take a quick look over at Logoworks.com™, one of the big online logo companies, now owned by HP. (We won’t get into the quality of what is delivered or the way the service works, that is a different conversation. This is just about their sales process.)

If you go to their website in search of a logo, you’ll be quickly presented not with a price for a logo, but with multiple options, each one offering a higher level of service with more options and services.

They effectively try to up-sell you on the opportunity to get more collective creative intelligence faster and have the ability to choose between more concepts. And, while each package is priced incrementally higher…

A great many buyers will actually appreciate having the chance to choose a higher level of service.

This is because they are being exposed to options that they might not have thought of, but once informed, would be happy to have the chance to consider.

And, in the end, many end up signing up for a package that is priced higher and offers more than they had expected to buy before arriving at Logoworks’ website.

The point is, companies like Logoworks do this for a reason, actually two. One, it generates substantially more revenue. And, two, it serves the client better by:

(a) exposing them to not only the needs they’ve thought of, but ones they might have missed,

(b) offering multiple solutions, and

(c) allowing the client to choose the options they are ready to commit to at the time.

Presenting a multi-tier, up-sell proposal actually allows a client the chance to opt into a higher level of service that may yield better results.

So, next time you present an offer or proposal to a client, try something a bit different.

Rather than just presenting a summary only the minimum work requested and a single fee, propose 3 levels of solution and fee that start with the work requested and add two levels of value and fee.

And within the description of each higher value bundle, include a few sentences explaining how the added services would benefit/accelerate/better serve the needs of that prospect than the “basic” solution they requested.

Give them the option to choose more than what they asked for and you both might end up happier…and wealthier!

Stay tuned for my next article on cross-selling…

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