Mobile Electronic News

Rule Number 1: Sell up, not down. Every month ‘Opportunity Knocks’ will showcase an idea or technique that can make a positive difference to the profits of dealers.

If there’s one thing that everyone in the mobile electronics market agrees on, it’s that the market is tough, competitive and at times unpredictable, so these features will aim to explore a number of different initiatives that can help to increase sales. In the first of this series of features M.E.N explores the idea of selling up, rather than selling down. This is an age-old technique used in the retail environment, but are you making sure that you and your staff are employing it?

Effectively, what this means is that you take the opportunity with customers to maximise your profits from them by offering them more. The classic example of this is in well-known burger restaurants where the seller will ask if you’d “like to make that a large meal?”, after you’ve ordered just a standard cheeseburger and chips with a drink. A lot of the time the customer in this instance will go for the larger option, especially as it seems like a good deal, and while the restaurant only makes a small amount extra, the cost to them is minimal…hence a greater profit when added up over numerous times. The beauty of this example is that everyone leaves happy; the customer has more food for a good price, the restaurant has made more money.

In the mobile electronics market it’s that same harmony that you should be looking for. At the heart of everything you do should be the aim to give customers the best possible products, advice and service, although you can’t ever lose the focus that you are a business. As such, you need to always remember that you need to be making a profit, otherwise there’s no reason to be doing what you’re doing. And up-selling is what can help you to make that profit. Almost everything in your store is linked in one way or another so the ability to up-sell should be relatively easy, especially as by the point of up-selling the customer has already decided to buy, so the up-sell becomes more of a ‘by the way’ suggestion. Take for example a customer coming in for a replacement headunit. Would you simply let them purchase that and walk out of your store, or would you suggest other things they could buy that would make the audio experience even better; a set of component speakers for example? Alternatively, if a customer is buying speakers for their doors, maybe you could suggest some sound deadening material to help make the most of their new purchase. Buying a sub, perhaps some decent quality cabling would be a good additional purchase for your customer. As the dealer you’re probably in a better position to pre-empt what they might need, which is ultimately what up-selling is all about. In fact, this highlights one of the rules of up-selling, If you get it wrong you can come across as pushy and you may even put them off if what you’re suggesting doesn’t have any real merit. Ultimately you need to concentrate on what your customer needs, not what you think you would need in their situation, and by doing this it should help you make the right suggestions.

The way you go about it has to be right too. You need to mention the up-sell item and give a brief benefit. To avoid sounding pushy it’s then best to ask permission to describe it in more detail. For example, if trying to up-sell sound-deadening you may say: “If you want those speakers to sound even better, have you thought about sound deadening?”. You can then add something like; “I’ve got a sample of the material if you’d like to see how it works?”. If the customer agrees, don’t just say, “that’s it. It helps stop vibrations” … you need to sell it. “All the best sounding cars use this as it really helps to focus the sound and you’re not losing any of the clarity to vibrations in the metal. The best thing is it’s cheap and really easy to fit”. By this point the £10 or so you’re suggesting they spend on top of the cost of the speakers they’re already buying seems a small price to pay for the advantages it gives. You could even offer deals on up-sell packages, like in this case you could offer extra sound deadening material for other parts of the car at a slightly discounted price.

When you’re the customer at other retailers the idea of up-selling can feel like a devious way to make you spend more money needlessly. In fact, this can be the case in outlets where they don’t fully understand the concept. As the retailer though, you need to make sure you’re doing it properly, adding real value to your customer’s purchasing experience while adding to your profits at the same time. Training yourself and your staff in employing this method is critical, analysing not only the related products that can be up-sold but also the ways in which you do so. Get it right and you’ll see your profits increase and your customers happy, get it wrong though and customers may be put off coming back to you.

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