A contact centre can help an organisation to achieve its sales targets by introducing a managed and targeted approach to cross selling and up selling.

Cross selling refers to the sale of additional products and/or services to the same customer. This can be achieved where a clear understanding of the customer has been achieved, concerning their needs, habits, aspirations and preferences, all of which should be standard practice if the contact centre is performing properly.

Up selling on the other hand is a sales technique whereby the customer is introduced by the call centre agent to a high value purchase. Up-selling usually involves marketing more profitable services or products, but up-selling can also be simply exposing the customer to other options he or she may not have considered previously. Up-selling can imply selling something additional, or selling something that is more profitable or otherwise preferable for the seller instead of the original sale.