SOP 67 — Run the menu upsell

1. The four moves, in order

Unsell — tell them what they do not need.
Prescribe — tell them what they do need and exactly how to use it.
A or B — ask which of two versions they prefer, never whether they want it.
Card on file — ask whether to use the card they have already paid with.

It is offered, tentatively, as the favorite among these offers, and the sequence is said to have worked across many businesses and in a great many upsell consultations.

2. How the four were found

The moves were found one at a time over years, selling supplements after nutrition consultations in a gym whose customers were 70 percent women. The setting matters, because each move came out of a bad day or a rushed one.

A or B and the card on file came together. After going 0 for 19 in one day, a worn-out seller skipped the science and asked the next customer whether she wanted vanilla or chocolate protein, then kiwi or strawberry pre-workout, then whether to use the card ending in the digits already on file. She bought, and so did every customer for the rest of the day — by a rough count given, another 12 appointments.
The prescription came from a customer who would not stop asking questions: when-to-take, what-if-traveling, morning-or-night. The answers were written out on the back of her meal plan — how much, when, how many, what to do at home. The next customer, who had watched, asked for the same, was simply told what she would need, and bought everything.
The unsell came from running out of stock while working on the road. A customer asking for what her friend had bought was told which items to get from a store down the street — not as good, but enough — and then what to take from the shelf, and she bought with no resistance at all.

The order the moves were found in is the order above: A or B and the card on file first, then the prescription, then the unsell. The order to run them in is the one in section 1.

The throughput those consultations reached is stated: two appointments every 30 minutes, four an hour, one seller to two customers, and 48 consultations in a day on a supplement sales day.

3. Unsell

Start by telling them what they do not need, so they believe you when you tell them what they do. Instead of asking if they want to buy, you take things off. What you cross out varies with the customer; when some options clearly fit, cross out the rest.

Keep products just to cross them out. In a gym selling predominantly to women, weight gainer and a testosterone booster were stocked though almost no one would buy them — one customer in a hundred, by the estimate given. For the other 99 percent, the seller asked you're not trying to gain weight, are you? and crossed it off, and did the same for the booster. Two or three items struck off, then the sale.

Unsell the low-margin items. Rather than make $3 on fish oil, give the fish oil away and close 100 percent of customers on a fat burner that makes $40. Unselling low-margin stock where appropriate pushes the higher-margin upsells.

4. Prescribe

After crossing out, prescribe. Prescription works well when a choice would be inconvenient and you have one thing that solves the problem — a fat burner with no flavors, where you only say how many and when.

It has two parts:

Integrate it with what they already bought: this is how it fits with the service they are on.
Personalize in detail how to get the most from it: two of these in the morning, one of these at night.

Instead of asking if they want it, explain how they will use it as though they already own it. Detailed, personal instructions about what happens after the purchase make buying more likely than vague ones, because nobody spends that long on how you will use something unless you are buying it. Required, no. Strongly recommended, yes.

5. A or B

A-or-B works when several offers solve the same problem. Ask which they prefer, not whether they want one. Either answer is a sale. When people are given the option not to buy, some do not; when the choice is between two ways of buying, the decision is simpler.

Anything can be sold as A or B. Monday or Tuesday. This staff member or that one. Morning or evening workouts. Paper or plastic, black or white, cherry or strawberry. Phone support or chat support. Where you have only one product, choose a feature that varies.

Add a nudge. After offering the choice, say which one you like or which one people like: I like strawberry; a lot of people like this coach; that one is really good with high schoolers; a lot of the big dogs like beef. The customer has the feeling of choosing and none of the effort. At a restaurant, offering two desserts and adding that most people get the crème brûlée steers them to the one that might have three times the margin.

6. Card on file

Ask whether to use the card on file. Instead of asking if they want to pay, you refer to how they have already paid. It works because it removes the hidden cost of buying: picking a card, taking it out, and remembering past purchases they regret — a second decision that comes after the first yes. It also saves the sale when somebody is in a hurry; sometimes a customer in a rush who would otherwise have said I'll pick them up later, and been a lost sale, simply says yes. It is the fastest close.

7. Three worked sales

Massage. Unsell: we offer lymphatic massage, but you are not pregnant or just out of surgery, so we can skip it. Prescribe: since your shoulder hurts, we warm you up, work the trigger points, then stretch. A or B: before work or on the way home? Card on file.

Dog food. Unsell: no need for the small bag of puppy food, you have a big dog; no need for the vitamins, they are already in the food. Prescribe: one joint chew at each meal, a heartworm wafer every 90 days, and a visit back next month, booked now. A or B: chicken or beef? Card on file.

Digital products. Unsell: you do not need all eight courses yet; I will send free material for X and Y. Prescribe: one course for Z, done this particular way, with an hour today toward it. A or B: direct message or phone support; start today or Monday? Card on file.

8. When stock or capacity runs out

Low on stock: change the nudge. The instruction points the nudge at the items you are lower on, and its example, three bottles of one against 25 of another, ends only in nudge differently. Not established on this page: which way to nudge.

Out of stock, or at capacity: take payment and deliver on a delay. Customers care much less about waiting than about a missed expectation. Say it will arrive in seven days and it arrives in 10, and they are angry; say seven and it arrives in four, and they are happy. For a service that can take seven people a week and already has eight sold, take the deposit and start the new customer in 14 days.

9. Let staff unsell

Staff like unselling: it feels good, it builds rapport and a little authority, and every employee wants to give a customer an insider tip. So build it in — these three things you can cross out, these two products they can buy down the street. It works better from an employee than from the owner, because customers already believe staff do not always have the business's interest at heart. Don't tell the boss, but you do need these — and the whole exchange is scripted.

10. Selling two products together

A news publication sold a digital subscription at $59 a year and digital plus print at $125. It expected most buyers to take both; everyone took digital alone and dropped print, and because print could earn more gross profit relative to the price than digital, it made much less. The fix was a third option: print alone, also at $125. Against that, digital plus print felt like digital for free, and far more buyers took both.

The rule: offer A, B, and C — which is A and B together — and price C the same as the dearer of A and B. As long as the three are priced to protect your margin, the choice becomes easy and you sell both. The figures are given only to show the relative prices.

Sizes priced to steer. With a small, a middle and a large size of one thing, set the prices to nudge buyers toward the size you want sold. Price the middle above the halfway point between small and large: buyers of the small and of the large will always keep their choice, and the ones who would take the middle will probably step up to the large. To move small buyers up instead, raise the small price close to the middle, with the middle at the halfway point, and most of the buyers who would have taken the small take the middle. In an invented example, with small at $10 and large at $20, a middle at $18 sends middle buyers to the large; a small at $13 beside a middle at $15 sends small buyers to the middle. Which way to push depends on where buyers cluster now: where many take the small, push them to the middle; where many take the middle, push them to the large; where many take the large, raise every price.

The name used for the added option is decoy. SOP 62 — Design a decoy offer covers an attraction offer by that name; this page does not say the two are one structure.

11. What to nudge toward

The closing instruction lists four targets: what makes sense for the customer, what has the highest margin, what you are running out of, and what you are not running out of.

Flag: running out, both ways. Section 8's wording points the nudge at stock you are lower on, and its example does not say which way. The closing list names both what you are running out of and what you are not. This page does not settle which reading is right.

12. What this page does not decide for you

How many items to unsell. Two or three are crossed out in the gym case, one in the massage sale and two in the dog-food sale; no rule is set.
How big a nudge is too big. This page gives no figure for it.
How late a delayed delivery can be. The rule is to meet the expectation you set, not a number of days.

13. The checklist

Question	The answer
The four moves	Unsell, prescribe, A or B, card on file
Why unsell first	So they believe what you prescribe
When prescription fits	One thing solves the problem; a choice would be a nuisance
The two parts of a prescription	How it fits what they bought; how to get the most from it
What A or B replaces	Asking whether they want it
The nudge	Say which one you, or most people, prefer
What card on file removes	The second decision at the moment of paying
Out of stock	Take payment, deliver on a stated delay
At capacity	Take the deposit, start in 14 days
Two products	Offer A, B and the pair; price the pair the same as the dearer of A and B
Small, middle and large sizes	A middle above halfway moves middle buyers up; a small near the middle moves small buyers up; if many take the large, raise all prices

14. What this page does not cover

Where this upsell sits in the money model is SOP 59 — Assemble a money model from four prongs. The simplest upsell, giving one thing away and selling what goes with it, and the timing of any upsell, are on SOP 66 — Run the classic upsell and choose the moment. For businesses with fewer customers spending more each, the expensive-first form is SOP 68 — Run the anchor upsell, and crediting an earlier purchase toward the next one is SOP 69 — Run the rollover upsell.

Stock control and supplier terms are not covered on this page.