What does cross-selling mean?
Cross-selling is a way for salespeople to offer customers more goods, services, or solutions related to or go well with what they already have. This is a perfect way to sell and market because it doesn’t involve finding and getting new customers. Instead, it focuses on getting a happy customer to buy another product or service.
Like words
There aren’t exact words that mean the same thing as “cross-selling,” but “aftermarket sales” is a similar method. The main difference is that “aftermarket sales” focus on cross-selling after a customer has already bought something, while “cross-selling” happens at the time of purchase.
When to cross-sell vs. upsell
The upselling method is when a salesperson tries to get a customer to buy a similar product that costs more than the one they are trying to buy. Cross-selling is the process of getting customers to buy similar or related goods. When a customer at a coffee shop asks for a regular-sized coffee, the clerk might suggest that they buy a large one instead, which costs an extra dollar.
It might look like these terms and methods are very similar but very different. They can be used together successfully, though. When done right, both upselling and cross-selling work very well. When done right, execution gives customers the most value and increases revenue at the same time. This is done without the ongoing costs and resources of managing multiple marketing platforms and attracting new customers.
Cross-selling Pros and Cons
There are a lot of good things about cross-selling:
Bring in more money and lower your sales costs
To make the sales cycle more efficient, companies can get their current customers to buy more goods or services. Sales reps can get more orders without dealing with the trouble and cost of getting new customers.
Besides that, when companies spend less on getting new customers, they lower their total marketing and sales costs.
Get people to stick with you.
Customers who have a better connection to a business or brand are more likely to buy from it again and even tell their family, friends, and coworkers about that business or brand. Customers will stick with a business with more than one product they love, saving the business money by lowering the number of customers who leave. “If you like this, you’ll love this” is an excellent way for businesses to cross-sell and keep customers returning.
Get the most value.
To make a sale, a company needs to target a new customer 60% to 70% less often than it needs to target an old customer. This is why it makes more sense for a business to try to sell more to people they already have. Giving customers goods they already know and like can boost the value of their order in the short term and their lifetime value over time.
Tips for Cross-Selling
Businesses can use various cross-selling strategies to find the ones that work best for them and start seeing the benefits of cross-selling.
Teach your customers
Some customers might not fully grasp how valuable a company’s range of products is. They may know that some products are necessary, but they may need more information to understand these goods’ benefits fully. Businesses can ensure customers have all the facts before buying by giving them information on related and complementary goods.
Businesses can show customers the benefits of each product or service and how they might apply to them by teaching them. This also helps to lower the number of cart abandonments and returns.
Offer more goods and services for sale.
As we already said, cross-selling is mostly about giving customers services or goods that go well together. For example, people might be offered extra goods or services like wireless chargers, protective cases, or insurance when they buy a cell phone.
Another great way to cross-sell is to offer product packages, add-ons, or related items. Suppose a customer wants to buy X product, and that product goes well with. It complements Y and Z products, and the business offers the customer a bundle that includes X, Y, and Z at a lower price than buying all three separately. In that case, the customer is more likely to complete the purchase because they got a better deal.
Make deals available
In the same way, packages and add-ons work, promotions are another excellent way to cross-sell.
A company having a sale is in a great position to cross-sell. This is because the promotion is a chance to bring attention to a sale instead of trying to make a straight sale to a particular customer. It’s a method that works with little risk.
Suggestions Made by Computer
Cross-selling is taken care of by this method for a business. Businesses can set up a system so that when a customer looks at a particular product or solution, they are automatically shown other similar products. This works without the need for sales reps to be involved. The initial work is to set up which products go with which.
Cross-selling between businesses
Cross-selling to businesses can be a great way to keep fans and make more sales, but businesses should be careful when doing it, just like they should when doing it to consumers.
To make sure B2B cross-selling works, businesses should follow these simple rules:
1. Don’t just focus on getting new business.
The goal of B2B cross-selling is to get more orders and sales. While many businesses focus on cross-selling to new customers, sales workers should ensure they use the customers who are already loyal to them.
2. Don’t think customers know everything about your services and goods.
If a business wants to stay safe, it’s best to think that its present customers only know about the products they’ve bought and not the ones they haven’t. Why? Businesses are likely to be shut down right away or ignored if they share middle- or bottom-of-funnel content with a customer as a cross-selling strategy and that customer already knows about the other products that are mentioned in that content but has never heard of or doesn’t even recognize the solution that is mentioned.
3. Use conversational language
Many business-to-business customers don’t like being hard-sold, especially when it comes to cross-selling. When businesses try to sell to other businesses, they must remember they’re still talking to people.
One way to help with this is to talk to people casually. Find out what troubles them and how they currently deal with those problems. Then, talk about other customers who had a similar problem and could solve it with another product the company offers. Show the customer how they can do the same.
Problems with cross-selling
Cross-selling has a lot of perks, but it can also be hard to do well.
Businesses need to ensure they have access to correct, up-to-date information about their customers and products to cross-sell quickly and effectively. When a salesperson gives the wrong product to a customer at the wrong time in the sales cycle because of wrong data, the customer may leave, which means the company loses money.
Technology: Automation is a vital part of cross-selling that works well. Cross-selling is hard to automate because many businesses don’t have the right technology systems. This makes the process very time-consuming and prone to mistakes.
Most of the time, a customer needs to believe a business before they buy something. Cross-selling is aimed at customers who have already bought something from the company. Because of this, the customers usually believe the company more, but the company still needs to build trust and a relationship with the customer. Cross-selling wrongly can and often does make buyers distrust a business.
Customer Knowledge of Products
Cross-selling can go wrong if the customer doesn’t have all the knowledge they need about a product. This could cause them to return the product and have a bad experience with the brand. Should a customer buy something because of a business’s advice, that advice should be the right one to make the customer happier.
You can cross-sell to customers via infographics, one-pagers, case studies, and blogs. This way, you can ensure they have all the information they need to make an informed purchase choice.
When to Cross-Sell During the Customer Journey
Cross-selling can be very helpful for both the business and the customer if done at the right time during the customer trip. Cross-selling can lose you customers and money if it’s not done right.
To cross-sell at the right time is an art in and of itself. All past customer information must be looked at to ensure that a salesperson is going after the right customer at the right time and in the right way for the most success.
