{"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

What is Upselling?<\/h2>\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

Ethical Vs Non-Ethical Upselling Scenarios<\/h2>\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>
\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

Scenario two<\/strong>
\nYou order a piece of software online that allows you to create animated videos for $30. Great deal!<\/p>\n

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

So What’s the Differences?<\/h3>\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

    \n
  1. In example one you are being upsold before<\/em> you make the initial purchase. Whereas, in example two you are being upsold after<\/em> you make your initial purchase.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. In example one, you are fully aware, even before the upsell offer that you can upgrade your hamburger into a meal deal. Whereas, In example two you are not made aware of the other offerings.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. In example one you\u2019re upsold only one time. Whereas, In example two you\u2019re upsold three times.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\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

    What Should The Golden Rule of Upselling Be?<\/h2>\n

    \"UpsellingI 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