Would You Like Fries With That?

Quite possibly the most popular up-sell in the world. Pretty effective too. Movie theaters do it (would you like the giant popcorn for just $0.50 more?), electronics stores do it (would you like the extended warranty?), even my neighborhood instant oil change does it...in fact they may be the best of all. They show me this detailed print out of my car's recommended services procedures at certain mileage marks, my dirty oil filter and the benefits of upgrading to synthetic oil. I asked the owner what the "average ticket" is for someone who comes in for an oil change that is priced at $29.99. He said it is approximately $58. (That's about double for those of you who are mathematically challenged.)

Nice.

So why do so few fitness professionals utilize up-sells? I would assume that they've never given it a second's thought.

I bet that would change if they thought it would double their income.

Let me give you an example of how I used an up-sell just yesterday (yep...I actually do stuff other than type and talk on the phone sometimes).

I had someone sit down and go though a goal assessment. We did all the normal stuff and she decided that she would be interested in participating in our 16 week group weight management program. Great!

So, instead of just enrolling her and giving her a welcome packet, I offered her a small discount on the program if she combined it with personal training. And just that quickly a $348 deal turned into a $4200 deal.

Guess what happened next.

I told her that new clients received 20% off their first supplement purchase.

She spent $257.

So that deal grew from $348 to $4457 by offering immediate up-sells.

Why?

Because people are far more likely to make a second purchase when they're already making one. They've already committed to spending money. They're already in the mindset that they want the result that their initial purchase will provide.

All you have to do is come up with a second (or third) offer that compliments the first.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• You could offer some sort of nutritional coaching program that would compliment your personal training offerings. If you don't or won't, partner with a dietician and receive a commission for referrals.

• You could offer a nutritional supplement "starter pack" that includes a multi-vitamin, meal replacement, etc.

• You could offer e-mail coaching or online training to compliment your in-person offerings.

The real key is that you have an immediate offer available. Try to choose something that has bigger margins for you if you can...that will allow you to offer a small discount as a "call to action."

If you apply this one concept in your business you'll see increased revenue - I promise. Depending on what you offer, maybe as much as 50% more revenue. More than 50% of the prospects we sell training to upgrade to our "deluxe" program which includes group weight management. And the people who buy weight management spend over 100% more on supplements than "regular" clients do. But that is jumping the gun. That's back-end sale stuff, so I'll talk more about that later.

One more thing though...I made a post earlier in the week about sales and also discussed sales in my newsletter. This focus led me to revisit some of Jim Labadie's stuff in the Ultimate Sales Kit (http://www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com/Labadie.html). So in our staff meeting yesterday morning we did a brief sales training. The result: $13,150 of training and weight management sales in one day. By four different trainers.

The moral of the story...keep learning and practicing your approach to sales (and everything else) and training your staff. It will pay off.