To cross sell means to offer related or complementary products or services to an existing customer based on what they’ve already purchased or shown interest in. The goal is to increase the overall deal value while helping the customer solve additional problems or unlock more value.

Cross-selling is commonly used in SaaS, e-commerce, and account management to expand customer accounts, drive retention, and improve lifetime value.

Cross-selling is often confused with upselling, but the two are different:

• Cross sell = recommend different but related products/services
• Upsell = encourage an upgrade to a higher-tier or more expensive version of the same product/service

Examples of cross-selling include:

• A platform offering a reporting add-on to a customer using its core CRM tool
• An e-commerce store suggesting a laptop sleeve after a customer buys a laptop
• A scheduling tool prompting users to upgrade with calendar integration or analytics