Backend and Up-sell, Profit

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Backend and Up-sell - Lesson 1

An up-sell is offering a more expensive package or product to the customer right when they are ordering. A backend product or service is what is sold to the customer after the initial sale.

The biggest obstacle in getting someone to buy from you is gaining his or her trust. Once you have established that trust and the person has bought from you, it is a lot easier to sell to them again. If you have sold your client a quality product or service, it makes it even easier to resell to them. This is the reason why backends are so important.

The 80/20 rule states that 20% of your customers will give you 80% of your business. You will find that this 20% will be your repeat customers. So it makes sense to expend your energy on selling to this section of your client base. It is important to reward these clients for being loyal by showing your appreciation through incentives, discounts and rewards.

Some companies offer their first product to potential clients at a loss. They use this pricing strategy to secure the sale and convert the customers to repeat customers using backend product sales. There are numerous success stories about businesses that sold a product below cost price to make the introduction and through backend sales have made a substantial profit.

It is claimed that the customer should be contacted within 21 days of their initial purchase. There are a few tricks you can use in getting your customers to come back to your e-business website and purchase backend products:

• You could send out a weekly or daily tip or idea about your product or service usage.
  
  
• You could have weekly or monthly contests or draws. The possibility of winning or getting something for free can entice the clients to visit your website regularly.
  
  
• You could setup a discussion group so that your clients can communicate with others interested in the same topic can discuss their experiences with your product or service.
  
  
• You could send out a weekly or monthly newsletter with valuable information, discounts or offers on products, additions and updates to your website etc.
  
  
• You could build a relationship with your client by observing birthdays anniversaries and holidays. You could use programs that will send out a personal message to each customer.
  
  
• You could remind web surfers to bookmark your website. Let your clients know that new information is posted on regular intervals. You may even be able to send out an automated notification on updates to your products, services or website.
  
  

The process of up-selling is, making a second offer to your client right when they are making an initial purchase. Your up-sell can be a superior package of what you sold the client initially. It could be an offer to upgrade to something better or even something affiliated with the product your customers initially bought. In a lot of instances your up-sell product could be one that enhances or complements the first product that was bought.

When up-selling products, you could offer other products you carry or recommend other's products or services. You can make a lot of money recommending other's products in your up-sell or even distributing them if you are able.

The theory of up-selling is that you don't try and sell everything that you offer straight away. Offer the client recommendations of products or services that are complementary to yours. You could receive a decent income from commissions for recommending clients to other businesses. The only time that you should sell the other products you have straight up is if the product is complementary to what was originally bought.