What’s the Upsell? It’s the Next Logical Step!

Early on in my internet marketing career I realized that I needed to build a list -- and I quickly realized that my best way to build that list was to launch low ticket products.

Years later, when Lance and I began selling high ticket training courses on a regular basis ($997) the list stagnated for a few months. Our business stopped growing. We had to make it a point to go back and create those low ticket products in order to keep building that list of buyers...

People would buy that $7, $27, $47 WordPress plugin -- many of them would buy the another $7, $27, $47 plugin every month after that -- and then a small portion of those new people would buy our high ticket $997 training courses (usually broken into a payment plan of $97 a month or so).

Trust me, life is so much easier when you've built up a list of even a few thousand buyers! Every time you need comments on a blog post, webinar attendees, or some good old fashioned sales, all you have to do is ask and then click the "Send" button!

But Just Like Everything Else, I See Everyone Overcomplicating This...

For example:

• The number one thing to remember is that THEY ARE JOINING YOUR BUYER'S LIST! That means even if you don't have an upsell ready for them, it's not the end of the world -- you'll be sending them followup emails in the future. If they want to buy something, they'll buy.
• Beware of "upsell hell" -- this is where people load 5 or more upsells, downsells, cross-sells... you just bought something from me for $7, how about something for $27? No? What about $97? How about this $37 product? This $27/month membership with a $1 trial? The next thing you know, I've loaded so many things into the cart, I don't even know what I bought...
• ONE upsell is fine. It doesn't have to be a one time offer. In fact, I've had great success offering an uspell just before the download, and even if they say no, take them to the download page, and then present that same exact upsell right under the download link, and I'll make extra sales there.

Here's what I've found is the best upsell to deliver to your buyers: a product that's in the same "class" (i.e. another plugin, or another report) at the exact same price point (i.e. $47 frontend product and $47 upsell) that directly complements the original product (it's the next logical step).

For example: someone buys Paper Template for $47, the upsell is Backup Creator for $47 -- another plugin, same price point, and after someone gets a website (sales letter) setup, they'll want to back it up or possibly clone it.

You sell a $97 video course on how to get traffic, make your upsell SEPARATE a $97 course on how to get that traffic to convert. You sell a $27 report on how to make quick money setting up website for local offline businesses, make your upsell a $27 report on how to get local traffic from Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Yelp!

My mentor Armand Morin calls this selling them "the next logical step" -- a saying he borrowed from NASA.

Here's where I want to help you. For the past year or so, as Lance and I have been selling these low ticket products on lots of different storefronts, we keep getting the same questions like...

"What's The Upsell? What's The OTO?"

Basically, what are you going to sell me once I buy from you?

I'm reluctant to answer for a couple of reasons: I don't want to confuse the offer, I might change that upsell... and I didn't answer until I noticed a disturbing trend in how everyone else is selling information products!

Someone is teaching this and it sucks. It hurts your conversions as a seller, and it's an annoying process as a buyer.

Whoever it is, is teaching people to basically sell the same information product as 3 separate products -- good, better, best...

This means: I see a course promising me how to create and sell a bestselling book on Amazon for $7. I buy it -- but it turns out to be a 60 minute or so video product of someone going through a mindmap.

That's it. 100% theory. They "tell" me how to outline a book, how to choose a niche and a title, they talk about writing the content, but they don't do any of it in front of me. I have to buy the "better" package for $27 to actually see the person create a book in front of me.

And then to get the REAL answers, to get all the nooks and crannies answered so I don't get stuck anywhere, I have to buy the $47 or $97 "best" package which usually includes a 3 hour video "Q&A recording" where people sent in questions here and there, and the person answered the most random (but specific issues) and somewhere between the mindmap videos, the implementation videos, and the Q&A, I actually have what I need.

I basically call these "crippled front-end offers." It's a TERRIBLE way to teach and to learn. I buy a webinar course for $7, it gives me the basic "what-to" outline but no "how-to." I have to buy the $47 upsell to see it done, and then I have to buy the $97 Q&A to get all the parts they skipped over.

Why Not Just Charge Me $97?

Here's a better solution: if you're going to sell me a course about offline local businesses, plan to set one up as part of the course.

Decide where people are when they start (usually: no money, no website, no templates) and where they should end (one paying client, website setup for them, they've been paid, and they might even have some recurring passive income setup).

Break it up into exactly four "how-to" modules. Let's say you setup your course like this:

• Module 1: How to Find Your First Set of Offline Prospects
• Module 2: How to Sell Your Offline Prospects into Clients
• Module 3: How to Setup Your Client's Website
• Module 4: How to Earn Passive Recurring Income from a Maintenance Package

Plan each module as a 60-90 minute video where you switch from a PowerPoint to a screen capture format, and structure it as WWHW: Why, What, How-To, What-If. For module one...

• Why (10 minutes): why we're doing this module in the first place
• What (10-20 minutes): what we're going to do, the exact steps before we do them
• How-To (30-60 minutes): you actually performing the steps, like identifying which businesses you'll approach and maybe even contacting a few of them
• What-If (10 minutes): a recap of what you just created, a checklist so they can repeat your process, and a simple assignment so they can get started on it

The EXACT lengths don't matter so much as keeping in mind that the how-to is the BULK of your module. The other pieces are just there to prepare them for the how-to component, and to recap what you showed them so it's all easy to follow.

Once the course is finished, if you are really concerned about an upsell, then your NEXT course should also be priced at $97 and it should cover the Next Logical Step

What If They Don't Buy At $97?

Here's the reason I "think" people try selling you these courses... they're afraid of selling at 100 bucks. I have a couple of solutions for you...

Step #1: Get Over It! Your competitors are outselling you at way higher price points than 100 dollars. How? They actually run real businesses. They consistently pay for traffic, they have social proof, they have well-written sales letters, videos and webinars, they have an email followup sequence. Move your prices from $10 to $100+ and you'll get slightly less buyers, but more total money overall, especially if you actually market your product -- what a concept!

Step #2: Walk the Price Up. You don't HAVE to initially launch your product at $97. What about $47? Create a quick sales letter listing out the four modules of your course. Spend a week or so getting your list ready for it. Bring on some affiliates and joint venture partners.

Launch your product on a free 1-hour pitch webinar where you demonstrate value, solve a simple problem and then introduce your upcoming 4-week, 4-module LIVE class for $47 where you'll show everyone how to setup these website for offline businesses.

Throw in a few HTML templates or WordPress themes and plugins as bonuses, your introductory letters and sales scripts telling people what to say when they approach these businesses, and make it a point that you personally will be landing an offline client during the course and making $2,000 from one transaction. 47 bucks is a no brainer at that point.

After the live course is done, close it up and re-open it a few weeks later for the full $97. Collect results and testimonials in the meantime and make a couple extra passes at your sales letter.

Step #3: Enhance the Offer. After you've finished your course, you can make a couple of additions to your web page templates, get the recordings of your live classes transcribed into reports with screenshots.

If you've added an assignment to the end of each module, you now have lots of case studies of people who followed along with you. You can organize the modules into an easy to follow dashboard. Now instead of waiting 4 weeks for you to deliver the course (as you did live), people get it all at once and can go at their own pace... even land their own offline client TODAY if they're fast!

It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. As usual, if you deliver a COMPLETE course that worked for you, that has real results and your own live case studies -- and there's just ONE thing to buy and it's all in one place, you'll stand out from the crowd.

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