Upsell Before or After Purchase?

A sale before the purchase wouldn't be an upsell. It would be a sale.

Most do it after the first sale.

I do not have a preference, because I have not tested it.

Usually i hate when someone calls me, because i bought something and now they try to push my buttons to get another sale. So you need to think about that also.

Is your coaching thing your one time offer or it's something else?

Go like this maybe: main product (sales page), after they decide to buy...they get one time offer (on next sales page)...if your one time offer was something else...you can have coaching as 2nd upsell. So you will have main product+oto+coaching.

For example list building guide + hot squeeze page templates + coaching

True...phone call can increase your conversions...BUT...it can be turn off for many people. Keep in mind...that many people don't have English as their first language...so your selling phone call can be VERY annoying.

Thanks for all the comments.

@Brian you're right, it's not what Warriors know as an upsell. However, when comparing it to the McDonalds "would you like to supersize that?" it is...

@Michael, yes I'd prefer a good offer above a lame upsell/OTO. Thus I decided that the best add-on sale for this particular product is a coaching session. It requires more time and work, though it's worth way more (plus a very happy customer is worth much more over lifetime)

@Margo, probably I didn't get my message right... I don't mean to call my customers. The upsell I'm talking about is the option for my customer to buy a 1-hour coaching call.
So no calling customers to sell them more, instead I'm selling the call.

I'm assuming the product/service you would pitch with the phone call is much more expensive than the main product. In that case I would hit them with it after the main sale (make it an OTO). But I agree with others that phone selling is annoying to many, myself included.

Even more annoying is the fact that many guru types set it up so that once you click to buy and your payment is processed, you cannot access the download page until you input your phone number and other info. This is a very, very unscrupulous practice.

Many of these guys then sell the leads to 3rd party telemarketers and they WILL NOT take you off their DO CALL lists. I got on a couple of these and they will not stop!

From now on, if I purchase a product and my payment is processed, if I am required to input more information--I will stop and go to Clickbank (or wherever) and immediately request a refund. I consider once I purchase, an implied contract is in place that requires I get my product. An OTO is acceptable because I can decline if I wish. But when they require more info before the download--hell no, I won't plan that game again! --Mike

The one thing i didn't see or missed in this thread is the fact that when someone makes the initial purchase, they are most likely going to buy the upsell if it is reasonably priced.

Yes there are the gurus who force people to put in their phone number before the download and they get huge success. But they also get massive complaints as soon as the phone call is made.

Coaching and mentoring is a tough industry and has seen a lot of criticism. This is because of the massive sales floors calling leads and trying to get them to pay thousands of dollars.

But, I have seen many marketers that do the mentoring themselves and can create a positive reputation in the process. They do this by getting their clients results.

Coaching is a tough up sell. The cost alone in most circumstances will scare away any new customer. So using a coaching program for an up sell might not get the best results and could possibly increase refunds as well.

If you are planning on doing all of this yourself, you might be better off to initiate welcome calls or display your coaching advertisement in the download area of your site. Welcome calls can help reduce refunds, and there are lots of people who enjoy a call making sure they got access to the download page. Many of these people will call back the phone number you called from if they are confused and when they call back, this might be the perfect opportunity to offer them some personal mentoring.

Another thing that will help is to have a phone number on the download page so they can contact you. This makes customers feel good because they get a real person and they are more likely to purchase other products or services in the future.

And my last suggestion is to add advertisements to the emails you send your members. So if you sending the member an email about a free tool you are giving them or new updates to the site make sure there is an advertisement on the email for your coaching. Make your offer as personal as possible and you might get takers.

I cant imagine that too many people will purchase coaching before they have even entered the program unless they have lots of money. If you are in the Biz Op niche or related to making money online, chances are they have little to no money, and that's why they are at your website.

@mike: quick reply here... read the OP and my later reply again. I'm not talking about calling my customers, I'm talking about selling a "1-hour coaching call" as a product through an One Time Offer.

A better time to upsell is right after they already made
the purchase, preferably a one-click upsell if you have
the script to do so.

This is what I find has the biggest upsell rate.

A lot of people are using the upsell before a purchase,
and they are also successful too! So they present
2 options after they prospect has clicked on the order
button, and give them an "opportunity" to upgrade
to a deluxe version.

Some marketers argue that this makes a lot of prospects
confused, and a confused prospect always end up
not buying anything.

But the way I see it, they are both successful.

If I must choose one though, I would definitely go with
the 1-click upsell.

One thing not mentioned is, if you're on Clickbank and not one of the approved upsell vendors (not many are as it requires a lot of sales), then you really have no choice but to upsell before they go to CB order page.

I've done it with 35-40% conversion so don't worry about losing sales. It works fine.

The best time to offer an upsell is *during* the order process. They have their credit card out!

Thanks for all the replies guys.

@Bruce: I sure hope to reach those conversion levels. I'm by no means a good copywriter like you are.

@Mike: no problem at all. I make the same mistake sometimes.

@eagle: you hit the nail on it's head about changing directions suddenly. I'll do my best to give my buyers a little 'taste', that they MAY expect an appropriate upsell offer.