Today I am going to give you a few facts behind the science of upsells, in particular the hordes of upsells, downsells...upsidedownsells...that exist on the Internet. How is the average person supposed to keep up? My goal is help you acknowledge what is going on out there so you do not succumb to these sorts of offers.

They are slick, they are pesky, and often times you are in a such a “buyer” mode that you don’t realize what is happening. Confused? Don’t worry, I will explain.

Most people don’t understand the funnel they are being put through, so I am going to clarify how the process works.

The Initial Sale

When you buy something online, whatever it may be, this is considered the initial sale. If you by a product on eBay, you are like being sold the tangible product and that is it. If they then go on to offer you a warranty on the product or insurance on the shipping, that is an upsell. A fair game upsell.

In the digital product world (think Clickbank, think e-books, guides and memberships...usually in the make money niche) where information is cheap, and offers are relentless, you see a process that is much more crafty.

An upsell is typically hidden behind an initial sale price being quite low, usually under $30 is typically a sign of things to come.

When you buy this “cheaper” item from your favorite guru, then you are put through a “buyers” upsell funnel. You don’t really know this at first, but just follow along with me here.

And then came the upsell...

Once you buy, the person (guru) selling the product knows right away you are a buyer. This is a good thing in the marketing world. The minute you become a “buyer”, the minute the vultures come out to prey on you, well, within the unethical world anyways.

They then put you into an upsell funnel, offering you premium services, memberships, support and packages. These are almost higher than the initial product price and a lot of the time charge you a monthly fee to join. Sound familiar?

If you buy the offer, you will likely be offered another upsell (seriously)! I have heard of these sales funnels being up 7 layers deep. By the time they are done with you, your pants are on the ground, your wallet has been emptied, your credit cards have burn marks in them, and you feel violated.

If you don’t buy something anywhere along the way, then you are put through a downsell funnel trying to sell you something else.

So here you are, the unsuspecting customer sitting there with your credit card out looking to buy one thing online, only to realize that you have bought just a small “part” of the package. You thought you were getting an “awesome” deal initially, only to find out that you are missing half of the stuff you need.

This plays with your psyche, and many people unwillingly continue to buy. The $27 product all of a sudden becomes a purchase into a continuity program, and before you know it you have spent several $100’s and are locked into a membership that you didn’t anticipate buying initially.

Again, this done very often on low priced products. They sell you on a product under $30. Once you have bought, you have fed nicely into their system. They now know you buy stuff online and are going to take advantage of that.

The Most Unfortunate Aspect

These are the exact methodologies being taught out there. Newbie marketers are learning how to do upsells before they understand “business”. The think that upsells are simply part of business because that is all they know. Gurus tell their followers that this is an awesome idea for maximizing the money you can get out of a customer.

Let’s look at that phrase again.

Maximize - The most possible

Customer - You

So, if I rephrase this using my definitions above, this is what many Internet businesses are trying achieve...

The most possible money they can get out of you.

How does that feel? Does it feel good to know that the sole purpose of many marketers online is to get the most money from you that they can get.

To me, I think that this is a model that should be exterminated. I think the people that are utilizing techniques like this without and underlying purpose are “vultures” and taking advantage of the consumer.

Their typical response as to “why” they use techniques like this, “because it works”. There are a lot of things that works, stealing your neighbours mail “works”, but it doesn’t mean that it is ethical or should be done.

But I want to make one thing very clear...

Some Upsells Are OK!

I am not saying upsells are bad. Distasteful upsells are bad. The ones I mentioned above I find to be very distasteful and unethical. Not all upsells are like this though.

One of the most famous upsells comes from one of the biggest companies in the world, McDonalds. Have you ever heard the phrase:

"Do you want fries with that?"

This is an upsell that compliments you are order. This is beneficial to the business of selling burgers and over the years it has lead to billions of dollars of revenue for McDonalds. Fries don't come with a burger (unless you order a meal), but they complement your "meal". An ethical upsell, although one that may not be all that good for your health. :)

Let’s have a look Apple...

Apple doesn’t give you half of a product and then require you to buy the rest after you have already bought. You don’t get home with your iPhone, pull it out of the package and then read a little letter stating that in order for your phone to work, you have to send in $100 to buy a processor for the phone.

Instead, they upsell you on things to make your phone cooler, more functional, such as Apps, music, cases, and adapters. This is done very tastefully and it is not a requirement for your phone to work and to be “awesome”. The upsells are also far cheaper than the actual cost of the phone.

Web hosting is another example of upsells. People that need web hosting, likely need other complimentary services. For example, more powerful hosting that can handle more domains (upsell), some customized themes for their Wordpress Sites (upsell), and domains (which you need to buy if you want a website).

These are examples of upsells that make sense. These are complimentary to the service that you are buying, they are not PART of the service you are buying. That is the distinguishing fact.

If you are selling a book on how to make money, and then you upsell another book on how to make money, stating that you need this book to be EXTRA successful (and make your customer feel bad if they don't buy it), you are running a distasteful upsell operation.

Enough about my thoughts, I would to hear about your feedback and experiences, and if you are one of the marketers out there that offers upsells, feel free to comment as well.