Cross-sell

Revenue on a product line the customer did not buy in the prior period. Split into new lines and returning lines. Its gap is the lines similar customers hold that this one does not, valued at their median spend.

DefinitionRevenue on a product line the customer did not buy in the prior period. Split into new lines and returning lines. Its gap is the lines similar customers hold that this one does not, valued at their median spend.

Returning lines first

A line bought before and dropped is a recovery, and easier than a line never bought.

Not blended

Cross-sell plus upsell minus downsell is expansion. Reported as one number, it hides which of the three is happening.

How it is computed

Revenue in this period on a product line the customer did not buy in the prior period, per customer, split into lines never bought and lines returning after a gap.

Example

A customer bought three lines last year and five this year. The two new lines brought $42,000. One of them it had bought two years ago and dropped, so $18,000 is a return and $24,000 is new.

Where it goes wrong

Any growth at an existing customer called cross-sell. Growth on a line already bought is upsell and has different causes.

Articles that use this term

Wallet share and penetration · Education

Adoption by purchase cohort: what institutions that bought three years ago hold now

How an education provider reads its base by first-purchase cohort, from the order history: the institutions that first bought in each year, how many are still customers, what programmes they hold now against what the cohort held at first purchase, the cohorts that expanded and the cohort that stalled, and why a cohort view finds the year something changed in onboarding or product that the renewal rate never explains.

16 Sept 20262 min read Coverage and territory · Tax and accounting

Advisory triggers in the compliance data: the events in a client's accounts that call for a service

How an accounting firm turns the data it already holds from compliance work into an advisory pipeline: the events in a client's filed accounts and returns, turnover crossing a threshold, a first overseas sale, R&D spend appearing, a director's loan, a property purchase, that map to an advisory service, the clients with a trigger and no service, valued at the firm's own fee for that service, and the partner list that comes out each filing season.

16 Sept 20263 min read Wallet share and penetration · Construction and building materials

Category share by trade: plumbers, electricians and builders against their own norm

How a builders' merchant measures each trade account's category basket against the norm for its trade rather than against the branch average: the categories a plumber's account typically buys and at what share, the same for an electrician, a general builder, a roofer, the accounts below their trade's norm in a category they should buy, the value at norm, and why the trade field on the account master is the most valuable column the branch never fills in.

16 Sept 20263 min read Wallet share and penetration

Cross-sell and upsell: measuring each from the ledger so they stop being one number

The difference between cross-sell and upsell, how each is computed from the ledger, cross-sell as new product lines at an existing customer and upsell as more of a line already bought, the norm each is measured against, the two lists they produce, and why blending them into one expansion figure hides which of the two a team is good at.

16 Sept 20262 min read Wallet share and penetration · Commercial banking

Cross-sell measurement for relationship managers: products held against the sector norm

How a commercial bank measures cross-sell per client and per relationship manager from the ledger: the products each client holds, what clients of that sector and size usually hold, the valued gap, and the roll-up that reconciles to the ledger so finance signs it once.

16 Sept 20264 min read Wallet share and penetration · Sports

From season ticket to hospitality: the members who bought once, and the ones who never were asked

How a sports organisation measures the path from its ticketing base to its hospitality and membership products, from the ticketing and hospitality ledgers joined on the customer: season ticket holders who have bought hospitality once, the ones who bought and did not return, the ones who fit the profile of hospitality buyers and were never offered it, the value at the norm of similar members, and the list per fixture of who to invite.

16 Sept 20262 min read