Today is a terrible day. After many failed attempts to correct the server which kept crash and crash, we finally mediated the problem.

Symtoms:

- Apache crashed every 5 minutes. top command shows a high number of ilde httpd requests (negative priority)

- mySql kept saying too many connections

- Reboot server comes to file system failure. Use fsck to get it back online but problem persits.

Finally:

- Enable http_access log on httpd.conf to see where it is because of DOS attack. It turned out yes. The IP 79.125.40.218 which comes from Amazon data services send out a high number of GET request to our server.

- Ban the IP from httpd.conf : deny from 79.125.40.218. Voila, system is fine again.

We will consider using iptables to more effectively ban ips.

Thanks God. The server is up.

Biethet.com

A very good article from Forbes.com which counters the thinking that customers are king !

The customer is not always right–so fire your wrong ones.

Jackasses have been in the news lately, with President Obama caught on an open mike observing that Kanye West was one after the rapper made a fool of himself at the recent MTV Video Music Awards. Jackasses are always with us in business too. Robert Sutton in his book (using a cruder term for the same sort of person) The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, argues that talented yet disruptive employees always cause more harm than good. He says you need to either reform them or push them out. But what about when it’s not employees but clients who are difficult, who berate your team and make you waste time running around in circles? Should you just suck it up and make sure you hit the quarterly numbers? Or should you fire those customers?

Companies need to exceed the expectations of customers to create brand loyalty, as I wrote in “United Airlines Shows How Not to Run Your Business.” After all, it costs less to sell new products and services to current customers than to acquire new ones. But the old adage that the customer is always right is just plain wrong. Customers are not always right, and you should not always let them run all over you.

That might sound counterintuitive if your company is struggling just to scrape by in this difficult economic time, but you have to get rid of bad clients. Jackass clients, just like difficult employees, can destroy a business by destroying morale and diverting attention from growing the business. Cutting clients isn’t easy, especially if they’re big ones, but companies need to do it more often.

How do you know if you should fire a client? Look for these three signals:

First, too often executives, especially small business owners, spend so much time and energy servicing difficult clients that they’re unable to canvass for new business. Relying on just a few clients is a killer. Basing your whole business on one or two income sources is simply too risky. If you find yourself spending so much time and effort on one difficult client that you’re neglecting your other clients, or if you’re not able to search for new ones, then you know you have a problem.

Keep in mind the 80-20 rule. At most companies, about 80% of the revenue comes from 20% of the clients. If you find you’re spending too much time on an unproductive client, fire them. Analyze where you spend most of your time and effort. You’re likely to learn that you spend the most time on the least important clients. That’s because more important clients already trust you and are therefore easier to please.

Second, remember that if your company is like most, your employees are your greatest asset. A good management team can squeeze profits out of bad products, and a bad management team can kill even the best ideas. The key is to retain your best people. In the long run they will help you make far more profits than the one difficult client who may drive them away.

If your employees look haggard and even the go-getters among them hesitate to take on a new project with a particular client, it’s time to investigate. Sometimes an employee will leave a company because of unhappiness with day-to-day client work, rather than because of bosses or colleagues. This is especially true in service industries like law, medicine and accounting, where one spends more time with clients than with co-workers. It is terrible to work in an environment where the client makes your life miserable and your boss fails to back you up. Everybody wants to work in a humane environment where they feel valued and supported.

Bad morale also exhausts employees and makes them unable to think clearly and plot the best courses for future success.

Finally, life is short. While we all have to put up with difficult situations and people sometimes, you can’t let chronically difficult clients affect the health and well-being of your family. If your kids or significant other tell you you’re especially grumpy, then think about whether a client is causing your stress, and whether that stress is worth it. Most of the time it isn’t.

High-paying jobs and the resulting benefits like vacation homes, jewelry and gadgets are great, but at the end of the day, always remember why you work so hard.

Google co-founder Larry Page provides several tips for entrepreneurs.

Tip 1: Just don’t settle.  Especially with employees, it is very important to find great people you are compatible with.

Tip 2: There is a benefit from being real experts.  Experience pays off.

Tip 3: Have a healthy disregard for the impossible.  Stretch your goals.

Tip 4: It is OK to solve a hard problem. Solving hard problems is where you will get the biggest leverage.

Tip 5: Don’t pay attention to the VC bandwagon. Don’t start a company just because you can.  Instead, have a really good idea that is good regardless of the funding situation.

- Install Mysql:http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/04/13/installing-web-server-in-freebsd-60-with-apache-22-mysql-50-and-php-5-part-3/

- Install apache: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/04/13/installing-web-server-in-freebsd-60-with-apache-22-mysql-50-and-php-5-part-4/

- Install php; http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/04/14/installing-web-server-in-freebsd-60-with-apache-22-mysql-50-and-php-5-part-5/

- Memcache: http://code.google.com/p/memcached/wiki/FAQ#How_can_I_install_memcached?

It took me almost sleepless nights begging Google for the answer on the installation of PHP and Apache.

The error in /var/log/httpd-error.log was as simple as this:

[warn] Session Cache is not configured [hint: SSLSessionCache]

when Php is not installed, Apache worked fine. I had tried to uninstall and reinstall many times but no avail. At last, the savor is :

vi /usr/local/etc/php/extensions.ini
#extension=recode.so (check it marked)
/usr/local/sbin/apachectl start

Why the hell did I compose recode with php-extensions.

Thanks to : http://chris-jan.blogspot.com/2008/08/freebsd-apachesession-cache-is-not.html

Implement these building blocks to create a successful campaign.

As marketing continues to change, the secrets of guerrilla marketing continue to change. There are 18 guerrilla marketing secrets, and they guarantee you will exceed your most optimistic projections.

Memorize these words, then live by them. I’m giving you a memory crutch so that you’ll never forget these major guerrilla marketing secrets. All these words end in “-ent.” Run your business by the guerrilla concepts they represent and reap the rewards.

Commitment
You should know that a mediocre marketing program with commitment will always prove more profitable than a brilliant marketing program without commitment. Commitment makes it happen.

Investment
Marketing is not an expense, but an investment–the best investment available in business if you do it right. With the 18 secrets of guerrilla marketing to guide you, you’ll be doing it right.

Consistent
It takes awhile for prospects to trust you. If you change your marketing, media and identity, you’re hard to trust. Restraint and repetition are two great allies of the guerrilla.

Confident
In a nationwide test to determine why people buy, price came in fifth, selection fourth, service third, quality second, and, in first place, people said they patronize businesses in which they have confidence.

Patient
Unless the person running your marketing is patient, it will be difficult to practice commitment, view marketing as an investment, be consistent, and make prospects confident. Patience is a guerrilla virtue.

Assortment
Guerrillas know that individual marketing weapons rarely work on their own, but marketing combinations do work. A wide assortment of marketing tools is required to woo and win customers.

Convenient
People know that time is not money–it’s far more valuable than money. Respect this by being easy to do business with and running your company for the convenience of your customers, not yourself.

Subsequent
The real profits come after you’ve made the sale, in the form of repeat and referral business. Non-guerrillas think marketing ends when they’ve made the sale. Guerrillas know that’s when marketing begins.

Amazement
There are elements of your business that you take for granted, but prospects would be amazed if they knew the details. Be sure your marketing reflects that amazement.

Measurement
You can potentially double your profits by measuring the results of your marketing. Some weapons hit bull’s-eyes. Others miss the target. Unless you measure, you won’t know which is which.

Involvement
This describes the relationship between you and your customers–and it is a relationship. You prove your involvement by following up; they prove theirs by patronizing and recommending you.

Dependent
The guerrilla’s job is not to compete but to cooperate with other businesses. Market them in return for them marketing you. Set up tie-ins with others. Become dependent to market more and invest less.

Armament
Armament is defined as “the equipment necessary to wage and win battles.” The armament of guerrillas is technology: computers, current software, cell phones, pagers, fax machines. If you’re technophobic, see a techno-shrink.

Consent
In an era of non-stop interruption marketing, the key to success is first to gain consent for your marketing materials and market only to those who have given you that consent.

Augment
To succeed online, augment your website with offline and online promotion along with constant maintenance of your site.

Content
Don’t believe that old adage, “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” Sophisticated consumers these days know the sizzle from the steak and prefer the steak every time. Your substance, not your style, will carry the day for you.

Implement
It’s not enough for you to know these 18 secrets. The key is to take action on them, all of them.

Congruent
Be certain that all your marketing is saying the same thing and pulling in the same direction. Don’t undermine what you do with marketing that marches to the beat of a different strategist.

These concepts are the reason many startup guerrillas now run highly successful companies. They are the cornerstone of guerrilla marketing. They might look like just words, but each one is nuclear-powered and capable of propelling you into the land of your dreams.

Jay Conrad Levinson is the author of the Guerrilla Marketing series of books, the most popular marketing series in history with 15 million sold, now in 49 languages. At his GuerrillaMarketingAssociation.com and his gmarketing.com websites, you’ll find profit-producing ideas plus a list of 200 guerrilla marketing weapons.

Forget the ABCs you learned in grade school. This entrepreneurial alphabet has the terms you need to know to help your new business succeed.

ngel investor: It’s easy to believe in angels when you find one who’ll open his checkbook to finance your business. Angel investors typically fork over their own dough to help smaller companies get started. They often invest in companies that are too small or risky for venture capitalists to take seriously. Some angels take an equity stake, while others simply want their money back plus interest once the business takes off.

usiness plan: Want to woo investors, or simply keep your business on course? You must have a good business plan. It doesn’t have to be lengthy, but it does have to define your idea, map out business operations and predict potential. Oh, and it needs to clearly show much moola you’ll need to get your business going and keep it growing.

affeine: Whether it’s a supersize cup of joe or a stash of energy drinks, a little bit of caffeine can help you get through those long 50-, 60- or 70-hour work weeks.

ebt: While bootstrapping is admirable, don’t rule out debt financing, says finance expert Bob Low, author of Accounting and Finance for Small Business Made Easy. “Sometimes [borrowing is] the best way to get the money you need to grow.” That may mean borrowing against assets or simply floating expenses on a line of credit. Just watch that your debt load doesn’t get too heavy for your cash flow and profit margins to carry.

quipment: Efficiency is essential, so don’t skimp on equipment, especially if it will save you and your staff time or money. Read trade journals to keep up on innovations that may help one person do the work of two–without having to put a cot in the back office.

inancial statements: Read them. Learn them. Live them. If you’re not reviewing your financial statements on a regular basis, says Low, you’re likely missing important information about your company’s performance.

rowth: Growing too fast can be hazardous to your business health, says small-business consultant Carol Frank, author of Do As I Say, Not As I Did! Gaining Wisdom in Business Through the Mistakes of Highly Successful People. Growth for growth’s sake isn’t very smart. You need to make sure you have the financing that growth requires and that your foundation is in place so you can accommodate that growth. That’s the time to make your business bigger.

uman capital: This is a fancy way of saying “employees,” but it’s a good idea to start thinking of the people you employ as real assets. Seek out the best and invest in them.

deas: From creative marketing to innovative new products, you need great ideas in order to be successful. Be ready to capture them when they emerge, whether by keeping a small recorder in your car or having a water-soluble marker available to write them on your bathroom wall. After all, don’t most people get their best ideas in the shower?

oint venture: If two heads are better than one, two companies must be unstoppable, right? Sometimes. Alex Hiam, a small-business consultant and author of Marketing Kit for Dummies, estimates that 1 in 5 joint ventures works out. “The kinds of partnerships that work best are those where the companies are at a different level in the distribution channel,” Hiam says. For instance, a manufacturer and a distributor would share the profits of a product they jointly get into the marketplace.

nowledge: Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to your business. You need to do your homework by researching your market category and the opportunity it holds, as well as finding out as much as you can about starting a business in general. Industry associations, trade publications, government websites like census.gov and sba.gov, and even your local library can all provide important information to get you started on the right foot.

enders: Going in on bended knee won’t work. What lenders really want to see is your ability to repay the money you borrow. So work on polishing up that credit rating–both business and personal–and come in with solid sales and cash-flow projections backed by industry research.

arketing: Sometimes, promoting products and services seems like an easy place to cut back, but that’s the worst idea, says Frank. “Out of sight is out of mind. The last thing you want is to be out of your customer’s mind when you’re trying to find new business.” Instead, look for low-cost methods, such as e-mail marketing, contacting your best customers with special offers and seeking out publicity opportunities.

ame: What’s in a name? Perhaps a cease-and-desist letter. Before you slap your business or product name on expensive stationery, packaging and marketing materials, check out whether it’s been trademarked by going to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website, uspto.gov, as well as conducting an internet search and consulting your attorney.

perations: Be a smooth operator by setting up solid business practices. Be clear about your business hours, policies and procedures, and communicate them well so that both customers and employees know what to expect.

rofit margins: Your profit margin speaks volumes about the health of your company. This ratio of income divided by revenue is a useful tool to compare your company’s profitability with others in your industry.

uick restaurant delivery: When you feel the need to feed–a late-night pizza pick-me-up or sandwiches for a lunchtime staff meeting–it’s a good idea to have the best delivery joints on speed dial.

egulations: Many entrepreneurs are rule-breakers by nature, but ignoring the regulations, licenses and other applicable laws of your business landscape can land you in hot water and cost you big bucks.

ales channels: Gone are the days when products or services were marketed through only one channel. Now, says Hiam, companies can not only look to traditional sales channels but also find sales channels online, through direct selling or alliances with distributors. Says Hiam, “Being innovative and a leader in distribution is the easiest way to become a multimillionaire.”

axes: You know you have to pay them. Find out which ones apply to your business and remit promptly. Don’t mess with the tax man.

nplug: You deserve a break today and one next week and one the week after that. To be most effective in your business, you need to get away from it regularly, says Hiam, or you’ll burn out and stifle creativity. Whether it’s a sunrise yoga class or a midday trip to the museum, find your choice activity and engage on a regular basis.

enture capital: Got the “next big thing”? Venture capitalists today are looking for companies that have the potential to grow big, fast. If you’re poised to burst out on the scene and score big, make a solid case in your business plan and start knocking on venture capitalist doors.

ebsite: You know you need a website–and you know you need one that’s interesting and interactive. Frank says it’s essential to offer something for which visitors will give their e-mail addresses in exchange. That helps you grow your marketing base. White papers, information or even free consultations can get you the contact info you need for a promotional follow-up.

marks the spot: Location, location, location plays a critical role in the success of a retail business, but choosing the right spot can make a difference for any business, says Hiam. Look for places that are hubs for your industry because they’ll likely be rich in the resources, people and infrastructure you need to be successful.

es: From reflecting a positive attitude to being persistent in your pursuit of sales, the word yes is essential in the entrepreneurial vocabulary.

eal: People who are only in business for the money usually crash and burn, Hiam says. To achieve success, you must have true zeal for your business, your products and services, and your customers. “Zeal is a better word than love,” Hiam says, “because it shows the energy you have for the business, too.”

An upcoming webinar hosted by InsideView and Aberdeen Group, entitled “Value Selling with Sales Intelligence: The Key to Sales Survival in a Downturn Economy,” will address the four key sales intelligence requirements necessary to spark sales productivity. The free webinar, scheduled for April 7, will provide end-users with an overview of Aberdeen’s report findings, as well as highlight the best practices and requirements for success that emerged in the research. The webinar content will touch on the following crucial areas:

• Quality: Data quality is at the heart of sales intelligence initiatives. In the end, the usefulness of prospect and account information is contingent upon the reliability of the source. Poor data quality can lead to a lot of wasted time and effort on the part of sales representatives. Seventy-four percent of survey respondents indicated that improving the quality of leads in the sales pipeline is a top-two strategic action for alleviating business challenges. By focusing resources on initiatives designed to improve lead quality, not quantity, organizations are putting their sales representatives in a position to succeed from the outset.
• Readiness: The success or failure of any sales initiative oftentimes depends on the readiness of the organization at the most fundamental level. Companies must ensure that the proper processes, procedures and organizational support are in place to minimize the number of bottlenecks that can stunt productivity. For instance, 81 percent of Best-in-Class companies, compared to 65 percent of all others, have formalized and documented sales processes in place. Formal and documented sales processes that mirror the organization’s sales methodology are essential to sales operations. Organizations that do not have formalized sales processes in place risk errors or inconsistencies on the part of sales representatives and ultimately reduce the amount of time reps spend actually selling.
• Relevance: Organizations as a whole, particularly within sales, are already burdened by information overload. The sheer number of emails alone can overwhelm representatives who are only concerned with the account and prospect information that matters to them. The ability to gather the information that pertains to key industries or company sizes, for instance, allows representatives to focus only on those things that enable their own success. As a result of this strategy, Best-in-Class companies are 1.6 times more likely than Laggards to effectively map their products and services to the prospect’s business challenges.
• Delivery: As long as email remains the top collaborative technology for sharing and dispersing information, sales representatives will be burdened with searching for relevant information. An added challenge for organizations is the fact that dispersing key information via email is a bad process that does not ensure repeatable success. After all, the information shared between employees via email is not visible to others within the organization. The key to the success of any sales intelligence initiative is ensuring that representatives get the information they need in a way that is unobtrusive and within their daily workflow.

Article’s original url : http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/66347.html

It’s going to be a tough year as we all try to lift ourselves out of this economic funk we’re in. Retailers can help lift their prospects with some well-planned strategic moves to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Listening to your customers can help you.

This year promises to be one of the most challenging in recent memory for online retail. The strategies and tactics that online retailers have relied upon in the past will not work in this harsher, new consumer climate.

This year will clearly separate winners from losers. Winners will have the wisdom and discipline to eliminate distractions and focus their resources in a limited number of areas. They will prioritize these key areas to the top of their agenda and push all others aside.

While these ideas may not be the newest, sexiest, or trendiest topics at the next industry conference, they are proven to drive results. Here are five priorities for driving results in 2009 and positioning your business for success in 2010:

Priority 1: Drive Engagement With Your Existing Customers

A plethora of research over the past two decades compellingly shows that capturing incremental “share of wallet” from current customers is one of the most effective investments a company can make. Intuitively, this makes all the sense in the world: an existing customer has already demonstrated a propensity and willingness to buy from you — they find something of value in your offering — wouldn’t it make sense that they are a better bet than a net new prospect? In 2009, we must leverage these high-potential customers. A couple of places to start:

• Feed the Loyalist: Analysis of any customer base consistently yields almost the same finding: that 20 percent of your customers — the high-value customers — drive 80 percent of your sales (and even more of the profits). Some simple data analysis can help you identify who these high-value customers are. The analysis can then serve as a basis for additional research into what makes them behave the way they do. What do they need? How do they shop? What do they value? Armed with these new insights, we can develop a better online experience tailored to the needs of our most important customers rather than designing the experience around an “average” customer as most retailers do today. Understanding your best customers provides a way to maximize your investments by focusing on customers that yield the highest return. These new insights not only allow you to build stronger, more profitable relationships with your current customers, but also focus your marketing efforts to attract new “look-alike” prospects who will become high-value customers over time.
• Trigger Marketing Tactics and Dynamic Email Campaigns: Relevance is the key to marketing. But how can we be relevant when we know little about a customer given limited data based on a single purchase? Trigger marketing tactics such as dynamic email campaigns are ideal in this setting because they allow us to deploy relevant marketing messages based on customer behaviors despite not having deeper insights about the specific customer.

Priority 2: Let Your Customers Help You Focus

If you listen to your customers, they will tell you exactly what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and where to invest your money. Some ideas to consider:

• Usability Testing: There’s no better way to get a new perspective on your site than to watch a group of real customers shop it. This isn’t expensive and almost always yields actionable insights that can help drive sales.
• “Voice of the Customer” Programs: Customer feedback mechanisms can be and should be deployed at every customer touch point to help you understand what’s working and what’s not across the customer experience. This can be done relatively quickly and cost-effectively. Email surveys, site intercept surveys, call center monitoring, and any number of feedback collection mechanisms can be implemented and monitored to gauge the pulse of the customer. Two things to keep in mind:
  1. the best insights typically come from the freeform comments rather than cross-tab data, and
  2. you can only find these insights if you invest the time and resources to read the comments and actively attempt to draw themes and trends.
• Customer Valuation: All customers are not equal and should not be treated equally. Some inexpensive data analysis will quickly allow you to determine the relative value of different types of customers. This analysis will help with the loyalist engagement strategy mentioned above and help you identify which customers types to listen to the most (e.g. if 60 percent of customers say they don’t like the navigation schema on your site, but the 20 percent of customers that drive most of your sales say they do, you should probably leave it alone).

Priority 3: Maximize the Value of Every Customer Interaction

You can’t afford to waste or squander even a single customer interaction; yet most online retailers routinely do so. A recent survey showed 36 percent of online shoppers suffered roadblocks when attempting to buy during the past holiday season. Every part of the customer experience — from marketing email to site experience to fulfillment and customer service — should be flawless and optimized for maximum impact.

• Continuous Experience Optimization: A combination of web analytics, mystery shopping, and other site analysis should be utilized to scour your site experience for problems and issues. Why is the home page bounce rate so high? Why can’t I easily find the exclusive item featured in the TV ad? This constant optimization process yields rich results and helps to maximize every consumer visit.
• Upgraded Email Programs: The research is pretty clear on the benefits of more sophisticated email techniques. Segmentation, targeting and testing, along with a robust dynamic campaign arsenal, all lead to exceptional results. Yet few adopt this approach because of the work involved, thereby squandering a golden opportunity and a valuable customer interaction.
• Call Center Programs: When you have a live customer or potential customer on the phone, make sure you don’t waste the opportunity. Consider upgrading your call center practices and operations to ensure every customer has a great experience when they call and every live interaction is viewed as a value-added sales opportunity.

Priority 4: Energize Your Multichannel Programs

Discussions of multichannel as the Holy Grail of online retail have been ongoing for several years, yet few retailers have aggressively moved to capture this opportunity despite its massive potential. In many of the cases, this has little to do with technology obstacles or access to investment and resources. Instead, it has everything to do with organizational silos and corporate politics. Tough times might allow for radical changes that challenge the status quo. This is the year to make the charge and attempt to break through those walls.

• Integrate Multichannel Marketing: Every single piece of marketing should prominently highlight every way to shop, from circulars and direct mail to signage and display. No more multimillion dollar TV campaigns with a nanosecond flash of the URL in eight-point font at the end.
• Deploy Associate In-Store Ordering: It will be critical to capture every potential sale both offline and online. Deploying and heavily promoting online ordering from within your offline stores helps customers find what they need, when they need it.

Priority 5: Seize the Opportunity With Your Executive Team

For many organizations, the online channel was the only area of positive growth this past year. Seize this opportunity to convince your executive team that investing in online is one of the smartest investments the company can make. Before you make this play, make sure you have done your homework since you might not get a second chance.

• Make Sure Everything Is Working: You won’t receive additional resources if you can’t manage what you have today effectively. Not only should everything be working, but you’ll need data and reporting to prove your case.
• Develop a Polished Vision and Plan: Few executive teams will give you a blank check — they need to be sold. Make sure you present a compelling vision as well as a comprehensive plan. Spend the time to compile the research, get the case studies, and create comps to show where you want to take the online experience. Show them the compelling business case for online driving online, offline, and brand impact.

Better Results in 2009, Success in 2010

There’s no doubt this year will present challenges for everyone in retail, online and offline. But there is a silver lining if you look for it. If you have the discipline to focus your efforts as described above, you win in more ways than simply driving better sales than your industry counterparts — you will have stronger relationships with a larger base of existing customers, better customer insight that leads to improved decision making, a structured approach to optimizing the customer experience, a stronger multichannel footprint, and the support of an executive team who finally sees the power of the online channel.

All things considered, not a bad year.

This article is copied from startupnation.com. I share it here because it is quite useful.
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8 Ideas for Cross Selling Success

Many early stage businesses that offer more than one product or service can do a much better job of educating customers on the different solutions they deliver. This type of cross selling can be a highly effective tool for a small business.

When you cross-sell, you offer the customer a product or service related to whatever they are already buying. It can be as simple as the waiter asking if you want a salad to go with your main course. Up-selling positions higher priced products in a good/better/best progression. Both methods of encouraging clients to spend a little more can dramatically boost your sales.

But maybe you worry about irritating them with too many sales pitches to buy more. Don’t. Surveys show that most buyers appreciate being told about additional products or services that might better meet their needs or about new items that were not offered in the past. It’s a way of demonstrating that you are aware of their needs and care about their satisfaction. Here are some ideas to help you improve your cross selling success:

Ideas to improve your opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling

• Let nature take its course. Many cross-selling opportunities arise naturally. If you are selling tennis racquets, for example, you can also offer a bag, balls, lessons and accessories. To gain the extra sale, you might simply have to mention that the other products or services are available.
• Stay relevant. If you overload customers with too many unrelated cross-selling suggestions, you may blow it. Offering socks with shoes is certainly a good fit. But if your attempts to cross-sell are not closely related to the original purchase, they are far less likely to succeed.
• Post expert recommendations. One way to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling success is to state specific recommendations from professionals, experts or other customers. This could be a chef’s recommendation on a menu, a doctor’s recommendation on a mailer, or lists of related items that other customers have purchased on a website. When you buy a book at Amazon.com, for example, the site automatically lists other books purchased by people who bought the same book you just ordered.
• Train employees in cross-selling techniques. The approach must be built around serving the customer, not just selling more stuff. For example, you might describe how the additional products or services would complement the original purchase and further solve the customer’s problem.
• Timing is important. Cross-selling and up-selling can occur at different times, depending on the products and services you are selling. In some cases, the best time is while a customer is trying something out. If they are looking at a low priced digital camera, for example, but seem disappointed in a lack of features or performance, they may really want a higher priced model. Or you could suggest a belt to go with a pair of pants while the customer is trying them on. Other items are more appropriately offered once the initial buying decision has been made, such as an extended warranty.
• Leverage the cross-selling potential of your website. Position cross-sell and up-sell items throughout your site in places where they can help educate shoppers on the depth and variety of what your business offers. Try mixing and matching different items to see what works best.
• Offer a range of prices. If you suggest three items to complement a product, try to offer a mix of price points. The lowest cost items are most likely to be picked up as impulse buys. But other items that meet the customer’s needs can also sell at higher levels.
• Try product or service bundles. Bundling has long been used as a way to entice shoppers to buy not just a single item, but an entire group of items that go together. Offering a price break on package deals will help close the sale.

Our Bottom Line:

The key to successful cross-selling and up-selling is to focus your efforts on meeting the customer’s needs, rather than simply pushing more products and services. This is one area of startup marketing where you may need to do a little experimentation in order to find just the right balance, but you need to make cross selling a key component of your list of sales techniques.