What Is Cross-selling? Cross-selling Techniques to Boost Sales

To increase profit and serve customers customer care as thoroughly as possible, many companies and sellers have adopted cross-selling. In practice, though, many people still don't know this method. If you are looking into it and want to know what cross-selling is along with the key information about this sales approach, read the article below from MONA Media .

What is cross-selling?

Cross-selling is a professional sales technique that companies use to encourage buying. The customer spends more by purchasing a product related to something they have already bought.

The customer pays extra, but usually accepts it easily, because the add-on helps them find products they need now or will need later.

What is upselling? How does it relate to cross-selling?

Definition

Upselling means selling a higher-value version. The seller persuades the customer to choose and buy a premium product or service priced above what the customer originally planned to spend.

How they relate

The difference between upselling and cross-selling: in cross-selling, the seller offers an additional, related product or service. In upselling, the seller offers the same product in a higher-end version than the one the customer has bought or plans to buy.

Put simply, upselling is selling vertically: you offer plans or services worth more than the customer first intended. Cross-selling is selling horizontally: you offer, or bundle in, several related products and services and invite the customer to buy more.

Pros and cons of cross-selling

Knowing the pros and cons of cross-selling helps you apply this strategy as effectively as possible.

Advantages

• Cross-selling lets a seller or business sell more products and services and raise revenue without much extra effort or elaborate advertising.
• With bundled services and products, the seller can serve customers more thoroughly and raise customer satisfaction.
• Cross-selling brings practical benefits to both the business and the customer.
• Customers find it easier to discover add-on products that improve their experience with what they have already bought.

Disadvantages

• In practice, cross-selling can sometimes be annoying and put customers off. It won't work, and won't bring in revenue, if the seller doesn't market it with some skill.
• Without a plan, or with marketing data that doesn't fit, such as recommending add-ons that are useless to the customer, you can lose that customer for good.
• Used the wrong way, this method can produce nothing at all. For example, you try to sell through email, but your customers rarely use email or don't want marketing messages in their work inbox. Your sales effort then fails and may even backfire.
• In any diverse market there will be a segment of customers who simply dislike being cross-sold to. If you push anyway, the customer may return the product or cancel the whole order.

What cross-selling means

Cross-selling matters most in the e-commerceenvironment, where the seller needs to identify which products are related. From there, you can build suitable offers for direct cross-selling, and that takes proper training to reach customers effectively.

Whatever the form or situation, the main goal is to raise the company's revenue and get customers to spend more, while still making sure they stay satisfied.

Benefits of cross-selling

Higher sales

As said above, cross-selling means skillfully adding suitable products and services to the sale. When customers agree to open their wallets, the business earns more while spending little extra.

That means higher profit for the company, and higher sales are the ultimate goal of any business model.

A better buying experience for customers

An experienced, professional salesperson knows how to read, assess and study a customer's needs and spending ability, so they can make reasonable offers and suggest more accurate options.

This makes customers feel looked after and more attached to the business's products and services, and it lays the groundwork for them to become loyal customers later.

Higher ROI

With cross-selling, the business doesn't have to invest much time or money in keeping existing customers or reaching new ones. Revenue and profit then rise quickly on their own.

Higher customer lifetime value

Once customers are loyal to the business's products and services, their average spend per purchase goes up. Their CLV, or customer lifetime value, rises too, and so does the business's profit.

More convenience for customers

By providing everything customers need, or even a little more, you can create new needs for the future. Customers remember you and don't have to go to another company for products or services.

Cross-selling strategies and techniques

Cross-selling is used widely at almost every stage of the marketing funnel, so a cross-selling strategy is divided into 3 main stages:

Before the sale

To sell well, you need a suitable plan. Look for 2 or more closely related products and introduce one product or a bundle at the point where you reach the customer.

The add-on product should help the customer meet the need behind the main purchase. For example, a customer buying a flashlight also needs batteries, and a customer buying a laptop may want a mouse, a keyboard or a laptop bag.

A business can also create cross-sell and upsell opportunities by offering accessories or upgraded versions that keep customers happy with the product after they buy.

During the sale

During the sale, the seller should make recommendations and suggestions in retail stores or on e-commerce websites, so customers can consider them and feel that buying more is a sound, fitting decision.

Sometimes customers don't realize there are products of better quality at a lower price than what they are looking at. The business then needs to help them choose well: perhaps another brand in the same category, or one with the same core features plus some advantages of its own.

Free shipping can raise the average order value and encourage customers to buy higher-priced products. Customers get the fuller product or service, and the seller gets higher revenue and profit.

After the sale

Once the sale is complete, businesses can still cross-sell by recommending related products through email, SMS or personalized calls that persuade customers to buy matching items.

See more: How to build an after-sales customer care process

When does cross-selling work?

Cross-selling works best when:

• The cross-sold product is a necessary accessory for operating or using what the customer bought, and it makes their use more convenient, such as a power cable for a printer.
• You suggest related products so customers don't have to hunt elsewhere for essential parts or accessories.
• You offer an attractive discount on the add-on to prompt an immediate buying decision.
• You explain how the add-on product works and why it is needed with the product purchased, so customers understand.

After reading this article, you should now understand what cross-selling is and the basic information about this sales approach. We hope you can apply cross-selling successfully to raise your business's revenue and profit quickly.

See also:

• 8 tips to increase sales revenue effectively
• Made-to-order selling techniques for high profit