8 Ideas For Cross Selling Success

Many early stage businesses that offer more than one product or service can do a much better job of educating customers on the different solutions they deliver. This type of cross selling can be ahighly effective tool for a small business.

When you cross-sell, you offer the customer a product or service related to whatever they are already buying. It can be as simple as the waiter asking ifyou want a salad to go with your main course. Up-selling positions higher priced products in a good/better/best progression. Both methods of encouraging clients to spend a little more can dramaticallyboost your sales.

But maybe you worry about irritating them with too many sales pitches to buy more. Don’t. Surveys show that most buyers appreciate being told about additional products orservices that might better meet their needs or about new items that were not offered in the past. It’s a way of demonstrating that you are aware of their needs and care about their satisfaction. Here aresome ideas to help you improve your cross selling success:

Ideas to improve your opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling
•Let nature take its course. Many cross-selling opportunities arisenaturally. If you are selling tennis racquets, for example, you can also offer a bag, balls, lessons and accessories. To gain the extra sale, you might simply have to mention that the other products orservices are available.
•Stay relevant. If you overload customers with too many unrelated cross-selling suggestions, you may blow it. Offering socks with shoes is certainly a good fit. But if yourattempts to cross-sell are not closely related to the original purchase, they are far less likely to succeed.
•Post expert recommendations. One way to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling successis to state specific recommendations from professionals, experts or other customers. This could be a chef’s recommendation on a menu, a doctor’s recommendation on a mailer, or lists of related items...