Marketing of products and services is an art which few people can master and when you talk about various marketing techniques than cross selling is one of those techniques which requires expertise on the part of the person doing marketing. Cross selling in simple words refers to that technique in which marketer induces a customer to buy additional products related to that which the consumer is already buying. In order to understand this concept better one should look at the various features of cross selling –
Cross Selling Features
Product should be Related
The first and foremost feature of cross selling is that the product which company is planning to cross-sell with the main product should be related because if products are not related than chances of a consumer buying the product are less. Hence for example, if in a bank you try to cross-sell cosmetic products or fashion item than it will not be successful, however, if the bank sells mutual funds and insurance policy along with their regular offerings than chances of the bank being successful in cross selling is more.
Persuasion is Required
Another feature of cross selling is that customer will never purchase these products themselves rather a company has to persuade customers to purchase these products. Hence in the above example, a person going in the bank will never ask about mutual funds or insurance policies rather it is the bank which has to take initiative and persuade its present customer to purchase mutual funds or insurance policies from the bank.
Lower Price than Main Product
The price of products which a company is trying to cross-sell is lower than the price of the main product. The rationale behind such a strategy is that customers have already used the majority of money in purchasing the main product and he or she cannot afford to spend heavily on the purchase of other products. Hence for example, if a customer has bought a laptop from electronics shop than electronics shop owner cannot sell another expensive item but he or she can surely sell accessories like a printer, headphones, Bluetooth device and so on.
Enhancement in use of Main Product
Another feature of cross selling is that it should lead to total enhancement in the use of the main product because if that is not the case then chances are consumer will not buy the product which company is trying to cross-sell. Hence for example if the electronic shop owner is trying to sell keyboard or mouse to the customer who has purchased laptop than it may not turn out to be right strategy as laptop owner do not need mouse or keyboard rather he or she will happily take headphones or printer as they enhance overall experience of the consumer purchasing laptop.
Purchased with Main Product
Cross selling can be done when consumer is purchasing the main product because once customer has purchased the product and gone then there is no way the company can cross-sell the product because in cross selling the basic premise on which company depend is customer making impulsive decision to buy the product on the spot together with main product which company is selling.
As one can see from the above that cross selling has special characteristics and any company thinking of trying to cross-sell their products should carefully read above features and then only decide whether to cross-sell their products to the consumers or not.