Upselling: Don’t wait until the last minute

In sales, you’ll never make more money per hour than when you’re upselling. It only takes a few minutes. And it could add hundreds – or even thousands – of dollars to your sale.

Best of all, it’s extremely low risk if it’s handled properly. You’ve already got one sale; why not go for another?

Yet probably every salesperson has, at one time or another, left this practically free money lying on the table.

One reason, I submit, is psychological. All of our mental energy is focused on the big prize – winning the sale. We give 100% of our effort – and once we win it, we’re done. Excited but exhausted. We have nothing left to give. It’s time to take our winnings, go home and celebrate.

That’s why you can’t leave an upsell for the last minute. The time to think about an upsell is when you’re planning the original sale. That’s when your brain is most engaged in figuring out the prospect’s needs and all the ways you can help meet those needs. That’s when it’s time to identify potential upselling opportunities and come up with a strategy for going after them.

So when the time comes, you don’t have to think about the upsell. It’s automatic.