cartoon by @gapingvoid

So one of the family vehicles needed an oil change and a new break light. This resulted in a quick trip to Jiffy Lube. Now, I don’t mind admitting that I don’t know squat about vehicles.

And as you would expect, as I am sitting in the waiting room, the gentleman working on my vehicle comes in every few minutes saying I need a wee bit of this, and a wee bit of that.

Sadly, carspeak is so foreign to me that he could be talking about my lawn mower. So, what does this make me? A perfect candidate to be up-sold a lot of stuff. Stuff maybe I don’t need.

It’s a great strategy, actually. If you don’t mind screwing over your customer. But there is this thing called integrity.

Now please note: I am NOT suggesting that Jiffy Lube did anything malicious to me. In fact, I have been going to this joint for years. And will continue to do so.

But I am just saying… There are plenty of folks out there that look for suckers. In fact, when I jokingly tweeted that I was the perfect Jiffy Lube phony up-sell target, I got a bunch of messages back indicating others had been victims of similar experiences.

Point is, we all worry about that.

And as a business person, you should worry about that. And be sure you aren’t doing that to your customers. Because that’s a one way ticket to being called out very publicly on the internet in front of the entire planet. And getting out of business fast.

But up-selling is a critical strategy to growing your business. If you do it right – and with sincere intentions of helping your customer better solve their problems or fulfill their needs.

What is up-selling? Wikipedia says up-selling is a sales technique whereby a salesperson induces the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale.

As I was contemplating this post earlier today, I was watching a little TV. I heard the “nails on a chalkboard” line that drives me nuts: “Wait! There’s More!”

Do you know how many millions and millions of dollars have been spent AFTER hearing this line? There are suckers out there who buy the extra stuff those TV ads are selling. But sometimes, just sometimes, there is real value there.

You really do need to think long and hard about what products or services you can up-sell your customers. Adding this strategy to your marketing effort is a proven way to GROW your business. I think sadly that a lot of serious business people don’t try to up-sell because they are afraid of being lumped into the “Wait! There’s More” category of salesmen.

And if you really are doing it in the spirit of trying to steal a dollar from your customer, you deserve a hard and painful death. But if you sincerely offer additional products or services to further advance the easing of your customer’s pain, it is a great service to them…

…And a way to GROW your business.

Be Intrepid.