{"id":750,"date":"2017-08-01T11:30:52","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T11:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.willisucceed.com\/?p=750"},"modified":"2017-08-01T11:31:25","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T11:31:25","slug":"ethical-and-unethical-upselling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.willisucceed.com\/ethical-and-unethical-upselling\/","title":{"rendered":"Upselling and Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve been debating with myself, trying to come up with an answer to a question I thought of. That question is… Is upselling of products ethical? I believe the answer, in short, is that it depends. What separates an ethical upsell from non-ethical upsell? Something that I’ve learned and is part of my mission <\/a>is to be 100% transparent and honest in what you do. Unfortunately, upselling, in many cases, is anything but transparent.<\/span><\/p>\n First of all, what is upselling? According to Wikipedia, it is “a sales technique where a seller induces the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale.” (source<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n What prompted me to think about this was the purchase of a couple popular digital products I\u2019ve purchased recently. When I purchased these items the amount of up-selling, down-selling, and cross-selling that happened after each purchase was out of control, in my opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n To better elaborate my view of ethical upselling vs non-ethical upselling I have two scenarios of up selling for you.<\/span><\/p>\n Scenario one<\/strong> Scenario two<\/strong> After ordering the product you\u2019re forwarded to another page where the company is trying to upsell you on an item that gives you extra assets to help you make videos. The cost of that upsell is $47. You decide, \u201cwell the product is really great but this would be a great addition to have. I\u2019ll purchase it.\u201d So you purchase it.<\/p>\n Then you\u2019re brought to another page where your upsold on another product. This one is a template club that allows you to receive brand new assets every month for $19\/month. You\u2019re hesitant but you decide to buy it because you \u201cneed it.\u201d<\/p>\n After purchasing that you\u2019re brought to some other product that you are sold for $97 and you decide to purchase it.<\/p>\n You had no idea idea about those three other products that you ended up purchasing. You purchased a product for $30 and actually ended up spending $193!<\/p>\n I\u2019ve actually seen sales funnels on JVzoo <\/a>like this that go four levels deep or higher. Many of these sales funnels sell some of the most popular products in that market place.<\/span><\/p>\n Now back to the two examples. What are the differences between example one and example two from an up selling point-of-view?<\/span><\/p>\n I hope it\u2019s becoming apparent that example two is the unethical scenario. Legal? Yes. Ethical? No. Unfortunately, it seems to me to be a common practice. This annoys me.<\/span><\/p>\n I think the question we need to ask ourselves is this. What should be the ethical rule for upselling? Personally, I believe the answer is somewhat simple.<\/p>\n Now, sellers on JVZoo (which is a huge marketplace for purchasing software and other digital assets) are some of the biggest culprits, in my opinion, of extravagant upselling accomplished unethically. That said, there are some great products on JVZoo.\u00a0<\/span>The problem, as I mentioned, is that so many of the products come with an upsell and\/or cross sell; one after another. <\/span><\/p>\n So to save you from getting stuck in a funnel where you\u2019re not sure what you\u2019re going to be upsold to you next I\u2019m going to give you some advice.\u00a0<\/span>Before making a purchase try to find the partner page for that product. It will be somewhere probably towards the bottom of the page. It will say something like \u201caffiliates\u201d, \u201cPartners,\u201d \u201cJVs,\u201d or something similar. Find their page. You can even log into JVZoo, find the product and on the product page it should show you their JV affiliate page where they will actually show you their funnel.<\/p>\n So as an affiliate, knowing how the company\u2019s funnel works is key information you want to know. But as a consumer it\u2019s also very good to know so that you know what you\u2019re getting into before you purchase the product.<\/span><\/p>\n At the end of the day, would I use upsells? As long as it sticks to my rule of offering the upsell before the initial purchase then, yes, I suppose I would. I prefer to be upfront with selling. Put it all out there. Be honest and transparent. I would prefer to package my products into deals if possible. For example, you can buy product A for $50. Product B for $50 or you can purchase both of them together for $75.<\/p>\n Upsells are tricky. Most of the time, I find it to be unethical. I decided to reach out to the Disqus community asking them about upselling ethics in this thread<\/a>. The thread received some good comments. I want to know your thoughts. What should he golden rule be for upselling?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63],"modified_by":"Charles Fisher","yoast_head":"\nWhat is Upselling?<\/h2>\n
Ethical Vs Non-Ethical Upselling Scenarios<\/h2>\n
\nYou\u2019re in a fast food restaurant. You order a hamburger. The employee behind the counter asks you, \u201cWoud you like to make that a meal?\u201d You answer \u201cYes.\u201d You purchase your meal and enjoy it.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nYou order a piece of software online that allows you to create animated videos for $30. Great deal!<\/p>\nSo What’s the Differences?<\/h3>\n
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What Should The Golden Rule of Upselling Be?<\/h2>\n
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Advice For Avoiding Unforeseen Extravagant Sales Funnels<\/h2>\n
Would I Use Upselling As Part of My Sales Strategy?<\/h2>\n