SHOW ME THE MONEY: Best Business Practices

Selling Luxury Products Must Include a Luxury Experience

BY LUANN NIGARA

Luxury—think about that word. We say it a lot, we throw it around. We say we want luxury clients, we offer luxury products, yet do we ever contemplate what luxury means? The products we sell are high-quality, well-made, innovative and beautiful, so, yes, they are luxury products.

Yet, we’re not in the product business. And if you have mistakenly fallen into thinking that, you’re likely struggling, on the daily, with customers negotiating, shopping your prices and, in general, fighting for every sale. We’re not in a commodity business. Instead, it’s critical to understand that, along with our luxury products, we must deliver a luxury experience.

To attract and maintain lifelong relationships with the “luxury client”— those in the upper income bracket with more expendable money available—the luxury experience must accompany the luxury product. They will not accept one without the other. When you deliver one without the other, you’ll always struggle to establish a foothold within the luxury niche of clientele.

Luxury defined: something adding to pleasure or comfort, but not necessary.

It could be argued it’s a necessity to cover the windows in our homes, but this could be done with online stock blinds. Heck, the windows could be covered with bedsheets or craft paper. Covering windows with custom-made, personally selected and designed window treatments is a luxury. By the same logic, a home can be furnished without a designer. Furniture, lighting, rugs and accessories can also be purchased online or at a box store.

Quite literally, there’s no true necessity for custom window treatments or interior design services. Yes, they both add pleasure and comfort to our customers’ lives, but they are not necessary. Think about that for a moment. Why is this important for you to realize with absolute clarity?

Shifting your perspective to selling a luxury experience combined with luxury products is the only way to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Any two companies with access to the same vendors will deliver the same high-quality products; however, the steps one company takes to create the luxury experience will differ from the steps another company takes.

At our recent Exciting Windows! CEO Conference in Washington, D.C., we had a panel discussion where each business owner shared the ways they provide luxury services to their customers. Each had their own version, their own way of adding special touches the process of working with their customers.

One member, as policy, sends a minimum of six gifts per year to all customers who’ve referred them to friends and family. Another member sends a greeting card every month to her most loyal and best customers, often including cookies or some other thoughtful add-in. Another member calls every single customer after the completed install to ask, “How did we do?” And, on my podcast, “Window Treatments for Profit,” Georgiana Schwandt of Incredible Windows in Wisconsin shared how she hosts her top 100 customers for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at a local winery every fall and spring.

Do you see how these methods can set you apart from others? If we all sell the same brands, same shades, blinds, fabrics, why wouldn’t a customer go from one company to another each time they enter the marketplace for window treatments or design services?

People come back for the experience, not the shades.

You’ll do it your way, your friend and competitor will do it their way. Each of us will attract the customers who resonate and appreciate our particular methods. This is the only way to create a memorable business that gets repeat and referral customers.

An elevated experience is nonnegotiable.

Think about when you’ve invested in a luxury. Maybe it was a special dinner at a fine restaurant. The complete meal is $150 and the food is exceptional. Additionally, the maître d’, the waiter and the sommelier are attentive and professional. You’re thrilled and can’t wait to go again and tell your friends about it. Consider when the meal was exceptional, but the staff was lackadaisical, made mistakes and were generally uninvolved in how you were enjoying your experience. How important is that exceptional meal now?

That meal is your high-end window treatment product or your room design. Suddenly, it’s not worth the money without the experience. This leads to word of mouth that sounds like, “The shades are great, but the service was lousy. I can’t say I recommend them.”

You have served up the same quality products, same innovative technology, same expert advice, but you’ve dropped the ball on the experience. When you don’t deliver on the inherent promise of luxury—which is both quality of product and an elevated experience—you lose the respect and the future business of that customer.

The process of working with you must be enjoyable, reliable and referrable. Every person must feel seen, heard and serviced. From the initial phone call to the first appointment, to the order process, the installation and the follow-up process, it must be worth their time and money to work with you. People will pay for something that’s not a necessity only when the value of the products is combined with the value of the experience.

Luxury does have a price tag and the luxury client is OK with this.

It’s not your job to make custom window treatments or interior design affordable. Bedsheets are affordable, custom is luxury. When you’re the one who “knows” they don’t need custom window treatments, you can be the one, if necessary, to say, “Maybe these are not for you.” When customers say, “These roman shades are expensive,” your job is not to lower the price to make them affordable. Your job is to determine if another custom alternative is better suited for them or if they’re not your customer in the first place.

If fabric romans are more than they want to spend, you can offer woven roman shades or wood blinds. They decide how much to invest based on their priorities. We are all quite capable of offering quality products with an elevated experience, whether we deliver a $4,000 drape or a $400 roller shade. The customer decides which one makes financial sense to them.

People have their idea of investment ranges and, if that falls into what custom costs, great. But because it’s a luxury product and service, you’re not obligated to make your products and services fit their wallet. And when you understand this, you can take the emotion out of the transaction and can recommend another product that will suit their needs in their investment range.

In my four decades of selling, I’ve learned the luxury client knows they’ll pay for luxury. They’re perfectly fine paying if we’re delivering on both a quality product and elevated service. They want the top-of-the-line iX BMW because they know not only is the car a high-quality performance machine, they know the dealer is going to service the heck out of them. Oil changes, tune-ups, loaner cars, coffee and internet in the waiting lounge, Saturday service hours, the whole enchilada. A total of $65,000 more for car and service? Yep, that is just fine with them. And for those who don’t get that, well, you can direct them to the box store down the street.

This is a mindset shift.

Terri Taylor, a 20-plus-year interior designer and now business coach to interior designers, has been on my podcast, “A Well-Designed Business,” several times. She said when you know your products and services are worth every penny, because you know you’ll deliver, then you have to say your prices matter of factly. No emotion, no hesitancy, no embarrassment.

She said, “The design fees for this project will be $45,000 and the furnishing budget will be another $150,000 (pass the salt).” Meaning, easy breezy as if you’re asking someone to pass the salt. She is spot on with this. Own it that a fabric roman shade with drapes and a cornice are three, maybe four times the price of a wood blind. This is a fact, not a concept that you can alter. You don’t have to, can’t and shouldn’t have to manipulate the facts to accommodate someone else’s perception of what they “should” cost.

As I always say, “I’m not your momma.” This means, while I’ll always do my best to educate my customers, I don’t need to change my customer’s mind if they just don’t get it. I want them to understand that custom window treatments and interior design are a luxury that they choose to invest in. But if they keep insisting on luxury at budget prices, ultimately, that’s their dilemma, not mine. They’re free to go from place to place to see if someone else will provide luxury at budget prices, but it’s not with me. I know they’re a luxury.

As far as I’m concerned, they can choose to value luxury products and services or they can choose to forgo luxury. However, if they choose to do business with me, I’ll deliver a high-end, quality product with an unbeatable experience, worthy of the pleasure and comfort my products and services deliver.

Pass the salt. V

With four decades of industry experience, LuAnn Nigara is an award-winning author, keynote speaker and the host of two podcasts: “A Well-Designed Business” and “Window Treatment For Profit.” She is also part of the ownership team of the Livingston, New Jersey-based Exciting Windows! and Window Works. Through Exciting Windows!, LuAnn University and her one-on-one coaching services, Nigara teaches window treatment pros and interior designers how to operate profitable businesses.

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