Enough With the Upsells Already!

Enough With the Upsells Already! by Karon Thackston © 2005

It happened twice during the same week. All I wanted to do wasmake a purchase, and they were making every effort to keep mefrom it (or so it seemed). Why would a business who wanted me tobuy from them so badly put enough roadblocks in my path to makeme want to click off the site and go someplace else?

The roadblocks that almost kept me from purchasing were repeatedupsells. You know the kind. You go to a site and add somethingto your cart or speak with a person on the phone and tellhim/her you want to buy. Then it starts. The upsells.

But Wait... There's More

"As a special offer - only for people who buy today - you canalso get..." I'm a copywriter so I understand the power ofupsells, and one, maybe even two, is a good thing. Lots and lotsof people will add more to their carts (or agree via telephoneto buy more) when given the chance to upgrade or buy exclusiveoffers at the same time. But there is such a thing as overdoingit.

The robot-like sales clerk just about blew the order! I calledto buy a book I'd seen advertised. As soon as the salespersonsaid, "I've got you down for one copy of the book, but - justfor people who call today..." I knew I was in trouble. One upselloffer came. Then another. "We have a special bonus for you, too"followed by "Because you're a health-conscious person, we'd liketo give you this special surprise for 30 days absolutely free."I am not exaggerating when I say there were 10 upsells in a row.

Stop It Right Now or I'm Leaving

I finally couldn't take it anymore. I interrupted and told theclerk that I wanted the book and only the book. If he was ableto stop reading from his script and process the order for mybook, I'd still like to buy it. If he was not able to do that, Iwould hang up the phone.

He couldn't do it! He floundered around, flipping through thepages, trying to think of what came at the end of all theupsells. I guess he'd never gotten that far before. The sale wasstopped. I didn't order the book after all. I was so frustratedand aggravated by the time I hung up the phone I could havescreamed!

A few days later, it happened again. I was at a website,transferring a few domain names. After I added the transferservice to my cart, the upsells started. Page after page camefor hosting; domain parking; useless, mass search engineoptimization; anonymous WhoIs registration - you name it! Did Ibuy any of the offers? No. After reading the first one or two, Iscrolled - without reading a word - through FOUR more pages ofupsells before reaching the final order page.

Don't Abuse Upsells

What happened here? Like so many other good things, the upsellis being badly abused. What started out as a wonderful marketingtool has ended up on what seems to be a drug-induced rage. Doupsells still work? Yes. If they are handled properly.

When someone adds something to their shopping basket or calls toplace an order, by all means offer them special deals toincrease sales. This strategy has worked to bring in additionalrevenue for decades. Don't, however, bombard the customer withupsell after upsell. Not only will the effect be completely lostafter three or four attempts to make additional sales, butcustomers will also quickly become irritated. They may even hangup or click away to another site.

Use common sense when adding upsells to your marketing mix. Ifyou, personally, wouldn't want to sit through an additional 20minutes of sales pitches on the phone, don't make yourcustomers. If you wouldn't want to scroll through page afterpage of bonuses and specials, your customers won't want toeither.

The greed involved with hounding people to buy additional itemsor services can very often have the reverse effect. Instead ofadding more to their shopping carts, your customers may decideto avoid the aggravation altogether and leave. Keep your upsellsfocused and to a minimum for the best results.