upsell

[glassnutz]

I cruise frequently and someone mentioned something call an "upsell". Any one know what it is?

[johnql]

It's something that NCL does (I'm not sure if any other cruise line offers it). It's a way of obtaining (purchasing) an upgrade at a discounted price. Typically, once final payment has been made on a particular sailing, NCL has a good handle on which cabins are truly booked. Let's say you've booked an oceanview cabin. NCL offers you an upsell opportunity to upgrade to a balcony. If you were booking the balcony from scratch, it might cost $400 more per person than the oceanview, but with the upsell NCL might offer it you for only $250 pp. Once you've accepted and paid for the upsell upgrade for the balcony, NCL will then turn around and resell the oceanview (which is probably easier to sell), increasing its income.

[Capsu78]

Actually it is a pretty generic term used in many sales operations. Figure out what the potential client is interested in and tailor an offer to increase the dollars spent. Think of Mcdonalds and "Supersize it?".

Its companion sales tactic is called the "cross-sell" which , in the cruise world, a good example would be offering, say, "trip insurance".

Certainly, most cruise reps are trained and scripted to make these value added offers. They usually are ethical, above board and structured to give the consumer "more" value, while increasing the value of the transaction to the seller.