Selling Luxury

Selling high-end luxury creations requires a different set of skills than does traditional selling. Clients have high expectations for the service they receive and base their purchasing decisions more on emotion and desire than practical need. Whether you are selling diamond bracelets or sports cars, the key to concluding the sale lies in how well you sell rather than what you sell.

In Selling Luxury, Robin Lent and Geneviève Tour explore every component of luxury sales and offer proven, practical strategies for connecting with customers. Rather than sales associates, the luxury market calls for "Sales Ambassadors" who represent the brand with distinction. Sales Ambassadors understand how to connect with customers by discovering their unique motivational desires. This requires a multitude of specialized skills: passion, perseverance, empathy, daring, and curiosity. Through personalized service each and every time, Sales Ambassadors are able to build trust, brand loyalty, and lasting customer relationships.

If you want to succeed in the luxury sales universe, Selling Luxury is for you. You'll pick up the skills and approaches that work everyday in a multitude of situations. You'll learn how to:

• Connect emotionally with customers

• Exceed your customers' expectations

• Turn every customer contact into a brand experience

• Personalize your customer service

• Learn about customers through observing and discovery

• Create the desire to purchase

• Deal positively with customer objections

• Build a relationship of trust and brand loyalty

The universe of luxury is no place for traditional hard-sell tactics. Instead, you have to subtly adapt to your customer in a deeper way. Doing so takes a truly personal touch. Selling Luxury shows you how to develop these skills and make them a key part of your own unique selling style.

Autorentext

ROBIN LENT is Senior Consultant at AC3, a Paris-based company that specializes in training and communications. Robin has been working for eighteen years in the field of luxury. He can be reached at robin@ac3.fr.

GENEVIÈVE TOUR is a Training Consultant at a top luxury firm and a luxury specialist. She has spent many years as a Sales Ambassador in the United States and France. Geneviève has an MBA in luxury brands and twenty years of experience in marketing and communications. She can be reached at genevieve.tour@club-internet.fr.

Inhalt
Foreword by Alain-Dominique Perrin xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

Part One: Initial Thoughts 1

1 The Vital Role of the Sales Ambassador 3

2 In the eyes of the customer, the Sales Ambassador is the brand 5

3 Loyalty begins with the fi rst contact 6

4 Keep in mind how you like to be treated 7

5 There are customers behind customers 8

6 The incredible loss from one lost customer 9

7 The emotional side of the purchase 10

8 The island vacation or the earrings? 11

9 The price is only one of the factors 12

10 The Wow comes when you go beyond expectations 13

11 Discretion and confi dentiality 14

Part Two: The Frame of Mind of the Sales Ambassador 17

12 Be a person before being a Sales Ambassador 19

13 Turn every contact into an experience 20

14 Get inside the customer's story 21

15 Congratulate customers 23

16 Compliment your customers 24

17 Every complaint is an opportunity 25

18 The other competitor 26

19 Service costs nothing 28

20 The great danger of prejudices and preconceived ideas 29

21 Work as a team player 30

22 Relationships and mistakes 31

Part Three: The Savoir-Faire of the Sales Ambassador 35

23 The successful selling style 37

24 Life is a celebration 38

25 Use each contact to inform and educate 39

26 The power of timing 40

27 Time is a precious sales tool 42

28 The art of using silence 44

29 Music as a metaphor for selling 45

30 Select the words you use carefully 46

31 Tones, rhythms, and volumes 47

32 The competition, your customers, and your advantages 48

33 Personalize your service 49

34 Pleasure comes from consistency 50

35 Maintain your energy 51

36 Make someone's day 53

37 Each telephone contact is another opportunity 54

38 Analyze the sale you made 56

39 Analyze the situation when the customer did not buy 58

Part Four: Preparing to Sell 61

40 The impact of the right atmosphere on customers 63

41 Luxury is in the details 65

42 Keep the service level up even when things are busy 66

43 Prepare your selling tools 68

44 Know what you have in stock 69

45 Learn how each creation was crafted 70

46 Know what is happening in your city 71

Part Five: Welcoming and Discovering the Customer 73

47 A greeting needs a smile 75

48 Your body language speaks louder than words 76

49 Listening with your eyes 77

50 The importance of discovery 79

51 The gift purchase 81

52 The power of questions (quality over quantity) 82

53 Be a careful listener 84

54 Find out how your customer feels about your brand 85

55 Make statements to obtain information 86

56 Introduce yourself 87

57 Just looking 88

58 The art and importance of reformulation 90

Part Six: Proposing, Romancing, and Handling Objections 93

59 Keep your proposals simple 95

60 Create curiosity 96

61 Handle everything you sell as a precious object 98

62 Position the offer 100

63 Make clever use of the light 102

64 Romance your creations to enhance the emotions 103

65 Storytelling 104

66 Invite the customer to try on the model 106

67 Wrap the price as if it were a gift 108

68 The art of exploring Let me think about it 109

69 Prepare for dealing with objections 111

Part Seven: Concluding and Making Additional Sales 113

70 Be aware of buying signals 115

71 Tips to conclude 117

72 Suggest the best solution 119 73 The importance of reassuring when concluding 120</p...