I was wary when I watched the first live-action Paddington film.
Paddington is the main character from an old children’s book. He’s a small young kind bear who goes around winning people’s hearts.
Problem is… films like that sometimes overplay their nostalgia or cuteness. They forget to be a good story along the way.
That film did not. It was great. I had my defences up. And the film won me over anyway.
So I was keen for Paddington 2.
I’m glad to say I loved the second film even more.
(It’s got a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes!)
But just when the ending credits rolled…
… I realised there were some valuable lessons in Paddington 2.
Lessons that massaged my marketing mind.
Here’s one:
*Spoiler warning for Paddington 2*
During the movie, poor Paddington gets framed for a crime, and ends up in prison.
In typical prison-style, Paddington finds the food awful. The other prisoners agree with him. But the cook terrifies them.
Paddington, naïve as he is, talks to the cook in his usual warm-hearted warm.
It does not go well.
Paddington’s clumsiness infuriates the cook. The cook yanks him up, about to make him into bear pie.
As Paddington scrambles in fear, one of his famous marmalade sandwiches hidden in his hat ends up in the cook’s mouth.
The taste stuns the cook. It’s delicious. You literally hear voices sing out at the revelation.
It all snowballs from there…
… the cook employs Paddington to make home-made marmalade sandwiches…
… the other prisoners love it…
… Paddington gets them to share their own delicious recipes…
… they begin making fancy food like chocolate roulades, apple crumbles, strawberry panna cottas…
… and over time they transform the prison cafeteria into fancy high class restaurant. With table cloths and reservation books.
It’s surprisingly endearing G-rated fun.
And a great lesson in upsells.
The thing about upsells, is that they rely on building momentum.
Paddington didn’t waltz into prison demanding a fancy restaurant. If he did, the prisoners would have ripped out his insides and replaced them with stuffing.
Yet the fancy restaurant happened. Because it started from humble beginnings. Then it escalated to that point, naturally, step by step.
That’s one way to use upsells in your business, and increase the value of your sales.
You offer a small low-cost product, or a free trial…
… some people take up your offer…
… they’re delighted with what they get…
… you then offer something a bit bigger and more expensive…
… they buy it and love it too…
… rinse and repeat.
And eventually you find people eager to buy your most expensive premium offerings.
Whether you have a sales sequence or upsells in mind, ask yourself:
“Where can I take the momentum of this sale?”
What upsells makes sense for the client to buy once they buy your initial offer?
Once Paddington opened the cook’s mind to other recipes… that opened the door to other people’s recipes too. From there, things got better and better.
Clients rarely make the jump to a huge purchase right after meeting you. And you probably act the same when you buy stuff too.
So instead, start small. Lead your client to a large purchase AFTER warming them up with the smaller ones.
More questions to ask yourself:
What’s the smallest step you can take with your client?
What is the largest?
How do you get from one to the other?