text: what is cross sale referral?   say you come in to a bank and want to open a checking account.  the customer service person does this for you, but he or she will also talk about opening a savings account, getting online access for your account, getting a credit card, and other things.  they are referring other products to you.  if you get the product, they have made a successful referral.   this process is called cross selling, which just means that they try to get you to buy other things while selling you what you came in for.