Tag Archives: education

Motivation – Going that Extra Mile

September 20, 2012 By in Strategy Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Recently I talked about EDUCATION as a vital part of the sales process.  Today, I want to talk about MOTIVATION!

In the quest to make that perfect connection with your patient/consumer, you have to remember that not everyone will have the same desire as you to go the extra mile. Your desire may be to sell luxury product, but a staff member may be more comfortable taking the “easy way out” and selling the first item a patient sees.   The unfortunate reality is that not everyone is as motivated as an owner to create a long-lasting connection or to raise the average retail selling price in the store/practice. Thus, we sometimes have to incentivize the team to represent the practice/store in the manner you want, and to achieve the goals you want to achieve.

Strategies to consider when motivating a staff to sell luxury products:

• Offer incentives – contests (rewards for selling a certain number of frames over a certain price-point), spiffs (compensation for reaching certain sales goals), etc.  I hate to admit it, but nothing works better than this.  We have years of experience working with retailers and whenever we offer a contest or spiff, our sales increase.  We would all like to think our product sells itself, but incentives do help.

• Ask your sales representative if the brand (if it is branded product) offers discounts for other categories within the brand – a watch, a handbag, apparel, shoes, etc. People love “stuff” and will be more motivated to sell a brand they wear themselves.

• Work with companies so the employees can wear the luxury product you want to sell.  Again, people love to wear expensive frames AND this will help sell the product if the staff “supports it”.

• Celebrate the success – there is no greater motivator than celebrations.  People, by nature, want to do well and want to be rewarded… Have an impromptu party at the end of the day.  Bring lunch in for the team.  Announce to the office when a special frame has been sold.  Do something to celebrate the goals you want to achieve…  Drive people to the behavior you want to encourage.

MAKE IT FUN.  BE CREATIVE.  If you keep things fun and creative, the team will thrive and you will reach your ultimate goal of selling more luxury product AND creating a great connection with your patients.

Education IS a Selling Strategy

August 22, 2012 By in Selling, Strategy Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

I have posed some questions and shared some important research and articles. Now it is time to dive in and talk about actual tips to enhance the selling experience and make sure you have the tools to sell luxury eyewear.  Every tool and tip I discuss will have one ultimate goal – to make a connection with your patient and thus give you the ability to sell higher priced, luxury eyewear.

 Tip #1:  Educate, Educate, Educate

Education is a big theme throughout my writings and speeches (and of course with my own internal team).  We all have new things to learn and we should be learning something new almost every day.  Education does not end when we leave school or graduate. It continues forever and if we are not learning or educating at retail, we will be left behind by the stores/practices that focus on this every day.

Education tips to consider when developing your strategy:

  • Work with your staff and patients ONE on ONE as much as possible.  Individual attention is the best form of education.  For what it is worth, I always did better in school in the classes where the teacher paid individual attention and I did not feel like a “number/name” in a large room.
  • Keep on training the staff: Have weekly meetings, lunches, breakfasts.  Make it fun, have some contests. Write up silly quizzes and give out even sillier prizes.  The more the staff knows about ALL the product lines, the more you will sell.  And the more everyone knows about the luxury collections, the more you will increase your average retail selling price.
  • Invite your sales representatives as often as you can:  No matter how much you teach and study, you still have 10+ collections to think about and sell.  No one knows the details on products better than the company selling them.  See point 2 above and invite your sales representative to do as much training as you want.  Trust me – they will happily come in and do it (and if not, stop carrying the collection).
  • Pay attention to the details: Training is one thing.  The details are another.  When selling any luxury product, the consumer wants to know details.  They want to know why a specific product is special, why it costs more than the “popular price” frame on the board.  The devil is in the details!
  • Make learning easy:  Develop small bullet point reminders about collections.  Key in on features and benefits that make a collection or an item special.  If you do not have time or need help, ask your sales representatives to do this for you.  But do something.  And again, make it FUN.
  • Share: Last but not least — make sure to share all of this with your patients.  Remember – they want to be educated – not sold.


Education is the building block.  With the right focus on teaching and training, you will soon find it easier and easier to sell higher priced, luxury products. And you will develop a long-lasting connection with your patients.

Selling – part II

June 19, 2012 By in Selling, Strategy Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Have you thought about your selling strategy at all?  Did you answer any of the questions posed in the last post?  In order to tackle the ins and outs of selling and apply the selling tips I will share in the coming posts, I want to share some research done by Agency Sacks and the Affluence Collaborative.  I recommend that everyone check out their sites and their background – they are great companies doing great research on the subject of luxury/affluence.  I use their data throughout my writings and speeches (and of course in our own strategy development) and have learned a ton from what they have been studying.

Three BIG crucial data points I have learned from their research and want to share with everyone selling luxury or looking to upgrade to luxury:

  1. Consumers want to be educated, not sold – they know pricing, they know value, they know brands, but they do NOT know eyewear and people like to buy from people they trust. Education creates trust.
  2. People want value – people will pay for something if they feel it has value. We hear this all the time in our business.  Our partners and their patients will spend money on luxury goods that they feel bring them value – and that value can be product quality, happiness, etc.
  3. MOST importantly: friends tell friends – if you give the right product and service to a consumer – they WILL tell their friends. Case in point:  we have a “referral program” at our company which rewards our partners when they refer us to other potential partners. Our partners tell us all the time: “We refer you because of the product and service you provide, not for any free gifts…. We want our industry colleagues to benefit from working with good partners.”

Once we understand and appreciate these three truths, we need to use them to our advantage when selling, and use them to help achieve our ultimate goal — selling higher priced product and offering a point of difference from our competitors.

Remember the closing question from the last post: When you see a patient, do they leave having had a WOW experience? Or a doctor’s visit? Or a sales pitch?

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