Just recently I hired a personal trainer (a.k.a. “Mean Old Luke”). Nothing too surprising here EXCEPT that I’ve been a member of two gyms in this area, one for 2 years and the other for over 4 years—both who sell personal training. Yet neither of them has ever attempted to try and upsell me on any of the other services they offer including babysitting, swimming lessons, tanning and supplements. There may be more services I could list here but I don’t know about them. I’m also a former paying client of dozens of other service-based businesses in this area that I’ve stopped buying from, never to receive a simple postcard, newsletter or other outreach to a) try and get me back or b) figure out why I stopped buying.
This is a HUGE, glaring mistake made by the majority of businesses out there that cause them to leave thousands of dollars in potential sales on the table. That’s why I don’t want to hear any whining and complaining from businesses that “things are slow” when they’ve not lifted a finger to stay connected with their clients. And with social media and e-mail being free, there’s zero excuse for this.
Case in point: At the recent October Producers Club Meeting, Genius League member Sitima Fowler of Capstone Technologies, Inc. ran a simple newsletter campaign to upsell her current Silver Managed Services clients onto their most expensive Platinum plan. Out of about 20-25 Silver clients, 3 upgraded, paying 3 TIMES what they were currently paying with 2 more in the pipeline. And this was done 100% by putting a simple article in her monthly printed newsletter about it— no e-mails, no phone calls, no standalone direct mail. The next step (of course) is to go back to those who didn’t respond with a more aggressive marketing campaign. Below is an e-mail from Producers Club Member Mike Clemmons regarding his newsletter:
If you are not sending some kind of monthly communication to your clients— AND promoting a new service or attempting to upsell your clients at least once a quarter—you’re missing out on a considerable amount of easy money. Additionally, clients don’t know everything you can do for them and it’s YOUR job to make sure they do. Otherwise, they may look to another provider for their next phone system, printer, web site, backup or security solution, and this other provider might end up not only getting that sale, but may also entice them away altogether since many of the companies selling these services also sell IT support. I urge you to start here if you don’t know what to do to drive sales.
