When you define your ideal clients you likely identified who they are and what they want from your business, but did you map out their journey and how to sell more than one product or service to increase the cart value?
Your business likely has more than one offer, and your clients might be interested in more than just one product or service – it’s your job as a business to show them the value in getting more than one product or service by sharing its benefits for them. We call this process the sales funnel.
‘Cross-selling is a term used in the financial industry and it’s the act of selling something to an active client who is already buying something else. You’ve seen it everywhere from Amazon to almost every online business nowadays. When done right, it is an effective strategy.
In the small business niche ‘cross-selling is known by multiple different names that are specific to the type of cross-selling – upsell, down-sell, or order bump.
Upsell is the selling of a more expensive product after the purchase of a product of choice by a customer. Down-sell is usually a lower-price offer in comparison to the upsell, while an order bump is a quick addition to the original order by way of checking one box in the checkout form.
This article covers four of the best practices of cross-selling strategy for all businesses.
Time it Right
Timing is essential for cross-selling success. Several online studies noted a previous analysis by Achieve Global who surveyed users and found 40% were negative in their reception of cross-selling and the cited reason was when the cross-selling happened.
This brings me to the golden rule – RESPECT YOUR CUSTOMER’S TIME
They may be in a rush to complete their purchase with you. Make sure they have that finalized before the cross-selling occurs.
Online cross-selling has been growing and for the big players, it is always in the most unintrusive way such as after the purchase or simply at the bottom of a product description.
Depending on what you provide and your conversion funnel (the path users take when buying from you or becoming a client) you should see where a user would complete their reason for contacting your business. It’s best to make as few barriers as possible between the start and end of that path so make sure you only cross-sell in ways that don’t obstruct your user.
Inform Completely
Cross-selling without context will make your attempts appear financially driven and can put your user off. Instead, convey the value by citing the reasoning for the cross-selling suggestions.
Are they supported by past purchase habits? Amazon bases its recommendations by framing it around user interest based on their data on past user activity and purchases.
If you are providing your expertise and the client is contacting you or buying from you based on that expertise, then cite that knowledge as the reason you’re suggesting other products or services. Be honest and make the best suggestions only. This way the customer sees the value of the cross-selling and is likely to respond much better.
Offer Something Special
Providing additional value is a great way to cross-sell. When a user is buying something from you or making an appointment and you have other items or services they could be interested in, why not offer a discount or other sort of incentive?
Users may not be aware of how the two offerings relate so make sure you make it explicitly clear as mentioned in the earlier point.
Connect the offerings and if there is additional value in buying both, then mention this and why the offer is being made.
Listen to Feedback
Listening is essential to building a loyal client or customer base. This can mean reviewing the cross-selling efforts and refining them based on how effective or not they are.
Or it can mean reviewing emails or wherever the customers have expressed anything to do with the cross-selling.
If you see negative results, then you have missed the mark and should stop the current cross-selling until a better method is created. Really assess what went wrong the first time.
Cross-selling can be very effective when done right but a disaster if done wrong. Knowing when it’s wrong and acting on it to stop the issue is extremely important so don’t let this be something you set up and forget about.
