Cross Selling Skills

Cross Selling Skills

Top Line Growth by Selling to Existing Customers
As business people focused on organic growth, a recent marketing study reported that sources of profit breakdown as follows:
60% from existing customers.
30% from targeted new or prospective customers.
10% from business marketing in general.

We have all heard the adage, "the easiest place to make your next sale is where you just made a sale." Add on sales, when done naturally and within the context of the call, creates a true win/win outcome. The CSR or customer contact person gets the quick rush of success, the company gets a high ROI cross sale and the customer is satified with the value added relationship. In a true partnership understanding, customers expect add on or cross selling from representatives when it will meet their needs. Resistance sometimes is experienced when the cross or add on sale is attempted using a script or doesnot match a buying motive of the client. The challenge for client contact personnel is to quickly qualify the client and match a cross or add on product or service that will meet the client's needs. Effective "thinking on their feet" displayed by many successful cross selling professionals is a learned skill through preparation and practice. Keep in mind that a key factor in successful cross selling is a compensation or recognition plan that rewards the desired behavior. In many cases customer contact people will not make the effort if they don't understand what is in it for them to make the effective cross sell proposition.

At the conclusion of this cross selling skills workshop participants will be able to:
Relate to the compelling factors of successful cross selling or add on selling.
Understand motivational needs of customer segments.
Solve customer service issues before asking cross selling qualification questions.
Ask effective, on-target qualifying questions.
Listen well and speak slowly.
Quickly match a need with a cross sell or add on sell product or service.
Present a value proposition based on customer needs.
Refocus resistance to a cross sell or add on sell gently but with persistance.

Establish a Culture of Outstanding Customer Satisfaction
Customer service is all about attitude and communications. Service providers, for the most part, understand what is considered good customer service. In many cases other factors are putting stress on providing good customer service. These stress factors include:

Systemic processes and procedures
Technical limitations
Organizational culture
Relationship with the supervisor/manager
Before embarking on a comprehensive customer service training initiative, evaluate poor customer service causes rather than symptoms. Benchmarking current customer service satisfaction levels is an important step in establishing what areas need to be addressed.

At the conclusion of this customer service skills workshop participants will be able to:
Use behaviors that match those of the customer and avoid stress creating behaviors.
Describe what people remember in a customer service relationship.
Use appropriate telephone and active listening techniques.
Apply a quick fix - risk analysis and the "unintended" consequence.
Craft solutions that satisfy the customer and the organization.
Frame "no" in a way that gives direction.
Clarify the service agreement "contract" with the customer.
Understand internal and external customer stress.
Use techniques to refocus irrational conflict behavior.

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Does your organization experience these challenges?
A team leader has important work to do; he/she needs results and the freedom to do the job but are not authorized to give orders to peers or colleagues whose cooperation is needed.
The Unit VP has asked an employee to direct a project team of contractors that all seem to have their own agendas.
The customer's project managers and engineers assigned to your sourcing program seem to want to make it as difficult as possible; with little cooperation and constant changing of priorities.
The field representative must convince, rather than direct, the franchisee to implement the new program.
In today's business environment you need to quickly persuade others to agree on a course of action that gets results. An effective deal maker knows that differences must be resolved fast and close to the action. Many times one party just hammers for pricing concessions while the other party strives to differentiate through value added solutions.

In addition, it seems that the internal struggle is more difficult than differences with customers because we feel that internal colleagues have the same goals and objectives as we do yet don't always readily understand and apply our suggestions. Therefore the ability to persuade and influence others is key to meeting the organization's objectives.