View PDF | Print View | Html Version
by: KenrickCleveland
Total views: 2
Word Count: 513

Yeah, I know, things are getting expensive. Grocery prices are soaring because gas prices are soaring because there's a war going on because a fear of scarcity has been instilled in us because . . . well, it's complicated, right? Regardless of the reasons, I get back to the point that things are expensive.

And yet, we're not being asked to conserve or pull in the reigns on spending, tighten our belts so to speak. We're being told it's our patriotic duty to engage in this economy by buying more, more, more. And people are spending, true, but much more conservatively than in times of plenty. Price comparisons, coupons, internet deals, et cetera, are all culminating in sales professionals getting pinched. And as a former sales professional and trainer of sales professionals, I feel it. Most fortunately, for me and for the sales professionals I work with, our products and services are geared toward an affluent clientle and the affluent are not necessarily feeling the pinch like the non-affluent. Because of this, there is absolutely no need to gear our message toward the bargain shoppers.

Because we persuade an affluent clientle, we are working on a level where we must immediately set the frame that concepts such as bargain shopping and cutting corners is absolutely going to disappoint them with substandard and inferior products and service.

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.

In order to do this, maintain your prices. Don't haggle. You have premium pricing because you are premium. Your services are elite. Additionally, maintain your individuality (and as a persuader, you are quite unique). This comes naturally as a result of understanding what criteria has to do with sales.

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.

About the Author

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.

Add Comment