What is up-selling and how is it different from cross-selling?

Up selling is a marketing and sales technique that consists of offering a potential client or customer a product or service similar to the one they want to buy or have bought. In the other hand, Cross selling consists of offering a potential client or client something complementary to the product or service that they want to buy or have bought.

To carry out a successful up-selling you have to take into account some basic factors.

Timing: Online it is included in the product checkout. In the restaurant it can be just the moment of maximum hunger just when the order of the food has been made. The important thing is that you cannot go beyond the few minutes of finalizing the purchase of the main product or service.

Do not be too aggressive: up-selling must always be considered as an optional plus. Despite there are many examples of companies that turn it around (putting more focus on up-selling than on the main product), be aware that it is a relatively aggressive sales technique, so it must be used with care.

Make the purchase as easy as possible: it has to be as simple as clicking a field on the web or answering with "yes". Big chains like McDonalds or Burger King have even made up-selling the default option by selling you a large menu. If you want a medium one (there is not a small one) you have to ask for it. Before they always asked you the question. Only this small change in the buying process should increase revenue considerably.

Here are some examples in which you can up-sell and cross-sell:

- Up selling before adding a product to the cart. Much like how Apple does it.

- Up selling when a customer has already bought. On the thank you page, for example, you can suggest that for X amount of money they can benefit from other things.