How to Use Your CRM to Grow Your Business

April 11, 2024 // Mihaela Chiurtu

Expanding business operations stands as a central objective for all organizations. While many focus on generating new leads to achieve this, they often overlook a fundamental resource: their existing customer base.

Fortunately, a customer’s value extends beyond the initial purchase or subscription, paving the way for cross-selling, upselling, renewals, and referrals to drive sustained revenue. Our most recent report revealed that 33% of respondents identified customer service and the creation of upsell/cross-sell opportunities as pivotal aspects of their buying journey over the last five years.

Let’s explore how you can leverage these sales tactics and strategies to boost your business growth and ROI.

Cross-Selling: What Is It?

Cross-selling encourages existing customers to look into and potentially invest in products and services that work in conjunction with the primary purchase. For instance, if one of your customers has already purchased a laptop from your business, cross-selling would prompt them to consider purchasing a headset or mouse compatible with the laptop.

Today’s dynamic market has pushed businesses to develop and retail products that work in tandem with ones already available in their portfolios. While this is a great opportunity to organically boost revenue, many customers also enjoy such initiatives and they can increase CX levels as well. This is a win-win situation for both your customers and your enterprise.

Upselling: What Is It?

On the other hand, upselling strategies prompt customers to upgrading a particular product or service. Any upgrade, enhancement, or premium version of your products/services is an upselling opportunity.

Using Your CRM to Elevate Cross-Selling and Upselling Opportunities

Now that we have established the two selling methods, how can you leverage those without bombarding your customers with phone calls and marketing materials and potentially losing them?

The most effective way is to use a CRM tool and the stored data to better understand your customers’ needs, preferences, and buying behaviors. Based on the provided data, you will personalize your messaging and what products or services you are offering to elevate and enhance their experience.

1. Segment Your Customers

Customer segmentation is one of the best ways to leverage your CRM to aid your cross-selling and upselling opportunities. You can segment existing customers into different groups based on demographics, browsing behavior, feedback, loyalty, and purchase behavior. A good example would be to segment existing customers into new, repeat, and loyal customers and start from there to grow your cross-selling and upselling strategies. Another segmentation tactic that would help similar initiatives would be to segment your customers based on product preference, purchase frequency, and average order value. With your CRM’s help, you can target each audience segment with relevant information, marketing materials, and product recommendations.

2. Look Into Data

Analyzing your customer’s CRM data is critical for tailoring your offers, messaging, and delivering products and services that resonate with their needs. Your CRM tool compiles essential information about customers from diverse channels and touchpoints, such as marketing interactions, website activity, social media engagement, email correspondence, and chat interactions. Your CRM can then interpret the data it gathers and extract insights and patterns, especially in the presence of an AI-enhanced CRM. As always, data is an excellent source to make pertinent recommendations to your clients when the timing is right.

3. Build Customer Relationships Across Multiple Channels

A CRM is the perfect tool to engage with customers across multiple channels. If properly used, your CRM can integrate with and synchronize various communication channels. Omnichannel communication allows customers to start conversations on their preferred platform and effortlessly switch between these channels without worrying about lost information or details. Use your CRM’s email, SMS, social media, or web analytics to track behaviors and needs. Then, with the same CRM, you can automate and personalize your upsell and cross-sell campaigns and messaging to deliver your messaging more effectively. Whether discussing abandoned cart messages or offering them a discount for your premium services, a CRM is the right tool to identify the best accounts you can act upon and automate your initiatives.

4. Monitor and Optimize

Once you start cross-selling and upselling journey, you need to keep a close eye on your results. The best way to manage this is by leveraging your CRM. Some metrics you need to be mindful of are conversion rates, revenue per customer, customer lifetime value, and retention rates. These will help you better understand the success of your initiatives. Based on the data provided, you can continuously adapt and adjust your strategy to increase these KPIs. One of the best ways to use your CRM to improve your cross-selling and upselling techniques is to A/B test different offers, messages, and channels and decide which works best for your particular case.

5. Build a Loyal Customer Base

Your CRM is the perfect tool to boost customer loyalty through loyalty programs, incentives, rewards, and offers. Integrating it with a Customer Service automation system allows you to provide stellar experiences to your customers, even when they face difficulties using your products, services, etc. Your CRM can also gather feedback and recommendations to improve your products and services. Plus, a thank-you note on your customers’ anniversaries to show appreciation never hurts when it comes to customer experience.

Building customer trust can boost satisfaction levels, retention rates, and, most importantly, brand advocacy.

6. Leverage Generative AI to Elevate Your Process

Some CRM vendors have started to include generative AI capabilities within their solutions. This means that more enterprises have the ability to leverage cutting-edge technology to support their upselling and cross-selling initiatives.

Before starting to use similar technologies to aid your cross-selling and upselling strategies, you need to set clear goals. First, establish what you want to achieve though your upselling and cross-selling activity:

Customer Lifetime value
Boost average order value
Increase retention rates
Boost the referral rate of your customers

Once you establish what your goals are, set up metrics and KPIs that will help you track progress. A clear goal and tracking metrics will help you ensure better organizational alignment with global business objectives and goals, while helping you create targeted and impactful campaigns that will help you achieve your cross-selling and upselling goals.

With the help of generative AI, you’ll be able to spot and report on buying patterns, predict customer needs, and accurately personalize buying recommendations. It will also help you spot the best moments to reach out to customers with similar offers. Based on their engagement levels, satisfaction and buying readiness, generative AI paired with AI reporting and tools can recommend customers that are more likely to engage with similar offers and even provide sales scripts, email body, and adequate content to support such initiatives.

Generative AI infused CRM solutions will help you:

Quickly find answers and solve problems, which results in happier, more engaged customers
Summarize customer case histories for a full view of their interactions
Create user guides for onboarding and assistance purposes, which increases your upselling and cross-selling opportunities in the future
Enhance the level of personalization of your messaging, based on past interactions and customer histories
Leverage smarter segmentation
Leverage ready-made call scripts
Build enticing email and sales copy
Generate personalized proposals in your upselling and cross-selling interactions

If you want to learn more about how you can use your CRM to support your growing business, watch our Sugar Enterprise: CRM That Keeps Up with Your Growing Needs video or get in touch with us!