Script the upsell at each point of greatest deprivation

1. The rule, and why it bears repeating

Upsell timing comes back here because, in the view here, people still get it badly wrong all the time. Five times stand out as the best for an upsell, and the encouragement is to use every one of them.

The question is whether the moment to sell is when the want is greatest (the point of greatest deprivation) or when the value just received is greatest. The answer here is the first. The picture: a person in a desert, terribly thirsty. Will they pay you more for a glass of water before they have drunk it, or after? Before. Typically, people ruin an upsell by offering the right thing at the wrong moment.

The same rule, with a steak and a weight-loss case of its own, is section 5 of SOP 57 — Compute the payback period and shorten it.

2. The five moments

#	Moment	What it is
1	Immediately	Right after the purchase: they have just bought, and you upsell at once
2	Roughly 24 to 48 hours later	Think of the onboarding call, which you should have in order to set expectations; you can upsell on that call
3	The first activation point	When some good thing happens, by the measure of your service. The end goal is not required; the examples given are that it could be a first push-up, the first phase of a project finished, a first lead or a first sale. They are very excited and have not yet closed the loop, which, in the view here, makes them ready for an upsell
4	The halfway point	In one practitioner's experience, it is usually among the spots that convert best
5	The last chance	Named in its script (section 4.5)

Why halfway beats the end. Why the halfway point works is left open; the one guess offered is that people are accustomed to acting at the midpoint. What is reported is how it converts in one practitioner's own results. The comparison that is explained is with the end of the term, which is where, reportedly, almost everyone outside this approach puts the offer: a six-month term is sold, and the next thing is offered once the sixth month ends. Halfway works far better, it is said, because the customer is still mid-way through a buying cycle and senses there is more to do. At the end they have to make a fresh purchasing decision. So ideally the offer comes at the halfway point.

Beside the other pages. SOP 57 section 6 and SOP 162 section 2 give five moments in the same order. There the third is called a first big win; here it is the first activation point, which need not be the end goal. The second is 24 to 48 hours here, as on SOP 162. The activation point as a leading indicator of whether a customer stays is defined on SOP 129 — Derive the activation point; here the words mean the first good result.

Flag: the second moment's window. SOP 57, section 6, lets it run, usually, into a third day; here it ends at 48 hours. On this reading an ask on the third day is too late for the second moment; on SOP 57's it is not. This page does not settle which reading is right.

3. What waiting costs, and how a timing problem sounds

The figures offered. These are reported as the times always seen to work. Typically, if you follow this method, 70 percent of eventual buyers have already bought by the halfway point. Leave it until the end and you convert, typically, one third as many people as you would have converted otherwise; put the other way, leaving it to the end loses you two thirds of your sales.

The sound of it. For some readers this might be exactly what was needed, and it is probably the reason when an offer is good and yet customers act as though they are already set, one foot out of the door. What you hear: "it was great"; "we are fine"; "that will do for now"; "I got what I came for"; "we love you and the team". If you hear a lot of that, the view here is that it is a timing issue: the offer is not certain to be right, but the moment is certainly wrong.

Keeping your word. In passing, delivering what you promised is called the best way to extend lifetime value.

4. A script for each moment

The expected objection: how can these five moments be points of greatest deprivation? The answer is a script for each one. All of them are reported as used in practice.

4.1 Day one

On the first day a customer is at their most excited and their most deprived. So if they are excited, you upsell straight away, if it makes sense. This one is treated as simple to explain. A case where an offer made at sign-up did not sell, and what was done instead, is in section 5 of SOP 57.

4.2 24 to 48 hours: bring in a problem they did not see

This is called the best slot to introduce a new problem the customer did not know about when they made the first purchase. The reason given: consumers and business owners typically look only one step ahead.

The example is weight loss, because everyone understands it. You sell a fitness membership, and the customer thinks, "good, I am going to get fit." Then comes the nutrition consultation, and they see that the way they eat will have to change. The seller has now made a new problem, and a new problem is a new chance to solve something for more money.

4.3 The first activation point: value that opens a new want

The objection here: if they have just received value, does that not break the rule by selling when value peaks? No. Selling into the greatest deprivation holds at all times; it is called a constant.

An extreme example. Someone who has lost 20 or 30 pounds has received value. What do they now lack? Clothes that fit. Solving the first problem has created a want around a different one.

A business example. You promise a client leads and you deliver them, and very soon the client learns they lack the know-how to sell. You might then suggest they may be a good fit for sales training, sales support, or a salesperson sent out to them. The upsell comes at the moment they see the new need, and the need appeared because the first promise was kept. The same objection, answered with an income example, is in section 6 of SOP 57.

4.4 The halfway point: a happy customer or an unhappy one

At halfway you have one of two situations.

The happy customer. The shape of the script, in plain words:

Step	What is said	What it does
1	Ask how things are going	They say things are great
2	Wonderful, but you have not reached your goal yet	Creates deprivation
3	I would guess this is not your long-term goal either	Creates more of it
4	Ask what the long-term goal was, and let them name it	They say what it is
5	If you like this, you will love the next thing	The upsell

The unhappy customer. You can upsell an unhappy customer too, because they are still deprived and the problem is still there. If anything, believe it or not, their pain is now greater than when they began. That is not a license to have unhappy customers. What you can do when you have one:

• Own the mistake: you should not have put them in the lower tier.
• Say what they really need, the higher tier of support, and that you are moving them to it.
• Make it up to them on price. Three weeks held at the former price are named first, then a month at that price; after that, it is rolled in if they are pleased with it.

Half of these customers, reportedly, you can usually keep or move up, because the problem still gets solved.

The frame. Steer clear of saying that you promised something and failed to give it. Take the blame, but as a misjudgment: you misidentified, or misdiagnosed, how much support they would need. That is on you, and you make it up to them by upselling. It is offered as useful to everyone.

Saving a customer who is asking to leave, by moving them up and crediting what they paid, is section 2 of SOP 132 — Run the cancellation call. Crediting an upset customer's payment toward what should have been sold at the start is section 3 of SOP 69.

4.5 The last chance

Half in jest, this one is simple: ask whether they want to buy. In fact, you would mirror the same setup. The example is a customer of a website speed service:

• Acknowledge the result: their speed, as worded here, was halved in the past 90 days, as the service had promised.
• Guess that speed alone was never what they really wanted; what they want is many more leads, arriving more steadily. Check that this sounds right.
• Place the result in a larger whole: it is just one of 12 steps in a process.
• Propose starting the other steps now, since this one worked well and the rest will work better on the foundation already laid; otherwise the work would have to be redone, and that applies if they start again elsewhere.

4.6 The sale after the easy early results

The sales at certain of these moments once had a name of their own, because people at that point typically were quite happy. The case is a weight-loss program. During the opening three weeks of a program like that, people are cheering: they have lost 10 pounds, feel good and have energy. The real hunger has not set in yet; they have shed the easy weight. So here the job is to get them to see that the goal is still far off. The shape of the conversation:

• Say you are glad about the 10 pounds, then remind them the goal was 60: they are not close, and there is a long way to go.
• Guess that they want this to last as a way of life, and hear them agree.
• Tell them they have won the challenge and understand how it really works.
• Say the next three weeks will not change their life, but the next six months or six years will.
• Ask who, looking back from the end of their life, will care that they were fit for six weeks every three years. What matters is whether they can keep it up for good, and that is what you are there for.
• Ask whether that sounds good, then roll it in; this is called a rollover upsell, and they are in.

5. Which upsell structure fits which moment

Each upsell structure has a place on the timeline.

Structure	Where it goes	What is said of it
Classic upsell	Around the immediate moment	Typically happens there
Menu upsell	Beside the classic, at what are called the immediate points	Works very well there
Anchor upsell	The sale in section 4.6, after the early wins	Works extremely well there
Rollover upsell	Everywhere	Everywhere, in the view here; strongly favored

The immediate points. The classic and menu spots are called the immediate points: whenever you are creating new problems, they work very well.

The anchor, as used here. You say they have had some help, but what they really need is something much bigger. The price makes them gasp. Then you offer something else that still reaches the same goal for 10 percent of what the big thing costs, differing from it in just one respect. They are pleased, and they are in.

The rollover. Used right up front, it can work; the settled view is that it works everywhere. It can also be combined: a rollover with a menu upsell, or with a classic. In every one of those cases, it is said to work.

Each structure has a full page of its own. For the classic, see SOP 66 (Run the classic upsell and choose the moment); for the menu, SOP 67 (Run the menu upsell); for the anchor, SOP 68 (Run the anchor upsell); for the rollover, SOP 69 (Run the rollover upsell).

6. What this page does not decide for you

• Whose 70 percent. The figure is given both as what you should expect and as one practitioner's own record; which it is is not settled. Not established on this page.
• Three weeks or a month. Both are named for the price held at the old rate. This page does not settle which reading is right.
• Which moments the named sale covered. Not established on this page.
• Which setup the last chance mirrors. Not established on this page.
• What the speed figure measures. The speed is said to have been cut in half, as promised; what was measured is not said. Not established on this page.
• Which sale is called exceptional. Just after the classic upsell is placed at the immediate moment, one sale is said to work exceptionally well; which one is not named. Not established on this page.

7. The checklist

Step	What to do
1	Map five upsell moments in your delivery: at once, roughly 24 to 48 hours in, the first activation point, halfway, and the last chance; using all five is encouraged
2	Ideally make the halfway offer rather than waiting for the end of the term, which is where, reportedly, almost everyone else makes it
3	At 24 to 48 hours, bring in a problem the first sale did not reveal
4	At the first good result, name the new want that the result has opened
5	At halfway, show a happy customer the gap between where they are and their long-term goal
6	At halfway, tell an unhappy customer you misjudged the support they needed, move them up, and ease the price for a short while, as one practice here
7	At the last chance, present the result delivered as one step of a larger process
8	If you hear a lot of "we are good for now", treat it as a timing problem
9	Match the structure to the moment: classic and menu early, the anchor at the sale after the early wins, the rollover anywhere

8. What this page does not cover

Choosing what to upsell is SOP 236 — Upsell more of it, more help with it, or better. Other ways to raise lifetime value are SOP 232.