Upsells and Cross Sells

The morning after the premiere of MTV’s Jersey Shore, Viacom reported a 37% increase in earnings.

Of this, a 14% increase in worldwide ad revenues was attributed to the aforementioned show.

How did they make this happen?

In case you don’t know, Jersey Shore is a lifestyle show that features the rich and lavish lifestyle of a few young adults from New Jersey. The show’s followers would do anything to get a piece of the action they were seeing on their TV screens.

So the people who ran the show began to sell Jersey Shore merchandise in outlets called Shore stores. When anyone bought something, the cashiers would ask, “Would you like a signature shot glass with your order?”

Nearly everyone bought the signature shot glass.

This simple question resulted in more than 500,000 sales of shot glasses in the third quarter of 2011.

It’s called the art of upselling. Simply put, ask for more and it’s likely you’ll get what you ask for. And by doing so, you’ll optimize the value of every sale.

The book Marketing Metrics says, “The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5%-20%. The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%.”