Cross-selling and up-selling, both sales techniques, aim to boost sales figures. Their basic principle? Encourage customers to buy more related products for the first, or switch to a higher range of products for the latter. Popular with major online retailers like Amazon, these techniques should largely inspire your salespeople to increase their turnover.
Up-selling and cross-selling: two names for the same purpose: to increase the turnover of the company. Their approach techniques, however, differ somewhat.
- The up-selling, the other small name of the "rise of range". It consists of offering the customer a product similar to the one he wants to buy, but more expensive than his initial choice.
- Cross-selling for a transversal vision. It consists of selling the customer products he may need, taking into account the purchase he has just made. This system of "cross-selling" is widespread in online stores, especially at Amazon
SHARE INFORMATION WITH SUPPORT TEAMS
Support teams are the main managers of your e-commerce platform, together with your sales agents and e-client advisors. Main interlocutors of your customers, they certainly know their trends, their preferences but also the products that you can offer them to motivate them to sell.
First tip: inform them about the up selling or cross selling model that you are putting in place. Make sure they understand the mechanism and the objectives to be achieved. In practice, some experts are wary of up-selling. Others rely exclusively on cross-selling. Why choose ? The ideal solution: Ask your teams to suggest to your customers a mixed formula, including two up-selling products and three cross-selling products, for example.
LISTEN YOUR CUSTOMERS AND RELAUNCH THEM
Good business practices are fully incorporated with the adoption of an account based marketing logic. See e-mailing as the main tool.
To interest the customers, your mails will have to be:
• Personalized, short and objective.
• With an interest for the customer (to present him the news of a category of products or services that he wishes).
• Motivating (take a tour on the site to discover the product, order, leave a comment ...).
FOLLOW THE GROWTH AND CHOICES OF ITS CUSTOMERS
To ensure the success of your cross-selling or up-selling strategy, do not forget this fundamental point. Indeed, to be sure to attract the customer, do not offer a product that could possibly please him. Sell him rather a product that he could buy without thinking. The analysis of its behavior and the monitoring of its purchases using the Data are the best indicators. Use it to identify the products to offer to your strategic customers.
In addition, here are some examples of indicators: purchase volumes, number of questions registered in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about a product, comments on social networks, use of the loyalty card, etc.
MOTIVATE YOUR COMMERCIALS BY INCENTIVE COMPENSATION
With cross and up-selling, salespeople will have to ensure a survey by e-mailing and phone, be present on social networks to reach customers. They will also help you collect data ...
It's up to you to see what's best for you as an incentive bonus: commissioning, sales vs target bonus, collective bonus, benefits in kind, ...
Main rule: define a variable base realistic and compatible with your objectives of growth of turnover.
TRAIN AND EDUCATE YOUR COMMERCIAL People
The upgrade is an update of the mechanisms, the opposite of the customization that plays on the visual and attractive side. In cross and up-selling, the objective is much more strategic: your salespeople will absolutely have to be equipped to update their marketing models at any time, according to the changing trends and preferences of consumers.
Of course, you can decide for traditional classroom meeting style training sessions. Nevertheless, in view of the success of digital, the best solution is still videos, tutorials or MOOC (Massive Open Online Course)!
ADOPT THE WEB TRACKING TO FOLLOW YOUR CUSTOMERS
Indeed, web tracking includes a set of services that aim to identify your customers from their IP addresses. Other tools, such as search volumes around certain keywords, also help you know your popularity and segment your market. This interesting solution boosts the cross or the up-selling, to develop in partnership with your SSII department.
