We have fresh muffins today

There’s a difference between upselling and offering a customer additional options that might interest them. 

The difference is more than semantics; it’s about intention.

A customer can spot a mile away if you are attempting to upsell them and most people are repelled by the manipulation. But if you genuinely want to provide for a customer’s needs and have other products to offer them, then the customer perceives the pitch in a very different way.

A customer wants a business to solve problems for them, whether that is to protect their feet (as in shoes), fill their bellys (as in food), organize their finances (as in bookkeeping software), or keep in touch with friends far away (as in social media platforms). If a business has multiple options that fill those needs, or has options that fill a few different needs, a customer would like to know. But customers, and people in general, do not want to be taken advantage of.

A local grocery store employee in the bakery department observed a couple of customers looking at the freshly baked donuts. She called out to them to inform them that she also had freshly baked muffins in a nearby bin. She wasn’t trying to “upsell,” instead, she noticed that the customers were looking at bakery products and wouldn’t necessary know that the muffins had just come out of the oven. She offered options that the customers didn’t know existed but were in line with what they seemed interested in.

As a business owner, focus less on “upselling” and more on meeting your customers’ needs. The more needs you satisfy, the less you’ll have to upsell.