"Cross Selling 101: What It Is and How to Do It Successfully Chances are your company sells more than one service or product. If you want to get your customers interested in purchasing more from you, it is important to understand cross selling. Check out this guide to help you start getting more of your products off the shelves and into your customers’ hands. What Is Cross Selling? If you have ever purchased a product because a salesperson recommended it based on another product you bought, you know what cross selling is. Cross selling is popular in a wide range of industries due to how easy and effective it is. However, it is most common among financial services and insurance services. Insurance agents who are effective cross sellers can bring in significantly higher profits. The practice first became common in financial services in the 1980s. How to Cross Sell Your Products and Services There are several cross selling techniques that most business owners use. Most business owners begin by segmenting their customers. You may consider doing this based on their location, gender or age. This helps you determine attitude, beliefs and other important demographics. From there, you can create a strategy for cross-selling that is relevant to the demographic. For example, you may find that couples in their 30s or 40s are more likely to own their homes and cars and be in need of home and auto insurance. You can cross sell them together. Couples in their 20s could still need more than one product, too, but the products may be different. Many people in their 20s own cars but rent homes, which means you can sell auto insurance and renters’ insurance together. Another is the balance sheet view. This cross selling method involves creating weekly, monthly or quarterly targets that add to the value of customer-business relationships. Achieving these targets not only provide more value to the customer but also create higher profits for the business. Another method is to create more focused customer growth goals. Many new business owners mistakenly believe that casting a wide net brings in bigger leads. In reality, casting a wide net is likely just costing advertising money. Instead, focus on high-value customers you already have. If someone spends a lot of money on one type of product or service, consider which of your other products or services may be beneficial to them and focus on selling those ones. As you learn how to cross sell or upsell — the art of convincing your customer to purchase a more expensive, upgraded version of their current product, you'll find methods that work and methods that don't. The goal of any successful cross seller should be to create a repeatable model. You've heard the old adage ""if it ain't broke, don't fix it,"" and that is true even in cross selling. Once you find something that works, stick to it. One way you can make your cross selling more effective is to build comprehensive customer profiles. Increased computing power and the power of social media and Google searches allow you to find information about your customers that spans years. You can use this internal and external data to create more useful customer profiles that show how your customers are purchasing and using products as well as how they are changing their shopping habits over time. This allows you to create more effective cross selling strategies. Finally, you just need to get out there and get started. Sure, new data systems or CRM software are excellent in helping you cross sell but they aren't requirements. Use your existing internal databases to get started and contact your best customers. Superior Access is an example of one company that can help you cross sell your insurance items. To learn more about its services, click here."