Written by: Stefan Sebö.

My name is Stefan Sebö, and I have worked in business development and sales for more than 40 years. During that time, I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of companies and organisations across a wide range of industries.

I have always been curious about why some succeed while others do not. What are the real success factors? Here are some of the themes I will explore in future articles:

•  A company can never be better than its leadership.

•  The right pricing is crucial to profitability.

•  Discounts mean giving money away.

•  How do you create a company and a team focused on building a strong sales culture?

Today's topic: upselling

Many people have a preconceived idea of what upselling means. You do not want to push something on someone that they neither want nor need - and I certainly do not think you should.

Upselling is about creating customer value

Upselling is an enormously underestimated opportunity for two reasons: it can help the customer make an even better purchase while also improving the business result.

In many of my consulting assignments, I have seen that this mindset is far from automatic for salespeople. Quite the opposite: they sell what the customer asks for and are satisfied that they have made a sale.

I started my own sales career early

When I was 12, I became the Swedish national champion in selling raffle tickets for the Scouts. Since then, I have worked in sales across most industries. But in fact, I have never sold anything. Instead, I have helped many people buy. That is very different from simply trying to make money by selling more.

Instead, I ask myself: How can I create even greater customer value by offering customers what they actually need, rather than only what they initially ask for?

How can customers know what might benefit them if they are not aware of what is available?

Why did I become the Swedish national champion in raffle-ticket sales for the Scouts?

Not only did I win; I sold twice as many tickets as the runner-up in the competition.

Of course, there were several ingredients behind my success.

My ingredients for success:

•  I had an inner drive. I wanted to earn money.

•  I put in a lot of effort. The more people I approached, the more people bought.

•  I was always cheerful. I had a great deal of confidence because I knew that what I was selling was good. Everyone who bought a ticket had a chance to win. I also earned a commission on what I sold, while the Scouts received much-needed funds for their activities.

•  I sold dreams. What could you actually win if you had a ticket?

•  In business, the principle is the same: What value does my product or service create? What does the customer gain from buying it?

All of this was important, of course, but by far the biggest difference lay in the upselling itself.

At the time, the tickets I sold cost SEK 2.50 each, and I received a 10% commission.

When people asked what the tickets cost - a question I was always asked - I immediately replied: "Four for ten kronor." At the time, the ten-krona note was a paper banknote, and I really liked the rustle of it.

If they hesitated, I immediately said: "You have a better chance of winning if you have four tickets." Many would then reply: "Yes, you're right about that."

So what did my friends do when they were asked how much the tickets cost?

"They cost SEK 2.50," they said - and, of course, they received only SEK 2.50 as well.

You usually get what you ask for, as long as you ask in a pleasant and trustworthy way.

The fashion-chain example

During another assignment, I was approached by a well-known Swedish women's fashion chain.

"Our average sales per transaction are far too low in our stores," the CEO said.

Together with the management team and a number of store managers, we analysed the product range. The question we asked ourselves was: What do we have in our range that most customers need, but may not think about once they are in the store?

We quickly concluded that the answer was socks. The company had its own range of socks in every imaginable colour and pattern right by the checkout. They cost SEK 29 per pair, or four pairs for SEK 100.

The company had, of course, realised that the socks could be a good upselling product and had therefore placed them near the checkouts. But they assumed the product would sell itself. If you do not actively draw the customer's attention to a product, it is easy for it to be overlooked - and sales will be lower as a result.

Employees in stores across Sweden liked the socks and wore them themselves because they appreciated both the price and the quality.

Their task was now to ask every customer at the checkout:

"Have you seen that we have a special price on our fantastic own-brand socks? Four pairs for SEK 100 - and, of course, you can choose freely from all the patterns and colours."

So how many bought them? Here is what I have seen in practice:

Results vary - but the opportunity is clear

In many of the businesses I have worked with, we have seen conversion rates of around 17-23% when customers are actively presented with a relevant upselling offer.

So what was the result in the women's fashion stores?

If, in this particular example, we assume that 20 out of 100 customers per day make an additional purchase of SEK 100, that generates SEK 2,000 in additional sales per store per day.

That may not sound like much. But with the stores open seven days a week, it becomes SEK 14,000 per week. Over 52 weeks, that amounts to SEK 728,000 in additional sales per store per year.

The retail chain had 26 stores. If the same approach worked in a similar way across all of them, the hypothetical additional sales could amount to almost SEK 19 million per year.

The question you should now ask yourself is:

What products or services does our company have that we can offer alongside a sale we are already making? You may be sitting on a gold mine if you consistently have the confidence to offer customers something that could create additional value, but that they do not know about or have not thought to ask for themselves.

If a salesperson analyses the customer's needs before a meeting and identifies three suitable services or products in advance, it becomes much easier to introduce them naturally and help the customer make a better purchase.

Professional selling is not only about selling what the customer asks for. It is about understanding and highlighting what the customer may genuinely benefit from. Otherwise, how will the customer know what value the product or service can provide?

Get started and work consistently with upselling. Measure the results and follow them up internally. Visible results can, in turn, motivate more salespeople to work systematically to create additional customer value.

Sell more to the customers you already have

What would it mean for your company if your salespeople met existing customers more often than they do today? Not primarily to sell more, but to discuss what additional value you could create for the customer.

Imagine that you have 100 customers who each buy an average of SEK 50,000 per year. If 20 of those customers, through a better dialogue about their needs, increased their purchases to SEK 100,000 per year, that would generate SEK 1 million in additional sales. It is a simple calculation, but it illustrates the potential of working more actively with existing customers.

In my own work, I have often seen that developing relationships with existing customers can be more cost-effective than focusing solely on finding new ones. The size of the difference naturally varies between industries, business models and customer segments. The question is therefore worth asking: Are we spending enough time on the customers who have already chosen us?

Many companies lose customers when those customers do not feel seen or sufficiently prioritised. Taking customers for granted is a risk. Regular and relevant contact can strengthen both the relationship and customer loyalty. When customers feel that their needs are taken seriously, the potential for long-term relationships increases. Once a customer leaves, rebuilding trust can be both difficult and costly.

Of course, you should not stop pursuing new customers, but many companies and salespeople underestimate the value that already exists in their current customer base. The salesperson's task should therefore be to plan more relevant meetings with existing customers in a systematic and purposeful way.

In addition to explaining the value you create for other customers with similar needs, you should naturally tell existing customers about news and developments that may be useful and valuable to them. But you should also ask one simple question:

"What else do you think we could do to create value for you?"

In the companies where I have worked, I have seen very good results when upselling is pursued systematically while maintaining a close and continuous dialogue with existing customers.

What could upselling mean for your company?

"Serving others well serves you well"

C Leslie Charles