Innovative Systems

January 2011

The Art of the Upsell…...be subtle

About once or twice a month I go to Burger King for a Whopper. Trying to be healthy, I specifically order just the sandwich at the drive thru. They always, and I mean always, ask if I would like anything else. Then one day, I got to thinking, “Do all of their employees do that naturally or is that part of their training?” I am going to guess it is part of their training.

Let’s for a moment suppose that this tactic adds 20 upsells per day averaging $2 a piece. That adds up to over $14,000 per year! How much more did it cost them to increase their revenue? Nothing!

Let’s move this concept into telecommunications where we have voice, video, data, bundles, antivirus protection, wire and wireless maintenance and those are just some of the high points. Drilling down further you have enhanced voice features like voice to text conversion, premium video channels and much more. When you think about it, telecommunications providers have tremendous upsell opportunity. However, the quantity and complexity of all the available add-on features may be too much for the front line people to even know where to begin.

So perhaps we should take a lesson from the burger moguls and just ask, “Is there anything else I can do for you today?” If that is how every CSR is trained to finish every call, I am willing to guess it will result in upsell opportunities.

You are invited to direct any questions related to marketing Innovative Systems products to Scott Meyer at 605.990.7202.