For short-term bumps there will always be a place for lead gen programs, discounting strategies and complicated gimmicks. But before you resort to small bumps, try leveraging the four pillars of revenue development to help with both short-term gain and long-term revenue increases to your portfolio.
The four pillars are as follows:
1. Upsell
2. Cross-sell
3. Price Increase/Integrity
4. Volume
Upsell
Definition:
Selling your current customers to a higher tier, a more expensive product or increased service offering.
Where to start:
Does your current contract constrain your client’s, or are they having difficulty achieving their goals? Talking with a client on how to increase success by leveraging your products needs to be an ongoing and thoughtful conversation.
How:
The best way to upsell is by showing the client how their success can be impacted by going to the next level. Salespeople tend to stop selling a client after they close. But an upsell is still a sell. You need to identify the pain point, create the story and engage. Craft a story on what their program could do on the next level. Don’t go into upsells thinking it is a standard feature benefit sell; this is a traditional sell.
Key to the sell:
Ask your client if they have other vendors who are underperforming and if they would consider moving some of that budget to your solution.
Cross-Selling
Definition:
Selling a different line of services or products to the same client.
Where to start:
Group like customers together in your portfolio of business. Look at each group to identify those who are not buying commonly purchased items like their peers.
How:
Cross-selling is the easiest and fastest way to increase sells. If you are reviewing your portfolio, what products should the clients be buying and why? Don’t get clever, get the story on how it helps. Positioning small increments to drive significant changes will improve the buyer experience and move you to a partner instead of a vendor.
Key to the sell:
Find hard facts and create a story about how the “product” performs typically and the return they can see from it. You are talking about a tried and true product in a tested market.
Pricing Increase/Integrity –
Definition:
Increasing or holding firm on your rates.
Where to start:
Raising prices on a current customer is the hardest sell of the traditional 4. Both the buyer and the seller hate engaging in this conversation. The best way to engage your customer is by first researching your client’s organization.
How
If your client’s organization raise prices, start by using the same rationale they give their customer base. If not- remember that everyone likes getting a deal. By increasing the cost of your product, this put the buyer on the defensive. Package the price increase to highlight the deal and value they are getting. Remember, budgets are not allocated to a specific vendor. Buyers will often borrow against other budgets.
Key to the sell:
Presenting the client with their cost savings in a manner they can share will help them sell it internally if they need to increase your budget or borrow from another program.
Volume-
Definition:
Increasing the number of units you are selling.
Where to start:
This one can create your most significant increase in year-over-year sales. I know what you are thinking, – if I could sell more, I would. Start by identifying your best-performing products or services your company offers. Cross-reference these products/services against your portfolio of clients and like prospects in the market.
How:
Create a new pipeline of your current clients and top prospects who would benefit from using your best product. Work with your management to build a new buyer incentive for buyers and prospects. If you are selling the right combination of products to organizations who will truly benefit from using them; you will have a high success rate getting your clients to increase their buys to include the new products or services.
Key to the sell:
It is easy, and marketing will push for you to do a bulk email to these targets with a promotion. Resist the easy way out. Taking the extra time to craft a personalized email to each client will exponentially increase your return.
If you have any questions or obstacles from your clients, feel free to email me at pat@r2bspark.com.
