I was just reading an article that seemed to say this was one of the best tactics for increasing your business earning. Do you practice upselling? Offer cheap basic services, but the add on for "upgrades" for more emails, larger space allocations, etc? I have upgrades listed on my site, and they ask you again when you register electronically. I'm thinking of adding something to my rebilling notices, like "Running out of space? Click here to double the size of your hosting package for a fraction of the cost." or something like that.

I have found that we get a lot of income from up selling. A lot of times we run special offers for our current customers to upgrade or add another account.

Aside from that, current customers just like to upgrade and purchase additional accounts or services on a regular basis. If you offer good service they will ten to come to you asking for the upgrades or if you have them setup in your billing that is even better and they will just automatically upgrade.

All in all if you provide good services you are bound to get more out of your current customers at one point or another.

upselling is the only way to succeed in the long run
offer services others dont - determine your ideal customer and then build a solution around that ideal customer and look for more customers like that one

with my company our ideal customer is a small business with 5 - 25 employees.

we build our hosting solutions around them and to date it is working

Up selling can make a huge difference in any service business. One of the reasons is that no matter how much you have advertised your products so many of your customers don't know everything you offer or the value of other products you have. When you get that contact and serve them well that is the time they are the most receptive to hearing about what else you have and how it can benefit them.

I am totally agree. Earn lots in the upgrade part. I started out with small plans. Once they exceed the limit, they start to buy more. It's fun the watch new purchases.

great topic -

I'm wondering how often do you contact your customers?

and when you do contact them do you try to promote or upsell one product or does the email contain various offers that may not relate to one another directly?

cheers

I wouldn't contact them too often. Every few months would be the max as far as I'm concerned. Granted it would depend somewhat on what you're offering. Anything more I find is annoying. If they contact me for anything though at any time they are game for the upsell.

Reoccuring revenue is the best kind of revenue. If they are in the mood for buying than helpful related extras are certainly welcome.

I'd like to see the article that you were referring to.

I think that's an excellent idea.

It's something like 5 times easier to sell to someone who is already your customer so an upsell of some sort is always a good idea. I think you can do at least monthly contacts without ticking anyone off or make sure that the email is optional for the customer. I have one site that does a monthly newsletter and always has special offers in it but also helpful articles related to the internet or designing websites, etc.

Upselling is definitely one of the best marketing practices to generate slaes and revenue. I mean all major fast food restaurants do it and do it to an extreme level.

I think every couple months is enough if you're just sending upsells. Sending them out with a newsletter one a monthly basis is a really cute way to get them out more often without being obnoxious.

In my home business upselling is a must. I don't always enjoy it, but it benefits my company and I also receive bonuses for every successful upsell. Sometimes people actually like to hear about other products that are available to them and then there are those who are ready to forget the sale completely if you even mention an additional item. You just have to give it your best shot and hope that they will be interested.

I can agree Rylie that attempting upselling on a one to one basis, say during a phone call can be very uncomfortable. But doing it through email, or rebilling then it takes away the confrontation aspect of it, and so I find it a lot easier. I am sure though that the results are also not as good this way.

Upselling on the phone or in person is a completely differnt thing than in e-mail, newsletters, etc. If someone can simply ignore, delete or throw out the upsell there is no perceived pressure. If you are on the phone or in person they feel held hostage while you berate them with offers they didn't call for and most people don't want or can't use.

Which is why McDonald's wants you to upsell EVERY time. If you offer one hundred people the option of an additional item or a value meal, etc chances are higher someone will take you up on it.

Another option could be an upsell on the "order form" based on the hosting options chosen.