John Senior: Reinvigorating Cross-Selling

The abundance of customer data and the use of advanced analytics have opened new opportunities to grow share of wallet with existing customers. John Senior, a partner with Bain’s Customer Strategy & Marketing practice, discusses how companies can overcome organizational barriers and reap greater returns by investing in their customers.

Read the Bain Brief: Reinvigorate Cross-Selling

Read the transcript below.

JOHN SENIOR: Many companies have historically underinvested in growing their share of wallet with existing customers compared to the investments that they have made in new customer acquisition. And there are now three trends that have converged that make growing share of wallet with existing customers a much more attractive opportunity.

The first is the explosion of customer data and the power of advanced analytics to mine insights from that data to create targeted growth strategies. The second is the investments that many companies have made in digital sales and marketing channels that allow them to have a very individualized and customized interaction with their customers. And the third is the investment in customer loyalty that actually gives companies the permission to cross-sell to their customers.

However, there are many organizational barriers still to be overcome. What we have found is that organizations that have really successfully grown share of wallet with their existing customers have displayed four characteristics.

First, they have taken a balance-sheet view of their customer base rather than a single-year income statement view. Second, they have created dynamic customer profiles upon which they can create very targeted growth strategies. Thirdly, they have aligned their organization around a few very high-value growth missions. And lastly, they have employed forward-looking experimentation techniques and an Agile test-and-learn approach.

We really believe that companies that do these four things will successfully grow their share of wallet with existing customers.

Read the Bain Brief: Reinvigorate Cross-Selling