About a month ago, a decision was made to replace the house vacuum cleaner that has been around for more than 12 years and get a new one.  After browsing the internet and seeing what the possible options were based on the budget, I visited a known electric appliances retail chain, in order to buy our new electric broom. 

I immediately went straight to the stand with all the vacuum cleaners that were in offer and after spending a good amount of time, I finally identified the “target” and decided to approach the salesperson, that has been already looking at me, for the final discussion.  She started giving extra information for the model that I had in mind, but she offered to show me a more advanced model from the same brand that also had a full kit of extras, including an extension designed for pets (by the way we have two kittens at home that we rescued from the street last October).  This model was more expensive compared to the one that I have seen before, but it came at a special price, as a more updated version was introduced to the market some days ago.

I decided to go for this option, as I thought that it made better sense than my original choice, but before I start heading for the cashier, the sales lady asked me if I would care to buy spare bags for my new vacuum cleaner, offered in packs of five or ten.  With the kittens in mind, I thought that it would be sensible to buy some, so I bought ten of them.  Feeling quite satisfied with my purchase, I finally headed for the cashier. 

As I was driving back home, I thought that the salesperson who served me did a very good job as she managed both to upsell and cross-sell. But what is upselling and cross-selling and why are they important?  In plain words, upselling adds to a purchase by selling an upgraded or enhanced version of the original product to the customer, whereas cross-selling adds to a sale through additional, lateral products that complement the initial purchase.

According to a recent survey from Hubspot, one of the leading providers of CRM platforms worldwide, 72% of salespeople who upsell and 74% who cross-sell say that it drives up to 30% of their revenue.  Therefore, it is evident that the potential of revenue from a customer does not end at the point of sale, but there is a lot of opportunity after the initial purchase.  

In order to be successful at upselling and cross-selling, it is highly important that we know the audience that we sell to and to build out customer journeys, so as to identify the most effective opportunities for both of these actions.  Moreover, we need to have in mind the needs of our clientele and through active listening, to offer solutions to them that map onto our products or services.

This does not mean that upselling and cross-selling are always straightforward, that is why our salesforce needs to be well-trained, in order to understand the “pulse” of the customer and know when he/she will be more receptive to an additional offering.  With the above in mind, I’m quite curious to find out, what happened the last time that you bought a vacuum cleaner!