Tag: Luxury

Customer Experience, Customer Service

Good salespeople have great answers, but great salespeople have great questions

by Victoria Macdonald13 Comments on Good salespeople have great answers, but great salespeople have great questions

It happened again! I walked into one of those posh, ultra-luxurious shops on Fifth Avenue and the smartly dressed, beautifully coiffed sales associate asked “May I help you?” I’m sure she’d been trained on the company value proposition and was knowledgeable on all the new product lines, but what she didn’t know is this is one of the worst ways to greet a customer! Too often this question is met with a polite “No thank you. I’m just looking.”  That’s because “May I help you?” is a closed-ended question—it can be answered with “yes” or “no.” The next time you go shopping, listen to the number of closed-ended questions you’re asked: “Do you like this one?,” “Do you have a budget?,” “Is this the right color?,” “Will that be all for today?”

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Brand

Can brands transcend the language barrier?

by Victoria Macdonald1 Comment on Can brands transcend the language barrier?

Through its innovative Lexus  “Amazing in Motion” campaign with the STROBE project in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Lexus intends to use art as a vehicle to translate its brand across the globe. The art campaign celebrates art, technology, innovation and movement – all elements of the Lexus brand. Above all, “Amazing in Motion” shows a new creative side of Lexus, according to Brian Bolain, Corporate Marketing Communications Manager at Lexus. Bolain believes the STROBE project, through its inventive use of tumbling LED-lit acrobats and stuntmen, will transmit the message of speed and movement across language barriers, “As the brand has now expanded to over 80 world markets, it is more important than ever that there be some common understanding of what Lexus represents that transcends any barriers that language might present.”

Customer Experience

Never Be Closing

by Victoria Macdonald1 Comment on Never Be Closing

Over the years I’ve read many books on sales methodologies and techniques. Inevitably the last chapter of each of these books is entitled “Closing the Sale.” The concept of “closing” the sale is one that has entered the language, and the mindset, of just about everyone involved in the sales process. The epitome of this mindset can be seen in Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of the sales trainer from hell in the film Glengarry Glen Ross. Alec Baldwin, as Blake, reviews the ABC’s of selling (Always Be Closing):

Webster’s dictionary defines the word ‘close’ as “to bring to an end or period.” If we think of the customer’s purchase as “closing the sale,” then we’re saying that’s the end of the relationship with the customer. In 2009 the British Financial Times conducted a survey that found it costs seven times more to locate and sell to a new customer than it does to sell to an existing one. More recently a Gartner Group study found 80 percent of your profits will come from just 20 percent of your existing customers. This is why it’s so important to think of the sale not as the close of a transaction, but as the beginning of a partnership; not as a one-night stand, but as the start of a long-term relationship.

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Customer Experience, Customer Service

The perils of the price question

by Victoria MacdonaldLeave a Comment on The perils of the price question

pricetagLast year my husband and I attended a re-commitment ceremony for friends of ours. Since we’d never had a formal ceremony of our own, we started talking about hosting a similar event. Like most brides, my first thoughts were about what dress I would wear—I favored a simple, off-white, mermaid silhouette. So last week we visited our local bridal store. As soon as we entered, I fell for a luxuriously beaded, ivory ball gown with a fully-flared skirt and court-length train (nothing like the dress I’d imagined). Seeing that dress caused every little-girl princess fantasy I’d suppressed over the years to come rushing back. I couldn’t wait to try it on.

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