Up-selling Vs Cross-selling. Is it worth it?

Getting a customer to purchase an item or service is already hard enough, so why take the chance to push them away by asking them to buy more things? Up-selling and cross-selling are both risky techniques when making a sale, but can have great outcomes if your customer decides to make the purchase. So lets go through some tips when making up-sells and cross-sells.

First it’s best to know the difference.

Up-selling is when a customer buys an item or service and is asked if they would like to pair that purchase with a relevant item that adds onto the item they just bought. For example: If a customer purchase a Kids Karate Class, you can ask if that customer wants to also purchase a Gi to wear or a mouth guard. Selling the items that are needed separately can make more money in the long run.

Cross-Selling is selling an item or service with another team or service that is relevant but not needed. For example: Your customer purchases a years worth of classes for their child. You can try and cross-sell them to buy a years worth of classes for themselves. Although one isn’t needed to have the other, you can make a decent profit if the cross-sell goes through.

Which option is best for your company?

If you look at the numbers, most of the time you will see that up-selling is much more effective than cross-selling. This is because the teams that you are up-selling usually are related and NEEDED to the original item that the customer is purchasing. That doesn’t mean that cross-selling is not better for your business. You just have to know what it is you want to cross-sell that customers will buy… which brings me to my next point…

Offering Up-sells and Cross-Sells that are Relevant

Trying to sell tennis shoes to a customer who just bought 6 months of BJJ classes isn’t going to go well. Not only is the item not relevant to what they are buying, it has nothing to do with their long term goals are at that time. When offering both an up-sell and cross-sell, make sure the item or service that you are offering makes sense to the buyer. Even though cross-selling doesn’t require you to sell them something that they need for that purchase doesn’t mean you can just throw anything at them and hope they buy it. The item should be somewhat related to the original purchase.

Be Honest

It explains itself, but sometimes people don’t know what honest is. Don’t force your services on someone who just bought something and tell them that it’s absolutely needed. Buyers already don’t want to give your their money, if you are acting sketchy and trying to push more sales on them that they don’t need, don’t be surprised if they go running for the hills. Try to minimize the damage to your clients wallets and in the long run they will continue to use your services. In the end both techniques should be used, but only if necessary and you truly believe it to be beneficial to your client.

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