Upselling subscriptions can be a win-win for both your organization — and your customers’ continued success. After all, with a subscription, your company and its customers join into a long-term relationship where value is continuously exchanged.
Yet value-exchange is a continuously moving target. As we have all experienced in the last few years, market and environment change can happen quickly. Old customer challenges and goals fall by the wayside for more-urgent problems or new requirements. This not only builds impetus for your selling organization’s product teams to keep enhancing your solution — but it also presents an opportunity as a seller to keep elevating the value you exchange with your current customers, while supporting sustainable revenue performance.
Upselling subscriptions can be a welcome bridge between your customer’s changing needs and your organization’s revenue. There is a trick, though, to up-selling subscriptions in a way that promotes that value-exchange. After all, Forrester research has found that B2B buyers believe only 8% of salespeople are focused on driving valuable end results for buyers. Never let your customers question your motives. Inspire and enable your sales teams to be part of the elite 8% of value-focused sellers. How? Add more value into your customer engagements with the Mereo value selling formula.
SUBSCRIPTION CUSTOMERS WANT CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
According to a recent Gartner survey of 750 B2B customer stakeholders, customer improvement is nearly as effective at account retention as product success and service. And some research has found that a 5% increase in customer retention results in 25%+ increase in profits. Other studies have found that for every 1% increase in revenue retention, a SaaS company’s value increases by 12% after five years.
Growing existing customer business relies on your customer improvement activities and the customer’s confidence in your salespeople. Face it: Your competitors will be engaging your current customers with messaging about how your current subscribers could better meet their goals, better grow, better overcome their challenges with their products. Current subscription success and service with your subscription may not hold a candle to your competitions’ gusty promises of new and improved features and benefits.
It is up to your salespeople and account managers to help your customers not only realize the full business value from the subscription service they are currently using — but to help them proactively address other gaps where your organization can deliver more value.
ADD MORE VALUE TO YOUR CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENTS
The Mereo value selling approach transforms selling from a one-way barrage of pushiness to a two-way exchange of enhanced value and longer-term healthier customer scores. Here is how:
- Be your subscriber’s expert. Your salespeople and account managers need to step beyond being your subscription service expert alone. They need to also be experts on your customers to best serve them for mutual long-term success.
What unique, valuable perspective can you provide for their business and / or market?
How can you show your commitment to your subscribers’ success? - Emphasize their current / future pains, risks and needed urgency to change. Most customers will remain in the status quo until they see the light of what could be and better understand the harm of remaining in their current state. Do not let your competitors beat you to the punch. Serve your current customers by emphasizing current gaps in their business — and how your higher subscription levels or additional features address these in valuable ways.
What insights into new or forthcoming issues impacting their business can you offer? - Paint a story of enhanced value and successful gains from your solution. Differentiated value messaging can help your salespeople drive meaningful customer conversations. Enable your salespeople and account managers with the skills and tools to best serve your customers with ways to improve their business with your subscription offerings and up-sells.
How can your salespeople Seek to Serve™ customers with navigating alternative options to their current subscription?
Is your solution easy to buy and access? Is it easy to adopt, and do customers have ample support in doing so?
Do your subscription levels and their pricing models serve your customers as optimally as possible? - Bring the proof. A client value story, use case, success story or point-of-view paper can compellingly address reservations your subscribers have toward elevating or changing their current subscription level. Enable your salespeople with relevant real-world stories to share with customers during these conversations.
What insights can you share from other, similar subscribers’ shift to different subscription levels? What success did they realize — how and why?
BUILD THE FOUNDATIONS OF SUSTAINABLE REVENUE PERFORMANCE
Access the ultimate guide to pricing strategy principles and models to elevate your value selling during this inflated period and beyond. Unlock the expert pricing insights in Part 5 of the exclusive Elevating Revenue Performance With Solution Management eBook.