Upsell Insanity

It’s not uncommon for marketers to use upsells and downsells in order to gain a new customer and make a sale.

Downsells typically offer the same product or some derivative of that product at a discounted price.

Upsells will usually come after a sale has been made, and offer extra goods or services for an additional fee.

There’s nothing wrong with upselling or downselling in theory.

But I do believe there are cases where integrity is violated and such approaches could be considered manipulative at the very least and perhaps unethical.

As a United airlines customer I pay close attention to their upsell process. Once you purchase a ticket, they offer you an opportunity to upgrade to Economy Plus (six inches more space) for a fee. Then they offer you a First Class upsell. If you are a Mileage Plus member, they try to sell you additional miles based on the distance of your flight. Need a stopover in their lounge? They will sell you that as well. It’s fine. All part of the sales flow.

And while I rarely do more than one upsell or downsell on products today, I did offer two upsells on my Instant AdSense Templates several years ago.

We figured that if people wanted some templates, they might want to purchase more. And if they wanted more, they might want them on a monthly basis. It was effective and our customers were happy.

But if you have been following me lately you know that I find the current Internet marketing climate very unsettling, and it seems like some bad stuff is rising to the surface.

I recently came across a web site that took upsells and downsells to a whole new level.

The site featured a guru who I had never heard of telling the world about his massive online success.

I can’t claim to know everyone, so he may very well be a big name in some circles.

He even had his picture on the cover of a major business publication, so perhaps he was recognized by some.

I immediately went to the official site of the magazine to view past covers. Nowhere did I see this cover displayed on his website.

My guess is that he was mentioned in the magazine and he used that opportunity to make it appear as though he was featured. Is that ethical? In my personal opinion, it is a breach of integrity.

Regardless, I wanted to go through the sales process to see exactly what was being sold.

As it turns out, the site was a fairly well organized course for those new to Internet business. We actually offer a similar program at TheProfitVault.com.

What happened next is when it became amazing to me.

First of all, I have learned that if you attempt to leave many infoproduct sites, you will be greated with a pop up window asking you to take advantage of a special offer. In other words, since I have your attention for such a short time maybe I can get you to buy something before you go.

Exit-pops are quite common and I have used them multiple times. But there are two things I find important in order to use exit-pops with integrity.

First, make sure your offer is unique. For example, if you go to SocratesTheme.com and you decide not to purchase the product, the exit pop will introduce you to another one of our products. If I was to offer a free trial of a product, that would also be within ethical boundaries.

That was not what I observed on this particular site.

The exit-pop window said something to the effect of “WAIT! Don’t leave now. As a special offer, we’d like to give you a discount!” The special offer allowed me to get the very same product for 40% off the price I had just seen.

I thought. Ok, that’s interesting. What happens if I say “no” again?

Sure enough. Another exit-pop. This time offering me the SAME product at 20% of the ORIGINAL stated price!

Hypothetically, I could have spent $100 on a product and ended up getting the very same thing for just $20.

As a customer, how upset would I be to find out that I paid more than I had to for the product?

At this point, I purchased the product for two reasons.

1) I wanted to evaluate the content.

2) I wanted to see the upsell process. Surely there would be upsells.

I was not disappointed.

There were five, count ’em, FIVE upsells tossed at me before I was able to access the product.

After being told that the product I purchased would give me everything I needed, I was offered the REAL solution that would help me fast-track my success… for an additional fee.

I said no to the offer.

I was then provided with a discount on the same upsell. If I didn’t want to pay $X perhaps I would pay $Z.

I said no to this offer, at which point I was presented with ANOTHER offer.

And another.

And another.

Finally after five attempts to sell me another product, I was granted access to the original product that I purchased at 20% of the price that many others paid.

As I said, the product was decent and well-organized. I still prefer what we offer, though. (surprise!)

The question I have for you is this…

Is it ethical to sell a product to one person for a certain price just because they agree to it, and then turn around and sell it to someone else for a much cheaper price just because they didn’t see the value in the original price?

You could make the case that automobile dealerships do this all the time.

But then again, automobile dealerships don’t exactly have a reputation for being ethical, do they?

And what about the upsell/downsell sales path? Is there a point where it is just too many attempts to sell?

Let loose with your comments. I’m eager to hear what you think.