Cross-selling is similar to up-selling;  however, it happens over a longer period of time.  Another word for cross-selling is “back-end selling”.  If you’ve ever heard of the term “back-end”, then you already know about cross-selling.

Usually cross-selling to your customer comes after you have established a relationship with them over a period of time and they have purchased one or several products from you already.

To set up your cross-selling system you should start by developing a cross-selling list.  This will be a one-to-many list, which identifies all the products you carry that complement (or that someone would be interested in) one product.  Once that list is done then you move on to the next product.

Examples of Complementary Cross-Selling Lists

If you sold marketing courses your cross-sell list might include:

1.     Copywriting Mastery Course

2.     Referral Marketing Course

3.     Direct Mail Marketing Cours

4.     Print Advertising Course

5.     Free Publicity Course

If you were a CPA and you sold tax return services your cross-sell list would include:

1.     Bookkeeping

2.     Personal Financial Advisory

3.     Life Insurance Investments

4.     Asset Protection Consulting

5.     Will and Trust Consulting

If you were a Pest Control company, other services you would cross-sell could be:

1.     Tree-cutting Service

2.     Lawn Care and Maintenance Service

3.     Landscaping Service

4.     Small Home Repair Service

5.     Mosquito Repellant Systems

What Happens If you Don’t Have Other Complementary Products or Services?

A common problem is business owners who sell only one product or service and don’t have anything to sell as a back-end.  If that describes you then you should either be licensing other people’s products or developing joint ventures with owners of businesses that offer complementary products and services.

You see, your customers are loyal to you and trust you.  They would rather pay for a home repair done by you even though you do pest control than from someone who does home repairs as 100% of their business.

Your relationship with your customer has value and that value is called “customer equity”, much like the equity you have in your home.  Take advantage of it by consistently making complementary offers to your good customers.

This is an excerpt from Can I Help You...Retail Selling Skills