It was a feat in-and-of-itself initially winning over the client, never mind convincing them to give you more money!
Many salespeople dread the “upsell conversation,” because it’s often met with resistance. But with the right tactics, marketing agencies can upsell their clients seamlessly, without any hair pulling or tricks.
Here are six ways your agency can tack on additional service offerings to expand your relationship with your client:
1. Don’t Upsell Until AFTER the Initial Purchase
“Some SaaS (companies) crush you with upsells before you’ve even completed your checkout,” said Neil Patel on Forbes. “For some customers, this is a pure, salesy turnoff.”
And he’s right! You reeled in your bait, but don’t spook your prospect off when you have them right where you want them.
If you bring on a client for a one-shot website design project and they just want a pretty site, they might not see a need for costly SEO implementation. The time to suggest this upsell might be after they’ve seen the design work and are impressed with your layout.
After you’ve earned their respect for delivering the stellar results they asked for, you’ll be in a better position to offer more help (probably some that they didn’t even know they needed!). Take the opportunity when you can though, for they may well have another party in mind for SEO and if you delay till project end, that door will likely be closed.
2. Don’t Overprice or Oversell
When your client is receptive to the right add-on to their current strategy, you have them in a very precarious place: they’re interested to see if it’s worth their while! One way your customer will assess the value they’ll receive is by comparing the amount of money they’ll be investing— and everyone wants a deal they can’t refuse.
If you price your upsell just right and position it as a discounted steal, the client will be more likely to go for it. Generally speaking, your upsell should be at least half the cost less than their original purchase price.
In that same breath, don’t try to upsell a bunch of services all at once. Stick to one very relevant, complementary service that helps to address your client’s top concern. For instance, if they are happy with how their organic traffic has increased over the past six months, but want even more, you might offer to run a three-month content creation campaign to build links, influence this important ranking factor and elevate their views.
3. Set up Quarterly Internal Update Meetings
It’s likely that your sales team is working independently of your implementers (your website developers, writers, SEO wizzes, etc.). While the people working directly with the client are aware if the account has problems, these pain points aren’t always communicated to the salespeople.
Arrange a quarterly chat between your sales team and those with direct hands on the account to address issues and identify upsell opportunities.
Your company’s designer may notice that the client asks for PDFs frequently to email to staff. Although right now you’re just replacing your points with a blog when the need arises, maybe it’s time to upsell the client a deliverables package with five PDFs a quarter, instead of stealing time away from other important tasks.
4. Frequently Check In, as a Partner and a Friend
Since your project team is the one interacting most frequently with the client, they’re on the top of your customer’s mind. Don’t let your client forget about you or your sales team by establishing a consistent rapport.
It might just be a simple, “Hey, how are you feeling about (insert project your team is helping them with here)?” or a little more personal, “I saw on Facebook that you got a dog! How cute. What’s his name?”
The whole point is that you establish a close relationship with your client, so they know that you care about them, both professionally and personally. People turn to people they trust to help solve their problems, and if they feel as if you are an active player in their life who cares about their struggles and success, they’ll be more open to your upsell proposition when the time is right.
5. Casually Cross-Promote Your Services
Sometimes it’s surprising how little your client knows about your full array of offerings. For instance, they may have hired you to do PPC and run their online advertising campaigns, but had no idea you do video marketing.
They mention to your PPC specialist that they hired another agency to shoot the videos that they want to promote on social, and you get a little peeved! However, unbeknownst to you, the client honestly didn’t realize your company offered video recording and editing services.
Pay close attention to your clients needs, and without being pushy, plant the seed that you can help with that too. If in your quarterly meeting with your internal team you realize the client has an interest in a service beyond what they’re already paying for, make a note to casually weave it into your next chat with them. Next time they bring up the related topic say, “Linda can write killer ad copy. Have you met her?”
6. Celebrate the Upsell
If a client opts for an upsell, don’t take the matter lightly. Show your appreciation for their continued loyalty by delighting the customer any way you can.
This may mean sending a hand-written thank you card or offering them a discount on a future service. Or maybe it means taking the stakeholders out to dinner or sending them a tasty edible arrangement. Get creative on how you can make them feel like family or express your gratitude for the partnership.
Use PandaDoc for Your Upsell Contracts
After your client takes you up on your upsell offer, you’ll want to get the terms in written form. Draft a professional and legally binding proposal with the help of PandaDoc.
This proposal management software makes it easier than ever to update contracts and have clients sign on the digital dotted line.
Learn more about the benefits of choosing PandaDoc with us, today. We can save you money and hook you up with extra benefits that you probably never realized you could have for designing proposals!