What is Cross-selling?

Cross-selling means getting customers to purchase additional products from a business (also known as "share of wallet"). It's typically an active process, which means, in the context of a call center, that an agent has to make an offer to a customer to purchase add-on products or services, often at a reduced price. Cross-selling works best when customers are offered products that are complementary to the one(s) they have purchased.

Catalogers are often heavy users of cross-selling strategies. For example, a women's clothing cataloger may try to sell customers accessories from a predesignated list when they call to place an order. Similarly, agents may offer warranties to callers who purchase phones or small appliances. Cross-selling should not be confused with up-selling, which is the process of selling customers a more expensive item than they originally intended to purchase, say a fine leather jacket instead of a cotton hoodie. Not only is successful cross-selling good for revenue, but getting customers to purchase more products can increase brand loyalty.

Cross-selling in practice

Some agents struggle with cross-selling because they think it's pushy. This, and other agent objections, can be overcome with a well-executed rollout that includes training as well as role-playing. Agents also benefit from listening to call recordings in which other agents model successful cross-selling techniques. Additionally, cross-selling efforts can gain from offering individual or team incentives. Even if there are no incentives, businesses should measure cross-selling results and make the information visible on the call center floor.


How NICE is Redefining Customer Experience

NICE CXone is the industry’s only interaction-centric platform where channels, data, applications, and knowledge converge to improve customer experience at scale.

It is the leading, most complete and unified CX Platform on the market, used by thousands of organizations of all sizes around the world to help them consistently deliver exceptional customer experiences. CXone is a cloud native, unified suite of applications designed to help you holistically run your call (or contact) center operations.


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