555 – A great strategy for growth: Tom talks Upselling Revisited

Episode 555 – Upselling Revisited
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom with episode five hundred and fifty five of Screw the Commute podcast. Now, 555. That's a pretty cool number. That kind of reminds me of a saying that's numbers related when I was a kid, and I'm going to see who's listening today by starting that saying in the first person to finish the saying gets a 30 minute consultation. We're five hundred bucks. How about that? So here's the saying. From a great three point forty eight to a fine and you got to put the numbers in at the end there. Ok? The first person who emails me with the finishing numbers to that saying gets a 30 minute consultation. So here it is again from a great three point forty eight to a fine. And then you put in the numbers. Now I'll have a clue somewhere in this podcast that tells you what this is related to in case you don't know. All right, so today we're talking about upselling revisited now, clear back to episode 22. I presented this early on when I first started the podcast because it was so important to your success and it adds tremendously to your bottom line. So to listen to that back episode, go to screwthecommute.com/22. Now that episode went into the formula for upselling that virtually every promotion you do will get 30 to 50 percent of the people taking the upsell, which adds a ton of money to your bank account every time you do it.

[00:02:07] All right. Hope you didn't miss episode five fifty four that was preparing for live events. As so many people with great ideas and credentials look pretty stupid on live Zoom and YouTube lives and and even on TV. Now this episode tells you how to look great instead of stupid. All right. All right. How'd you like me to send you big affiliate commissions? Well, if you're interested in that and we talk about that quite a bit in this episode of affiliate stuff, but if you're interested in that? Email me at Tom@screwthecommute.com and I'll talk to you about what makes sense for your. Audience to promote and how best to promote it, so Tom, it's good to Comic-Con now, pick up a copy of our automation e-book and screw the Comic-Con automate free. You will thank me because this will save you tons of time and allow you to spend more time selling stuff than just fooling around and fighting with your computer. While you're at it, pick up a copy of our podcast app, screwthecommute.com/app, where you can put us on your cell phone and tablet does all kinds of cool things and take us with you on the road. All right, we're still going strong with our program, our pilot program, to help persons with disabilities get a great education so they can not only legitimately learn from home and save all the hassle that plagues people with disabilities of travel and going to school regularly.

[00:03:43] They can learn from home and they can legitimately be hired from home or start their own business or both. So check that out at IMTCVA.org/disabilities and you can go over to the Go Fund Me campaign and you can see them doing videos and all kinds of stuff that they're progressing in the school. So check that out and give us a hand because you can really, really help change somebody's life with this.

[00:04:16] Let's get into the main event. Upselling. Now, this technique has contributed greatly to my success online. I can't think of one promotion I've done since I started doing upsells well over 20 years ago that 30 to 50 percent of the people didn't go for the upsell. I mean, every promotion I've done that included an upsell. Like I said, in the last more than 20 years made 30 to 50 percent more people going for it, and they took advantage of the deal. And I and I really can't think of one that was less than 30 percent. It's made a ton of extra money now. Episode twenty two will give you the formulas. And I highly suggest you listen to that episode and take careful notes.

[00:05:04] So in this episode, I'm going to concentrate on getting you thinking in terms of what kinds of things you can upsell to that bring you in extra money every time you do it. First of all, you're up, sell product or service doesn't have to be a product or service you provide. It could be an affiliate product. For instance, let's say you have a product that teaches people how to write fiction. Well, there are software products out there that help people to outline their plots and their subplots and characters and all that stuff, and if they have an affiliate program, that would be a perfect upsell for you, for your product on how to write fiction. Now, let's say the software program is there kind of behind the times and they don't have a good affiliate software like we have with kick start cart. Well, you could approach them and tell them you'll buy five licenses at a time if you can get wholesale pricing. Then you use that as your upsell, and even though you had to buy the license up front, you can still get your money back, plus the profit from the retail price. When someone goes for your upsell? Now, let's take that fiction product of yours a step further. Your job is to brainstorm on what else a fiction writer uses. You are one, so just look around. I mean, not everyone brainstorms on a computer, so you have your favorite pens and notebooks. If they do brainstorm on a computer, you have all kinds of mind mapping software you could recommend.

[00:06:45] If they're working long hours on the computer, you have all kinds of ergonomic things like trek balls or vertical mice. And yes, there are vertical mice. All right. Chairs that are good for posture, lower back supports wrist braces. Blue blockers, screen covers, magnifier eyeglasses. I think they're called readers. I'm not sure types of coffee and tea that's healthy, but helps you stay awake on long writing sessions. You see, there's all kinds of stuff you get in the idea yet. You've got to think if someone is interested in my topic, what else does that prove that they might need? Then you find suppliers that will give you a commission. For many of you with a varied product selection, Amazon will most likely be an affiliate program you'll want to join. And yes, you have heard me discourage people from concentrating on Amazon because the commission percentages are low. That doesn't mean I don't want you to recommend something from Amazon that you can't source anywhere else. It just means for many digital products, there are places you can make a way higher commission percentage. Also, just because I'm talking about affiliate products right now doesn't mean I don't want you developing your own upsell products, so you get all the money. I certainly do. Here's an example from my instant eulogy product I wanted to have an upsell product to go along with the main product. It's a product that helps you.

[00:08:27] People that are distraught. Write a eulogy easily. Now, in less than eight hours now, part time, I was doing regular work and scarfing down three meals in the meantime. I came up with the upsell. One hundred and one nice things to do after the funeral. Or to help out after the funeral, I think, was the title, this brought in a couple hundred dollars a month for nine years straight, and some sales still trickle in twenty one years later. All right. Now, I would say it was really about a four hour investment in time. So how much money was that? Well, let's say it was about twenty four hundred dollars a year, times nine years it brought in twenty one thousand six hundred dollars. And guess what? For four hours work, that's fifty four hundred dollars an hour. Right? I said, that's not too bad when you say. Now, sometimes an upsell product can be the main product and sometimes the upsell. Now here's an example from my wedding speech and wedding toast books, which brought in about seventy two thousand dollars per year for nine years straight. Now, if someone bought the wedding toast book, the upsell was the wedding speech book. If they found the website and bought the wedding speech, book first. The upsell was the wedding toast book. See, so you can mix and match. Now, when don't I do an upsell? Well, when someone buys a bigger ticket product, I want them to get the sale in the shopping cart and get checked out.

[00:10:09] I don't want to distract them with another decision. And I also don't want them to think I'm nickel and diming them to death when they just committed to a large amount of money. So what do I do then I offer an upsell long after the initial sale, I might give a discount coupon to some other product to mine, or I recommend some affiliate product that complements what they got from me. Usually this is done automatically with an auto responder set to trigger, you know, a time after their initial purchase, at least long enough that they have time to start consuming the original product and see how good it is and how I delivered what I promised. So this is how you build a good reputation when you deliver what you promise and that a crazy idea, right? And without disappointment to the person getting the product and and then people trust you then selling, it's much easier because you've built this reputation of quality and dependability. In other words, you deliver as much or more than your promise. Now, I may also do a broadcast to everyone who purchased a particular product that's segmenting your list like you can do easily and kick start cart. And use that as a means of an upsell for new products that come on the scene after I've already created my auto responder upsell. Now, that product can then be added to the auto responder series as part of my upselling plan.

[00:11:49] Now, I will tell you, I buy all kinds of stuff off people's YouTube videos. If I can tell they are credible and they have actually tested and used the product and compared it to other products, and they can tell me why a certain product is better. I'll buy that product through their affiliate link, which somewhat thanks them for giving me a legitimate look at what that product can do for me. So open your mind and start thinking about things you could suggest to your customers and prospects, and don't limit yourself to things that are exactly related. For instance, you might have come across a super sturdy piece of luggage that has all kinds of cool features. I mean, luggage nowadays, I think they got backup batteries for your cell phone in them and all kinds of things. Now, even if it has nothing to do with your topic, just telling your people about it and linking to it, let's say on Amazon could give you a nice commission, so there's no reason not to do it. Now, make sure you listen to episode 22 for the upselling formula that pretty much guarantees 30 to 50 percent of the people will go for your upsell. And this is a tough one, this deal, I got to give you a free consultation if you come up with the ending from a great three point forty eight to a fine and then there's a number that goes in there. And I'm going to give you a hint here.

[00:13:22] It's car related, it's automobile related from a great three point forty eight to a fine. You put it in the numbers and you get your consultation. The first person that gets emails me at Tom it screw the commute with the right number. You get that consultation. All right. If you want help on all this kinds of stuff, you want to jump into my affiliate program, you know, excuse me, my mentor program. And you can refer my affiliate, my my mentor program, and get a big affiliate commission to. Well, while I'm at it, so it's the longest running, most successful, most unique ever in the field of internet and digital marketing. It gets all kinds of stuff you get. You get one on one attention. But me and my whole staff and you know, so you're not lost when when I'm talking advanced to somebody and you're a beginner, you're lost. No, it doesn't happen in my program. If you're a beginner, you're safe here because I'll talk to you at your level. And if you're advanced, you don't have to put up with beginners. I'll talk to you at your level, which is advanced. So, you definitely want to check this out. And you also get a scholarship to my school that you can either use yourself or gift, and there's all kinds of other great features to it. Check it out a great internet marketing training, and I will catch you on the next episode. Go think about those upsells.