While you may not have recognized it, the last time you ordered from a fast food restaurant or went to the post office, there is a good chance you experienced some form of cross-selling or up selling. Cross-selling and up selling are well-established and highly effective marketing practices utilized by a wide variety of industries.
What is cross-selling? It is a proactive, ongoing sales process designed to provide your customers with a full spectrum of your company's products and services. The good news is, cross-selling is one of the most profitable and least risky endeavors a sales rep can undertake.
My first exposure to cross-selling was as a teenager in high school working part-time at McDonalds during summer vacation. Looking back on my brief tenure selling hamburgers, I can still hear my manager's daily refrain; be polite, keep the counter clean and always, always ask if they would like fries with their meal.
A couple of years later while attending college, I took a part-time job selling shoes at the mall. I was paid an hourly wage to sell the shoes but I received a commission whenever I sold any accessory items such as shoe polish, socks or purses. This was my first taste of commission and as a starving college student, I took to cross-selling and up selling like a duck to water.
