It's not the size of your LinkedIn network that counts it's what you do with it that matters
November 15, 2010Build authority and trust with your customers by talking about your industry ‘Warts and all’
November 19, 2010I am reading Andy Sernovitz’s Word of Mouth Marketing at the moment. It’s a really interesting book full of ideas that you can dip in and out of. For me, it’s not a page turner it’s a thinker, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, one of the things that Andy mentions in the book is understanding the impact of what you do on customers particularly in the area of upselling and cross-selling. These are crucial areas and levers for improving sales, the transaction value, lifetime value of a customer and driving the growth of a business. However, what Andy points out is whether or not you are measuring the potential downside impact of these sort of activities and whether we get caught up in the sales activity and lose sight of the customer.
What I mean is that there are two types of customer….customers that are open to the idea of other things that may help them but there are also others that won’t be. My point here is, are we taking care to monitor the two groups and understand who is in each group.
Why is that important?
If we think about it in this way. For those that are open to the cross-sell and upsell opportunity that is fine but some may be like the people I mention in this post (Are You Not Getting Many Customer Complaints But Are Still Losing Customers?) where they don’t complain to you but go and tell a large number of their friends that you tried to ‘flog’ them extra stuff at the point of transaction and, to them, that just spoiled the whole customer experience.
The danger of the upsell and the cross-sell is that you might get the ‘scrunched up’ nose reaction (check out the picture above). A reaction like this is may not be enough for them to complain because you have done nothing wrong but may be just enough for them to question if they should come back, tell folks about you or tell folks not to buy from you.
Can we easily measure this reaction? Is it important?
Perhaps, a simple question like ‘Would you be interested in hearing about other complimentary products/services in our range?’ might help and might be all that we can do. After all, there is a possibility that things will change and those customers that weren’t open to the cross-sell and upsell one day may be open to it the next. That’s a real challenge.
What do you think we can do to understand whether an upsell or cross-sell is appropriate? Or, should we be paying it any attention at all?
Thanks to bradleygee for the image.
11 Comments
The scrunched up nose danger of the upsell or cross-sell http://bit.ly/9JWbBS
RT @adrianswinscoe: The scrunched up nose danger of the upsell or cross-sell http://bit.ly/djtvI7
Interesting insight – I think a lot of people miss this. There’s a built in cost to any sales or marketing activity that isn’t 100% successful – and that’s the percentage of people who will be truly turned off by even being approached.
One great example of this is in email marketing – so many people/companies send unwanted offers over and over just because the “cost” of doing so is so low. What they fail to recognize is that the hidden cost of strategies like this is enormous!
Thanks for the post!
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your comment and great example of the cost of email marketing, the real cost and the psychology about why people persist with it even though it may be ‘costing’ them so much more.
Excellent addition to the post. thanks 🙂
Adrian
RT @adrianswinscoe: The scrunched up nose danger of the upsell or cross-sell http://bit.ly/djtvI7
Great thoughts Adrian (and I LOVE the scrunched up nose photo!) I think up-sell or cross-sell has to be done authentically, or it’s just another icky salesy pitch (IMHO). Asking is always good, as it puts your customer back in the driving seat…be interested to hear what others may think.
Kate
Hi Kate,
I like the phrase ‘icky’ as it describes how we can make our customers feel if we are not careful.
Great picture, isn’t it?
Thanks for dropping by and adding to the post and conversation,
Adrian
RT @adrianswinscoe: The scrunched up nose danger of the upsell or cross-sell http://bit.ly/djtvI7
Adrian,
If the business culture is based around the transaction rather than the engagement, it is unlikely that the seller will have a concern about weather the buyer is ready for the up-sell conversation. The seller is simply following a process that supports the transaction “$” enrichment, and usually there is some company metric that supports that behavior (carrot-n-stick). Do you remember the movie “Boiler Room” with Ben Afflack? His sermon went something like this: “The sale always happens, it just depends on weather you sold them or they sold you on not buying.” That is the epitome of transaction based selling..
If you are truly interested in doing the right thing for the customer, then you need to be willing to do more with less, you need to be able to say NO, and you have to resist easy targets. Your ability to maximize your customers financial experience before yours, will drive sustained customer value and create long term organic growth.
my .02
Hi Bill,
I wonder if you realise how valuable your .02 is worth.
The Boiler Room example is so true in a transaction based relationship.
What I really like your comment is the advice that you are giving on how to build that long term relationship and particularly to focus on ‘maximize your customers financial experience before yours’. Brilliant!
Great addition to the conversation. Thank you.
Adrian
Adrian,
Thanks for the Kuddos, and likewise:)
Bill