Relationships Are Like Upselling

I recently read a Forbes blog by Josh Linkner that could not have summed it up better - upselling (or Expand Selling in our language) is just like starting a relationship.

If you initiate a new relationship with a marriage proposal, you’re unlikely to be successful. However, if you start with getting a phone number and then progressing over time from there, it’s likely to go more smoothly - provided of course chemistry exists.  It’s not so different to building trusted business relationships.

I realise that this is not a new sales concept, but it’s worth discussing further in the context of Expand Selling. Expand Selling is defined by the TSIA as “the generation of product and service revenues beyond the initial sale to a customer”[1]. Josh Linkner likens “obtaining a phone number” to the initial sale. It’s what you do next that really segments the relationship - and helps drive the next customer purchasing lifecycle.

At iasset.com we take the view that there’s a series of essential steps involving phone calls, emails, and an initial adoption of your product that are essential precursors when assessing your customer’s appetite for a renewal (refer “Expand” opportunity column) as illustrated below. [To read more about this, check out our e-Book “Secure your Annual Renewal”.]

It’s important to remember that the expand (or renewal) opportunities may not be handled by the same person who purchased the initial licence, so successfully building a relationship across multiple people inside your customer could be essential to expanding or renewing the customer. 

With all of that in mind, here’s our three recommended drivers for successful expand selling:

Trust

Just like the dating analogy, trust is only built up over time. If you rush in too fast people will generally back away. It’s important not to appear too eager to oversell. In our experience pushing any Expand product or service in the first six months of the initial sale can be perceived as too early especially for a new customer.

Knowledge

It seems like a no-brainer, but doing your homework on the customer is critical to successful Expand Selling. What are their needs and challenges – and who are the key decision makers? Offering a product or service that solves their business problems will help build a level of trust.

Timing

As we all know, timing is everything. Sometimes, despite how hard you try, you won’t catch the right person at the right time (in a buying or budgeting cycle). Expand Selling can help short circuit some of these cycles especially if you can demonstrate a significant return on investment (especially if the ROI is less than the budgeting cycle!)

Of course, it’s always essential to maintain customer contact and ensure that your customer always values what you have previously sold them (Adoption). But for Expand Selling, just like any successful relationship, you should focus on continuing to build both trust and knowledge.

Following these basics will help progress you from 1st date through to a stable long term relationship and if you are that good then you’ll be celebrating your customer “anniversary” for years to come!

[1] The State of Expand Selling, TSIA 2015. http://info.tsia.com/what-is-expand-selling