Upgrading causes indecision, period. But you should always do it when you can. Here is an example. A customer comes into your business and very quickly you greet the customer and realize that he came into the establishment to buy. If you’re working in a retail store “give me three of these cameras,” he says. Great, you think you have a sure sale on three cameras but you spontaneously say to your customer, “in case you did not notice, we just received a newer camera with lots of new features that the ones you wanted do not have.” Your customer replies, “oh really, is it more expensive?”
And you say, “Yes it is.” Then your customer goes on to tell you that he will have to call his boss to tell him about the new camera and ask you for literature to show it to him. You see, here you have just lost a sale trying to upgrade. You did not know the facts of this sale so you blew it.
Here is how you do it. The customer comes in for the three cameras and, instead of trying to upgrade, you add-on accessories, cases, memory cards. By adding on you are feeling out your customer. If there are any objections, you will find out this way. It is safe to try to upgrade when there is little or no risk especially on less expensive items. Now, if you have the customer under control, that is when you do your thing and upgrade. One of the biggest obstacles in upgrading is the customer’s budget. No matter how convincing you are, you can run into a brick wall if they just do not have the money and indecision sets in causing procrastination. And that is how you waste your time. I have found out the hard way that it is better to have a sure, fast sale than risking an upgrade when there are big bucks involved.
