Are You Losing Revenue Because You’re Not Cross-Selling?

Have you ever stumbled upon a niche website, and thought to yourself, “How do these guys stay in business? There can’t be more than a handful of people in the world who want their products!”  It’s a fantastic question, because niche markets are some of the most lucrative around, despite the fact that they are, by definition, very small.

When a niche business needs to increase revenues, it is not going to go looking for new customers, because frankly, there aren’t that many out there.  Instead, it will rely on selling more to its existing customers.  There are a couple of ways to do this.  One is by offering exceptional customer service.  Another is through cross-selling.

Cross-selling is defined as selling an additional product to an existing customer, and it is the ideal way for any small business, not just niche businesses, to make more money without increasing their marketing costs.

There are a number of reasons to cross-sell, and the foremost is that it’s cheap and easy.  Because cross-selling is happening to customers that you already have, you can do it on your own properties without paying for advertising.  You can do this on your website by promoting products other than the one the customer’s currently looking at.  You can do it on the receipt of the product that the customer has already purchased.  If you report on a service, you can cross-sell in a report (“With product A, you are currently getting X.  If you purchase product B, you will also get Y.”).  If you have a mailing list, you can cross-sell on your mailing list.  The ways are virtually unlimited, and their costs are all negligible.  The process is easy because you’re not going out looking for new customers.  You’re targeting the ones right in front of you.

Cross-selling is further facilitated by the fact that your existing customers already like you.  You know this because they have purchased your product.  If they did not like you (or your product as the case may be), they wouldn’t have bought it in the first place.  It is far easier to sell to a customer who is already familiar with you and likes your products enough to have purchased them in the first place than it is to market to someone cold.

Cross-selling also allows you to open your customer’s eyes to additional opportunities that they may have never considered before.  When cross-selling, the only rule should be that the products you are trying to push on your customers should be at least marginally related to what they originally purchased.  If the product is in no way related to the original purpose, you’re no better than a spammer.  If, however, the product is identical to what you’ve already offered the customer, he either won’t be interested because he already has one, or you’ll cannibalize an existing sale because he’ll simply switch from one product to another.  As such, when cross-selling, the key is to promote a product that is related without being identical.  Sold a car?  Promote maintenance packages.  Signed a landscaping contract?  Promote your snow removal services.  Design websites?  Promote your marketing offerings.  An easy way to accomplish this is if you have sold a product, promote a service, and vice versa.

Some businesses are hesitant to cross-sell to their customers because they fear it might come across as too pushy. Your customer’s already given you cash, should you really continue to bother him?  Maybe you’ll annoy him and he’ll never come back.  While that concern isn’t entirely unfounded (I ordered a shirt from Armani Exchange for a friend, the ensuing deluge of promotional offers I received in my inbox made me vow never to purchase anything from them ever again), in most instances, cross-selling is actually seen as a service by the customer, especially if done well.

Consider for example, Amazon’s “Frequently Bought Together” and “Customers Who Bought This Also Bought” sections.  These sections which are presented as friendly suggestions are fantastic cross-selling tools.  I have found many great books from these sections, and while I recognize that it’s Amazon trying to get more of my business, I genuinely appreciate the quality suggestions that are given in these areas.  Below are some of their suggestions given on the page for one of my favourite novels, On the Road by Jack Kerouac (affiliate link). If you’re a Kerouac fan, you’ll probably want to read those books.



In short, if you’re not cross-selling to your advertisers, you’re missing out on an easy way to increase revenues with little effort, and little costs, which has the nice side effect of offering a valuable service to your customers.  Cross-selling is possibly the greatest sales technique ever created.