Don't Do This

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Don't Do This

From a recent email:

Avoid This Annoying Upselling Technique

Greetings!

By 6 a.m. I had finished my morning workout
at Lifetime Fitness (a wonderful facility,
with every machine and amenity imaginable,
except a golf course). I like to get my
exercise out of the way very early-that
way I neither feel the pain, nor remember
it, which is great for motivation.

As usual, I stopped at their Lifetime Cafe,
where for a mere $6 you can get a delicious
protein smoothie...quite a bargain compared
to a ballpark beer.

Also, as usual, I needed my once-daily
stiff cup of morning Joe. Theirs at the
Cafe is quite adequate, much better than
the swill you'd find at your roadside
convenience store. But certainly not as
good as Starbucks, conveniently located
just a few blocks from the club.

So as I've done hundreds of times, I
motored over to Starbucks and began
surveying the drive-thru traffic as
soon as it came into sight I have a
formula: four cars or more in the drive-
thru, I go inside to order. You always
have to figure one-in-four cars contains
a carpool, with the mom getting sugary
double-creme mocha fu-fu's for everybody,
then one won't be right and they have
to redo it...you know the drill.

(By the way, hey Starbucks, how about
making an Express Lane for people who
just want a black coffee?)

This was my lucky day; just one car in
line! I pull up to the illuminated sign,
prepared to order. The almost-robotically-
cheery voice greets me with, "Welcome to
Starbucks! Would you like to start your
day with a delicious mocha creamy double
latte frou frou nutty java almond supreme
and a cup of oatmeal?"

Uh, no, I replied. I'd simply like a large
black coffee. Pike Place blend.

Another By the Way: I do not participate
in Starbuck's unique vocabulary for sizes
of coffee. Isn't Large something that
everyone understands?

So, what's my point? I understand and
endorse upselling. It's one of the greatest
sales concepts ever. But Starbucks, and
others, have it all wrong. Do NOT upsell
me before you know what I'm buying, or
why I am there to begin with.

Please do not annoy me, waste my time,
and piss off everyone in the growing line
behind me by making me sit through your
presentation on an entire breakfast when
I am just there to get a single cup of coffee.

A simple upselling concept is similar to a
general sales concept:

Make your recommendation based on what a
customer wants, or at least MIGHT want
in this situation.

Here's a piece of brilliance: base your
upsell on what the customer already is
buying. Duh.

I have to imagine that a company like
Starbucks, or McDonalds with 14 gazillion
locations might have just a bit of trend
data on what customers buy.

For example, if a person orders a coffee,
they often get a muffin, a scone, or
some other cholesterol bomb.

Oh, I understand that with the sheer
number of transactions per day, some
marketing executives in the corporate
tower will argue that the sales numbers
warrant the upsell speech before the customer
orders. Right. And how about the overwhelming
number of people you annoy in the process?

And how about us, upselling on outbound calls?

Do it. Of course, it is a proven concept.

The best time to help someone buy is when
they are already in the buying mode and have
their wallet out. But again, make your
recommendation based on what they already
ordered, and better yet, insert a question
before the upsell recommendation: For example,

"Pat, most of my customers who get the Deluxe
model also want to be sure they never experience
downtime. What type of backup plan do you have
in place?"

Customer: "Well, we really haven't thought that far..."

"Let's do this. Let's include the extra battery,
since that will ensure..."

I've only begun to scratch the surface of how
to upsell and cross sell. There are some best
practices for doing it correctly, and things to
avoid that ensure failure.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Most of the important things in the world have been
accomplished by people who have kept on trying when
there seemed to be no hope at all."
Dale Carnegie