Action plan
We gathered all the information concerning the current state of the projects and upselling activities. After analyzing the data, we decided to put the process in order by dividing it into 2 stages.
Stage 1. Educating the team
We had to verify whether the upselling potential even existed among the clients. We knew it did but we needed to make sure and base it on particular cases. We had to change the way the team approached the upsells.
It turned out that employees know what should be offered to the clients to make the current service more comprehensive but, for reasons unknown, decided not to present the possible cooperation options. In order to change this attitude, we had a workshop highlighting the advantages of the upselling process. This allowed us to evolve the thinking from “This is not the scope of our contract” to “We have an idea how to do X to achieve Y, and it will only cost an additional Z.”
If you are running a marketing agency, it is natural that your clients chose you as their supplier because of your industry knowledge and market expertise. They expect you to provide them with accurate guidelines on how to achieve better results in the future. Even if it’s hard to meet these goals, the client believes that you – an expert in the field – will suggest the best options.
These simple steps will contribute to:
- building an image of an expert,
- increasing customer trust,
- and projecting an image of a business partner who is engaged (not only “doing their job”).
Stage 2. Creating a project chart
After the training that helped us structure and describe the benefits for clients, we needed to accumulate all the gathered details in one place so everyone could easily access it. The project chart included:
- the number and types of current services.
- information about the main goal of a given client (number of e-commerce carts, reach) and whether it’s currently completed (yes/no).
Preparing the dedicated offers was the crucial element of the process. We added a new column to the chart to address the timeline – the team’s quarterly task was to prepare new offers to help clients reach their goals. They were more or less able to do so, however, new difficulties emerged.