Customers segment distributors much like distributors segment customers. Because of this, customers don’t typically think beyond the products they already buy from you. This article examines how distributors can expand what they sell to existing customers by uncovering unexpected cross-selling opportunities in their transaction data.

As consumers, we routinely experience cross-selling by retailers. It can be as simple as “Do you want fries with that shake?” or in more complex e-tail environments: “Customers who bought X also bought Y.”

Companies who do this well include Amazon and Netflix. In fact, Netflix thought the problem was so important that they setup a contest with a $1 million reward for anyone in industry or academia who could create …