Just thought I’d point out a possible error (?) in the equation, not that it makes the point any different. Getting 3 out of 5 people to buy more doesn’t mean an increase of 60% of your money. If a tall drink is $3.00, and a grande is $4.00, then upgrading is a 33% increase of money, and if 3 of 5 people upgrade, than 60% of the time you get a 33% increase.

Meaning, out of 5 people to get tall drinks, that means a minimum of $15.00.
If 3 people get grandes at $4.00, then thats $12.00, and the last 2 at $3 /ea, making a total of $18.00.

Meaning the actual increase is 20%.

Not that that changes what you mean. I personally always provide 3 options in my proposals, one at the bare minimum they need, one in the middle that’s probably their best option, and the highest that has extras that would just be icing on the cake.

for a freelancer, upselling is only going to increase your income 50% if you currently spend 50% of your time doing nothing.

Jonathan i really wish you would have posted this 3 days ago. I signed a client 3 days ago, actually the easiest sign I’ve ever had to be honest. It was a different type of contract than i usually do, and the first time for it actually. It is a huge project that actually intimidated me quite a bit. So i decided the best method to quote the project accurately would be a retainer like deal, a flat monthly fee for my services. I sent the client the price for the retainer ($2,000 per month not to exceed 30 hours) as i also have several other projects that take equal priority.

His response you ask? “I have no problem with $2,000 but i don’t want to be wasting my money to get this thing up and going”. I simply assured him he would not be wasting any funds and like magic i had the full 100% first months payment in my paypal account.

Immediately after i kicked myself and said “what the hell was i thinking why didn’t i charge more” but it was a done deal that i am now stuck with for as many months as this particular project last.

After reading your post, i see so many ways i could have gone for an up-sell and presented more value, and possibly even allotted more time for the project monthly. Unfortunately for me, i was three days early in signing the deal.

Great post, as always. I read your personal blog regularly as well…. but never comment

Thanks for the tip.
I use this in my packages all the time.
Usually I get those just wanting the basics, and others 4/10 times wanting the upgrade.

In your example, a 60% increase in upgrades doesn’t yield a 60% increase in revenue. Great tips either way.

Personally, I hate it when I’m in a store and the clerk tries to upsell me. I’ve even considered having a T-shirt printed saying, “If I’d wanted a muffin with that, I would have asked!” (And I still might.) I find upselling is emphasized in corporate-type places, less so in locally owned.

The overall point of the article is well taken, that when someone is buying your freelance services, you should sell them a little more if appropriate. I just think freelancers should be careful that they don’t alienate their clients by coming across as too pushy. We’re professionals, not fast food restaurants.

It’s not uncommon for folks to price their base and upsell models such that they just cover their expenses on the sale of the base, but make substantial profit on the upsell. Excellent article.

Love it! Now, since I’m a Personal Finance Blogger, I say SAVE 50% of that additional income (put it into your Passive Investing Strategy) and one day you just may become RICH. Pretty simple really …

Thanks for the informative article. I’ve been reviewing my own pricing structure recently and I can see how offering add ons could be very lucrative. I usually give quotes based on a Client’s requirements, but why not offer them some options that they might not have thought of…

This would also work well for extras such as hosting, monthly maintenance, etc.

This seems very, very bargain basement. And though I could see it working on the occasional local business owner, my national and international clients would just be offended. This isn’t McDonalds, it’s a graphic design studio that examines each client’s needs and crafts custom solutions to meet that need. There is no “middle ground” and I think even acknowledging one could exist threatens my credibility as a designer.

Maybe this is a better solution for web development people that don’t claim to “design.” Because in design there are often many answers to the problem, but the right answer is never anything but the most thoughtful, considered one.

yes man, I’ll apply it on next sale.

Just because 3 out of 5 people accepted the bigger drink doesn’t mean that over the long run, the company’s revenue will increase by 60%. I realize that’s not the point of the article but it certainly paints a rosier picture than reality dictates.

Certainly the author isn’t that naive. I could flip a coin a billion times and over the course of those flips, at some point, the outcome could be ‘heads’ a thousand times in a row. Looking at that small sample doesn’t mean that heads comes up 100% of the time. It also doesn’t mean that Starbucks will make a gazillion trillion.6 dollars.