Transcript – 82. Easy client upsells to increase revenue

Kris: Hey, welcome to the design and prosper the podcast. In this episode, we have 10 easy client upsells that we want to share with you to help you get some extra revenue in the door.

Hey, I’m Kris.

Don: And I’m Donna, welcome into this beautiful space where we have open and honest conversations about running a graphic design business.

Kris: We’d love to help you throw imposter syndrome to the curb and position yourself as a high end graphic designer.

Don: Yes. And each week we’ll share empowering advice, practical tips and strategies to help you thrive in business. We are so happy you’re here.

Kris: Hey, welcome. Welcome. It’s Kris here. I’m doing a little solely bit here without Don, just to introduce this episode, which is something we’re revisiting, it was recorded back in. Um, oh, I think it was December, 2020. So more than a couple of years ago now. And we thought it was a good one to revisit because we’re seeing a lot of designers who could do with an injection of cash flow right now.

So something that is really important to remember with clients is that in order to be respected and to be a trusted long-term partner, you need to be a kind of brand ambassador for your clients. So it’s important to keep coming up with ideas for your clients to move forward. And we’re always thinking, what do they need next? What do my clients need next? How can we help them? How can I help them to elevate their business even further? So what we’ve got here in this episode, are 10 ideas that are easy upsells for clients, extra things, extra cream on top. If you like to help you get more revenue, but also to help your clients to have a more holistic and complete branding presence.

So it is up to you, beautiful designers to reach out to your clients and say, hey, I’ve been considering your brand or I’ve being watching you and what you’ve been doing on socials. And I’ve been seeing your emails come through and then start suggesting ideas to them.

Don’t hold back. They absolutely want to hear from you. They want to hear what you’ve got to say. They want to hear your thoughts and they want to tap into your expertise. So remember our brains, our creative brains operate really differently to our clients. We’re the ones who are noticing the visual things and it’s your job to bring your client’s attention to them. So in this episode, as I said before, we’ve got 10 ideas. They’re nice, easy upsells. There are things that you can add to a project proposal, or they are things that you can touch base with your clients, maybe one or two months after a certain project phase has been finished and say, look, I really think you would benefit from this thing. You really need this thing. So something else I wanted to mention was this original episode was recorded in December, right? So at the end of the year, And that meant we were talking a lot about those end of year deadlines and the sense of urgency that people find when a year is coming to a close.

But this same energy can be used at different points throughout the year. And right now we’re in June, we’ve got six months to go, right? So this is a really good opportunity to communicate that to your clients. For example, you could say, this is where we could be if we take advantage of the next six months, this is what could happen if we start implementing things now. There’s only six months of the year left. Let’s make the most of it. Uh, those sorts of things. So it is a really good time now, and there’s definitely a kind of revved up energy that can happen towards the end of June, no matter where you live in the world. I know a lot of business can start to slow down in those summer holiday months and for you right now, it might be that you’re in the Northern hemisphere and business can start to feel slow. So in those situations, it’s important to know that you’re really going to need to reach out to clients because they are going to stop reaching out to you.

Don’t expect the business just to always come to you. You need to be proactive. Get out there and give clients ideas.

So take in these 10 ideas, have a listen. It’s going to require a bit of bravery to reach out to clients to suggest this kind of stuff. But once you get into the habit of suggesting things to your clients, It can be a little scary at first, but once you get into the habit of it, it’ll get easier and easier. We promise.

So with that said, enjoy this episode let us know if you implement any of the ideas and have fun with it.

Don: hey, Kris.

Kris: Hey Don, how you going?

Don: Good. How are you?

Kris: I’m very well. We’re excited to be talking about this really important topic today, which was inspired by some of the conversations we’ve been having with our one-to-ones.

Don: yes. It’s popping up a lot at the moment.

Kris: It is popping up a lot at the moment cuz we’re seeing this untapped resource. We have seen this time and time again that. Lovely designers around the world are not contacting their current and past clients to offer them services, so additional services.

Don: I know. Yeah. That, and they’re right there. They’ve got this relationship with these existing beautiful people. They’re, they have the no love and trust factor with their current client. It’s far more expensive and time consuming to get new clients than it is to keep an existing one, basically bottom line.

And to experience beautiful long-term relationships with our clients, we really need to participate in that relationship. We need to be seen as contributing to their vision with really thoughtful suggestions for new projects, reminding them of what we bring to the table to help them realize their goals.

Kris: Yes, and this is the sort of thing that you need to do as a high end brand designer. You’re proactive. We love the thought of being a collaborator in our client’s business, a real partner. We never stop thinking about the potential of their business, the potential of their brand. We love having a big vision for them.

Don: Absolutely. We are constantly looking at the bigger picture, and we are always dreaming up wonderful ways that our clients can elevate and grow their businesses. It’s just, it’s part of that engagement, that relationship. When you enter as a high-end brand

Kris: Mm-hmm.

Don: you want to think about these clients really holistically.

You can’t help it. You can’t switch it

Kris: Mm. Too often we have this tendency to be polite and wait until we’re asked, hoping they’ll think of us, hoping they’ll realize. They’ll actually realize off their own bat that they’ll have a design problem that needs fixing,

Don: Yeah. And we’re waiting patiently like beautiful little designers waiting in the wings going, come over here.

Kris: don’t wanna intrude.

Don: Don’t wanna be trued. Well, we would love to flip that on its head and suggest that you do the asking.

Kris: Yes.

Don: Is it a leap here, Kris?

Kris: I think it’s, yeah. Yeah.

Don: Regardless of that though, we want you to be brave and be really, really bold because we strongly believe that you’ll be doing your clients a favor by offering up your fabulous.

Make sure it’s discerning and conceptual ideas, and they will be so impressed that you have their business top of mind.

Kris: They really will. It’ll set you up as the professional that you are, and they will, they will see and respect you as the high end brand designer, and that’s what we want for you.

Don: Yeah. And that partner that Kris was just saying that collaborator it, that’s really, really important.

Kris: Mm, it is because you become an essential part of their business. You’re not just something that they can discard, like a service that they can discard. It’s like I need to check in with my designer because they are a crucial partner for me.

Don: Yeah, I love that.

Kris: So we’re just about to enter December and with this comes this universal end of year deadline, this great sense of urgency builds the energy gets so frenetic.

I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just a phenomenon.

Don: know it is. It is. It’s not only the graphic design industry. It is. Everywhere it happens, it’s universal. It’s across the board. Everybody has that. Kristmas day is their deadline. December 25 is the universal deadline for all things.

Kris: if it’s got nothing to do with the interview or even if it’s got nothing to do with the festive season, you know, it’s just like, oh, it’s just a phenomenon. We’ve noticed time and time again throughout our long careers as graphic designers and. Yeah. Often clients, they just are in overwhelm.

Don: At this time, absolutely. Because the focus has shifted from them being able to work on their businesses to them having to work in their business. They’re just, they’re just running at a fast pace just to keep up with the frenetic energy of what’s going around.

Kris: Mm. And it doesn’t really seem to matter what industry it is either. It’s uh,

Don: No, yeah.

Kris: interesting. So at this time of year, it’s even more important to show up for your clients to hold their hands.

Don: Yeah, it’s really an ideal time for you to place yourself front and center and remind them of the value you bring to their business. And we do that by highlighting promotional ideas and marketing opportunities that your clients may not yet have considered, and it’s a fabulous way to maximize revenue for your business.

Kris: Yes, who doesn’t want a bit of extra cash in the business? And it’s such a beautiful deadline right now. Like, let’s see what we can get extra into the business before the end of the year.

Don: Yeah.

Kris: And you can do this any time of the year, but right now is a really great time to let your clients know that they are being taken care of.

They love being taken care of.

Don: They love it. They love it, especially in this silly season and any time of the year, you show up any time of the year with really discerning, thoughtful ideas for their vision and their goals and how you are gonna help them achieve it. They will love you for it.

Kris: Mm. So we have 10 ideas, 10 items that you can use as an upsell. Additional services or products your clients may not have considered.

Don: Yeah. Again, not just seasonally, these tips can be used all year round, so there is never a wrong time to promote your business and increase sales via thoughtful and conceptual upselling, or as we like to say, highlighting. We’re just highlighting it to our clients that they might need this.

Kris: It’s bringing it to your attention.

Don: Just bringing it to your, just look over here.

Yeah.

Kris: Yes. And they’re relying on you to have that discerning eye as well, like, oh no. Like, you know, my designer has said that, um, our signage is looking a bit shabby, for example. So it’s just about communicating to them your professional viewpoint about what is going to elevate them, what is going to make them look as polished and professional as possible and help them achieve their goals.

Don: Absolutely. It’s all about that. That’s right. And I think it’s really exciting when your clients see that you are so invested in their vision and that you’re looking at things across the board. And when you come in and collaborate in such a way, they then, like Kris was saying earlier, they find it really, really hard not to.

Reach out and and ask your opinion when big things happen in their business. So you’re always showing up and making sure they know I’m here for this conversation. No matter what it is, no matter when it is, I’m here for this conversation.

Kris: Yeah. This kind of action taking by actually asking what do you need, and giving them ideas will encourage them to contact you. If they’re pivoting, if they’re offering a slightly different service, they’re gonna be talking to you about it. That’s just what will happen.

Don: Yes, absolutely.

Kris: So the key is to present your solutions in a way that is super easy and actionable.

Want it to be really easy for them.

Don: Yes, you need to present the steps they need to take in order to make this happen. So make it really easy, especially if you are doing this in frenetic times of the year when when people are really busy and potentially distracted, you need it to be super, super clear. This is how I can help you and this is how you are gonna do it.

Kris: Yeah. I’m gonna make it so easy.

Don: Yeah, so should we get into some of the things that we can offer our clients, Kris? Okay, let’s go for it.

Kris: Okay. Number one, social media templates with Christmastmas, just around the corner. It could be 21 days of Christmastmas, for example, but it’s not just limited to the festive season. Of course, it could be, uh, Facebook timeline, cover photo. It could be just general templates that they can use for promotion of new products that come in.

There’s so many things you could do here.

Don: There’s so many things, and with what’s happening in Instagram with. The carousels and things like that, that can be really intimidating to a non-designer. So you can step up and say your social media presence could do with some beautiful carousels. I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been thinking about this type of content for your carousel, and I can do some templates to help you with that.

So you are offering a solution straightaway. You’re even offering content as a solution if you’ve, if you’ve sort of got a little bit of time up your sleeve to do that as well, just to get them thinking, oh, this is actually something that’s really important for my

Kris: Mm, like you really need to lift your story game, and I can make it so simple for you just with these beautiful templates.

Don: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Number two, an email campaign. This is again, something that’s really intimidating for non designers. To make an email campaign look beautiful and to speak to all readers, our skimmers out there who need, need it to be broken up and being a, you are able to skim across it. You know, people who are really detailed to be able to.

See that information. Having a really beautifully designed email campaign is a really powerful tool.

Kris: Yeah, and it doesn’t matter what platform they’re using. It could be MailChimp, it doesn’t matter, but just having some really simple graphics to enhance the wording. It might be just the thing that they need. So it’s something you could suggest to them, especially if you are on their mailing list and you’re seeing some kind of ordinary things coming through.

And just as a little tip, a little side tip. If you’re not on your client’s email list, you really should be so you can see what they’re doing.

Don: definitely should be. Yeah, absolutely. I was gonna say that if you’re not, you should be, because it’s, it’s kind of like the design police, isn’t it, Kris? So you’re looking at everything that they’re doing and, and I think we’ve mentioned in past podcasts, we’ve got a lot of clients that are in hospitality.

So we actually go and we look and observe and we watch what’s happening and we watch what’s happening with the menus and how they’re being cared for and, and signage and, and how things are, uh, weathering and things like that. And we get asked about it because they know we are in it and we are seeing it, and we, we understand what their.

Absolute goal is, and their intention is for their brand. So we get to actually speak to that. And if you are not on the email campaign, you can’t really speak to it with an authority.

Kris: Hmm. That’s right. All right. Number three is uniform guides. Now this one might not be that common, or you might not be familiar with doing uniform guides, but it’s something that we did a lot in our business and I was having a little pre podcast chat with Don about it and. You were saying you didn’t do as many Don,

Don: I didn’t do as many.

Kris: but we figured out why I did so many.

Why we did so many in our business is because we had done them. We had examples of them. They kept seeing them. We had it in our brief, do you want a uniform guide? We sold it. We talked it up, and so we had a lot and we, we charged wealth, our uniform guides, and we had templates in place that was actually really easy to put them together.

They, they were like, good bang for bark our uniform guides.

Don: and I think your clients must have been looking at it going, I want what she’s having. That’s amazing. Gimme one of those please. Yeah. Fomo. Yeah,

Kris: because it’s something that they can really get wrong. And it’s really important because it’s the impression that they’re giving to the whole world when they’re fronting up to the office or if it’s, you know, for a restaurant or it doesn’t matter what it’s for. We’ve done them for corporates, we’ve done them for hospitality, uniform guides. A really sweet addition to, uh, I was gonna say to Brand Suite,

Don: To branding. Say, well, yeah.

Kris: A sweet Addition to a branding suite. Yes,

Don: Yes. Lovely play on words, Kris.

Kris: yes.

Don: Okay, number four. This is probably a bit of a no-brainer guys, but definitely something that could get missed just because it’s right under your nose. It’s a stationary

Kris: Mm-hmm.

Don: so he is something missing from their stationary suite like a little. Thank you. Card maybe, or a greeting card or even a gift certificate.

It’s those little things that we think they’re done, but they’re, they might need a refresh or they might need to be repurposed or, or whatever. Just have a little, think about the full extent of stationary and all the printables and make sure you’ve, you’ve covered that off. Create a little checklist.

Kris: Little checklists. Yeah. They might have purchased from you a fairly basic branding package to begin with as well, so it might not have included all the things that they need. They might not, not even have a business card, but you’ve just gotta think about all these things. What have they got and what do they need?

Don: And what could they implement?

Kris: Yeah. What could they use? Hmm.

Don: What could they use that will elevate them? Okay, so number five is custom slide decks and presentation templates. Most clients need this type of. Admin tool or in-house or even Pres presenting to their clients. They need this, whether it be Google Slides or a lot of our clients use PowerPoint.

We try and promote PDF presentations and things like that, but you, you may have to work with whatever software your clients are using, but this is a really good one. A lot of clients need this and use, use these on the daily.

Kris: Yes, they do, and they can be really dry, but then it’s up to you to make them really beautiful and interesting and bring a bit of life to it so it can be a, a nice project.

Don: Yeah.

Kris: Okay, number six. Animated gifts for your client’s socials so they can have their own little custom gifts, and they get really bamboozled with this sort of thing, and they think it is so cool and so impressive when you say you can do them.

So I know it’s not gonna be in everybody’s skillset. But if you can do some animated gifts and there’s tutorials out there, it’s pretty simple to whip up simple little things based on a logo or based on the client’s tagline, you could do it, um, just simply in Photoshop. You don’t have to use After Effects.

Don: They’re so impressive. They’re so great.

Kris: So impressive. They will love it and you can command a fairly high price for these because they have no idea how to do them. Is that, is that bad to say?

Don: impressive. Yeah. No, I think, no, I think that’s good. I think that’s

Kris: We don’t wanna take advantage of clients?

Don: No, no, but you can get the value, the creative value, the the, and that’s the discerning part of being able to price, uh, an element like that at a really fair price to you, the designer who has thought of it conceptually.

And it’s that IP that you’re selling because you’re coming up with this great idea like we’ve been saying throughout the podcast, that they won’t necessarily have thought of. So you are offering this great idea, you know, and the val, that’s really highly valuable.

Kris: the value that you offer just by knowing how to do this, that’s a skill that you’ve had to learn and put time

Don: Yeah, and I think it’s one of those things a little bit like the uniform guide. If you’ve got some examples of other brands that you’ve done this for, your clients will have a moment of, I want that, please. I want one of those for my brand.

Kris: Mm-hmm. Yes, it is.

Don: Yeah. Number seven a half or full day brand or web intensive.

These are awesome and we are seeing a lot of this happening around the globe at the moment. What you could offer with these intensivess. Uh, a day or half day of ensuring your client is ready to hit the ground running for 2021. So it’s almost like an audit, and you have a look at where their brand is at, what needs doing, and then you implement those changes or upgrades in that half day or full day intensive.

Kris: Mm. And it could be, um, they get a, a bundle of stuff depending on, um, if it’s a half day or a full day, you could say, well, I’m going to create for you a new page on your website, and I’m also going to do maybe a little. Handful of templates in a full day. Yes. So you get to decide. You need to make sure that you are not, you know, absolutely running ragged, trying to get a whole lot of work done on a half day or a full day.

You need to strategize this and make sure it is good value for them, but also good value for you, a good return on your investment as well.

Don: Yes, and it will require a little bit of time to do the pre-planning for this one and making sure that your client is available for the pre-planning for this one. So, um, that you start the day fully armed and you are able to achieve what you need to achieve.

Kris: Yes. So all deliverables are given to you prior to that booked in day. And this is something you can, you can set up on your website. You can actually have book now. And then it, it can be paid in full beforehand. It’s brilliant

Don: brilliant. Yeah, we love this one.

Kris: be paid in full before you start the design. How wonderful is that?

Don: And it’s so sweet to see that day’s booked and that day’s booked and that day’s booked so great. So yeah, have a think about that one.

Kris: Yeah. Okay. Number eight is a flyer or postcard for an upcoming promotion. So you might anticipate a need, you might see that they have pivoted and they might need something to help promote this. Just to add a little bit of extra special sauce to the, uh, promotion that they have.

Don: Yeah, and offering a printable is something that’s really special for a promotion. So yeah, it’s exciting when you receive a promotional piece or an invite or something that that’s got that little bit of special. Us about it when you receive it as a direct mail or, or whatever.

Kris: It could even be something, depending on their industry, if they’re retail, they might, it might be something that they have on the front counter. For example, it could be a little promo flyer, like a a, a discount flyer. There’s lots of ideas for flyers and

Don: Lots of ideas. Yeah. And it could be a seasonal postcard, it could be a seasonal thing, like a Christmastmas card or something like that. You know, you could, you could. Do all the seasons. You could work out where they are and what the client needs, and depending on their industry, how they communicate to their audience.

That could be one that you, you squeeze in there for sure,

Kris: Yeah. Okay. Number nine is signage. So this could be just requiring you to go for a little drive by and see what’s going on. Is anything looking a bit sort of tattered and worn or dated?

Don: or faded.

Kris: Or faded. Yeah. Is it time for them to have a refresh and if they already have beautiful signage in place and you might have already done the beautiful signage, it could be short term, uh, signage, like a custom window design like the vinyl lettering or a, a painted sign.

There’s lots of things that you could do here, and people love this.

Don: They do. Yeah.

Kris: it could actually be something if you do it once, they might want it again and again and again with the seasons, for example, a change.

Don: Yeah, it’s so nice. The promotional decals on windows are just gorgeous and they really command attention and they really elevate a brand, especially if the brand has a lovely pattern within it, or, you know, gorgeous color palette that you can adapt to a pattern. It, it’s such a beautiful, fun designer project to work on.

Kris: mm I know. It’s one of our favorite things to do.

Don: of our favorite things yet, but it’s a win for the client as well. The exposure that they get from that is, is also very exciting.

Kris: Yes.

Don: And the last one, the number 10, a promotional branded item for gifts for their staff and their clients. Now, these could be corporate gifts, they could be seasonal gifts, but they’re something that you get ready for them.

You can think about it within the season. This is a really lovely seasonal one. There’s. Staff need to be rewarded and their clients need to be rewarded. So this is a really beautiful one to, to really think discerningly about the brand and apply their brand to something really special that then goes into the lives of their staff and their clients, where it’s a beautiful reminder of this company and how they’ve impacted on them.

It’s a really special one.

Kris: Yeah, promo products are so fun.

Don: Yeah, they’re fun too.

Kris: Hmm. So this list of 10 is not just a fabulous list for your clients, for promotional ideas for them, but it’s also a great list for ideas that you could consider for your own business.

Don: Absolutely. This is a list for you and your clients, of course, but I get excited at this list for all businesses. For your clients, it’s all about being seen, beautiful designers telling your clients that you are here and you are ready to elevate them with ease right now.

Kris: They’re gonna love it, but how do you ask for this extra work?

Don: This is the hard bit.

Kris: Well, the answer is you might not like it, but you just do it. You simply do it. You call, you send the email. Is there anything you need help with? Like you could say, I drove past the other day and I noticed your signage was looking faded, or there’s a problem.

Don: Yes. Or you might see an opportunity for a promotional decal on their storefront, on their shopfront, on their office front, driving past, and it’s like, wow, I can see this coming to life right there at the front of their premises. It’s just a matter of showing up, and even though we said this is the hard bit, it really is simple.

It’s so, so simple.

Kris: Yeah, we, we talk a lot about writing scripts, like having some scripts ready to go, and this is. The perfect example of that because once you write some of these emails, you can save them and use them again and again and again. Just edit them and tailor them to your clients and you’ll have them ready to go.

And you could actually challenge yourself to do a certain number every month. See, who can I contact, who haven’t I been in touch with for a while? And within the offer we recommend to give an air of urgency and exclusivity. So, For example, you’d say something like, I have limited availability, like for the month of whatever it is, for the month of December.

My calendar is booking quickly, so get in before it’s too late. But you know, right now it’s a perfect time cuz you can say get in before it’s too late for 2020.

Don: Yeah, it’s really important to have that air of urgency around it at this time. I guess anytime really, Kris,

Kris: Yeah.

Don: just so that it gets your client organized, it makes them think quickly, what do I need to do? Okay, I want that. I’ll need to get. All of my eyes dotted and ts crossed, and I’ll get that information to my designer because I do want that to happen.

And I wanna book a spot before, before I miss out.

Kris: Yes, absolutely. So we want to challenge you to bring in some extra money into your business in the door before the year ends.

Don: Yes, you can do it guys. You can do

Kris: You can do it. So what we want you to do is make a list of all your clients past and present. Do it in a spreadsheet. We love our spreadsheets. I think we say it every, every episode.

We love our spreadsheets. Make notes of what they could possibly need to enhance to support their current branding.

Don: Yeah, it might feel intimidating and totally out of your comfort zone, but when you try something really bold and audacious, you just might astonish yourself.

Kris: Yep. Yep. In our last podcast episode we talked about it takes just 20 seconds of insane courage to achieve something great. This is an example of that, so you gotta send that email, make that call and go, booya, I did it.

Don: Yes, that’s right. Yeah, that was a James Wedmore quote. That was such a good quote.

Kris: Oh, yes, it was.

Don: So good. So just remember right now your clients are potentially in seasonal overwhelm and you could do with a bit of a cash injection. It’s really a win-win.

Kris: Yeah. It’s all about keeping yourself in the front of their minds, so reach out. They will appreciate that you have been thinking of them. We promise they will appreciate it.

Don: So let us know if you give this a try. We can’t wait to celebrate the results with you.

Kris: Yes, send us a DM on Instagram. Our handle is@designandprosper.co. And you can also email us at hello@designandprosper.co.

Don: That’s it. So go for it guys. Be brave.

Kris: Yeah. Okay. So that’s it for us for this episode. Have a beautiful week.

Don: Be brave. Bye.