Using Accessories to Upsell

To boost your sales and profits with existing customers, consider adding a few extras to your product lines or services

by Michelle Nichols

I misplaced my digital camera recently, so I stopped by an electronics store to buy a replacement and asked for the smallest, slimmest camera available. Done. Then I headed to the accessories aisle for a camera case and dithered over the choices of leather vs. fabric and black vs. red. My husband, ever the engineer, observed, "Do you realize you spent less than two minutes picking out a digital camera and over five minutes picking out a case for it?"

Ah, accessories. Salespeople like accessories because they are great profit producers, often increasing the size of an average sale. Most customers will competitively shop for base products, like my camera, but will buy accessories on a whim. Thus they will pay higher margins on accessories than base products.

Survey Your Line and Your Customers

If you sell products, accessories or extras can mean all types of services—installation, training, maintenance, or customization (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/6/07, "Video: Making and Marketing Custom Products"). And if you sell services, accessories can mean many types of products. For example, if you sell accounting services, you might also consider selling computers, special paper, and specialized software.

Start the process of determining what you can use to "upsell" by listing everything you sell. Don't laugh—on several occasions when I've done this exercise with clients, they forgot entire product lines. Then brainstorm what accessories would be good fits for your customers.

To winnow the resulting list, look at it from your customer's point of view. Which ones would they benefit most from if they could buy them from you at the same time they're buying your standard product line? Now go out and ask your customers, "What would make your life easier if you could buy it from us?" You might get some great ideas you hadn't considered. When you share your list of ideas with them, they might also get some ideas for future purchases from you, too.

You can ask for their opinions in person, by phone, or over the Internet using Survey Monkey or some other service. However you query your customers, remember to keep it simple (no more than 10 easy questions) and give them a reward for participating—like a free book, gift card, or coupon toward their next purchase. To maximize profits, it is better to have a few base offerings and more accessories rather than the other way around. As a business model, think of a successful take-out deli. It will usually offer a few entrees and many different side dishes.

Outsourcing and Following Through

If you're worried about offering too many accessories, bear in mind that there are companies that sell only accessories. For example, in August, 2005, Sheri Schmelzer, from Boulder, Colo., started a company called Jibbitz to sell decorations for the very popular Crocs shoes. The outfit was purchased by Crocs (CROX) 14 months later for more than $10 million. But don't forget: If you sell only accessories, you risk competition from companies that include those products as part of their core offerings..

Worried about losing your focus? Let's say you do a great job selling wine and you're worried about offering glassware. Don't despair. You can hire someone who already has that expertise, subcontract out the accessories to another vendor, or establish a referral system where you get rewarded for sending business to a trusted business partner. All three paths can help you maintain your expertise and increase your sales, profits, and service to your clients.

One last word on accessories: make sure your employees understand their importance. For example, I recently tried to buy a $50 gift card from a restaurant. The cashier wouldn't sell it to me because, while they had the gift cards, they were out of the envelopes the cards went in. Aargh!

In Steel Magnolias Clairee Belcher, played by Olympia Dukakis, says, "The difference between humans and animals is our ability to accessorize." In sales, accessories are a great way to increase your sales and profits without increasing the number of customers you serve. Happy selling!

Michelle Nichols, the founder and president of sales consulting firm Savvy Selling International, leads a weekly podcast and writes her Savvy Selling column every other week.