Service Management Handbook

[Pages:20]Service Management Handbook

Script Writing for Upselling Success

? Copyright 2011 Coscia Communications Inc.

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About Steve Coscia

The road from professional musician to thirty-year customer service veteran to best-selling author and speaker is not a typical career path, but Steve Coscia may have started a new trend. Coscia is one of the most widely published and quoted authorities in the customer service industry. As a Business Journal Columnist, Coscia has published more than 200 articles, four books and a series of training DVDs. His trade school soft skills curriculum is taught at more than 70 colleges throughout the United States and Canada.

An avid researcher of customer service trends, Coscia conducted the industry's first study of stress in the customer service environment. This survey revealed the causes of stress along with the most common manifestations of post-stress behavior among customer service professionals. An expert public speaker, Coscia keynotes at conferences and he conducts seminars at corporations and universities worldwide.

Coscia is a past-president of the National Speakers Association MidAtlantic Chapter. When he is not writing books or speaking, he likes being outdoors. Coscia completed the Marine Corp Marathon and he ran in the Philadelphia half-marathon five times. In younger days, he was a rock musician. Coscia still enjoys music but stays home as much as possible with his wife and son.



Service Management Resource Handbook

Table of Contents

Upselling Script Development

Upselling Strategy ............................................................................................ 4 Writing Upselling Scripts that Work .................................................................. 6 Upselling & Natural Pairing Matrix Templates .................................................. 7 Upselling Script Templates............................................................................... 8

General Script Development

General Script Writing ...................................................................................... 9 Script Example for Price-Shopping Customers ................................................ 9 General Scripting Templates .......................................................................... 10

Management & Employee Expectations

Why Establish Expectations? ......................................................................... 11 Reasons to Take Corrective Action ................................................................ 12 Manager's Focus During Employee Meeting.................................................. 12 Employee Expectations .................................................................................. 13 Dress Code Expectations ............................................................................... 14 Technical Service Manager Guidelines ......................................................... 15

Self Assessment Surveys

Epstein Stress Management Survey ............................................................. 16 Self-Scorer for Epstein Stress-Management Survey ...................................... 17 Handling Difficult Customers Survey .............................................................. 18

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Upselling Strategy

For many professionals upselling is one of the least understood business behaviors, and one which can have a most dramatic impact on revenue and profitability. Upselling is sometimes referred to as cross selling, however for simplicity I will refer to it as upselling.

So if upselling is such a great business practice, why don't more companies do it? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that upselling is a behavior that needs to be taught - this requires scripted upselling suggestions to customers and it also requires a stable infrastructure and good organization to maximize the upselling possibilities.

Opportunities to upsell abound in every segment of business. When executed with courtesy and skill, upselling can add significant revenue to orders. Perhaps you have heard the most famous upsell in the history of business "Do you want fries with that?" Millions of additional revenue dollars has been generated with that simple suggestion.

If we were to define exactly what upselling is, the definition would go like this: upselling is offering a suggestion to an already receptive buyer to enhance the value of his or her purchase. Upselling does not include aggressive selling tactics. The purpose of upselling is to build a mutual benefit so that both you and the customer win. Upselling assumes that you have already made the sale - now don't lose it. There exists in upselling the opportunity to lose a sale if a salesperson becomes too aggressive, upsets the buyer or does something else to break the continuity of the customer's buying experience. Therefore, it is important that salespeople understand the true nature of what upselling is.

The customer's front-line experience (or tactical behavior) is often a result of management's planning, preparation and training (the strategic behavior). As in most business practices, there exists both tactical and strategic goals which result in a positive outcome.

An important role of management is to establish training and organization for upselling success. In the absence of training and organization, upselling behaviors will be sporadic and inconsistent thereby squandering potential revenue and profits. In the absence of management's organization and infrastructure, employees will gravitate towards behavior that is easiest for themselves.

Upselling success rates may vary based on a plethora of conditions, but you can only achieve any success rate if you remember to make the upselling suggestion 100% of the time. To achieve this, employees require an infrastructure which both reminds employees and suggests the natural product pairings. Depending on your business model, there are many methods for accomplishing this.

Natural pairing of products is a vital element for any organization who wishes to achieve upselling success. Here are some examples of natural product pairing:

?Hamburger and fries ?New truck and extended warranty ?HVAC equipment and maintenance agreement ?Replacement parts and accessories Why is the natural pairings approach so effective? The answer is: congruency (harmony and similarity). It is congruency between the naturally paired items that keeps rapport intact and the dialogue open.

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Service Management Resource Handbook

Congruency is a very powerful business force. Customer relationships are impacted depending on whether customers sense that congruency exists among a company's service delivery, the employees' behavior, policies, etc.

Since upselling involves emotions, consider the frame of mind of a customer who is buying from you. Additional tactical upselling behaviors include scripting what employees should say during the upselling encounter. The following pages outline a detailed methodology for brainstorming and writing scripts.

The tactical upselling behaviors described here work best when they are reinforced by a strategic initiative which helps employees to be successful. This is the ultimate win-win outcome that a business strives for.

When training employees, it is best to brainstorm scripting ideas and then role play upselling scenarios that arise both in person and over the phone. As a rule, scripts are designed to be a guide - scripts do not need to be read verbatim. For example, reading a script over the phone would make a person sound robotic and unnatural.

To get the creative juices flowing, the following script examples can be implemented in a variety of scenarios.

?The Recommend Script: - "I think you should also get ..." ?The Suggestion Script :- "You may also want to add ..." ?The Consulting Script : - "I have learned ..., the best value is ...", ?The Questioning Script : - "Have you ever tried ...? Do you know about ...?" ?The Comforting Script : - "Most people take ...., everyone else uses ..." ?The Asking Script : - "By the way, did you know that we have ...?" When asking customers a polite upselling question, it is best keep the dialogue open-ended and thereby minimize the potential for an abrupt conclusion. Therefore, upselling questions should be asked using the following example:

Here is the wrong way to ask an upselling question:

"Would you like to hear about our specials?"

The above close-ended question is vague and it has the potential to result in an abrupt end.

Here is the correct way to ask an upselling question:

"By the way, did you know we have a spring tune-up special which optimizes efficiency?"

The above question is informative and it has the potential to open a sales dialogue.

The following two pages include upselling and natural pairings script guidelines. These resources are based on actual events in which a manufacturing company gained a 30% to 60% increase in spare parts order revenue. Prior to using these resources, spare parts orders were accepted as is with no upselling effort. The addition of an upselling suggestion made the positive difference.

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Writing Upselling Scripts that Work

(using a manufacturing company example)

1 Sales reps accept orders for steel Bracket - a common spare parts order.

2 Brainstorm the natural pairings that go along with the ordered item. 3 Include the customer's benefit and the investment.

4 Write script suggestions using the three-step template provided.

Situation: Customer orders a Steel Bracket. Upsell Strategy: Convey the benefits of buying plastic screws, a drill fixture tool and

re-feed and steering guides (faster, easier, more precise install) while the system is already dismantled (parts that are prone to wear).

Possible Script: You may also want to add new plastic screws, a drill fixture tool and

re-feed and steering guides. Based on my experience, these parts wear in time so replacing them while the system is apart saves time, eases the install and enables you to do it right the first time. OK?

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Service Management Resource Handbook

Upselling & Natural Pairing Matrix Templates

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Upselling Script Templates

Situation: UpSell Strategy: Possible Script:



Situation: UpSell Strategy: Possible Script:

Situation: UpSell Strategy: Possible Script:

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