Page 96 - Lighting Magazine March 2018

How to
Grow
Your Margins
Using Cross- and Upselling techniques will increase the size of your average sales order, boost gross and net margins, plus grow revenue — all while building the salesperson’s reputation for being an expert.
upseLL, cross-seLL, whaT’s The dIfference?
To maximize results, it is essential to understand how and when to apply the Upsell and Cross-sell in a sales presentation. Since the terms are o en used interchangeably, it is important to learn how they are di erent.
These procedures share several consistencies, aside from adding income to both the top and bot- tom lines of the ledger. To be e ective, these skills must be taught and repeatedly coached until they are a consistent habit that occurs with every sales interaction. Since both of these skills are similar, they have been lumped together and trained as if they were only one skill, but that is far from reality.
Another way Up and Cross-selling are similar is that they o er clients the chance to bene t from the pride of ownership and increased value that the item represents. Providing clients additional options beyond those they are looking for is a base principle of these techniques.
upseLLInG defIned
Upselling is about presenting be er merchandise to a client that is similar to what they are interested in seeing. Once the salesperson discovers what the
BY MARK OKUN
In this era of tightening margins, increased com- petition, and pricing transparency, the teams that utilize a nely tuned sales process will separate themselves from the also-rans. The secret sauce that can plump the bo om line is Upselling and
Cross-selling strategies.
Once a salesperson is skilled in “Sales 101,” the
next level to develop is the Cross and Upselling skill. Those who incorporate these pro t-boosting activi- ties will see improved sales team performance and more signi cant margins.
94 enLIGHTenment Magazine | March 2018
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