Upselling doesn't just fall out of the sky.
To be extremely effective our upselling strategy and methods need to be constantly tested and honed.
Once we have figured out what facets of our product and service offerings we want to upsell, we need to develop and test our upsell strategy.
Part of the upsell strategy is what questions we will ask and at what time.
Timing is generally the same. We present our upsell phrase after the decision to purchase is made, but before the sale is concluded and the wallet packed away. With different offerings this may vary slightly so we should test various timings with our customers to work out which ones are optimal for each offering.
The question or phrase we ask is a bit trickier. It should be casual and sort of "by the way". It should be short concise, and to the point. It should never be pushy or unrelated.
It should mention the product or service, why its different and what is the benefit all in one simple phrase that can be mentioned in a matter of fact way.
Some well known ones are "do you want fries with that?" or "something to drink?" or "regular or upsize"
We could use phrases that start with "We could save you some time by... " or "It costs a little more but... "