The Upsell Machine: Turning Client Requests Into Billable Work
Two fields that make sure scope creep gets quoted, proposals price from your real rates, and work you don't want gets redirected.
The Upsell Machine is what teaches the AI where your paid services begin. Two fields, ten minutes, and every quote, proposal, and plan your workspace produces from then on is grounded in what your agency actually sells and what it actually charges.
That's the whole setup. What it unlocks is considerably larger: pricing that comes from your rate card instead of market averages, proposals with real scope boundaries, work outside your speciality redirected rather than accepted, and client requests that fall inside it routed to you for a decision instead of quietly handled.
What It Does for Your Agency
Scope creep gets quoted, not absorbed
Work beyond an agreed scope is routed through change control and priced at your rates. It is never folded in silently, and never implied as free. When a request would change strategy, audience, or scope, the cost and timeline are surfaced for sign-off before the work begins rather than discovered afterwards.
Your prices come from your rate card
Quotes and proposals are priced from your own pricing context, phase by phase, showing the basis — per client, per project, or retainer — so the number is defensible rather than a guess. The AI is barred from inventing a rate or a discount your context doesn’t support. Where a figure genuinely isn’t on file, it says the price is to be confirmed rather than making one up.
Proposals arrive with their edges drawn
Every proposal states scope in two halves: what’s included as real deliverables, and an explicit out-of-scope list naming the adjacent things the engagement doesn’t cover. Revision rounds are capped and the number is written into the document, with a change-control line saying further work is quoted separately at your rates. That’s the boundary most agencies only draw after they’ve been burned.
Work you don’t want gets redirected
If your profile says you refer something on, it isn’t quoted. The AI says so and points at the referral path instead. The same rule applies when the work is planned rather than priced — out-of-speciality work is redirected rather than folded into a plan.
Requests inside your speciality come to you
A client request that falls within your stated services is held for your approval instead of actioned. Requests outside it get routed as far as the AI can carry them. Your service line stays yours to decide on.
Opportunities surface while the work happens
When the AI notices an opportunity during ordinary team work, it records an internal, hidden, tagged task, mentions it once with a link, and carries on. Nothing is pitched at your client on your behalf. You can also ask outright, and get opportunities tied to specific projects and sites rather than offered in the abstract.
Everything client-facing stays yours
Quotes and proposals go out from your agency, in your brand and voice, using your white-label settings where they’re set. The AI is never named. An expansion is framed as growth on an existing account rather than a new relationship.
Where You’ll See It Working
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Opening the Upsell Machine
The Upsell Machine is what turns an out-of-scope request into a quote rather than unpaid work.
Instructions:
Step 2: Writing Your Agency Profile
The larger of the two fields, and the one that does most of the work. On screen it asks you to describe who you are, the services you offer, and the work you do best.
Instructions:
Say What You Don’t Do, Not Just What You Do
Step 3: Adding Your Rates and Pricing Context
A single line describing how you charge. The field’s own example reads: We charge $120/hour for development and around $2,500 for custom design projects.
One Line Is Enough, but Make It Specific
Step 4: Putting It to Work
Ask, and It Answers From Your Profile
Step 5: Keeping It Current
The AI quotes from whatever is saved here, so stale rates become stale quotes.
Instructions:
FAQs
Who can see and edit this page?
Settings is admin-only, and Upsell Machine sits behind an additional agency-settings permission on top of that. If it isn’t showing, ask an administrator to check your access.
Can my clients see or change this?
No. Settings never renders for a Website Owner, so your service description and rates stay on your side.
Will the AI make up a price if I don’t give it rates?
No. It’s barred from inventing a rate or discount your pricing context doesn’t support. With nothing on file, a proposal marks each phase’s investment as to be confirmed rather than guessing.
Does it read my profile out to clients?
No. Both fields ground the AI’s answers without being recited unprompted, and anything a client sees comes from your agency in your brand and voice.
What stops a client asking for extra work and simply getting it?
Work beyond the agreed scope routes to change control and is quoted separately at your rates rather than absorbed. Proposals carry an explicit out-of-scope list and a capped number of revision rounds, so the boundary is written down before the work starts.
Is this the same as the Agency Brief?
No. The Agency Brief is your brand and business snapshot — voice, audience, visual identity. The Upsell Machine is your service territory and pricing: what you sell, what you refer out, and what it costs. Proposals draw on both.
Where do the opportunities it finds actually go?
An opportunity spotted during team work becomes an internal, hidden, tagged task, mentioned once in chat with a link. Opportunities you ask for come back in the chat, each tied to a specific project or site.
Can I set different services or rates for one client?
No. Both fields live at workspace level and apply everywhere.