The most effective way of growing your business is by expanding your services to your existing clients. As competition increases in your relevant market, the cost of acquiring a customer is constantly rising and companies have to come up with a way to find new markets within their given customer base.
Cross-selling and Up-selling are a huge part of the retail game because your customers already love you. If they didn’t then they wouldn’t be buying your product in the first place. A study says you’re 14 times more likely to sell to an existing customer then you are to a new customer.
What is Upselling?
Upselling involves encouraging a buying customer to add to his purchases by offering an incentive to do so. For example, a fashion store can offer 30% off on a 3rd shirt for customers buying 2 shirts.
What is Cross-Selling?
Selling a different service of yours to a customer or prospect. For example, a sales representative at an electronics retailer suggests that the customer purchasing a digital camera also buys a memory card.
So how can you implement Upselling or Cross-Selling this festive season?
- Be Result-Oriented: It’s important not to overwhelm your customers with offers. Up-selling and Cross-Selling are limited opportunities so using the right technique is important. Keep in mind, these are your existing customers, so you need to deliver the same quality and standard as before.
- Value: Your clients need to see value in the additional purchase. Using testimonials or customer reviews may go a long way in convincing a customer to take the extra step
- Offer a Discount or Incentive Program: Once you have the client database as well as the product or service that you’d like to sell, you can start the process of upselling or cross-selling. Start by offering a discount to your customers or maybe even a free trial
Conclusion
Upselling/Cross-selling is one of the best tools for a business owner to increase basket size and thereby his sales, and it involves no extra marketing costs. So don’t miss out on this opportunity.
