Selling to Millionaires

For anyone who has read my biography, you’ve seen that I spent 6 years selling a variety of aviation products to multi millionaires. I know this is quite a source of curiosity. Even among successful sales people, very few ever get to this high level of sales.

This particular group of people was unique in several ways. I will break down one in this article.

First, and foremost, they expect an exceptional level of service. They expect phone calls and emails to be returned extremely quickly. These are not people who are accustomed to waiting for anything. One of the worst experiences I had was with a client who was making another purchase and wanted a few things included in his new deal. They were things that upper management needed to approve. However, they were all at a golf outing. Which meant that cell phones were turned off for several hours. This gentleman left messages for hours before the call got returned. He was furious. It didn’t matter why the call hadn’t been returned in a timely manner, only that he had been left waiting. From that point on, if senior management was unavailable, I made sure I told the client their call would not be returned until the end of the day.

It was my job to manage his expectations. Because I didn’t see the importance of his call being returned immediately, I couldn’t let the appropriate people in the organization know. Therefore, we all looked bad. I found the affluent to be a group of people who just wanted to know ‘where they stood’. Providing an answer they were unhappy with was preferable to providing no answer at all.

In the case I mentioned above, a return call with the message, “We’re looking into this for you” would have been sufficient. It was the perception that he was being ignored that made this person furious.

This can happen with any customer, whether they’re affluent or not. Always return calls promptly, if only to deliver the message that you’re returning the call. Customers just want to know that you’re hearing their concerns and returning a call shows you’re doing just that. It’s the professional way to approach any customer situation. Don’t pass the buck and say, “My boss will call you”. Find out from your boss when he intends to make the call and communicate that to the customer. Had I done this, I would have avoided an ugly situation.

Former Learjet Sales Star, Susan Adams, has sold products and services for some of the world’s most respected companies…..General Electric, Pitney Bowes and Bombardier Aerospace. She takes a ‘real world’ approach to all sales topics. ‘Successful sales people are experts at having conversations with customers. If you can empathize with people, create an environment of trust and really listen to their concerns, you’ll be a top sales performer.’ More importantly, you’ll be able to develop long term relationships with your customers. Susan has successfully sold to CEO’s, High Net Worth Individuals and celebrities. Twenty one years of talking to customers has give Susan a unique perspective on how to build a sales presentation that connects with your customers, and compels them to buy.