Somebody complimented my suit yesterday and it reminded me of how much fun I had buying it.
Weird idea, but I genuinely love watching other salespeople in action. Makes it even more exciting to be the customer!
And there’s one particularly powerful approach to selling suits that I’ve seen nearly every time.
Here it is.
Sell the suit first.
THEN sell the shirt, the socks, the cufflinks, the tie, the pocket square, etc etc.
Why?
Because the big number of the suit’s price makes the other prices look much smaller.
You think “I’m already spending $1,000 on the suit. Why not another $100 for the shirt?”
If they did it the other way, you watch that $100 jump to $1,100 reaaaaaal quick and it freaks you out.
What did my guy do?
None of that.
I came in with very clear opinions on what I was looking for.
“I need something that travels well; I’m going to be wearing it on the plane and I might need to go straight from that environment to standing on stage in front of my audience. And to that point, I need it to be lightweight. That spotlight tends to get hot so I don’t need to wear something that’s going to make me sweat even more. I need it in a darker color; something conservative so I can blend in with my audience before going on stage; once I’m there I need to look like I belong.”
“Ok” my guy thinks. “This isn’t Jonathan’s first rodeo. I’ll be best suited (pun intended) by focusing on what he says he needs.”
And since he didn’t try to sell me on a whole bunch of extra crap, I bought 2 suits before heading out.
And I’m glad I did; gotta keep the compliments coming!
Best thoughts,
~Jonathan