I was doing a newsletter suitability audit for a client a while back. I was talking to them about cross selling and the cross selling grid. Selling products and services that you already provide to clients who haven’t bought those products from you yet.
You’ve probably seen it before. But for those of you who have no idea what I mean, here is an example:
| Client Name | Product A | Product B | Service C | Service D |
| Client 1 | Y | X | O | Y |
| Client 2 | Y | O | Y | O |
| Client 3 | O | Y | X | O |
| The Rest of your clients… |
Key:
Y- Bought it
X – No need/opportunity to buy it
O – There is an opportunity for them to buy it.
Firstly, just by completing this exercise you have a fighting chance to sell as much as you humanly can to each and every client.
Secondly, it also informs a lot of your newsletter content plan. If the above grid is indicative of their client list as a whole then you can start to make some conclusions about what you should include in your newsletter – advertorials about ‘Service D.’ 66% of their clients have an opportunity to use service D. I’d be educating my clients about the benefits of service D more than the other offerings just because there is more opportunity there.
You Have Got To Be Ruthless About Targeting Opportunity.
Targeting the largest, most numerous and most profitable opportunities in your list/database is the single best way to boost your profits without adding products and services.
So there is no point targeting a $20,000 opportunity when you could be targeting a $50,000 opportunity.
There is no degree of difficulty bonuses when it comes to making money.
So be sure you are targeting the best opportunities.
The cross-selling grid determines where the opportunities exist in your existing customer base. Go after them with a plan rather than leaving your existing customers victims of ‘random acts of marketing.’