My Fruit Guy is a Cross-Selling Machine

I live in NYC, home to the ubiquitous fruit vendor.

These single operator stalls dot specific corners and sell an eclectic variety of fruits and vegetables, usually for less, and sometimes much less, than the supermarkets charge.

The fruit-stand is a low margin business. This means that the fruit guy or gal needs to maximize the price of each sale (especially because their inventory is subject to sudden and pernicious rotting in the NYC humidity).

Want a banana for 33 cents? How about four for a dollar instead? Better value for me the consumer, and a bigger sale for the fruit guy.

But the “buy-a-few more to save” thing is just the appetizer.  

Once the man (my fruit guy is in fact a guy) knows I might be looking for more than just a banana the game is on.

Lesson 1: Benefit the Consumer

He starts with the good stuff. Two carts of pretty fresh raspberries for $4? Can’t say no to that.

In this process we come across principle #1 of successful cross-selling: the first and primary goal is to enhance the value for the consumer.

A quick banana is fine, a fridge full of fruit that I eat all week is better for me (and of course for him).

We proceed through the fruit.

Sometimes, I’m introduced to something I’ve never encountered before. When that happens, his sales pitch is accompanied with an explanation for how to use the food. The fruit guy is providing ancillary value to my experience buying an ostensibly undifferentiated product. No one at the grocery store is explaining how to maximize the value out of the Dorian I just bought. Again, my value is enhanced.

Invariably, once I’m good and hooked into the process, he’ll start trying to get rid of some of the more shall we say, suspect, inventory. That’s fine with me, I’m getting value for my smoothies that don't care about bruising, and he’s often matching the deterioration of the fruit with suitably discounted pricing.

Lesson 2: “Do you want fries with that?”

We finish up with the fruit. And he asks me, "do you want any vegetables today?"

Why YES I think, I might as well buy those too and get that off the shopping list.

This is principle #2, always do your discovery and always make the ask.

So I go to finish my purchase, fruit and veggies in hand, probably $8-10 deep vs. the original 33 cent target, but before I walk away I get an apple tossed in for the road.

Lesson 3: It’s Cheaper to Keep a Customer than to Find a New One

What gives with that “free” apple?

Probably a lot from a psychological standpoint. Two things jump out to me.

First, I just got something for “nothing.” So I’m thinking sub-consciously, I owe this guy. I better come back, and when I do, I’ll be inclined to spend. Second, I’m now looking back at everything I just bought and thinking I got an even better deal. He's cemented my rose colored glasses on a 9000% upsell.

From a cross-sell perspective, the fruit guy is also playing into principle #3: it’s significantly cheaper to keep a customer than to acquire a new one.

He’s betting that I walk this route regularly and that I know about the other grocery stores in the area. For him it’s worth the small bet to cement my satisfaction and seed my return.

But the other part of principle #3 that is revealed is more subtle. Your goal as a seller isn't to maximize the value of any given transaction. Your goal is to maximize the lifetime value of the entirety of transactions.

It sounds simple: Give to get. Pass some of those acquisition savings on.

But too many companies forget they are in the long-term partnership game and make avoidable tactical blunders on a deal-by-deal basis that gradually alienates customers and turns them from partner into procurement antagonist. P.S. this starts with designing incentives.

Principle 4: Know thy customer (& build a two-way relationship).

So I come back to the fruit guy a few times. And I buy a lot of the same stuff. Couple of lemons, bananas/strawberries/raspberries/blackberries, a long-lived veggie or two, and some impulse purchase he suckers me into every time. He's becoming my fruit guy, but at this point, that mostly means he's the fruit guy closest to my apartment.

But then I walk by him a few times and don’t buy anything. The third or fourth time it’s late - not my standard time- and he asks me as I stroll by if it’s been a long day. Yep, it sure has. I keep walking. He doesn't ask if I want anything.

Want to bet what I do the next day?

I come to buy. He asks me if I slept enough. And then he tells me to avoid the berries today. They’ll be better tomorrow.

Now I’m thinking it's not just about taking my money between me and him. This guy has my back. I mean, I have to buy fruit from him now. He's my fruit guy.

The days and weeks keep ticking by. My wife and I stop by, he files it away. Another point for casual conversation (and a different decision maker to sell to).

Eventually I learn about his commute, how he's been in NYC for 18 years and on this corner for 6, how one kid is thinking about college.

I go from "having" to buy fruit from him to wanting to buy.

I mean I literally sometimes buy fruit at the grocery store, walk by him with that fruit still in the bag, and buy even more from him while holding 40 pounds of groceries in my hand. After all, what's wrong with 3 bins of berries? Do your customers do that?

As I said, MY fruit-guy is a selling machine.