Upsell and cross-sell in call centers

  • 5 minutes

The term cross-selling means to sell products in addition to the current product, whether they’re complementary or related. Normally, these cross-sell products complement the product in the shopping basket.

Upselling means to sell something instead of the current product, such as a higher-end replacement. Cross-sell or upsell is configured in released products.

Call center provides capabilities to enhance the order capture experience so that, as sales lines are entered, the user can be prompted to suggest specific upsell or cross-sell products to the customer. These products can then be added to the sales order if the customer agrees. Adding a cross-sell product will add a new line to the sales order, while adding an upsell product will replace the current sales line with the new upsold product.

To use these prompts during call center order entry, the call center must be configured with the Enable direct selling parameter turned on.

Upsell and cross-sell can be defined as basic configurations, or the organization can use a more advanced rules configuration to require additional variables to be true before the upsell or cross-sell item is offered to the customer.

Setting up advanced cross-selling and upselling rules is broken into three components:

  • Variables
  • Conditions
  • Rules.

Variables and conditions define what data elements that the cross-sell and upsell rule is related to and when the rules should be applied.

Identify and set up products for cross-sell or upsell

Use the following procedure to identify and set up products that are eligible for cross-selling or upselling.

  1. Go to Retail and Commerce > Product and categories > Released products by category.
  2. Select the product to which you will add an eligible cross-sell or upsell product.
  3. On the Action Pane, on the Setup tab, select Upsell/cross-sell setup.
  4. In the Upsell/cross-sell items page, in the Linked item field, select the products to be offered as cross-sell or upsell items.
  5. In the Priority field, enter a number that identifies the priority of upselling or cross selling this product. For example, two linked products might be eligible for either upselling or cross-selling: item 101 and item 102. If you have significantly more on-hand inventory of product 101, you might indicate that cross-selling product 101 has priority one because you might want to reduce the inventory count of that product.
  6. Select whether the product is a cross-sell or an upsell product in the Upsell/cross-sell field.
  7. Optional: In the Rule name field, enter the rule that is associated with this product.
  8. On the Script tab, select Add to add a script or note that can be read or spoken during the sale.
  9. Select the Active check box to indicate that the script or note should be shown to the customer service representative during the sales process.