Cross-Selling: Pros, Cons, and How It Works

For sales teams looking to boost client satisfaction, increase the average order value, and increase sales across the board, cross-selling is a common method for doing so.

In our overview guide, we’ll give you all you need to know about this strategy, including what it is, how it differs from upselling, industries where it’s most common, tips and tricks, and how your team can use this technique to drive revenue growth. 

What Is Cross-Selling?

Cross-selling is a sales technique where reps sell complementary or related products or services. It’s a very common strategy meant to build on customer relationships and boost client loyalty.

By using this strategy with an existing client base, teams can make more money by offering these additional, complementary products.

Cross-selling vs. upselling

Cross-selling and upselling are two separate terms, but they both are great methods for increasing the purchase. With cross-selling, the goal is to get customers to buy additional products; upselling, however, focuses on improving the value of a single product or service. 

For example, take fast food restaurants. When folks pull up to the drive-thru and place their order, they’re often met with, “Can I get you a side of fries or a milkshake with that?” This simple offer of additional products to complement the product the customer ordered is an example of cross-selling. However, if you ordered a veggie burger and the drive-thru operator offered a more expensive option, like a double veggie burger deluxe, that could be considered an upsell.

Why is cross-selling important? 

Cross-selling is important to many sales strategies because it can benefit organizations in a number of ways, from boosting revenue to increasing customer loyalty. It can help sellers use their current resources more effectively while also decreasing costs in certain areas, like cutting customer acquisition costs. If sellers are able to increase the revenue from sales by selling additional products, they can spend less time and resources on new customer acquisition for the same amount. 

Cross-Selling in Various Industries

Because cross-selling is such a versatile strategy, folks working in almost all industries can use it as a technique to increase revenue. Here’s what that can look like in different industries, from typical sales environments to restaurants and banking institutions.

Cross-selling in sales

With regard to typical sales and marketing organizations, cross-selling is a valuable tool to not just boost revenue growth, but also to improve customer satisfaction. Whatever the solution may be, sellers can often cross-sell by offering additional products or services that can complement the original. 

For example, people who sell products like cell phones can push complementary products like phone cases, screen protectors, or other services along with a cell phone to increase the overall cost of the purchase. Because these additional products are designed to improve customer satisfaction — such as cases and screen protectors to prevent cell phone damage — it can positively affect both satisfaction and loyalty.

Retail cross-selling

Of course, retail is a popular setting for this sales strategy. For example, many stores will offer coupons and deals to increase the number of items purchased. Folks buying a new kitchen appliance might be offered complementary products, like a relevant recipe book or additional tools and accessories. 

Even leveraging strategies like mannequin outfits that include multiple items of clothing — like pants, a top, and accessories like hats or scarves — can be a means of cross-selling.

Cross-selling in restaurants

In restaurants, sellers advertise items that complement the main dish a customer orders. For example, if someone orders their main meal, some of the waitstaff might suggest drinks, appetizers, sides, or desserts that might go well with the main dish. 

Cross-selling in banking

Although it might not be the first example people think of, it’s a strategy used in banking and at many financial institutions. When a new customer comes in to set up a savings account, a banker might also suggest a checking account, a new credit card, or other services. 

Other financial services, such as insurance, also rely on this strategy by suggesting other insurance coverage, such as homeowners insurance, pet insurance, and life insurance. 

Other cross-selling examples 

Because cross-selling is such a tried-and-true sales strategy, there are many other industries that employ it. For example, in hospitality settings like hotels, managers will often suggest customers take advantage of their other services, like room upgrades or room service. 

Other industries, like the automotive industry, will cross-sell by suggesting customers buy different accessories, maintenance packages, upgrades, and extended warranties. With rental cars, the cross-sell might include things like extra car seats or GPS navigation.

5 Steps for Successful Cross-Selling

This strategy can work differently depending on the industry, but in general, there are some pretty straightforward steps involved. Here are the five steps involved in cross-selling, no matter what industry you’re in. 

1.  Find good opportunities for cross-selling.

Keep in mind that when you first start, you might see opportunities everywhere. However, it isn’t a universal sales strategy that you can employ in every single sale, for every customer.

For example, you probably don’t want to cross-sell if:

• The customer seems uncomfortable, unhappy, or confused
• You don’t have a relevant product or service to include
• The client is an existing customer and often returns their purchases
• The customer has an extremely tight budget

Otherwise, a good cross-selling opportunity presents itself when there are complementary products to be sold and bundle or package deals. Part of this is ensuring the timing is right, too. If the customer is checking out, acting like they’re in a hurry, or they’ve already made their purchase, it’s probably not a good time to try it. 

2. Personalize and customize your cross-sell.

Once you’ve identified a good opportunity for cross-selling, you can further customize and personalize your offer to the customer. To do so, pinpoint exactly what the client’s needs are and what their goals are for their purchase. That way, you can make more informed recommendations. 

For example, sellers should aim to suggest products or services that will not only be complementary to the original sale, but also make sense with regard to the needs and interests of the customer. You can use existing customer data to inform your recommendations, too. 

3. Get ready for any objections

Once you’ve kicked off the cross-sell, prepare to handle any objections that might come your way. For example, some of the most common cross-selling objections include things like:

• The price is too high or way outside the budget
• They don’t need any additional products or services
• They’ve already received additional products or services from competitors

The customer might also fail to feel a sense of urgency and would prefer to wait to make any additional purchases. 

4. Close 

Like most types of sales, the final step is usually closing (although for our purposes, we’ll consider it the second-to-last step). Once you’ve handled the customer’s objections, you can employ closing methods to convince the client to buy the complementary products or services. 

5. Track cross-selling performance data for analysis. 

However, the true final step should involve data analysis. Sellers should aim to make data analysis a baked-in part of the process. That’s because assessing the effectiveness of a it’s much easier when teams track cross-selling performance. 

Not only that, but sellers can use those metrics to pinpoint specific areas for improvement and further streamline or optimize their strategy. 

How to Practice Cross-Selling with Yoodli 

Cross-selling is a common strategy for increasing revenue growth and enhancing customer satisfaction. But for new sales reps or reps who are unfamiliar, practice is essential. That’s where a tool like Yoodli comes in. For at-scale training and implementation, there’s no better solution. 

Yoodli is a virtual coach that leverages generative artificial intelligence to offer reps a simulated yet realistic setting to practice cross-selling strategies. It’s easy to use with a slick, navigable interface that consumers love. Organizations such as Dale Carnegie, Korn Ferry, and Google have used Yoodli to decrease ramp and increase seller attainment. 

It isn’t a risky strategy, but for reps who are unfamiliar, practicing in a safe setting is critical. Otherwise, you risk losing deals and customers. That’s why leveraging sales roleplays is so helpful for learning how to successfully execute a cross-sell. 

Using Yoodli, sales teams can work on their skills as far as small talk and suggesting complementary products and services that make sense. Sales reps are able to go back and forth during these realistic roleplays, just like they would with a real human.

Not only that, but since it works as a sales coach, Yoodli also offers up actionable feedback based on the reps’ ability to cross-sell. With specific scenarios like inbound and outbound customer discovery or cold calls, reps can practice and implement specific skills to boost their chance of success.

Admin customizability and privacy

Yoodli’s admin customizability gives admin the power to make Yoodli their own by optimizing it around their specific use case and needs, from manager training to pitch coaching and more. Plus, companies love its enterprise-grade privacy, which includes SOC2 Type 2, GDPR and more.

Recently, Google Cloud tapped into Yoodli’s services for at-scale training and implementation, and the results were positive. In fact, over 15,000 sales reps at Google were brought up to speed, and the case study results speak for themselves.. 

Get started for free to learn how you and your team can use Yoodli to improve their cross-selling skills at https://yoodli.ai/. 

Cross-Selling Tips and Tricks for Success

This sales strategy, though straightforward, can still be tricky, especially with newer sales reps. Here are some of the best tips and tricks to improve your chance of sales success with cross-selling.

Emphasize the value of the products or services

Although it might seem obvious, for a successful cross-sell, sellers need to know exactly how to highlight the value of the solution they’re offering, be it a product or service. Consider the client journey and experience, and based on that, spell out exactly how the additional products or services will serve and benefit the customer. 

Clients are more likely to purchase when they can see exactly how the solution benefits them. 

Know your solution through and through 

If you don’t know your product well, you won’t be able to successfully cross-sell. Sellers need an intimate understanding of not just the product, but how it serves the client. Only then can they make appropriate suggestions for products that complement each other. Informed suggestions are critical to cross-selling. 

Take advantage of ‘limited time’ offers 

Another great tip for cross-selling is leveraging special deals and limited time offers. This can often create a sense of urgency for the customer and further convince them that the time to act is now. 

Some specific strategies include implementing time-frame-based offers, such as:

• Flash sales
• Seasonal deals
• Weekend-only deals

Use technology and other tools to track performance 

Teams should aim to leverage technology to track the performance of team cross-sells to improve and inform future strategies. For example, many sales teams use tech like customer relationship management (CRM) software that can help reps pinpoint the best cross-selling opportunities and, of course, track overall performance. 

When folks don’t track progress or performance, their efforts can suffer. 

The Main Takeaway

For many teams, cross-selling is an integral part of their overall strategy. Not only that, but it’s a tool almost anyone can use to boost sales and customer loyalty and satisfaction. Using a sales enablement tool like Yoodli can make a world of difference for teams trying to improve their experience.

Sources

• Salesforce: “What Is Cross-Selling?”
• Investopedia: “Cross Selling: Definition, Pros and Cons, vs. Upselling.”
• HubSpot: “What Is Cross-Selling? Intro, Steps, and Pro Tips [+Data].”