Selling should be viewed as the business of providing solutions to your customers’ problems and making the customers happy and satisfied. You the salesperson are the expert with regards to what you are selling and your job is to understand your customers’ needs and fulfill them to the best of your ability, and then some.
So once you have done this and matched the product or service to your customer’s need and gotten the sale, what then?
You up-sell or cross-sell.
Up selling is when you encourage the customer to spend more money for additional features or functionality. They are upping or increasing the amount they are spending with you.
Example: Customer X comes in to buy his daughter a high school graduation present and settles on a beautiful necklace and pendant. The sales person takes the opportunity to let him understand that most girls who buy that necklace love it with the heavier chain so he gets the heavier chain and spends more.
Cross-selling is when the customer makes a buy decision and at the same time is offered items that are related, to perhaps complement the purchase.
Example: Just as customer X gets ready to pay, the salesperson points to a matching set of earrings and tells him that the happiest girls are the ones who get a matched set because they go so well together and makes the girls look so mature and sophisticated.
He reaches deeper into his wallet…
These techniques should be viewed as the salesperson taking the opportunity to make the customer aware of additional features or options to enhance their purchase because, whether it be for a consumer or a business, it increases the benefit of the purchase.
They also should not be viewed as manipulative techniques but rather as a form of increased customer service. You, the salesperson, are the expert on your products and services and are giving informed suggestions and making the customer aware of options that they may not know exist.