What makes a good luxury salesperson? 

Get The People Right. 

Remember, the customers coming into your shop have worked hard to be able to afford to purchase items in your store. Your people serving them, and I do mean serving them, had better understand that.

Ride The Wave. 

Your employees must be able to vicariously enjoy the thrill of customers handling and buying a luxury product.

No Excuses. 

Lose the “I have so-and-so employee, and she’s great, but...” You need your employees to be great with no ifs, ands, or buts.

Be Builders. 

Your employee must accept and can add to the customer’s selection without imposing personal judgment, fears of what they can afford, or projecting negative prejudices onto an item they want to purchase.

Be Promoters. 

Your sales team must convey a why not? attitude, one that says to each customer, “You’re good enough; you deserve this.” Even if they can’t afford it themselves, they must be able to sell it as if they could.

How to enhance the luxury retail experience for customers?

Expect The Best. 

Employees must be able to mirror their luxury customers, who are naturally optimistic. Salespeople need to be able to snap into that role as soon as a customer walks in, even if they haven’t talked to any customer for hours. That means it can’t be faked. Remember, every customer is an opportunity, but you won’t always know how that opportunity will pay off when it first walks in the door.

Focus on the Individual. 

From the employees you hire to the merchandise you select, your goal is to have what others want. That means each must stand out – in a great way.

Focus on the couple. 

Whether it is a bride-to-be and her fiancé, two women, or two guys, you name it; you must keep both engaged in the process.

How salespeople sell to affluent customers

Have A Treasure Trove. 

Your salespeople must have many ways to develop trust and sell your product. The one-size-fits-all approach that might work for someone working in a fast-food restaurant will not work when selling luxury goods. Customers who purchase luxury goods have stronger personalities and are self-assured, and just like the most exclusive luxury goods, no two are ever alike. Use a proven selling system like SalesRX.com.

Know All The Brands. 

Whether you sell cars or cashmere, the new luxury buyer is a player; their connections, brains, talent, or looks got them their money. Salespeople must notice the brands these customers are already wearing, from the Jimmy Choo shoes on their feet to the Omega Seamaster watch on their wrists. Luxury customers appreciate talking to people who know the differences in feel, smell, taste, and service. If they don’t sense this shared appreciation, luxury customers won’t respect any advice or goodwill-building the employee has to offer.

Be One Of A Kind. 

If something is truly a luxury item, it should be seen as unique in terms of its features and benefits, memorable for the event it was purchased for, and irreplaceable in the bond forged between the item and the customer.

What do affluent customers want?

Pay Attention To The Details.

While it might seem obvious, attention to detail can’t end in the workshop where bespoke merchandise is created. How your product is cleaned, displayed, and held or shown to a shopper must be thought of, trained, and executed the same each time. But further, a follow-up with the customer after the purchase is just as important. You want to maintain the relationship you have crafted with that consumer so they return to you the next time they want something similar. And when someone comments to them about the purchase they made from you, they will happily give their recommendation. 

Teach Personality Styles. 

The ancient Greeks categorized them; anyone trying to sell anything should know about them. Analyticals and Drivers are likelier to listen to your spiel about a product – though for different reasons. Analyticals will listen more to the technical aspects. Amiables and Expressives are more likely to respond to emotions about a product or to feel understood. Drivers and Expressives are more likely to respond to the prestige of an item. Expressives may present a more “live for today persona,” while Analyticals will want to know how timeless something is. For those reasons …

Have Four Versions of Stories. 

Yes, stories and product details are what make your luxury goods unique. Still, the four personalities dictate how you can break it down, so Drivers know why it’s the best with a detail, Analyticals know how it’s the best along with all the details, Expressives know why it’s unique to them, Amiables know how popular it is and which celebrities have endorsed it.

Cellphone protocol. 

Luxury customers are busy with multiple demands on their time even when they shop. While a coffee house can put up a sign, “Please finish your call before ordering,” you can’t so come up with a way to deal with the probable interruption.

How would you approach a customer in luxury retail?

The best way to approach a customer hasn’t changed - be the most authentic version of yourself. Maybe you don’t “feel” like smiling or have a personal issue you’re dealing with; you have to find the inner strength to put that aside. A shopper - especially in a luxury store - is not looking for anything less than hope and attention to their needs. For those few minutes, they want to feel like they matter.

We all judge others within seconds, so make sure not only are you smiling so they can see it, but also your body is smiling. What does that look like? You want your arms to be open or at your sides. You want your feet to be pointed toward the customer and, of course, to be standing.

Your voice has to sound like it is a good day. Your eyes need to look to connect. And your words should be as simple as “Welcome” or “Good morning.”

And remember, a good outfit speaks volumes about its wearer so take care when picking yours.

The Three Stages of Every Luxury Sale

Before an affluent shopper buys anything, three stages have to happen in order. Most stores interrupt the first, miss the second, and wonder why the third never comes.

Welcome. Your customer is not looking at your merchandise when they walk in. They are scanning faces to answer one question: does it feel safe to stay? Eye contact, a smile, and a simple "Good morning" tell them yes. Silence tells them this place does not care that they are here, and they are right. In an upscale Portland boutique, an associate held up a novelty ball and asked me, "Have you ever seen anything as silly as this chicken?" We both laughed, she said "Enjoy your browse," and went back to work. Thirty seconds, no pitch, and my guard dropped completely. That is what the welcome stage is for.

Wonder. Once a shopper decides to stay, their mind opens like ten browser tabs at once. They touch the merchandise, hold things up, imagine possibilities. This is the stage brick and mortar exists for and no website can copy. An untrained associate kills it by walking over and asking, "Can I help you?" The shopper says, "Just looking," and the sale is over. In a Cavalli boutique at the Aria, I paused in front of a tiger-print bomber. An associate watched, then said, "You could totally pull off that jacket." I asked how she knew. "Because I can see it. Let's try it on." I bought the jacket. She did not interrupt the wonder. She deepened it.

Ownership. The customer stops browsing and starts considering. They have it on, they are asking how to care for it, and in their mind they already own it. This is the most fragile moment in retail, because commitment brings a flash of doubt. At South Coast Plaza I watched an associate stall on a $1,000 pair of ostrich boots. I stepped in and told the shopper, "Those look like they were made for you." She said the color was so specific she was not sure she would wear them. I said, "And I'm sure you don't have any dresses like that in your closet." She laughed, called me a jerk, and opened her wallet. The objection was not real. It was nervousness looking for reassurance. When associates are trained to be genuinely curious, customers do not feel sold. They feel seen, and they know the difference in about four seconds.

What Won't Work When Selling Luxury?

Get Up Off The Floor. 

In the olden days in Britain, if you were serving someone of “station,” you were to hide your personality, speak when spoken to, and leave your thoughts at the door. Many luxury retailers modeled their service after this example. But now, good service demands face-to-face contact and open opinion; the new player values people equally and envisions heroes selling to heroes. 

Settling For Mass-Market Employees. 

Your limited-edition timepiece, bespoke suit, one-of-a-kind boots, or any other premium products are personalized and unique. So why settle for the colorless, bland salesperson who takes away energy from the very products they are supposed to sell?

Selling On Discount. 

I know shoppers haggle and ask for a deal. The marketplace is filled with ways to get discount goods or previously worn. And the gray market continues to expand - especially online. When you discount a luxury good, in particular, you have discounted that one item and the billions in equity you have built for that brand to hold such a high place in the market.

Keeping Bitter Employees. 

These employees walk silently around the store with their hands behind them, expecting the customer to talk to them first. At this time, they vomit back gobs of useless information no one cares about that makes them feel superior to the customer.

Allowing A Still, Lifeless Store Environment.

Don’t create a space where customers feel watched, judged, and uncomfortable. No one likes to walk into an empty store where people talk in hushed tones. I’ve seen some jewelry stores playing suitable music in their parking lots to start an exciting experience.

Deciding Who Is Not Worth Your Time. 

People with money don't dress up to go shopping anymore. You have no idea how much money the person has in front of you, yet many employees can be seen only responding to people who dress like them. That'll cost you.

Phony employees. 

From the way they dress to how they talk to the experiences they relate to. If you don’t believe something looks good or is of great value, by all means, don’t lie. And if you feel that way about most of what you sell, move on. Selling is nothing more than a transference of feeling.

Always Be Closing. 

Made famous in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross for unscrupulous real estate investment salesmen, it is an old-school technique people can smell on you like you stepped in some animal droppings. No customer wants to feel they are being "closed" or made to do something. They will appreciate being guided, but that’s very different. Luxury goods are a want and not typically a time-sensitive need. So they may indeed think about it. If your luxury boutique sales process is more for tin siding or used cars – you’re probably leaving a lot of money on the counter.

Asked And Answered. 

The more your selling style involves employees reacting to customer questions, the more it can be akin to the point-and-click of online retail. That means you will be more vulnerable to discounting like your competitors because there is nothing special about shopping in your luxury boutique or for your luxury brand.

Transforming the Luxury Retail In-Store Experience

To increase sales in this marketplace, you need to reinvent how you approach selling luxury items. Here are some changes to how you sell and important knowledge to hold when selling luxury. 

Sell To The Side.

Customers who buy luxury items come in all shapes, sizes, and personality styles,. But the one thing they all want is to be counseled…not questioned…through a sale. Keeping salespeople behind a counter places a barrier between them and their customers. Ensure all sales are conducted on the floor, not behind the counter.

The luxury market is growing as more and more individuals discover what makes something truly a luxury item. It isn’t about whether your salesperson got the triple key for the diamond ring like in the good old days. It isn’t about bargaining with customers to trade in their previous purchase or finance the one in their hands.

Conversions.

Conversions are the lifeblood of every retail business. You need to convert browsers into customers to keep the doors open and the lights on. Typical mass-market retailers achieve this through a high volume of low-margin sales independent of having plentiful and competent staff.

But what about luxury retailers? By the very nature of the items they sell, they rely on a smaller pool of potential customers. That means they need to maintain high conversion rates. After all, the brand gets the shopper into the store, but if the salesperson fails to convert their interest into a purchase, then all that money used to get that shopper into the store is wasted.

Most luxury retailers cater to a specific niche with specific expectations and desires. If your salespeople aren’t meeting those expectations, conversion rates will suffer.

At that point, your store may be filled with many shoppers, but now they are just browsers looking at your merchandise without buying.

You may as well be operating a luxury retail museum.

How to drive higher conversion rates.

Poor conversion rates can result from various problems in a luxury retail store. One of the primary reasons is a disconnect between your customers and your salespeople.

Many premium retailers assume this disconnect comes down to the year a salesperson was born. It does not. The real disconnect is an associate who decides with their eyes who is worth their time.

Consider the number most luxury retailers never track. A five-point lift in conversion, from 25% to 30%, on 20,000 transactions at a $400 average ticket is $4 million in added revenue. No new marketing. No new locations. No new inventory. Same payroll. Same square footage. Same brand. The customers are already walking in. The only question is what happens after they do.

The $84 Trillion Wealth Transfer Changes Who Your Customer Is

An estimated $84 trillion will move from Baby Boomers to their children and grandchildren over the next 20 years. The 34-year-old in jeans and a hoodie standing in front of your case today may have just inherited more money than your best current client has ever spent with you. The associate who sizes up a shopper by their clothes and decides they are not worth the effort is not protecting your brand standards. They are costing you the next generation of your best customers.

This is why the old habit of reading a customer's watch, shoes, or car before deciding how hard to work is a losing bet. You have no idea how much money the person in front of you controls. In a wealth transfer this large, you are guessing wrong more often than you are guessing right.

Why Your Best Customers Are Buying Your Brand Used

According to Bain and Company's 2024 luxury goods study, personal luxury sales fell 2%, one of the weakest years since the Great Recession, and the luxury consumer base shrank by 50 million people over two years. At the same time, the secondhand luxury market reached $56 billion in 2024, nearly three times what it was a decade ago, and it is growing faster than sales in brands' own stores.

Read those two facts together. Your past customers are buying your brand used instead of new. Not because they cannot afford new. Because the store experience is no longer worth the premium price. That is not a brand problem. That is a floor problem.

So what actually drives the disconnect? Not the birth decade of the person selling. Silence. An associate who has never been shown what success looks like in their role defaults to distance, because distance feels safer than a conversation they are not equipped to have. Younger associates would rather text than talk. Older ones have let the skill atrophy because retail trained them to cut to the chase with "What can I help you find?" Both questions move a luxury shopper toward the exit, not toward a relationship.

The fix is not a lecture about generations. It is a salesperson trained to greet every shopper the same way, read the individual in front of them, and build enough rapport to earn the right to sell. That skill is taught, reinforced, and mastered through practice on the floor, not watched once and checked off a list.

The Future of Luxury Retail

The appetite for luxury is only growing, not just in the U.S. or China but worldwide. While buzzwords like digital transformation and metaverse are bandied about, luxury brands will need to expand training their frontline beyond features and the soft skills of engaging strangers to leverage the desire for the scarce, the bespoke, and the truly luxurious.