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Enhancing Upselling and Cross-Selling in Business-to-Business Markets: The Critical Need to Integrate Customer Service and Sales Functions

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Customer Centric Support Services in the Digital Age

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Abstract

Business-to-business firms have recognised the importance and have focused on upselling and cross-selling to customers. However, firms struggle to upsell and cross-sell to customers despite extensive efforts. The customer service function is typically a stand-alone function, responsible for customer service and primarily for upselling and cross-selling to customers in many firms. The authors suggest that deeper integration of the customer service function with the sales function is required for effective upselling and cross-selling. The integration will require reduced boundaries between the customer service and the sales function and increased digitalisation, which enhances data sharing. In addition, supplier firms will need to train their personnel and enhance the customer selection process. This chapter details the issues in upselling and cross-selling in business-to-business markets, develops a framework, and derives implications for theory and practice.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Management Amritsar, Amritsar, India

    Sanket Vatavwala

  2. Indian Institute of Management Indore, Indore, India

    Bipul Kumar

  3. Miami Herbert Business School, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

    Arun Sharma

Authors
  1. Sanket Vatavwala
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  2. Bipul Kumar
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  3. Arun Sharma
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sanket Vatavwala .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Jagdish N. Sheth

  2. MICA, Ahmedabad, India

    Varsha Jain

  3. Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, UK

    Emmanuel Mogaji

  4. IMT Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Anupama Ambika

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Vatavwala, S., Kumar, B., Sharma, A. (2024). Enhancing Upselling and Cross-Selling in Business-to-Business Markets: The Critical Need to Integrate Customer Service and Sales Functions. In: Sheth, J.N., Jain, V., Mogaji, E., Ambika, A. (eds) Customer Centric Support Services in the Digital Age. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37097-7_9

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