Five Steps Banks Can Take to Increase Cross-Selling and Upselling Using Salesforce CRM

When consumers believe their bank is looking out for their financial well-being, they are 84% more engaged, and they have more confidence in their bank. That’s good news for banks, because engaged and confident clients are shown to be more inclined to buy more products. 

Today, as rising inflation rates stretch Americans’ paychecks thin, consumers are looking to their financial institutions for help. Connecting with customers, listening to their banking concerns, and offering thoughtful products and services will set your bank apart from the pack. 

When selling financial products to existing customers, banks see an average success rate of 60-70%. But when they try to sell products to brand-new customers, that success rate drops to between 5-20%. 

So, it makes sense for banks to spend time on cross-sell and upsell efforts. But implementing these efforts can feel like pushing a boulder uphill. 

That’s where CRM tools like Salesforce can come in. We’ve seen it happen at banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions across the country. Teams who know how to maximize Salesforce processes are more readily able to cross-sell and upsell additional banking products to their customer base. 

Although every organization is unique, there are general building blocks that help maximize cross-sell/upsell with Salesforce. The key to building a reliable and successful cross-sell/upsell program is optimizing Salesforce’s functionality.  

Recently, we worked with a $7B regional bank who wanted to get the most of their Salesforce CRM. After diving into their existing operations and Salesforce usage, we saw opportunities to grow revenue by capitalizing on upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Just like to our bank client, we generally recommend: 

To get the most out of Salesforce CRM:

1. Take time to clearly identify your product and service offerings

Identify these key components, as well as each step in your sales process, and reflect those business processes in the CRM. Make sure the team has a deep understanding of:

• exactly what products and services you offer

• which products and services best complement the others

• the best time in the sales process to inform the client about the product or service

A well-timed offer can go a long way toward increasing customer satisfaction and building loyalty. Keeping a customer happy is far less expensive than finding a new customer. 

2. Use the Opportunity functionality for each of your product and service offerings.

In Salesforce lingo, an opportunity is a potential deal with a new or existing customer. Opportunity functionality provides the ability to track your customer’s journey through the sales cycle. 

An opportunity record contains details about the deal, such as:

• the potential sales amount

• what products or services are included

• which accounts are involved

• key players (including competitors, if you choose)

When you track opportunity data, you can spot trends that will help you better support both your sales team and your clients, which leads to our next recommendation. 

3. Clarify roles and responsibilities among your teams

Ensure that each user group understands the role they play in advancing the steps of the sales process. This will also help you determine your drivers of providing upsell and cross-sell products and services to your opportunities.  

4. Save time and move opportunities through the sales pipeline by using the automated referral functionality.

Take, for example, Salesforce's hypothetical scenario. 

• Wealth Management Manager Ryan reviews his client’s situation and sees the client needs a mortgage.

• Unfortunately, Ryan cannot offer direct help because wealth management doesn’t offer a mortgage product.

• Ryan creates a referral and sends it to his colleague Bob, a mortgage broker in the retail banking branch.

• Bob receives the referral, contacts the client, and wins the business.

5. Use data to build robust reporting

Salesforce has a wealth of reporting options and dashboards to measure cross-sell and upsell efforts. Visible metrics can help drive accountability and motivate your team as they see success and overcome challenges. 

Enhance the customer experience

Cross-selling and upselling are not just about increasing your revenue in the short-term. It’s all about enhancing your customers’ experience and making sure they trust that you are looking out for their best interests. At the end of the day, happy clients are long-term clients that will continue to come to you for their banking needs. That’s the value of cross-selling and upselling — building strong relationships that will grow your revenue in the long-term. 

In our experience, many banks have Salesforce CRM but are not getting the most out of this platform. In many situations, they implemented it without a clear understanding how to configure it to suit their needs. More often than not, teams simply don’t have the bandwidth to begin optimization. 

At Core10, we know banking and lending and know how to optimize Salesforce to be a game-changer for your business. That’s why we’ve developed a deep understanding of the challenges you face and have the roadmap to help you get the most out of your investment in Salesforce. We can help — without reinventing the wheel or overcomplicating the process.

Reach out today to find out how we can help.