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I'm heading to Chicago today to attend Andy Sernovitz's day long World of Mouth Crash Course on Wednesday. (I'll tell you all about it when I get back.) The event begins with a dinner tonight and then 10 packed hours of no doubt some serious learning and some serious fun.
So…I get to stay overnight in Chicago, one of my favorite cities. And it also boasts one of my favorite hotels — Hotel Burnham. I made my reservations online and within an hour or two of receiving my confirmation e-mail, I also received what I am calling the upgrade e-mail.
The strategy is simple. I have already made a purchase (or in this case, a reservation) and now they're going to invite me to upgrade my purchase for a small additional fee.
The airlines have been doing this for awhile, selling more legroom, exit row seats, etc. But I am seeing more and more businesses of all varieties using the same technique. It's much easier to get someone to spend a few more dollars as a perk, than it is to get them to choose the deluxe option from the get go. Or in most cases, they probably didn't even consider the deluxe option or know it existed.
So here's the interesting question. How could you use this sales technique with your customers? Do you think this only applies when you have a product to sell or could service industries use it too?
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Insofar as service agencies go, in my industry I have recently noticed something similar to this strategy, Drew. I’m seeing that some translation agencies have reduced pricing (industry standard always has been a per word rate) for certain types of translation services: rate for translated email correspondence, a different rate for other types of nonformal docs, and yet a third rate for very formal or technical docs. This has gotten me thinking that it might be wise for my company to go about picing strategy a little differently (maybe package pricing for particular projects of XX nature, etc.).
Nice piece, Drew. Got me back on track about looking into this deeper!
Amanda,
That works for you on two levels. One, you’re upselling and two, you are differentiating yourself from the competition.
Hard to argue with that strategy! Let me know how it goes once you implement.
Drew