This Tip to Instantly Increase your Profits May Surprise You....

Hint: Upgrade your upsales!

‍

There’s an opportunity for instant profit that can be implemented in seconds at your body shop...and many of us aren’t taking advantage of it! Some of you may have even given up on it. What am I talking about? Upsales! 

‍

Hear me out. Upsales and cross-sales are probably the most powerful way to instantly grow your profits, but I am constantly hearing misconceptions about them:

“But Ryan, upselling is sleazy...”

“I feel cheesy doing it, I don’t want to be the person who upsells...”‍

I used to think that way too. Then, I experienced a paradigm shift that completely changed my mind and showed me how important upsales can be. 

A family friend came into my shop to get his VW fixed. Someone had backed into the quarter panel of his car and we were taking care of the repair. I knew he was at my shop, but I hadn’t checked in on him until I heard that he was in the hospital. An accident had happened at the shop. I rushed to see him, and there he was, laid up in bed with a broken femur and hip. I felt terrible! Something had happened in our shop, or in our parking lot, and now my friend was in the hospital!

I apologized to him and asked him what happened. He looked at me and said, “Oh no, Ryan, I didn’t get hurt at your shop. I got hurt at another body shop.” 

Turns out, he had gotten the quarter panel damage repaired with us, but also had a scrape on his bumper. Although someone at my shop had pointed out the damage, no one offered to fix it so he thought we didn’t repair small damage and took it across town.

By not upselling that customer, we put him in a terrible position. Not only was he inconvenienced by having to go find an entirely different shop to repair what we could’ve taken care of while his car was already with us, he got hurt because of it!

What I learned is that we need to break down our negative perception of upsales. Done correctly, upsales can:

1. Be the most profitable thing in your business.
2. Create convenience for your customers.

"People are more afraid of making the wrong decision than they are of spending money."

But what does it take to ensure that customers want to be upsold? How can we be sure that we’re not coming across as pushy or greedy? I’m going to share with you the two human triggers that position customers to make buying decisions that they feel are beneficial to them.

1. Scarcity - the perception of limited resources.
2. Urgency - the feeling of needing to act now.
   

If all we do is point out additional damage to customers and give them a quote for the repair, we are not triggering their sense of scarcity or their sense of urgency. Most likely, they’ll put off the repair. 

However, if we flip the script a bit, we can make the customer feel like they are taking action at the right time and seizing an opportunity. Try this on for size:

“I noticed you had some damage to your front bumper. Usually a repair like that would run you $1000, but since the car is already in the shop I think we can save you a little bit of money and take care of it now for $795.”

Here’s the thing, people are more afraid of making the wrong decision than they are of spending money. This is proven behavioral science. If you position your offer as a way to take advantage of an opportunity, customers will feel that you are looking out for them. They will also be afraid that not acting now will cost them more in the long run. That is how we can use scarcity and urgency to make upsales not only profitable, but desirable to our customers. 

So why are upsales so important? From an accounting perspective, approximately 70% of anything you make in upsales falls to net profit. That’s a giant margin! Upsales can also benefit you if, like my shop was, you’re completely booked up with no room for additional vehicles in the schedule. How do you continue to grow your profit when there is no room in the calendar for more customers? Sell more to your existing customers.

But upselling also allows you to help your customer in ways they might not have anticipated yet. And, if you give them a buying experience that feels helpful rather than "sales-y," you'll be able to solidify your customers' trust in you by delivering them what they need and want all while growing your profits. 

If you are interested in some more ways to increase your profits and grow sales, check out our free Estimate Selling Scripts!

Hope you found this helpful, keep crushing it out there!

- Ryan

‍