Last week, I shared my opinion on the relationship between Sales and CS when it comes to upselling.

This week, I want to share a tactic that you can use to make your upselling more successful.

The Sales playbook doesn’t work in Customer Success. For one simple reason.

How do you successfully sell a solution? You might have heard of the “Challenger sale”. “Challenger selling”, in short, means to sell a “change” in the customer’s world – you introduce a new narrative to their life.

Their status quo doesn’t work – thus we teach and challenge them to change it.

“Challenger selling” has been the single most influential trend in Sales over the last decade.

But there’s a catch.

The Challenger sale falls short in upselling

“Challenger selling” means introducing a new narrative into the world of our (potential) customer.

But research shows that this “Why change” narrative actually hinders a successful upselling conversation.

Because here’s the thing: We have sold our solution as a part of a bigger picture. Our customer’s journey to success has just started. They are on their way to their desired outcome.

So instead of defeating the status quo (Why change), we need to reinforce it. And this means balancing upselling and status quo messaging delicately.

Do This Instead when Talking to Your Customer

Here are the the two things you need to focus on with your next upselling opportunity:

1. Highlight your Achievements

Focus on the things that make your customer successful right now – and give them a sense of achievement for what they’ve already done with your solution. Be specific! E.g. “According to our data, you have saved so much time and so many costs”

2. Highlight the path we’re on together

Where were they when they bought your solution, and where are they now? And what are the next steps that they can achieve? “You have achieved X – but according to our data, similar companies have achieved Y. We can get you there together.”

I hope to see more of you succeed with upselling this quarter! 

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