The Many Ways To Cross-Sell And Up-Sell

One of the fastest ways to make more sales is to get your existing clients to spend more with you. Knowing firsthand what it’s like to do business with you, your existing clients are not only easier to convert, they don’t require any additional spend to reach them. Cross-sell and Up-sell your way to success.

Despite this fact, most businesses in the financial services industry (and any industry for that matter) spend up big to generate new clients, forgetting about the “gold” they already have in their databases. Sound familiar?

So how do we get more from our existing clients? We can either cross-sell or up-sell. What’s the difference between them?

Upselling is the practice of encouraging customers to purchase a higher end product than the one in question – for example, Income Protection has a five-year benefit period or a to age 65 year benefit period – upselling would be selling them to age 65 rather than just a five-year benefit period.

Cross Selling

Cross selling invites customers to buy related products so it might be Income Protection and Life Insurance or Life Insurance and Total and Permanent Disablement Insurance, or Insurance plus rolling over their superannuation

While generating new business is essential, it isn’t necessarily the soundest investment to only focus on new business when spending a little time re-engaging your past and current clients can generate you significant returns.

But how do you find ways to upsell and cross-sell your services to get your existing clients or to your new clients?

Build a relationship with clients

As a financial adviser you want to know more than your client’s current financial situation, and future goals and plans. You want to know about their outlook on life, their view and relationship with money, their family and relationships and health and wellbeing. You want to be more than an adviser to your clients; you want to be an ally, and a confidante. You want to know what is important to them and their family and why it’s important.

To do this, you need to be in touch with your clients more than just at regular review times. You need to have multiple touch points that have no other purpose than to chat and find out how they are going, is anything on their mind or has anything changed for them recently. It’s in these touch points, where business is not at the forefront, and people can see that you care that they truly let their guard down.

It’s important to note that this step needs to be genuine. You need to want to get to know your clients and build a relationship with them; it won’t work if this is inauthentic or forced or to salesy.

Uncover you client’s motivations

I often talk about the importance of delving deep into the minds of our clients to truly understand what motivates them, what is important to them and their families and why it’s important to them. When you understand what is important to them and the “why” behind their goal, you will not only get incredible insights into them but you will also know what other opportunities, products and services they need– and most importantly the ones they won’t.

You want to be sure the upsell and cross-sell opportunities you present are both helpful and relevant, then your client will be able to use their past experiences with you as a guide to follow future advice and suggestions.

Set milestone reviews

While you will schedule regular financial reviews with your clients based on timeframes, keep in mind other milestones can trigger the need for additional services.

Milestones like having a family, buying another property, moving job, starting a business and approaching retirement can change your client’s goals, priorities and risk tolerance as well as trigger the need to review loans, insurance, tax strategies and investments. 

Knowing the key stages and milestones will help you and your team to never miss an opportunity to upsell or cross-sell new and existing clients.

What could be better than up-selling or cross-selling? Turning your clients into sales people! Key #6 will show you how you can generate more referrals.

In the meantime, how could you create more opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell?

The video below is a teaser of the workshop I run about delving deeper to understand more about our clients unstated needs.

If you or your business are looking to increase conversions, please contact us at Performance Advisory Group.

Have a great week!

PS – Whenever you’re ready, here are FIVE ways I can help you become a better leader… 

1. Take my FREE masterclass “3 Steps to Leadership Excellence”

A step-by-step roadmap to guide you from wherever you are now on your leadership journey to becoming a truly world-class leader.

2. Read my book “Empowering Employees Through Effective Delegation”

If you lead a team, you need to master delegation. Learn how to delegate effectively and what to do if it all goes wrong.

3. Book a 15-Minute “Discovery Call”

Develop a personalised leadership development plan that will get you results in the next 6 to 12 weeks and beyond.

4. Want to up your Leadership Game to the next level? Register to our Leadership Development Program

Find out more about our Leadership Excellence Program – Equipping leaders wit the necessary skills to lead high performing teams.

5. Take our 3 minute quiz to discover your Top 10 People Leadership Strengths

Thousands of people have taken our quiz and used their strengths to achieve their goals. Take the quiz today and see what you can achieve.