For small business owners, extra sales aren’t just a bonus: they can mean the difference between success and failure. When the stakes are so high, you want to make sure your employees are doing everything they can to sell add-ons.
The term “add-on sales” refers to the concept of selling a customer on a product or service that complements the one they’ve already purchased—for example, selling an additional warranty along with an expensive TV. Add-ons can be an easy source of income because you’ve already got a buyer who’s interested in your products. If you’re not already doing this with your business, here are 5 tips for learning how to sell add-ons in just 48 hours.
Sit down and come up with ideas for add-on products or services that you could start to sell. These will be things that would logically go with your product, or maybe things that customers have asked you about in the past. Think about the needs of your target audience and the rest should follow.
Once you have your list together, be sure to share it with your employees and make sure they memorize it. It will be easier for them to learn how to sell add-ons if they don’t have to think of the additional offerings on the fly.
Come up with a number of add-on sales you’d like to make in a week or month, then hold yourself to it. Create incentives for your employees to sell more add-ons, whether it be a prize or a monetary bonus. Even if you don’t quite reach your goal every week, striving for a particular number will make you far more likely to get more sales than if you didn’t have a goal in mind.
The next step is to make your customers aware of your additional offerings. You can put together different packages and advertise them on your website at a discounted price, or mention the add-ons on each product or service page.
The fact is, most customers don’t even think to check for anything outside of what they originally wanted to buy. It’s important to make sure the add-ons are visible from the product page so that your customer will start to consider them from the very beginning.
The Balance mentions the importance of creating a unified sales approach when upselling. One way to do this is to create a sales script for your employees to follow when selling add-ons. This will guarantee that your employees hit all the most important points and have a consistent approach to the sales process. It also takes some of the pressure off of the employees and will make them more likely to follow through with the sales pitch.
Much of the time the customer just needs a small push to commit to buying an add-on. If it’s expensive, it can be easy for them to talk themselves out of it or leave the decision to a later date by deciding to hold off on making the purchase.
When you’re trying to close a sale but you can tell that the customer is wavering, create a sense of urgency to help them make that final decision. This could mean letting the customer know that the deal is limited time only or while supplies last. If they feel like they’ll miss out unless they act now, it will make them more likely to buy that additional product or service immediately.
Adding an additional sale is not as hard as you think. If you want to learn more about how to sell add-ons and increasing your average sale, fill out my contact form and we can discuss some additional ideas.
Coach Dave
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