The Upsell – How to sell more jewellery in just one transaction

One of the best ways to increase your turnover and profits is to  maximise each sale’s full potential. By adding one small product to a customer’s purchase , you can significantly increase profits with very little effort. In some businesses this is called the upsell, others call it the add on.

The way to best demonstrate this is to think about shoe sales. Often when you buy a new pair of shoes the sales assistant may ask you if you require a certain polish or protective spray to keep the shoes in good condition. The customer is already committed to the purchase, and the extra couple of bucks or pounds for the “add on ” is usually negligible in the customer’s mind, and so  a great time to introduce the add on is at the point of sale.

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Fast food outlets have been doing it for years with the “ would you like fries with that “ and the supersize phenomenon. Smaller business really should look to these larger corporations to see if they can use similar technique to maximise each sale.

To get a customer to visit your crafts stand or e-store requires a certain amount of investment on your part; whether that be in the form of advertising, or promotions, or just paying a premium  for a good location. Once you have the customer in front of you or at your website , every effort should really be made to increase the revenue taken.

Supermarkets have long known that once you have customer in store it is easier to sell to them. They know that it is more profitable to sell to a customer already on the premises rather than advertise to get a new one to visit. This is why you see “ buy one get one free offers “ and half off promotions. They know that if they can just get each customer to spend a little extra each time they visit, they significantly increase their bottom line.

The best way to upsell your customer is to offer them a product directly related to the product they are buying. If for example they are buying a necklace, ask them if they have a pair of earrings that would match or offer to show a selection of matching accessories. You could give them have a special offer on a matching or complementary piece of jewellery at a lower than normal price. When customers are committed to making a purchase and have cash or a credit card in hand it is much easier to make an add on sale if they don’t need the item right at that moment. The fact that an item is on offer when they have their credit card in hand makes the transaction easy and seamless.

Simply always ask a customer to think about how they are going to be wearing a particular piece of jewellery and ask them to visualise how another piece may work with it.  You just need to follow the pattern and offer them something associated with the product that they are buying. The product does not necessarily have to be at a discounted rate, but just mentioning  associated products may well remind the customer of other accessories and increase the sale.

To offer the upsell effectively it is important that you ask what is known in selling as “an open ended question. “ An open ended question is a question that cannot be answered yes or no.

So, you should ask, “ what earrings do you think you might wear with that “ as it is better than, “Would you like some matching earrings?.”  The question “Would you like some earrings?” can be answered yes or no. If a customer is presented with a yes or no question at the point of sale, they are more likely to be focused on the purchase and reply in the negative.

The question “ What earrings do you think you would wear with that necklace?” requires a response that is not a yes or no answer. It gets the customer to think about the piece of jewellery they have in mind and what other pieces of jewellery would work well with it. It requires the brain to think in a different way and means you are less likely to get negative response.

Try using the upselling technique next time you make a sale and see what effect it can have on the profitability of your business.

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