EXPERT RESPONSE
Philosophically, when sales reps up-sell, they convince your customers to increase the value of their orders (both to you and to them) by:
Moving "up" to a more expensive version of what they're already considering purchasing (e.g., the eight cylinder vehicle instead of the six cylinder)
Adding to their orders with additional vertically related products or services (e.g., The classic, "Would you like fries with that?"; or the extended warranty)
By "vertically related" I mean products or services that enhance or are related to the core or base product. Whereas a cross-sell refers to sales of another product/service type horizontally related (i.e., another type of product/service usually orthogonally related if at all) to what you're already considering. For instance, if you purchase a new vehicle and the dealer encourages you to use the manufacturer's auto financing capabilities, that's a cross-sell. Another example of cross-selling is when you call the reservation center of an airline and at the end of your call the agent asks if you'll need a rental car in your destination city; and if so, she'd be delighted to connect you to one of their car rental partners.
The differences between cross-selling and up-selling are fairly nuanced, which is why many sales reps and marketers talk about "cross-sell/up-sell" as a single discipline.
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