SFM Ep13 - Using Toll Free Numbers To Increase Back-End Sales

In the final part of this 5-part series, I'll show you a very unique strategy for increasing back-end sales and expanding customer engagement with the addition of a simple toll-free number.

Hey everyone, welcome back. This is Jeremy Reeves and you’re listening to The Sales Funnel Mastery Podcast.

In this episode, this is part number 5 of my little series that I have going on, which is, How to Add Upsells Without Pissing Off Your Customers. This is an unconventional, little used way to add upsells to increase your back-end without using the typical upsell funnel that you usually see with businesses where you buy a product and they have an upsell right after that saying, “Hey, thanks for your order. Here’s another offer.”

Some people don’t like to do that which I recommend in every business. There are some industries that I’ve found where people are a little bit jaded with it and it doesn’t really convert as well as people would hope. If that’s the case for you, this is going to be really, really important for you. If you haven’t heard the first four episodes of this, I welcome you to go back a couple episodes.

The first series was How To Use Surveys And Buyer Auto-responders to Make More Sales Without Pissing Off Your Customers to kind of get in there and in a ninja-like fashion, basically, more subtlety sell your customers instead of doing it right off the bat, as soon as they order.

Number 2 was using re-targeting. When somebody buys, you put a re-targeting code on the thank you page and follow up with them with banners or Facebook and sell them some of your higher-end products.

Number 3 was using a direct mail stick letter, where you send them a direct mail letter, which thanks them for their purchase and offers them additional product and services.

Number 4, the last one was using a personal phone call or hiring someone to do some consultative selling to call your customers. It’s like the stick letter, except you’re doing it in person with telemarketing, essentially. And it’s a very good way to use telemarketing effectively because telemarketing really doesn’t work anymore. It’s kind of sleazy.

That’s a good way to add value to your client’s lives. That’s really what this is all about.

In this episode, we’re going to cover using toll free phone numbers to add upsells to increase your back-end in a very subtle manner. To be honest, out of the five, this is probably going to add the least of any of the other four methods. I would do this last.

However, it is worth setting up. It only takes maybe an hour or so to set up. It’s probably about $18 a month. It’s really cheap. It’s really easy to do. You’re going to get a return on your investment from it. It’s not something that’s going to add a huge surge in sales.

Essentially, what you do is you set up a toll-free number, so it’s 800 or 888-123-4567, whatever. You create a message and you have people and only customers call that message.

It does the same thing that all the other methods do. It’s very similar to the stick letter and the personal phone call. What you want to do is when people call this number, it says, “Hey, I just wanted to thank you for purchasing. Here are a few steps or a few tips for getting the most out of the product you just bought.”

So give them a little bit of value and help overcome some of those objections they’re going to have, maybe throw in a case study, something like that.

And then say, “Hey, by the way, I just realized there are two types of people who just bought this product. Type A is the person that just wants to use the product. They’re not really looking for maximum results. They’re fine just using the program to get the results they want. They’re not really looking for anything spectacular or they’re not looking for faster results.”

“The second type of person is someone who really wants to master this and who wants the best results even faster. We found a method that really increases your results 2x the speed or makes it that much easier,” whatever the case maybe.

And then you go into your pitch and maybe send them back to an online sales letter. That’s how they can buy or they can press a button and be directed to a live sales person, whatever the case maybe. That’s pretty much it. You essentially just create a toll-free number that has a sales pitch on it.

And the ways that you can do this is what I like to do. If you have a physical product, you can put in just a little sticker. Let’s say you’re selling an information course and it’s a physical information product which you don’t see too often anymore or any any kind of product.

I just bought a five pound bag of the healthiest coffee in the world called Bulletproof coffee. What they could do is slap a little sticker on the bag saying “For tips on how to use this coffee in most effective manner, call...” and then they have the number and you call and you go, “Here’s three tips to make it better for you, make it healthier.” and then, “Hey, by the way, if you want to get on our subscription where we send you out a bag every month...”

It’s a very easy upsell. It’s not pushy. It’s very non-sales-y. It’s seen as adding value.

So if you’re going to do this, you’re not going to be able to sell a coaching program or anything like that, but if you have a small product or a little continuity program, just a small upsell, something like that, that’s what usually works best with this.

If you don’t have a physical product you can try doing this in email. When you send them the typical buyers’ auto-responder campaign that you send people who just bought your product, in that email, say, “Hey, for better tips, call this number.”

It’s just a different method. It’s a different form of media to get in front of that person. Instead of just email, instead of just direct mail, it’s just a different form of communication.

When you do that multi-modality marketing, it really, really adds up and helps people get engaged. It’s really going to help people consume your product and really get into it and get in that mindset that they’re going to use the product. It’s going to reduce refunds. Again, it’s just a different way of approaching the situation.

That’s the tip for today. I hope that helps. I hope you implement it. Again, it’s not going to double your business. Maybe it adds 5% or 10%, but it only takes about an hour to set it up. It’s really, really easy.

I use Voice Shot. There’s also another one called Grasshopper which I’m actually going to test out and see if I like that better than that Voice Shot, but either of them you can test out and they’re both great.

I’ve written guest articles for Grasshopper and I’ve talked to the owner, so I know they have a really good product. I just have never personally used it. But it is another option for you.

I hope that helps. I hope you implement it. Let me know how it goes. Again, if you’re listening to this, make sure you’re reviewing the podcast. Let me know how I’m doing. Go on to iTunes and click however many stars you think I should get. Hopefully it’s 5. If it’s not 5, let me know why.

I hope you’re enjoying it. I hope you implementing it.And I will talk to you soon