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Courtney
Cat grooming expert and contributor to Cat Grooming Directory. Passionate about helping cat owners find the best grooming solutions for their feline friends.
Courtney
Cat grooming expert and contributor to Cat Grooming Directory. Passionate about helping cat owners find the best grooming solutions for their feline friends.
Picture this: a client picks up her Persian after a full groom and lion cut. You spent two and a half hours on that cat. She pays $110, tips $2, and thanks you warmly as she walks out. You close the door and think: I never mentioned the nail trim.
I've watched groomers beat themselves up over that forgotten add-on for years. The fix everyone reaches for is "be better at upselling" — get more confident, push a little harder, remember to mention the extras at checkout. That's the wrong fix, and it's why most cat groomers stay stuck at 15% add-on adoption while leaving real money on the table.
Here's how we actually do it at American Puppy. Two moves. First, you stop selling add-ons one at a time and build the essentials into one complete package — so there's nothing to "remember" and nothing that feels like an upsell. Second, you run a rotating monthly special with three premium extras, you put it on a board where clients can see it, and you mention it at drop-off, not checkout. That's the whole system. Let me walk you through it.
The reason the nail trim got forgotten is that it was ever a separate thing to sell in the first place.
A nail trim is four minutes and almost zero added stress for the cat. Ear cleaning is five. A nail file, a sanitary trim, a quick coat finish — these are the basics of a real groom. None of them should be sitting on a menu as an optional extra you have to talk yourself into pitching. Build them into your signature full groom at one price and call it done.
When the essentials are included, three good things happen. The client never feels nickel-and-dimed, because there's no à-la-carte list growing in front of them. You never forget to "offer" the nail trim, because it's just part of the groom. And your base price goes up to reflect what the groom actually is — a complete service — instead of a stripped-down number with a pile of fees stapled on at the register.
Price the package for what's in it. If you were charging $90 for a groom and quietly skipping the $20 nail trim half the time, your complete package is a $105–$110 groom that includes nails, ears, and finish. Same work. Cleaner story. No pitch.
This is the part that surprises people: bundling the essentials increases what you collect, because the stuff you used to forget is now baked into every single ticket instead of landing on one in five.
Now we get to the actual upsell, and it's the fun part.
Once the essentials live inside the package, the premium stuff becomes your monthly special. Pick three extras, rotate them, and merchandise them. The menu I pull from looks like this:
Three of those, each month. Price them between $12 and $25 depending on your market. Then — and this is the move most groomers skip — put them on a chalkboard or whiteboard up front where clients walk in. Different colors, clean handwriting, a little personality. "June Specials," the three items, the prices. Change it the first of every month.
The board does the selling for you. You're not standing there reciting a menu; the client reads it while they're taking the cat out of the carrier. Have fun with it. A board that looks like someone cared gets read. A laminated price sheet taped to the counter does not.
This is the single biggest lever, and it costs you nothing.
At checkout, the client has already done the math in her head. She knows what this appointment costs, she's reaching for her keys, and anything you add now feels like a surprise on the bill. That's why the checkout pitch flops.
At drop-off, none of that is true yet. The cat's about to get pampered, the client's relaxed, no total has been calculated, and there's a colorful board right there listing this month's three specials. "We've got our June specials going — the oatmeal bath's been great for the long-hairs this time of year. Want me to add it for Maggie?" You'd genuinely be surprised how many yeses you get. I've watched drop-off adoption run two and three times what the same groomer got pitching at pickup.
Same client. Same service. Same price. The only thing that changed is when you asked.
The package essentials are all low-stress, so they're safe to include on every cat. The monthly specials are where you stay sharp.
Anything that adds handling — teeth brushing, cologne, a face-area treatment — is an offer, not a guarantee. You get the owner's okay at drop-off, and then you read the cat on the table. If she hit her limit at the dryer, you skip the teeth brushing and note it for next time. No special is worth sending a cat home stressed and a client home wondering what happened. The next appointment depends on this one going well.
That's not a reason to avoid the offer. It's a reason the offer should be specific to the cat in front of you, not a blanket pitch.
Run the numbers. A groomer doing 15 cats a week who lands the monthly special on even a third of them — five cats, at a $20 average — is collecting an extra $100 a week. That's about $4,800 a year, on top of the bump from bundling the essentials into the base price.
And if you're working on commission, this is your money. Every special that lands adds to your pay, not just the salon's. The board, the drop-off ask, the rotating menu — that's not extra work for the house, it's a raise you give yourself one cat at a time.
Monday: Write down what's actually in your "full groom" today. If the nail trim, ears, and finish aren't included and priced in, fold them in and reset your base price.
Tuesday: Pick your first three monthly specials. Price them for your market.
Wednesday: Make the board. Real chalkboard or whiteboard, up front, colors, "June Specials." Have fun with it.
The rest of the week: Mention the specials at drop-off to every client — not pickup. Track how many say yes. Watch the number.
The package above is the logic. The full Cat Groomer's Add-On Revenue System goes deeper: exactly what to bundle into the package and how to price it by market, a full rotating-special calendar with twelve months of ideas, the drop-off scripts that land, how to set the specials up in MoeGo or Gingr so they track to the right groomer's commission, and the real numbers on what this does to a 15- and 20-cat week. It's in the library.
Won't bundling the essentials just make my price look high?
It makes your price look honest. A $110 groom that visibly includes nails, ears, and finish reads as complete. A $90 groom with a growing list of $15 fees at the register reads as a trap. Clients don't mind paying for a real service; they mind being surprised.
What's a realistic yes rate on the monthly special?
It depends almost entirely on when you ask. Pitched at checkout, you'll see 10–20%. Put it on a board and mention it at drop-off, and 30–50% is very reachable on a low-stress special like a shampoo upgrade.
I feel awkward upselling. How do I get over it?
Stop calling it upselling. The essentials are already in the package, so there's nothing to sell there. The monthly special is one specific, seasonal recommendation for that cat — "the oatmeal bath's great for dry summer coats." If it's right for the cat, not mentioning it is the worse outcome. If it's not, you don't bring it up.
Cologne or perfume on a cat — is that a real thing?
A light, cat-safe finishing spray, with the owner's permission, yes — and a fair number of owners love it. Never on a cat that's reactive about being handled around the face or neck, and never without asking first. It's a fun special, not a default.
How often should I change the board?
Monthly. The rotation is what keeps regulars looking. A board that says the same thing in March and August stops getting read. Tie the specials to the season — de-shed in spring, oatmeal baths in dry summer months.
Should I still bundle add-ons into a big "spa package"?
Not the high-handling ones. The trap is pre-committing to bath, nails, teeth, ears, and a facial on a cat you haven't met yet — a third of cats can't tolerate the full stack. Bundle only the low-stress essentials into the base groom. Keep the premium, higher-handling items as opt-in monthly specials you assess per cat.
The add-on problem was never a confidence problem. Build the essentials in, put the premium stuff on a board, and ask at drop-off. The number takes care of itself.