When people first started selling things many thousands of years ago, no doubt it wasn’t long before someone invented the up-sell and the cross-sell. You know the up-sell drill: you order a burger, fries and a coke and the voice coming through the drive-up speaker asks if you want to super-size your order.
The up-sell – suggesting more expensive item – and its close cousin the cross-sell – suggesting a related item – are practiced everywhere these days. Whether you’re buying a toaster or a DVD player, you can’t check out of a store without being offered an extended warranty. You finish a meal at a fine restaurant and the server wheels over the dessert cart. And let’s not forget all the options available on a new car.
The up-sell and cross-sell have even been automated. Before you click to finalize a web order, often you’ll be prompted with suggestions for alternative or complementary items.
Some on-line merchants are giving the up-sell concept a bad name, particularly some unscrupulous sellers of digital cameras and other electronics. They lure customers in with ultra low prices, then require them to call to confirm their order at which point the hard sell for various accessories begins. Internet discussion boards are filled with e-commerce horror stories of harassment, phony penalty fees and fraudulent credit card charges for those who didn’t cave in to the up-sell.
But the up-sell and cross-sell ideas aren’t inherently evil. It’s just a matter of a seller trying to increase his or her profits by offering the customer a higher value item or additional related items. If done right, the customer feels like the seller was being helpful not abusive.
There are countless up-sell and cross-sell opportunities for growers, and that’s nothing new. When bottled salad dressing was first invented, I’m sure that a grower somewhere started selling it next to his lettuce.
Look around any farmstand (including your own) and you’ll likely find kits for making caramel apples, pumpkin carving kits, cider mulling spices, and pie making ingredients. Holiday time is especially ripe for up-selling. Along with the apples, cider, squash and Christmas trees, many farms offer wreaths, ornaments, gifts, and holiday centerpieces.
It may not be enough to simply display these add-on products. If your staff is trained in helpfully suggesting items that would complement a customer’s order, the chances of a sale increase. If employees can describe the advantages of a superior or extra product, all the better.
The hard sell isn’t really necessary when it comes to produce. Even though consumers are likely to be more jaded about these selling practices today, especially if they have had a bad experience elsewhere, they are surely less likely to be guarded when patronizing a farm and therefore more receptive to point-of-sale suggestions.
For one thing, you’re selling a relatively low-priced product. The decision to buy a bigger pumpkin or some cornstalks to go with it doesn’t represent a major investment for most folks. And visiting a farm is a friendly, enjoyable experience, not stressful like buying a car or a house, for example.
Like all sales, up-selling and cross-selling are all about knowing your products and knowing your customers. What collateral products would your customers find most useful or attractive? What higher-value products could you offer them? How can you suggest a different or additional product without turning a customer off? These are marketing considerations that can be continuously evaluated.
As many business people will say, it’s easier to keep a customer than it is to find a new one. So increasing your sales with existing customers should prove more cost efficient than cultivating new ones. Practicing low-key up-selling and cross-selling will help you do just that.
Copyright 2005 by Diane Baedeker Petit. This article originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Growing Magazine.
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