Did you know Design Inc is now part of the Moore-Wilson group? The acquisition by Moore-Wilson at the end of 2022 has brought additional specialist marketing solutions to our stall and, slowly but surely, through our ongoing cross-selling activities, these services have been introduced to and adopted by many of our existing clients.
To further introduce our new services, first we thought we would write this short blog about cross-selling. However, if you would simply like to see the full list of marketing solutions we now offer as part of the Moore-Wilson group, feel free to scroll to the bottom of this page.
WHY CROSS-SELLING MATTERS
We’ve all walked into a fast food restaurant to be asked: “Do you want fries with that?”. It’s an effective sales strategy marketed via one simple question. And, do you know what – this simple question has been proven to increase the average order value by 20-40%. You may have only wanted a burger but you have ended up with a burger as well as some fries. And, probably a drink too – to wash down those salty fries! No hard sell, no pushy salesperson selling something you don’t really want but rather an easy solution that benefits both parties.
Cross-selling is a marketing strategy that involves selling additional products, services and solutions to existing or potential customers. And whilst there are many benefits of doing so, the goal is primarily threefold:
1. to offer / provide a more comprehensive solution to a customer’s needs
2. to strengthen the business and brand relationship between the client and provider
3. to increase revenues through increased business
And whilst the fast food scenario is all too common, we are all faced with multiple cross-selling opportunities everyday. And, it doesn’t require a salesperson to influence the sale either – just consider e-commerce sites, for example. We have all see the “customers also bought” section when you shop on Amazon. That’s a very subtle but effective way of influencing the purchase of additional items.
There are other similar solutions online. Book a flight ticket via an airline’s website and you will also be directly offered hotel accommodation, car hire, travel insurance, transfers. No doubt, if you wanted those services, you could have sourced them yourself but, the fact of the matter is that here, you can get them all in one place, therefore saving you time and, more often than not, money. But, even if you didn’t opt for these extras at this time, the airline has planted the seed – making you fully aware (for next time) they are able to offer these other services.
CROSS SELLING IS NOT UPSELLING
Cross-selling is selling additional, non-related products. For example, selling fries with a burger.
Upselling is selling an ‘improved’ version of the same product. For example, being sold a Large drink when you came in for Regular.
From a business strategy standpoint, both cross-selling and upselling have different impacts:
Whilst upselling is ideal for B2B marketing, it is rare for cross-selling to be used for B2B marketing – primarily due to the fact companies tend to retain their core services. However, this is not always the case.
Consider for example, the scenario where a business has undergone a merger or acquisition. This can present the business with new products & solutions that they were not offering to begin with. And where a company’s new services offer synergies to their existing services (which, to be fair, is often the case with a merger) the potential benefits to the existing customer are many.
Furthermore, mergers enable businesses to gain access to each other’s (loyal) audience, a much more streamlined approach than chasing after new, cold customers.
FIVE KEY STEPS TO BUILD A CROSS-SELLING STRATEGY
1. Understand your customers and their needs
The more you understand your customers and their requirements, their behaviours and preferences, the better placed you will be to know whether the cross-sell would be a good fit for them. Take a look at their account history, what services you have supplied to them. How has this changed over time.
2. Get familiar with the new services
The more knowledgeable and informed your client-facing team are about your new products & services, the better. More importantly, know how they further benefit the client when working alongside the original service.
3. Develop cross-selling techniques
For cross-selling to work best, the new product or service should complement the original item and should be easy to explain. The new solution does not need to work alongside the original but the benefits of ‘buying’ this service should be clear. Think about why the new products/services can specifically benefit your customer.
4. Identify opportunities
You’ll know there’s an opportunity to cross-sell when:
a) the customer shows an interest in the new product / service
b) you know there’s a needOf course, it does not do any harm to start planting the seed long before the opportunity should arise. Use marketing techniques to make the client aware of the other products / services.
5. Know the right time to cross-sell
The best time to approach the customer is when it makes sense to do so. However, as mentioned previously, cross-selling can be as subtle as advertising the new solutions within your day-to-day marketing (website, eShots, etc).
CROSS-SELLING MARKETING SOLUTIONS
All this leads us neatly back to Design Inc. In early 2023, the company underwent an acquisition by Moore-Wilson – a digital agency with a specialism in advanced web development, hosting solutions, search marketing and digital marketing campaigns. More recently, Moore-Wilson has acquired another company, this time a specialist e-commerce agency called Screen Pages
Because of this, all businesses in our group now offer many more services to our customers, helping us forge stronger relations with our clients and helping our clients reduce the time and cost they spend sourcing these other services. More importantly, with us providing specialisms in more marketing disciplines, we are even better placed to offer a more valued ‘joined-up marketing’ approach.
Ensuring our clients are aware of the additional services and the benefits they bring is just one part of our marketing. It has also been just as important to select the most appropriate time & platform from which to introduce them.
OUR CORE SERVICES
Design Inc is part of Moore-Wilson. Our core services now cover:
Design Services (creative design & artworking of all the following marketing assets):
Marketing Strategy (planning, positioning, research, PR)
Branding (brand naming & identity, packaging, guidelines)
Advertising (print, digital and OOH, direct mail, point of sale)
Literature (design & print of brochures, newsletters, magazines, business reports)
Digital Marketing (SEO, email marketing, social media, content marketing)
Web Services (web & app development, e-commerce, dedicated hosting solutions)
Experiential (exhibition stand design & build, presentations, video)
Whatever marketing services you require, we are here to help. We look forward to hearing from you.
