The black Friday sales caught my attention; I went online to find a pair of Charles Tyrwhitt shoes, found a beautiful dark chocolate pair, and decided to pop into Canary Wharf to try them on first, as finding comfortable shoes can be a challenge – even for men.
They did not have the shoes I chose online in the store, so I tried on a few pairs, selected the Black leather Oxford and joined the queue at the counter.
While waiting to pay, I noticed the range of socks on display and added a few pairs to my order.
The sales assistant, helpful enough, never asked if I wanted a pair of socks to go with my new shoes, a shoe horn or polish. Nothing. He could have been better at cross-selling, which might be due to inadequate training or lack of confidence – who knows?
It got me thinking about how much revenue they were losing, especially as I had already decided to buy the shoes.
Cross-selling is about offering an additional product that could be complementary to your customer’s purchase and should be at least 60% cheaper than the product, like socks with a pair of shoes or batteries for a wall clock.
The benefit is that the customer has already made the sale, and cross-selling provides an opportunity to give more value to your clients and boost your average order value.
McDonald’s with “would you like fries with that?” is one of the most memorable cross-sell examples in the world and is estimated to account for between 15-40% of their annual revenue.
Amazon attributes over 35% of its annual revenue to cross-selling initiatives.
Retail and E-commerce is very different as companies like Amazon have this down to a fine art. Advisory and other Professional Services is another matter, you have to carefully think and plan your strategy.
However, in my view, if you’ve built sufficient rapport and positioned yourself as a Trusted Adviser, cross-selling is almost automatic.
Do you have a cross-selling strategy for your business, and how much extra revenue could you earn if you did?
