What’s the easiest and fastest way to radically increase your sales? Done right you can increase your sales to many of your clients with very little effort.
How, you may ask…
Introducing the Software Upsell
More on that in a few moments, but first a little background.
Wikipedia defines Upsell or Up-selling as: “Up-selling is a sales technique whereby a salesman attempts to have the consumer purchase more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale. Up-selling usually involves marketing more profitable services or products, but up-selling can also be simply exposing the customer to other options he or she may not have considered previously.”
Starbucks call their smaller size Tall and the up-sales Grande and Venti. Example of up-selling in the software industry would be to sell a more advanced version of the same software, a bundle with another software title, the software in a box as well as downloadable, a service agreement and so on.
How to Upsell Software
How do you go about it? It’s easy. At the time of purchase you simply offer your clients a more valuable deal. By making this offer interesting to the client you can easily convert 60% or more to go for the Upsell.
Upselling was perhaps not invented by the software industry but not many industries can match the creative ways software marketers has introduced the Software Upsell.
And if you’re not upselling your product you are definitely leaving money on the table. Start now…
Ways to Upsell Software
I have come across many different ways of upselling software, here are a few we and partners are currently utilizing
- Add a (or several) Premium version(s) of your software (Professional, Deluxe, Server, Technician, Plus…)
- Add a Support Agreement
- Add a Multi license option
- Add a Box, Manual to the order
- Add a Guarantee to access the software
- Add a related software product
- Add an option to lock in future upgrades to lower price
- Add express shipping options
- Offer Software Upgrades
- Offer Add-ons to your product
You should offer your clients as many of these as possible.
The Upsell should be optional. Don’t force your clients into at as it will not be appreciated. Some software companies don’t include any support with their products, it has to be purchased as an additional service. I don’t think I need to tell you how their clients feel about this.
Good luck upselling!
Peter – Software Marketing Secrets
You may reprint or distribute this article as long as you leave the content and this information intact. This Article was written by Peter Gillberg and published at http://softwaremarketingsecrets.com
This is an excellent article full of great ideas. While reading, I came up with several ideas for ways to upsell the products you (Peter) and I discussed via e-mail. I hope it will do the same everyone else as well.
Here is an article I have wrote about cross selling and up-selling for software sales:
“Cross-sell, Up-sell, Boost Your Software Sales”:
http://www.avangate.com/articles/boost-software-sales_46.htm
you might find useful.
Very nice article especially the up-selling points listed. They are helpful as checklist strategy for improving my products sales.
I guess it is also nice to consider the following point: Offer your software version customizability on user’s demands if applicable
The presentation of the upsell can really impact the number of people who take advantage of it. Some developers find an increase in CD sales by as much as 80% by simply pre-checking the CD option box.
Very nice article especially the up-selling points listed. They are helpful as checklist strategy for improving my products sales.
I guess it is also nice to consider the following point: Offer your software version customizability on user’s demands if applicable