Cross Selling Strategies That Truly Generate Profitable Results

Effectively applied cross selling strategies let you improve your customers’ experience while also increasing overall revenue and profits. When you cross sell, you’re providing added value and more solutions with additional products and services that complement what they’ve already purchased. Here are some effective cross selling strategies that will benefit your bottom line while helping your customers solve more of their problems.

• Be prepared and knowledgeable: Be thoroughly familiar with your products and services and how they complement each other. This lets you know exactly what to offer and how it will add to what your customer has already purchased. A weak cross sell has little chance of being successful and may make it look like you’re making recommendations just for the sake of more sales.
• Use social proof and recommendations: Customers are often interested in the products and services others have purchased, so be ready to make recommendations based on other customers’ actions. Social proof helps validate purchases and makes them seem more legitimate. Customers may also respond to the psychological effects of wanting to be “part of the crowd” or emulating someone they admire.
• Offer expert recommendations: Another effective type of proof comes in the form of recommendations from experts. Endorsements by leaders in your field, respected peers or others who are perceived as experts will make a product or service seem more valuable and desirable.
• Provide discounts or product/service bundles: Bundle appropriate products or services into an effective cross-selling package. Provide discounts or other incentives on products and services you’re cross selling to make them more appealing and affordable.
• Ask for the cross sell: Be ready and willing to ask for the cross sale. If the products or services you’re offering are a good value and are genuinely useful, the customer is likely to appreciate your additional attempt to help solve their problems. And, remember the basic truth: if you don’t ask, they’ll never have the chance to say “yes.”

What can you do to make your cross selling program more effective at enhancing your customers’ experience while also boosting your revenue?