Every organisation has one goal: profitable growth. Retaining customers is as important as getting new leads to achieve these goals. There are 2 techniques: upselling and cross-selling. We will talk about how each works, but let’s also discover how you can plan good Dynamics 365 CRM upselling strategies.
So, who to sell to, how to price for upsell, and why you need portfolio monetisation?
You can get all the answers to the right upselling and cross-selling tactics in 2025. In 2025, successful revenue generation depends on factors such as data intelligence, AI in CRM software, and real-time customer contact.
Dynamics 365 CRM and data compliance ensure Australian organisations have all the right tools to scale, stay compliant, and sell strategically.
With this short guide, you can never go blind into cross-selling with D365 CRM or upselling.
What Is Cross-Selling?
B2B cross-selling is all about suggesting extra software products or services that go well with what customers already bought. It’s a great way to add value by getting more use out of the product lineup.
What Is Upselling?
Upselling is a tactic companies use to get customers to choose better plans, more features, higher limits, or a bigger user capacity. It helps build a stronger connection with a product or service that customers are already familiar with, while also increasing the overall value they receive and boosting the company’s revenue.
Why D365 In 2025 Is Powerful For Upselling/Cross-Selling with D365 CRM?
Two things that make Dynamics 365 completely unique and make it a great choice for upsell/cross-sell in 2025 are:
- AI Agents and Copilot: Sales reps don’t have to stick to fixed bundles; they can get more improvised suggestions.
- 360-degree Customer Profiles: They provide more comprehensive insight into transactional, behavioural, and support data. You get more ways to personalise the sale.
- Mobile-First CRM Solution: With Dynamics 365’s mobile-first CRM solution, sales teams can access insights, suggest upsells, and close deals anytime, anywhere.
Core Strategic Principles (Don’t Skip These)
To implement the right upselling and cross-selling techniques in D365 CRM, always have your core strategies pinned down. Now, what do you need to do?
- Prioritise Value: Only push for upsells when they truly benefit the customer. People understand it when you insist without any reason, and it can drive them away.
- Timing is Everything: Keep an eye on signals like usage spikes, support requests, and contract renewals to know when to make your offers.
- Work Together with AI: Use AI to surface suggestions, but ensure humans remain involved in important decisions and personal interactions.
- Consistent Multi-Channel Approach: Ensure that the suggestions you provide during sales calls, in self-service portals, via email, and via chat are aligned and connect back to the D365 records.
Tactical Playbook for Cross-selling or CRM Upselling Best Practices 2025:
Now, let’s get to the real strategies you need at every step of cross-selling or upselling with Dynamics 365 unified CRM:
1. Build the Data Foundation (Customer 360)
- Unify All Resources:
Data is most important for your Dynamics 365 Omnichannel strategies. So, combine your commerce data, product usage information, support cases, and marketing interactions into Customer Insights or your D365 data layer.
This helps you identify which attributes indicate how likely someone is to respond to offers (such as how much they use certain features, how many active seats they have, or whether they’ve had any support issues).
- Define What Success Looks Like:
Set clear criteria for what a ‘successful upsell’ means for you (like an upgrade being accepted within 90 days or an add-on being used within 30 days). These will serve as your model labels and metrics for evaluation.
2. Use AI to Generate Candidate Offers
- Recommendation Models:
Create or set up machine learning models (or use the built-in D365 features) that blend collaborative filtering (to find similar customers) with content-based signals (think product and feature match). The AI will generate potential upsell and cross-sell options, ranked by relevance.
- Business Rules Overlay:
Set clear criteria for what a ‘successful upsell’ means for you (like an upgrade being accepted within 90 days or an add-on being used within 30 days). These will serve as your model labels and metrics for evaluation.
3. Surface Recommendations Where They Convert
- Copilot & AI Agents for Sellers:
Show a ranked list of tailored offers right in the Sales workspace or on the next best action card during calls. Offer suggested phrases and objection-handling scripts. It’s important that human reps can accept, tweak, or ignore these suggestions as they see fit.
- Digital Channels:
Leverage D365 Commerce and web personalisation to display product recommendations on customer portals and through email campaigns. Make sure the messaging stays consistent across all platforms.
4. Automate Playbooks and Nudges
- Sales Playbooks:
Set up playbooks in D365 Sales that guide users through typical upsell situations, like when a customer is up for renewal or asks for a new feature. These playbooks help keep things consistent and make life easier for sales reps.
- Power Automate Orchestration:
Whenever a specific action occurs, such as usage exceeding a set limit or a support ticket being escalated, automatically trigger reminders. This could mean assigning a playbook, sending a personalised email, or alerting the Account Executive with suggestions from Copilot.
5. Measure and iterate
- KPIs:
Connect offers specific results, such as how many people viewed them, the acceptance rate, how long it took to convert, the additional annual recurring revenue/customer lifetime value, and the effect on churn. Run A/B tests to compare offers suggested by AI with those created manually.
- Feedback Loop:
Use the results to refine the recommendation model, keeping it relevant over time.
Quick Wins You Can Deliver This Quarter
To start, enable the Copilot/Assistant cards for Sales users. This way, they’ll have access to “next best offers” right on their account pages, and it won’t take much setup if your data model is ready.
Next up, develop a Sales Playbook focused on the most likely upsell situation and tie it to two key performance indicators: the acceptance rate for offers and the additional annual recurring revenue (ARR).
Lastly, set up a Power Automate flow to send a follow-up email with product recommendations once a support ticket is closed for customers using advanced features.
This ensures your CRM software actively contributes to measurable revenue growth and improves the overall ROI of your CRM implementation.
Conclusion
Upselling and cross-selling with Dynamics 365 CRM are essential strategies for driving revenue and maximising customer value. A well-planned Dynamics 365 CRM implementation ensures businesses can leverage AI, 360-degree customer insights, and mobile-first solutions to identify opportunities at the right time.
By carefully managing CRM implementation costs and engaging consulting services like DHRP, organisations can streamline sales processes while improving adoption and ROI.
Whether targeting upgrades, additional features, or complementary products, combining data intelligence with personalised engagement helps Australian organisations boost growth, retain customers, and achieve measurable results from their CRM investments.
FAQs
Dynamics 365 CRM provides AI-driven suggestions, customer 360 insights, and mobile access, enabling sales reps to personalise offers, recommend complementary products, and increase revenue through timely upsells and cross-sells.
Leverage AI agents, Copilot, and customer data to suggest relevant upgrades, implement Sales Playbooks, monitor KPIs like acceptance rates, and automate follow-ups to maximise upselling efficiency and revenue growth.
Use customer behaviour data, recommendation models, and multichannel engagement to suggest relevant add-ons. Combine AI insights with Sales Playbooks and automated nudges to increase adoption and drive revenue growth.
