TWO THINGS YOU must know about luxury buyers. One, they are some of the easiest clients to close because they can afford whatever they want. Two, their expectations in the areas of professionalism, knowledge and store appearance are very high.
In other words, if you prepare well and train well, there’s no reason why your store can’t have its share of luxury buyers as loyal clients.
You may not realize this, but every market has luxury buyers.
If that’s the case, why aren’t you seeing them in your store? One problem that most of you have is that you don’t have what your area’s luxury buyers want. They spend $80,000 dollars on an F-350 Super Duty truck — a vehicle that’s on the low-end of their fleet — but you only have a $30,000 2-carat diamond available. They want to spend money in your store for their anniversary or “just because,” but you don’t have what they want. So, they go to New York, Chicago, Rodeo Drive or even a cruise ship to buy their big luxury items … then they come into your store to show you what they bought.
Jewelers tell me all the time, “My clients don’t buy luxury items.” You’re right, they don’t buy them from you. They buy them somewhere else. Each and every one of you needs two or three museum cases that are well lit and can hold a few items that are luxury level in quality and price.
One of my accounts decided to put a story of a $165,000 8-carat round treated pink diamond on social media. They posted it one day and it sold the next. Another account posted an image of a 22-carat in-line diamond bracelet worth $220,000 on social media; a person who wasn’t a regular client bought it the next day. People buy “wows”.
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Everything is affordable to somebody. Even better news: Luxury runs in the same crowd. They live in the same gated community, they play at the same golf courses, they eat at the same restaurants. They are very loyal and will send more luxury buyers to your store.
Luxury buyers buy because they can. It’s about the want, not the price. Some don’t look at the price at all until they see it on their American Express bill when it comes in the mail. A lot of luxury buyers will close you; you don’t have to close them because they’re good at making buying decisions on their own.
Luxury buyers are interested in something different than your normal clients who come in every day (and they’re very important also). The luxury buyer is buying the story of the item: where it’s from, its history, the rarity. So learn your history, because after they buy, they want to tell the story to their friends. That makes their friends want to come in and buy a story of their own.
Luxury clients walk into your store ready to buy. Our problem is that we don’t let them. But by carefully crafting our questions and listening to their answers, this is an easy sale. Let them decide how much they want to spend. Don’t be surprised if it’s $100,000 or more. The higher the price, the easier to close the sale. Always focus on their life, the item and the story, not the price. Wow with high ticket items. They buy on impulse all the time.
