Upselling and cross-selling have obvious benefits for any company, no matter what the industry: more revenue.
The problem is, some customers can see right through the “You may also like … ” line, and often stick with the original purchase. And this can feel even tougher if you work in customer success — where your job isn’t technically sales, but you might find opportunities to make sales in your calls or emails with customers.
For example, if your customer has successfully enjoyed using your product for a few months, you will be the best person to mention another product they can use with it — or alongside it — to get better results.
To really see success with your product suggestions, there’s an integral part of the formula: customer delight. When you can convince your customer that your suggestions are for their benefit, then you can master the art of upselling and cross-selling. So, how can you go about doing that? Keep reading to learn how to use upselling and cross-selling to your advantage.
Upsell vs. Cross-Sell
Upselling is encouraging the purchase of anything that would make the primary purchase more expensive. Cross-selling is encouraging the purchase of anything in conjunction with the primary product. For example, it would be upselling to offer the purchase of health insurance with a general english course, but it would be cross-selling to offer the purchase of a backpack with a general english course.
Cross-selling and upselling are often used interchangeably, but different scenarios with different customers can call for one specific approach over the other. The word “upsell” is applied to pretty much any instance where you suggest (or push) a product in addition to the one being purchased. By knowing the difference between upselling and cross-selling, you put yourself at an advantage.
Upselling is encouraging the purchase of anything that would make the primary product more expensive. For instance, an experience overseas might come with an offer of local event tickets, and a general english course purchase might prompt the suggestion for a travel sim card.
Cross-selling is the suggestion of any other product to be purchased in conjunction with the primary product — a flight ticket suggestion when a course is purchased or a travel kit suggestion when summer camp is selected.
