UpSelling

A potential customer called about a RowMark Plaque for one of their offices. I offered a price, then proceeded to suggest a better option of full-color imprinting (sublimation) onto aluminum on a wood plaque. They jumped on the idea. Shortly there after one of the company bigwigs had visited this office and took note of the plaque. I now have duplicate orders for all of their offices.

This is one of my upsale stories, lets hear others & I'm sure there must be some good ones out there.

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Well done Tim, good to hear a nice story every now and then.

TIM and ALL -
I feel that offering a customer options ‘n choices (up-selling) is a smart move; ‘long as it doesn’t muddy, or slow, their decision making process. What I’m driving at: There have been times I’ve suggested a much "nicer ‘n higher quality choice" for their purpose. The prospect (ready to place an order) then forced to go back to a committee; delaying the purchase decision; in one case, for over two weeks. Case in point: A restaurant chain recently ordered 20 plaques. Asking for the same (cheap-priced ‘n cheap-looking) plaque as they had used before, purchased from another provider. I went to the trouble of producing a much nicer looking plaque, a sample, for ‘em. And, in the same price range. While, I learned later, the management staff agreed with me - ultimately, the "head person" chose to stick with the plaques they’d been using in the past. (I cringed, but did the job for 'em.) I still made the sale ‘n they were pleased. And, actually, I made more profit on the deal. Just took way longer than it might have. My point being: Up-selling is fine (and, to your credit) ‘long as it doesn’t muddy the waters of making your sale!

Bill

I always offer alternatives if there are any (that I can do). Never thought of it as 'upselling'. But then, I don't "sell" anything. Never had to. :)

Here's an example. The customer asked for laminated plastic. After I inquired as to the purpose of the signs I suggested reverse engraved and color filled signs for their small headquarters museum. This was for the Rawlings Co.
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Nice job Mike! That turned out great. I remember when you were working on that job.

I can't say "upselling", but yesterday a guy walks into the office, says "I spoke to Kit about getting some engraving done". "Kit?". "Yes, Kit". Well, there's no Kit here. He looks totally confused. We talk for a minute, he's clearly in the wrong place. He clearly spoke to some other engraving shop and some how drove to us. I asked him what he had, told him we'd be happy to look at it. He had some wood pieces with him, said a couple pieces were scrap to use for setup. He wasn't sure what he wanted, I took a scrap, engraved it while he waited out front, brought it him, he asked if he could use a computer. I handed him a tablet, he logged into his email account, emailed me the files and left the work for us to do. Came back that afternoon, picked it all up, and was thrilled he went to the wrong place :)

I guess I up-sold him because he didn't come in buying anything :)

Name Dropper!

Just kidding, very nice.

Had a noname hotmail email ask me about converting a drawing to make simple pyramid about 2 years ago, to be honest the time it took to write the invoice was more expensive than the job so I just did it and emailed it back free of charge with a "Have fun" comment.

Next thing I get an email from an instantly recognisable email explaining in the 10 companies they had contacted for help, 8 didn't reply, 1 came back with a "don't bother us with your tat answer" and me, who had done the job for free. I'm about to start the third year of a 5 year contract with them to design and produce their entire range of laser processed products and to date they are my biggest client exceeding the through put value of the next 5 biggest put together.

All over a 50 cent job they didn't get charged for.

cheers

Dave