Upselling is a sales strategy that encourages customers to purchase superior versions of a product or additional services to increase the value of their purchase.
Increasing sales ratesis the goal of every company, while having to deal with almost ever-increasing competition within different markets. This is the reason whysales tactics and strategies are constantly evolving.
The most used techniques to increase sales certainly include cross-selling and upselling, that are similar methodologies both focused on offering added value to potential customers.
With this in mind, upselling is structured through appropriate actions in order to incentivize the prospect to purchase a product that is qualitatively or quantitatively better than the initial one.
What incentives can be used? There are several, depending on the market and the area in which one operates. They range from a discount on the purchase of a larger package or ahigher range model to an extended warranty.
But that’s not all: providing customers with higher quality productsgenerates added value for the company. In fact, a satisfied consumer is more likely to return to buy from the same brand.
Some data deducible from market research should be considered.
First,existing customers are much more likely to buy than new ones.
Research conducted by HubSpot estimates that the probability of closing a sale with an existing customer is60-70% higher than the norm, while for a new customer the percentage drops to5-20%.
Another important element concerns the ability to retain customers: increasing customer loyalty meansincreasing profitsin the long run. A study by Bain & Company showed that a 5 percent increase in retention would lead to an increase in profits of up to 95%.
It is clear that upselling increasescustomer lifetime valuewithout driving up the cost of sales, leading to greater profitability in the long run.
It is possible to implement upselling techniques at any stage of the sale, butthe best time is at the beginning of the negotiation, especially when the sales force makes use of digital tools.
Dedicated software makes it possible to visualize the different product features, highlighting the options and benefits that the customer will be able to obtain.
To succeed in implementing these strategies, it is important tohave data on prospects and customers, especially leveraging CMRs and corporate ERPs, andintegrating them with toolsdesigned specifically for performance optimization, such as CPQs (Configure, Price, Quote).
The integration of these digital technologies offers a huge advantage: that of creating a technological synergy that can digitize business processes and enable sales teams tounderstand and anticipate customer needs. All of this is an essential prerequisite for greatly increasing the win rate.
Among the various software on the market, Apparound constitutes the top-class, capable of adapting perfectly to the company’s business needs in relation to different types of markets.
In addition to the standard configurator features – including bid preparation, automated pricing and contract generation –Apparound CPQ allows the salesperson to manage all the sales and marketing content he needs through one single interface. He can then finalize the contract by graphometric or remote signature, via OTP.
Not only that, Apparound is designed and built to optimize the customer experience, offering a high rate of seller-customer interaction through a customer-centric approach.
Apparound’s key features also include seamless integration with major enterprise software, namely CRMs and ERPs.
Thanks to the ability to make different systems communicate with each other, the seller has always up-to-date and error-free information at his disposal.
Apparound is therefore an essential tool because it is based on two factors that are now unavoidable: data driven and process automation in Sales.
An app structured to create guided sales paths aimed at rapidly and fully satisfying the needs of prospects.
Upselling is a sales strategy that encourages customers to purchase superior versions of a product or additional services to increase the value of their purchase.
It increases revenue and improves customer satisfaction by offering options better suited to customer needs.
Understand your customers' needs and offer products that add real value to their buying experience.
Use digital tools such as CRM, ERP and CPQ solutions to analyze buying habits and personalize offers.
Upselling entices the purchase of a better version of a product, while cross-selling suggests complementary products.
