You’ve got to hand it to the computer hardware manufacturers: they know a thing or two about wringing every last penny out of each sale. Go configure a laptop at Dell or HP, and you’ll find more options than you can shake a stick at. Most importantly, you’ll notice that lots of those options are not, in fact, manufactured, or even conceived of, by the equipment manufacturer.

For many online software sellers, the primary limitation on sales is the finite size of the product catalog: once a customer has bought everything you make, you run into a wall.

But think bigger: how’s about if you could expand that product catalog without dropping another penny on R&D? That’s what a lot of vendors are starting to move to, and it’s working very nicely, indeed.
Here’s how to get in the game.

First, find a complementary vendor right here in the Plimus Community, or through your own contacts. Agree a fair commission rate for you to resell their product – 30% or so seems to be a figure most organizations can live with. Now, every time a customer buys from you, offer them the opportunity to also buy your partner’s product.
Most companies who shy away from this are quite reasonably concerned about the impact on their own sales process: what if the customer sees too many come-ons as offensive, as abandons their purchase? You can offset this by

(1) offering the upsell in your Thank You page, so that you ensure you close the deal before upselling; and

(2) placing the ad for your partner’s product in a follow-up email. The attach rate will likely be lower, but it’s a great way to get into the game without taking a new risk in the checkout process.

Read our other blog posts, and visit the Plimus Learning Center (you'll need to be logged in to your administration account), to find out more about how easy it is to execute these sorts of campaigns inside the Plimus E-Business Platform.