Selling Luxury: Connect with Affluent Customers, Create Unique Experiences Through Impeccable Service, and Close the Sale

Chapter 8. The island vacation or the earrings?

Sales Ambassadors understand that they are competing against a variety of choices, including the possibility that the person may not buy at all. Competition is everywhere. Take travel agencies and the possibilities of a vacation as an example.

A couple has been together for five years and they are now thinking very seriously about how to celebrate their upcoming wedding anniversary. They visit a travel agency to obtain information about taking an island vacation—two weeks off, lie in the sun, and just relax together. Because they both work, they could use the rest.

Early one evening, they are out walking and stop to look in a window of a well-known brand's boutique at a beautiful pair of earrings. The woman cannot hide how much she likes them. Her grandmother (whom she adored) had a similar pair.

The next day, the man decides to visit the boutique. He and his wife are hesitating on whether they should really take two weeks off. Maybe it would be a better idea for him to buy his wife those lovely earrings and then take her out to a nice restaurant. The price? Well, it's pretty much the same. As he walks into the boutique, in his mind he cannot help thinking "The vacation or the earrings?"

In the boutique, the salesperson does not take him seriously. She does little to welcome him and nothing to find out why he is interested in the earrings. The man soon has the impression that he is unwelcome. He is treated so poorly that he feels uncomfortable ...