When was the last time you upsold you?

Recently I had an experience in a café that made me stop and think about how often the upsell happens in the current market. In this case, the café assistant while making conversation about the weather, the town we were in and their brilliant new app, managed to sell a side of avocado with my classic blt without me even thinking too much about it, but the resulting bill rocketing my sandwich cost from $8 to $12. In just a few moments she had managed to successfully upsell one of their delicious products and increase cash flow into the business, all through simple conversation.

This had me thinking about our very own market and made me wonder, how often in Property Management do we ever stop to consider how much we are worth and actually upsell ourselves and the services that we offer?

Do you offer your customers the opportunity to purchase additional items to benefit, enhance, supplement or otherwise improve upon their current purchase or the experience with your office? If not, why not?

In a market where the consumer wants everything yesterday and options that they can design wouldn’t it make sense to offer a product where they could choose what they want? And, if this is something that you already have in place, when was the last time that you actually upsold the services that you have?

Have a think about what you could be upselling? Maybe it’s a base management fee with add on’s. You might have the option for premium advertising, professional photography, and arrangement of renovations, online access, and additional inspections in the base package, while offering a package that is inclusive of all or some of these items for higher or more premium packages.

In the process of selling the services of your company, don’t forget how much your time is worth, the time it takes you to visit the property, meet with the Owner, market, lease and manage the property. Consider your hourly rate and calculate how much you are worth in time to both yourself and your company and then consider how much you are discounting your worth in dropping those fees.

The next time that you have the sticky question of discounting fees, consider instead turning it around and have a think about what’s your avocado?