How to nurture cross-selling in your firm
Co-authored by Caitlin Roxburgh & Alice Devereux
Cross-selling isn’t something you can simply push on your teams and expect immediate success. It is something that should be introduced, supported and nurtured by leadership to build an environment where cross-selling becomes part of your firm’s day-to-day. It’s also worth remembering that often the easiest clients to win are the ones you already have a relationship with.
One of the most common issues we see is firms reactively throwing the cross-selling label out in response to growth pressures. Do any of the following sound familiar?
- “We need to increase revenue per client”
- “Partners in the real estate team should introduce our financial services to their clients”
- “Let’s incentivise referrals internally”
While these suggestions come with the best intentions and can be successfully implemented as part of a defined programme, in isolation they do not address the crux of the issue. Behavioural changes are needed to make cross-selling a sustainable initiative for your firm; increasing revenue is just one part of it.
Making cross-selling part of your culture
Effective cross-selling in professional firms comes from having clear ownership of clients and prospects and a deep understanding of how and where opportunity overlaps may occur.
It is not just about promoting services; it’s also about understanding where client priorities intersect.
Your team needs to understand where services naturally overlap across different client profiles, as well as looking for the less obvious opportunities. While this may sound straightforward, it is often a lack of communication or embedded thinking that prevents effective cross-selling from happening. This is particularly true in busy firms where competing pressures can create siloed working.
Below are four tips to help you nurture cross-selling in your firm:
- Frame cross-selling as client collaboration: The language you use matters. If cross-selling is positioned as “selling more”, it can feel forced and transactional. Instead, frame it as deepening client relationships and broadening support. Shift the question from “what else can we sell?” to “what else does this client need to succeed?”
Encourage teams to approach conversations with curiosity about client priorities, risks and sector changes – and to think about which colleagues could add value. When cross-selling is seen as connecting clients to the right expertise at the right time, it becomes a natural part of good client service. Revenue growth then follows as a result, not the primary driver.
- Create visibility – and accountability: Make client ownership and opportunities transparent. This could be by ensuring every record in your CRM clearly shows the account manager and the services currently in place. This also makes it easier to track cross-selling successes. You can take it a step further by tagging sector, geography, and service line, allowing potential crossovers to be quickly identified.
To reinforce this understanding, consider running annual workshops on the services your firm provides. These sessions will give teams the chance to build confidence in introducing other services to their clients and increase collaboration. This, in turn, will help embed a culture where knowledge is shared and opportunities are maximised.
- Build in time: If your team is struggling to find time to prioritise cross-selling, help them create the necessary protected space. As a starting point, once a quarter, you could set aside time as a team to run through a selection of your accounts and discuss where missed opportunities lie by asking yourself; “what are this client’s strategic priorities; what has changed in their market?”. Then, outline 2-3 next steps for the account manager to undertake before your next meeting, even if they are as simple as sharing a relevant news story with your key contact at a client’s organisation along with a “saw this and thought of you” note.
- Introduce structured account planning: Once opportunities have been identified, they need structure to move forward. Consider introducing formal Key Account plans for priority clients, with a clear section focused on cross-selling opportunities.
You could also create an assets hub that clearly breaks down each service offering and where potential cross-selling overlaps so that it is easy for fee earners to share information on relevant opportunities that are tailored to their client’s needs e.g., templated proposal slides.
Cross-selling is not a quick fix for a revenue boost; it is a long-term strategy that must be embedded into the culture of your firm. When leadership creates clarity around client ownership and protects time for structured account planning, cross-selling shifts from being an occasional reminder to a consistent behaviour.
Find out more about Key Account Management here.
