Upsell Rate
Definition
Upsell rate is the percentage of service calls on which a technician successfully sells additional work beyond the original reason for the visit.
What Upsell Rate Means for Your Business
What it means
A customer calls for a drain clog. While onsite, the tech notices a failing water heater and presents a quote. If the customer buys, that is an upsell.
Why it matters
Upsells are the highest-margin work in the business. The truck is already there, the tech is already there, and the customer already trusts you. Strong upsell culture can add 20% to 40% to revenue without a single extra call.
How contractors use it
Shops train techs to inspect beyond the stated problem, build good-better-best estimates on the spot, and track upsell rate per tech. Bonus plans often reward upsells heavily.
Real-World Example
A plumbing company trained techs on a 10-point home inspection on every call. Upsell rate jumped from 14% to 31% and average ticket climbed by $185. Across 4,200 annual calls, that added $777,000 in revenue.
Related Terms
Cross-Sell
Cross-sell is the practice of offering a customer a service from a different trade or department than the one they originally called for.
Close Rate
Close rate is the percentage of presented estimates that result in a booked job or signed contract.
Average Ticket
Average ticket is the mean revenue generated per service call, calculated by dividing total invoiced revenue by the number of completed jobs.
Field Report
A field report is the written summary a technician completes after a job documenting what was found, what was done, and what the customer should know.
Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value, or CLV, is the total amount of revenue a customer is expected to generate for a business over the entire duration of the relationship.
Put This Into Practice with Free Software
Kaldr Tech handles upsell rate and everything else you need to run your shop. $0/month, 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction.