The Guru’s Say: Use Upsells! – I say: “Don’t” – Who Am I To Go Against Them? – Britt Malka – That’s Who I Am

Well, yes, that’s pretty presumptuous to go against what most gurus preach: To use upsells.

Upsells are the – or the (plural) – sales offers that follow directly after the purchase. Some call them One Time Offers (OTO), some call them nothing special.

Anyway, they are said to make some extra money, because “people are already in the buying mood, when they have just bought from you”, they say. But do you really fell that way?

I don’t. I have very rarely bought an upsell, and the reason why is the following:

I’ve just — after little or much consideration — chosen to buy a product, and I hand out my credit card or PayPal details. In my mind, I decided to pay the price of $7, $37, or $97, or what the product is priced. It’s true, my mind is set on buying, but not just to continual buying. Especially if I don’t know the person who’s selling. I want to see, first, what he can offer me, before I consider buying more from him.

So I only buy the first product, not the upsells.

But wouldn’t you think that it was worth the chance anyway? I mean — just because I don’t buy, doesn’t mean that others won’t do it, does it?

Nope, what you don’t know is that you are not just giving people an extra chance to buy. You are also running a great risk. And I can prove it.

Take a look at this thread over at Tiffany Dow’s blog. People are talking about a new product, and so many of them are turned off because of the upsells. People even report that they didn’t buy at all because of these upsells. They made them worried about what they were really getting, since it was necessarily to buy extra products.

Here are some of the reactions:

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I bought this program but hated the fact of the upsells.

I left feeling like this system isn’t going to work well, or it will be much more time consuming if you didn’t get the $197 software tool and the $67 monthly membership program.

I don’t normally mind upsells and I take it as a given but I guess I’ve been so burned with buying the upsells when the original product didn’t even work.

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I was ready to buy Dan’s product as soon as it launched based on his reputation on the Warrior forum, but the upsells seriously turned me off. 3 is just too many. I don’t like the idea of them in the first place. They seem too much like “you too can do this, but first you need to buy xyz.” Yes, I realize there should be some valuable information in the basic product, but since I’m not a beginner, I’m not sure how far up the upsell scale I’m going to need to exercise my paypal to get to my level of marketing and learn a few things.

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Oh dear,how many more solid product creators are going to be tempted to cash in with riduculous upsells and tarnish their rep?

If i buy an info product on how to do XYZ for $37,then i expect it to do that job,and to do it well,as advertised,not to do it as well as advertised IF i buy a load of extras for $400…if Dan Brock makes a 5 figure income using the actual upsell tools and resources himself,and we are sold the idea that we only need to buy the $37 basic product,isn’t that deceitful? Now,the upsells may well be worth the money,but that’s not the issue..it’s the sharp practice of getting you emotionally and financially invested in a product by withholding information…bait and switch..how do YOU feel when you buy a info product for $37,then find out to REALLY emulate the product creator,you have to invest another $400 he didn’t tell you about…it just sends refund rates through the ceiling…the true proposition is that to effectively acheive what Dan Brock is doing,is buy a $437 course,with everything included,for maximum results,but if you cant afford that,you can get the basic course which while it will do the job,will do it much less efficently than it could be done without the other bits…gotta go,before my blood reaches 100 degrees…

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Thanks for the review Tiff, especially about the upsells. I am sitting on the fence about this product too and the upsells were really turning me against it – not knowing whether they were actually needed to be successful with this or whether they were just extras.

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I always hate upsells, if I buy it give me the works. Why doesn’t he say all this upfront.

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So this is NOT about the product, but just a quick comment about the upsells. I personally always get quite annoyed at finding a forest of upsells in my face before I have even learned to trust a product or its author, but I can handle wading through the pages if I must as long as the product is really waiting for me at the other end.

But I really hate it when these upsell salesletters are represented as OTOs (ONE TIME OFFERS) that you will “absolutely never ever see again at this special price” — and that turns out to be a blatant lie. At least one of the offers (the Elite Club course) is openly available within the members area at exactly the same $97 price.

Also I have tested and found all the OTO pages to be fully bookmarkable, and easily accessed later on with the offer unchanged, so don’t be rushed into buying any of them.

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You have nothing to fear except the upsells!