The Crucial Question that Leads to Successful Upselling

**Editor’s Note: This session preview originally posted ahead of the scheduled Channel Partners Conference & Expo in March. After the world’s largest channel event was postponed due to COVID-19, we repurposed this session for Channel Partners Virtual, Sept. 8-10. Willpower Consultation’s Will Harris will present this program with a panel of industry experts, Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 11:20 a.m. ET.**

Don’t out-compete other partners; out-collaborate.

Will Harris, founder of Willpower Consultation, knows a thing or two about sales. He’ll lead a session at the upcoming Channel Partners Virtual, Sept. 8-10. His talk, now titled “Social Selling: The Newest Ways Partners Upsell and Outsell on LinkedIn,” changed slightly from the original “Experiential Selling: The Newest Ways Partners Upsell and Outsell,” focuses on how businesses can showcase what they have to offer on LinkedIn for the ideal customer experience.

Willpower Consultation’s Will Harris

In February, we asked Harris to give us a preview of his presentation. While the focus has changed slightly, we expect you’ll benefit from his advice below. We have edited the transcript for clarity.

Channel Partners: Could you explain the difference between “deal-loyal” and “brand-loyal” customers?

Will Harris: Deal-loyal is when someone is committed to finding the cheapest deal. They are in transactional mode. Whom the customer buys from varies from deal to deal. Brand-loyal is when someone is committed to working with a particular vendor. They are tied to the overall way the brand connects with their persona.

For some people, rice is a commodity in which they look for the cheapest price. For other people, a watch is a representation of your personal brand. For those people, they are not looking for the cheapest watch. Their goal is to have a Rolex watch. The biggest thing separating your product from being considered rice or a Rolex is your ability to collaborate.

CP: Could you give an example of a company/person that mastered the art of upselling?

WH: Apple is the best technology company at upselling. They are the best because they redefined upselling. The integrated product suite was created by Apple. Apple examined the overall customer experience and asked, “What do our customers do right before buying our product?” What do they do right after buying our products?

Apple upselling options range from the iPad to iPhone to iWatch to, of course, iTunes. That’s experiential selling. It’s upselling someone to having a life experience without it feeling like an upsell. People love to buy, but they hate to be sold. They want to own an experience.

My firm leveraged this model in our strategic plan. Our buying options include sales training, sales recruitment, sales leads, sales apps and sales kickoffs. Any company that asks, “What do our customers do right before buying our product?” finds the Holy Grail to upselling.

CP: What’s one thing you hope the audience will take away from your talk?

WH: The decade of 2020 is all about collaboration. Those people who are still trying to out-compete will be left out of the race altogether. The name of the game is collaboration. In our movies, it is the Justice League and the Avengers. Even our movie heroes are collaborating on screen. And in real life, those superstar companies that master the art of collaboration will be superheroes in the eyes of their customers.

CP: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

WH: Use what you love to fight what you hate. This is the formula for success. What you do professionally should have a greater impact than just your financial stability. Pursuit of financial success and interpersonal success is the ideal paradigm of collaboration; furthermore, it leads to lasting success.