Unleash the power of the installed base: Identifying cross-selling opportunities from solution offerings

Abstract

Cross-selling for solution offerings in the post-deployment phase is under-researched. This study posits that although providers of solution offerings have more opportunities to expand their business through enhanced cross-selling opportunities, three mechanisms determine to what extent cross-selling opportunities materialize: solution modularity, sales-service cooperation, and value assessment tooling. Using data collected from 220 US firms, we test our conceptual model while correcting for potential endogeneity. The findings confirm that two of these mechanisms help firms leverage their solutions in the post-deployment by contributing to customer satisfaction and financial performance. Sales-service cooperation has a strong positive moderating effect, whereas value assessment tooling shows a substitution effect together with solution offering, in driving cross-selling opportunities. We also find diminishing returns of cross-selling opportunities on customer satisfaction, implying that an optimum level of cross-selling opportunities exists.