What I Learned About UPSERVING at the College Open House with Our Daughter

Today, my wife and I attended a college open house with your 17-year-old daughter. As a sales professional, I think I was more impressed with the experience than Olivia was. Yes, she walked away excited and convinced this was the right school for her, but I walked away equally impressed with such a great sales presentation by all the professional staff. They did not sell to us, they served us.

I guess I should say that I didn't really learn anything new, it all just
reaffirmed what I already knew was right about a good presentation. First, the pre-planning information we received in advance was well thought out and easy to follow. Next, our arrival at the campus was made easy with good signage and easy-to-understand instructions. The signs were well displayed at the welcome event, complete with food, gadget giveaways, and lots of smiling, friendly staff members, all ready to help us find our way. Each person was professionally dressed with an easy-to-read name badge identifying who they were.

As we made the rounds to each of the majors our teenager selected, each presentation was complete with all the means for reaching the typical adult learner; a colorful video presentation with sound, a fun, enjoyable, and sometimes humorous lecture or introduction, guest speaker students and staff ready to offer testimony, visual displays with proof of the kind of work our teen might embark on, and hands on assignments for the parents to participate in.

New York Times business bestselling author Daniel H. Pink

wrote in his book, TO SELL IS HUMAN (Riverhead, 2012), that trying to UPSELL a customer is wrong. Instead, good sales organizations learn to instead, UPSERVE the customer; doing more for the other person than he or she expected or that you initially intended. He says it's "...taking the extra steps that transform a mundane interaction into a memorable experience." That's what this university did for us today... created a memorable experience. Are you UPSERVING your customers, or just UPSELLING them?



Bill Corbett is the founder and organizer of the HARTFORD SPRINGFIELD SPEAKER'S NETWORK and an award winning professional speaker who has been speaking since 1995. He has been on stages across the U.S. for everything from brief lectures to keynote speeches to multi-day training events, and was the featured speaker at a conference in The Netherlands this Fall. He is a regular contributor to network television affiliates and provides one-on-one speaker coaching for business professionals. Learn more about him and his top-selling Amazon books.