Cross Markets Aren’t So Different
For 20 years I have heard the complaint that cross selling, the selling of multiple services to the same client, doesn’t work. There are a number of reasons why cross selling doesn’t live up to expectations. A principal cause was pointed out by David Maister in his book, True Professionalism: people try to do it when there is no apparent extra value to the client from using the same firm for two services. Clients are usually good at figuring this out.
Here I focus on another reason: people treat cross markets as if they are an easier channel to sell through than others. They aren’t.
This false expectation manifests itself in several ways. First, people who don’t know how to sell externally think that, for some reason, they should be able to cross sell. They are the ones who look for an easy way to get business. They may be able to close a deal if a client comes to them, but they don’t know how to go out in the market place and find one. Account teams made up of such people meet monthly to talk about how they will cross sell to a specific client. They then do little to further the cause, meeting again a month later to talk some more.
The misconception that cross selling is easy is also manifested in how people talk about it. Poor cross sellers are quick to tell others what they should be doing, as in “You should be able to get me in there.” They overestimate what colleagues are able to do, as in “You control the client; you should be able to get me an introduction.”
Good cross sellers are good sellers. A good cross seller treats the cross market like any other market. She works hard to service the colleagues she hopes will introduce her to a client. She talks with them often, building trust over time, helping them learn what words to use when introducing her and her service. She finds ways to help them sell their own services, too. She patiently earns their trust and respect. Of all the people she can sell through, she picks out those who know how to sell and are willing to introduce her, not wasting time on those who can’t or won’t. She leaves out should statements, relying on firm and practice management to create an environment that she can cross sell in. In short, she treats the cross market pretty much like she treats any other.
One of the best cross sellers I know, Peter Blatman, who is now with Deloitte Consulting, won over the sales force of the firm he was with at the time. First, he first demonstrated the power of cross selling by bringing in a huge engagement that required many of the firm’s services. He then encouraged his consulting team to earn the respect and interest of the sales force. He got agreement from his team to respond to all calls from members of sales force within 24 hours. Over three years, revenues of his practice from work originating with the sales force shot up from almost nothing to 70 percent. In other words, he put as much effort into the cross market as he would any other he hoped to get business from. And it paid of.
In that respect, cross markets are not so different from any other market.
April 30th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Absolutely right, Ford. And, as Charlie Green taught me when we were writing “The Trusted Advisor”, cross-selling can involve a complex dance of “who trusts whom?” and “can a client’s trust be easily transferred from one of us to another one of us?”
As you teach, it CAN be done, but it ain’t that easy and, as you say, the same mindsets and skills (the ability to earn trust) apply in both “new client” and “cross-selling” settings.
May 1st, 2007 at 1:16 pm
When professioinals from different practices within one firm don’t trust each other, as is sometimes the case, why should clients? You have to get your own house in order before openning it to clients.
Both Charlie Green and David Master can be accessed through the blogrole of this site. Charlie writes about trust and has good material on selling and trust. David writes more broadly on the management of professional service firms.
May 1st, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Thanks Ford for the comments. I like your point that “good cross-sellers are good sellers.” To many who are afraid of selling, or looking for a short-cut from the true hard trust work that must be done, cross-selling can look like a great vehicle–a quickie way in, an easy roundabout way.
But if anything, taking advantage of a relationship actually draws down on your investment in the trust bank. A relationsihp with a client who trusts you can build trust even further; or it can destroy it by virtue of trying to short-cut the clients’ trust interests.
October 21st, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Cross Markets Aren’t So Different, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.