It seems to be just common sense that your reps shouldn’t be trying to sell upgrades to irate customers, especially those whose issue did not get resolved. However, some companies, for reasons lost to time, have policies in place that require an up-sell attempt on every phone call. If this is the case, we’ll give you a few tips to handle that.
If your reps are allowed to make a judgment call as to who they offer up-sold products to, advise them to offer to neutral customers, customers whose issue was resolved during the call, or happy customers.
The up-sell should match a stated or implied need.
These needs could be in the form of a comment about the product, issues the customer is trying to resolve unrelated to the product (for example, the fact that the cable company won’t string cable to their location could be an opening to up-sell a satellite TV package), or connections you build with the customer (for example, you and the customer commiserate over high interest rates on your car note. Wouldn’t it be nice to get an annotated credit report every month showing you any risk areas?)
The up-sell should (ideally) seem like a friend offering advice or suggestions.
“You know what, Mr. Smith? While I have you on the line, I’d like to let you know about our MaxBuster 2000. You mentioned at the start of this call that rats have chewed through your phone line and you’ve had to call the exterminator 3 times this year. We actually have a subsidiary line of pest control products, and for a small extra charge we’ll have one of our Ratz-no-more professionals come to your house and deploy the product. No muss, no fuss! So, shall we get that set up for you today?”
The up-sell should be part of the *entire* phone call, not Frankenstein-ed on at the very end.
Have your reps build rapport, take note of stated and implied needs, and maybe even hint or allude to the up-sell product before the big end of chat alter call. One of the biggest challenges to overcome with customers is that the up-sell seems so different in tone and delivery than the rest of the call. Your reps are setting themselves up for a “no” when they switch from light and friendly “service consultants” to bitter robots determined to get through the “no” and onto the next failure. Make sure that the set-up moments are sprinkled evenly through the call.
What if your client requires an up-sell attempt on every phone call? (Or has other shot-in-the-foot restrictions?)
If it’s possible, write the reps a script that alludes to this. “Before I finish up today, we’re offering all of our customers our new MegaTornado Insurance Coverage. I know things didn’t go quite as planned on our call, but since this is a great deal, I wanted to make sure you had a chance to take advantage of it.”
Acknowledge that the call wasn’t ideal, that “all” of the customers are getting the offer, and that you’re offering them a deal/value/exciting product. Explain in a few words why you’re making the offer, perhaps even saying something like “Our company wants to ensure all of our customers get a chance to take advantage of this one time opportunity to get 2 Exercise Chairs for the price of 1. Is that something you might be interested in?”
With these few tips, your reps could be well on their way to more effective up-selling in no time.
