Selling isn’t just for new customers and prospects. A big part of a company’s revenue comes from upselling and cross-selling. Another word for this is  proactive selling.

Offer upsells and cross-sells that are relevant to the customer and at the right time.

In order to upsell you need to start with identifying your customer’s needs. If you don’t know your customer’s needs, then how can you possibly know what to sell to them? This is the first step.

If a customer comes to you for help, focus on the problem at hand before you offer them tons of products. Helping the customer with their problem firsthand both calms them down and may give you the information you need to spot an opportunity to sell something that may help the customer with similar problems going forward.

When you have spotted an opportunity to upsell something, there is no guarantee the customer is going to say yes right away. You need to be able to demonstrate the value this product will add for your customer. How will the product you’re proposing help them achieve their goals? Once the customer understands the value, they are more likely than not to buy your product.

System Support

In order to facilitate upselling, especially if you have a high number of products or intricate services, procuring some sort of support system to facilitate increased sales is highly advised.

A CRM system, which allows you to add opportunities available for increased upselling is a great alternative.
Find out here if Cirrus CRM is right for you!

Upselling vs. Cross-Selling

Upselling is encouraging the customer to pick a higher-end product than the product in question, resulting in higher sales for your company.
Example: Your customer wants to buy a camera. Instead of suggesting the camera the customer initially picked, you instead recommend a camera that comes with an offer of batteries and a memory card. Two extra items which are essential for the camera to function.
Cross-selling means that you sell other products correlating to the product in question.
Example: A customer wants to buy a a new cell phone. You suggest a screen protector and a phone case to go with the new phone. These additional products benefit the customer as they’ll protect the cell phone from damages.

In conclusion, let’s narrow it down in a few steps.

1. Listen to the customer
2. Recognize their needs
3. Present the product
4. Establish the value
5. Sell!