Upselling Techniques: How to Upsell Services Without Being Pushy

The best upselling techniques for service providers

Upselling is a subtle sales strategy that doesn’t call for hard negotiations or underhanded swindling. 

Instead, it centers around making your clients aware of the different services and packages you offer so they can make informed decisions for themselves. 

Try adding these upselling techniques to your sales strategy to increase the value of your invoices, grow revenue, and offer more value to your clients. 

1. Offer tiered service packages in your quotes

Itemized quotes are an ideal place to highlight the different service packages you offer with good, better, best pricing. 

Many service businesses offer customers three choices with the most expensive option providing a premium experience and the least expensive a basic service, with the middle option falling somewhere between the two.

By comparing each option side-by-side, customers get a visual of what to expect from each package.

2. Suggest upgrades or additional parts

Do you offer additional treatments or part upgrades like a spotless window rinse, a stronger premium product for appliance repair, or a particular type of fertilizer when mowing the lawn?

Make sure to let your clients know! Otherwise, they won’t know they exist—or that they can add them to their invoice. 

The best part of this upselling technique is that these types of add-ons don’t usually need to be sold at a discount. It’s more about making customers aware of what you offer.

3. Inform clients about all your services

Sometimes all it takes to upsell is letting your customers know about your new and existing services. After all, if your customers don’t know you offer a specific service, they’ll hire someone else to do it instead.

“Upselling indicates how well a business truly understands their customer needs. The six most dreaded words we can hear from a current customer are, ‘I didn’t know you did that’ (as in, I bought it from someone else!). Money left on the table here is the number one reason businesses don’t succeed.” — Kevin Simpson, ActionEdge Business Coaching

To educate your customers about all of your service offerings:

• Keep your social media pages up to date with new and existing products or services
• Update your website to include a detailed list of everything you offer
• Use email marketing to introduce customers to new offerings, upgrade options, and more

4. Expand your services to solve client problems

Sometimes, upselling is more about figuring out what to upsell rather than how. The best place to start is by looking at your existing customers’ needs. 

Is there anything your current clients frequently request that you don’t offer yet? Or are there any services they tend to book together? What else can you offer to make your customers’ lives easier? 

Adding options that don’t require additional tools or materials is a great way to expand your service list without increasing spend. 

For example, let’s say you own a window cleaning business and you notice a lot of clients’ windows are in rough shape. Offering screen repairs as an upsell is a low-cost and easy way to encourage clients to book more services while receiving a much-needed service. 

But discovering new services to offer isn’t always easy or straightforward. If you’re having trouble thinking of new value-adds, you may have to do some digging. Start by: 

• Reaching out to your customers regularly to see if there are jobs they need help with
• Sending a short email survey to ask what services your customers are interested in
• Paying attention to customers’ properties to identify new service opportunities 

Before adding a new service to your current offerings, make sure it’s a natural fit with your business. After all, a lawn care provider won’t be expected to offer window cleaning—and vice-versa.

5. Get your team involved in customer upgrades 

Your team is the face of your business. They have direct contact with your customers and the job site. This makes them perfect candidates for identifying upselling opportunities.

But that doesn’t mean they know how to do it. Get them on board using these tips. 

Train your team to upsell

Have them shadow you at a couple of client meetings to observe and learn. Create a one-page document they can carry with them clearly showing what to look out for.

In that document, include a list of potential upsells to use as a reference. Make it clear that upgrades or add-ons should only be offered as a way to solve a problem.

Provide them with the right tools

Smartphones or tablets make it easy for employees to send a photo of the upsell offer to your customer right away. This can help your customers make an informed decision faster.

Offer upselling incentives

Incentivizing employees can help get them excited to upsell. Offering a small commission for each ‘upsell’ could go a long way in getting employee buy-in.

6. Use real-life examples to make the sale

Social proof, like testimonials, reviews, and photos helps validate upsells, showing customers that the extra cost will be worth it. Just make sure the examples you use are relevant to the client’s specific situation and feature the same add-on or upgrade you’re offering them. 

For example, if you are installing flooring in a household with kids or pets, provide before and after photos of a scratch-resistant option used for a similar customer.

READ MORE: Upselling in action: Get tips from home services pros

7. Offer seasonal services

The beginning or end of a season is an ideal time to offer add-ons and upgrades. 

With more tasks to do around the home, like raking leaves, sprucing up paint, or pressure washing decks and entryways, homeowners are always looking for ways to reduce their workload. 

Seasonal upsells don’t have to be year-round service offerings. Instead, you can use them to temporarily generate more revenue before the slow season or to kick off your busiest time of year.

8. Make personal recommendations

If you’re at a job site assessing the property to create a quote, consider what you would recommend to the client to best address their problem. 

For example, if they ask for a simple service, like staining a fence, but complain that it never lasts long enough, it’s an upselling opportunity for you to sell priming and sealing add-ons. 

Not only does this address the client’s specific problem, but it makes them feel heard and helps you to build trust by demonstrating your expertise. 

9. Offer follow-up services

Some services are one-and-done jobs. But others offer opportunities for follow-ups. 

For example, if you install new sod at a client’s home, you could upsell fertilizer treatments and weed maintenance over the next few weeks or months. 

That way, you help yourself by generating more income, and you help the client by ensuring their lawn is healthy all season long. 

10. Educate your customers

When it comes to your industry and services, you’re the expert. Your clients don’t always know what’s best when it comes to which service they need. 

Educating them about which option is the best fit is a great way to upsell your services while demonstrating your expertise. 

And while you can do this with individual clients, you can create content like social media posts and articles that guide customers through different services and who they work best for. 

For example, as a house cleaner, you could create a simple Facebook post about cleaning carpets that explains how regular deep cleans help to reduce allergens and extend the life of the material. Or compare the differences and added benefits of steam cleaning over vacuuming and spot cleaning. 

A lot of the time, clients don’t know exactly what they need because they aren’t industry experts. When you use your experience and know-how to educate them about which service they should choose and why, they’re more likely to upgrade to a package that better suits their needs.

Upselling best practices

No matter how you decide to upsell services to your clients, it’s important to approach it in the right way. Otherwise, you risk leaving your customers with a bad impression by being too pushy or by trying to get them to upgrade to services they don’t want or need. 

To get the most from your upselling efforts, follow these best practices. 

Speak to your customer’s original need

Your customer came to you with a specific need in mind. Focus on addressing this problem in your upsell. 

Offering completely unrelated add-ons can come across as pushy or too assertive.

Let’s say an HVAC customer calls you to clean their vent system, and while you’re on the job, you notice some damaged parts. A natural upsell would be to replace them. But trying to sell them a whole new air conditioning system would be unnecessary. 

Learn to problem-solve with upselling

The overall goal of upselling is to help your customers, which makes it an opportunity for you to use your problem-solving skills. 

When a client reaches out, it’s because they have a specific problem they need help with. As a service provider, you’re in the perfect position to solve or eliminate whatever issue they’re facing. 

By keeping that in mind, upselling will come more naturally. 

For example, if adding an extra service will extend the life of their fridge, keep their hardwood floors shiny, or prevent their office windows from collecting dust and grime, let your clients know! 

Chances are, they’ll be happy to upgrade, and they’ll appreciate that you made their lives easier. 

Get your timing right

Upselling can happen before, during, or after a job, which gives you a chance to identify the right moment to suggest an upgrade or add-on. 

Before a job

Use the initial phone call to investigate the customer’s problem. Ask probing questions to determine all possible solutions. Once you have an idea of additional services you can offer, include them as optional add-ons to your quote, so your client can decide how they want to proceed. 

During a job

It’s often easiest to upsell your services on the job site. Here, you’re working with your customer’s issue hands-on and can see upsell opportunities more clearly. Maybe you’re clearing snow and come upon an icy hazard that needs additional attention. Or a routine HVAC maintenance job reveals a faulty part. When this happens, it’s easy enough to reach out to the client to let them know what their options are for addressing the problem.

After a job

Saw something on a customer’s property that needs more attention? If you can’t get approval for the extra parts or labor during the job, use your invoice to complete the upsell. Attach a photo or note to their invoice, or send a follow-up email with the details for a future job booking.

Make upselling easier with the right technology

Using the right tools can take a lot of the discomfort out of upselling. Tools like Jobber can do the heavy lifting for you, so you don’t have to try to convince customers to upgrade on the spot.

Originally published October 2020. Last updated on September 24, 2024