More sales with upselling and cross-selling in B2B

You are probably familiar with upselling and cross-selling from the B2C sector. In everyday life, upsells and cross-sells are offered almost everywhere. What has long been practiced in online stores and fast food chains to encourage end customers to make more purchases can also be successfully applied to your business customers. In this article, you will learn how you can make more sales with upselling and cross-selling in the B2B sector.

The difference between upselling and cross-selling

Both upselling and cross-selling pursue the same goal: to increase sales. Both sales techniques are intended to persuade customers to buy even more or to buy a higher-value version of the desired product or service. Upselling involves selling the customer an expensive product and cross-selling an additional product.

How upselling works

When upselling, you sell the customer a more expensive version of the desired product or service. A classic example of such an upsell is the question in a fast food restaurant as to whether you would like to have the large menu for a few euros more. But customers in other sectors also like to be offered a larger or better version of the desired product. In hotels, the next higher room category is offered, in consumer electronics stores the TV with the better resolution and so on. Customers often take up the offer without giving it much thought.

How cross-selling works

With cross-selling, you sell the customer an additional product or service. In the case of a fast food restaurant, a cross-sell would be the additional sale of a Coke, even though you only wanted a burger. In a hotel, the guest is sold a spa visit in addition to the room and in an electronics store, speakers for the TV to make the sound even better. If the cross-selling product goes well with the original product, there is a good chance that the customer will buy both.

How to make more sales with upselling and cross-selling in the B2B sector

Upselling and cross-selling is not only interesting for sales to end customers, but also for sales to business customers. So offer your business customer a higher-quality product during the sales pitch that will generate more sales for you. Explain the advantages of the more expensive version, even in the long term. If your customer doesn’t want to spend that much money, you can always fall back on the cheaper product.

Before the sales talk, think about which other products from your range could be of interest to your customer. Then suggest these to them during the conversation. Also think about services. If you sell alarm systems, for example, offer your customer installation and regular maintenance as well.

So that your customer is not put off by the costs adding up, you can offer them a discount if they buy all the products together. Alternatively, you can also refrain from mentioning the total amount of all products from the outset and offer your customer monthly leasing rates instead. This allows you to present your product, including upsell and cross-sell, in manageable and affordable installments. The products and services thus appear more affordable to the customer. They are more likely to buy and you generate more revenue through upsells, cross-sells and generally more sales.