Ep# 103: Increasing Profit Through Upsells, Downsells, and Increasing Your Rates with Melissa Lin

Who wants more cash flow in their business?!

Melissa Lin joined me on Scaling Up to talk all about increasing profit through upsells, downsells, and increasing your rates (gasp!).

These concepts are SO powerful! Truly. I recently walked my Maverick Mastermind members through these exact same concepts as well, and within one week of implementing at least one of them, three separate mavericks reached out to me to share their wins!

50% more profit with each sale that week by utilizing upsells
$1,500 more in profit in five days time
Turned three No’s into Yes’s after a launch in two days time by utilizing a downsell strategy

These strategies are so important! They will add another level of dimension to your business and without a doubt will increase your profit without you having to reinvent the wheel and create a new offer!

Don’t miss out on this interview! You have the chance to truly change your business by doing the work and implementing the GOLD that’s shared today!

In this episode, we chat about:

What is an “upsell” or “downsell”?

Having an upsell means you have an offer that you can move your client into that’s going to take them even further into their journey and help them get a bigger transformation than your original offer would. It usually gives them more access to you directly and therefore comes with a higher price tag.

A downsell, on the other hand, is basically the opposite of that. It will help your client achieve a smaller win and access to you directly will be limited. It’s a cheaper way for someone to get their foot in the door to working with you when they might not be ready for your larger scale offers.

Why are upsells and downsells so important?

So many people focus on just one main offer, and they’re leaving money on the table because of this.

Not everyone is going to be ready for your main offer yet, and that’s okay! Being able to offer them a downsell option is a way that you can help to facilitate their customer journey with you and help to get them ready for your main offer.

Some people are going to love your main offer and just want more of you and your wisdom, and this is where the upsell comes in. And some people are going to love you and your work, but they might be ready for something more advanced than your main offer -- again, this is where you can offer them your upsell option.

Having options increasing the likelihood of you meeting a wider range of your audiences’ needs.

Keep in mind, it’s also so much easier to sell to someone who has already purchased from you. So it’s crucial to your bottom line to offer a range of services and support.

The Advantages of Having a “Secret Menu” of Offers

There are no hard and fast rules for this. You might come up with an upsell or downsell on the fly when you’re talking with a potential customer, and that’s fine! That works.

You could also take some time to think through your customer journey, either from previous customers or just anticipating future customers. What areas did they struggle most in? What were the biggest objections to your offer? How can you create an offer that would give more support in these areas? Write these ideas out somewhere.

You can mention your “secret menu” on social media every once in a while to create curiosity and let people know that there is more to your offer than meets the eye.

Examples of Upsells:

Upsells often involve either more direct access to you or a bundle of offers.

Your main offer is a course. Someone reaches out and says that they want to purchase your course, but they also want some more support. You can offer an upsell of 8 weeks (or whatever time frame you want!) of Voxer support as they work through the course.
Your main offer is a group coaching program. Offer a VIP upsell of 2 additional call plus VIP access.

How to Add an Upsell into Your Funnel

You can include an upsell on the order page of your main offer. This is usually set up as a box that needs to be checked to add the upsell to the main offer.

You can offer your secret menu upsells to prospects during a launch. This is usually done privately, either in a DM or email conversation or while on a sales call with a prospect.

Offer an upsell to the current members of your program. Do this about two-thirds of the way into the program to give them some time to think about it, but not so early that they haven’t even started to think about the next steps in their own journey yet. Make the upsell a no-brainer. This often looks like offering a big discount to enroll in the next level of your offer suite.

Examples of Downsells

You’re on a call with a prospect for your group coaching program, and they just aren’t ready for the program yet. You downsell them the course version of your program. It comes with no access to you, but it’s a lower price point and still provides immense value.
Your main offer is a course. You can create a downsell option with just one module of the course.

How to Add a Downsell Into Your Funnel

If you run a business with bigger launches throughout the year, don’t offer your downsell option until the doors of your launch close. Many people will wait until the last minute to decide yes or no, so you don’t want to offer them something smaller that might take them away from saying Yes to your main offer.

After the doors close to your main offer, that’s when you start downselling. Usually as early as the very next day! You want to keep building off the momentum you already have going with your warm and hot leads.

If you only have one core continuity offer, it’s okay to downsell on the spot as you talk to prospects.

When You Should Raise Your Rates

You are doing a disservice to yourself and to your clients when you undercharge.

You need to be charging enough so that you can show up 100% invested, and you need to be charging enough so that your client is showing up 100% invested in doing the work and making the growth happen. There needs to be an even energy exchange.

When you undercharge yourself, you will attract cheap clients. You will attract people who only want a quick win and don’t even want to do the work to make that happen. This is often what leads to burnout and lack of passion for something that once lit you up.

How to Price Your Offers

Pricing is the last step in creating an offer.

You need to know all of the different pieces of your offer before you can truly price it appropriately. When you have all of the pieces written down, go through and think about each piece: what do you feel is the value for each individual piece of your offer? What would you pay for each piece? Focus on the transformation: how much is that transformation truly worth?! How long would it take your clients to reach that without your offer?

Then you can go look at what your competitors are charging for their services. Remember, this will vary pretty greatly depending on experience and different goals, so you do NOT need to be priced identically to them. This will just give you a ballpark for where the market for your services is currently at. Think about how much demand there currently is for your current offer, too.

Now consider your ideal clients: how much do you need to charge so that they will fully show up to do the work?

The final step is to consider yourself: how much do you need to charge so that you will fully show up to do the work? You should be charging enough that you are a little bit scared of it! You should be charging enough that you jump up with excitement to start serving your clients when you get a Yes. That’s your gauge.