What company doesn’t recognize the growth opportunities that probably are available within existing accounts? How many companies have been able to turn this idea into a fruitful productive source of growth? Research shows that less than 4% of sales executives report acceptable to excellent results from their cross-sell and upsell activities. Identifying the sources of friction is an easy manner. The tactics and strategy to mine this resource are available but often ignored or unknown to the executives leading the sales organization. Let’s dissect the issues and blueprint the correct approach.

It starts with three questions:

In each question, we’ll first look at the most common impediments then look at what extensive research has revealed as the right approach.

What Job Role has Primary Upsell/Cross-Sell Responsibility?

Problem

  • Sometimes, no one has been identified as having primary responsibility at the individual contributor level.
  • Often the responsibility of upselling/cross-selling is assigned to the customer success staff without any training on how to do it.
  • Almost never does the organization prioritize these efforts according to what account most looks like they could want more vs those accounts we want to buy more.

What Works

  • Clearly making the upsell/cross-sell efforts a part of a particular sales job.
  • If the customer success staff is going to lead these efforts, make a clear delineation about when and if the customer success rep is going to sell or identify and pass opportunities. If they are going to pass opportunities, making clear at a tactical level what information warrants passing and how that information is to be conveyed.
  • Grounding those responsible specific to the unique context of cross-sell/upsell opportunities.

What Upsell/Cross-Sell Strategy Works Best?

Problem

  • Not recognizing that there is no reason to believe that because a client purchases a particular solution, they will naturally want to buy other solutions.
  • Not recognizing that there is no reason to believe that because a client purchases a particular solution, they will naturally want to buy more of the same solution.
  • Not accounting for the reality that "changes" in the client’s world are the only things that generate opportunity.
  • Not having those responsible consistently expanding their network of contacts inside an existing account.
  • Not prioritizing cross-sell/upsell pursuits according to where "change" is most prominent and provides fertile ground for such pursuits.

What Works

  • Training reps on how to use a model of complex decision making.
  • Reps who know how to uncover and nurture new relationships inside an existing account by best leveraging the existing account/provider engagement.
  • Reps who know how to uncover and nurture where changes in the client’s world are creating new opportunities and prioritizing pursuits accordingly.
  • Reps who proactively allocate time to such prioritization and pursuit.
  • Employing the best practice activity and outcome metrics to drive performance.

What Indications Should be Uncovered and/or Nurtured to Recognize Where Cross-Sell/Upsell Sales Calories Should be Invested?

Problem

  • Failure to measure the activities and success that reps are achieving.
  • Failure to train reps on the unique application of sales best practices associated with cross-sell/upsell efforts.
  • Failure to recognize that cross-sell/upsell efforts require identifying the appropriate client decision makers and decision centers. These are almost always different than the rep’s current points of contact and/or the decision makers/decision centers that made the original purchasing decision.
  • Failure to recognize that if customer success reps have this responsibility it will often not involve their routine points of contact.
  • Failure for reps to understand how best to leverage the current relationship to open more doors in an existing account.

What Works

  • Training reps to utilize sales best practice but adapting these practices to the cross-sell/upsell effort.
  • Equipping sellers to recognize those accounts where the buyers may most want a solution we can provide and prioritizing these pursuits.
  • Enabling reps and/or marketing to nurture future cross-sell/upsell opportunities which do not currently warrant active pursuit.
  • Setting metrics and expectations with the reps who have cross-sell/upsell opportunities at the activity level and not simply demand results.

In Summary

Looking at current data, it can seem astonishing how poorly most organizations go about cross-sell/upsell efforts. Seldom to executives fail to see the magnitude of opportunities that these efforts can potentially reap. The issue is in how these efforts are organized. Clearly identify who has the responsibility, equip them with the skills unique to these efforts and adopt the correct approach. Doing so always surprises reps, their managers and leadership at how much volume can be produced with generally shorter sales cycles than those associated with acquiring new accounts. It’s not complicated nor difficult, just seldom done correctly.

 

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