Embracing Luxury
Kenrick Cleveland
It's getting pricey out there, isn't it? I mean, all the way from the bottom to the top, grocery prices are up because gas prices are soaring because the gas companies need to make bigger profits as a result of war or scarcity or something. . . . really, it's all quite complicated and yet, what it boils down to, is that life is becoming really expensive.
Somehow, no one's asking us to tighten our belts and conserve, instead it's our duty to engage in the economy by continuing to spend, spend, spend. But the kind of spending people are doing is more conservative. People are comparing prices, looking for internet deals, using coupons whenever possible. This, in turn, is pinching sales professionals. However, this is not so for sales people who sell to the affluent. The affluent are not pinching pennies, necessarily, and our message needn't be geared towards the bargain hunters and discount shoppers.
Our message as we persuade and influence our affluent prospects and clients indeed must not be in the same universe as 'discount' or 'price comparisons'. It must be our intention to set the frame immediately that these concepts (no matter how thrifty our potential customers may be) are inferior, substandard, gauche, and bound to disappoint.
As persuaders and sales professionals who work with the affluent, we must frame our products and services as elite and practical, luxurious and patriotic. Our products and services are of a higher level and therefore we must market the experience of luxury along with what they can do to meet the criteria and values of our clientle. We can also appeal to the notion of like causes like. My preference is not to operate within a framework of scarcity because I know in my life, that like attracts like.
So how do we do this? We first of all maintain our premium prices while everyone else is slashing theirs. Do not engage in undermining yourself. We also must maintain the individuality of what we have to offer. As persuaders, we are incredibly unique in that we know exactly what our clients' hot buttons are and how to marry those triggers with our services.
Another thing that we must do is focus on developing word of mouth endorsements of the experience of working with us. It's an emotional experience that people crave, it's an emotional experience we're going to give them. This is done with that connection to their highest criteria, this is done through storytelling (i.e. telling stories that are pointedly geared toward why you do what you do and how the experiences of your life make you the perfect person to work with). This is done with really comprehending that everyone, rich, or not so rich, wants to feel special and understood.
So it is my fervent hope that you will begin to understand that you are worth what you charge and once you believe it, your affluent clients will have no choice but to also fall in line.
Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of wealthy prospects using http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion techniques.
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