On a recent trip to NYC I found myself in the ARMANI store for hours. This might have been heaven except for the fact that it was the Men’s Armani free standing store not the Women’s store. Not a woman’s item anywhere in sight.
After an hour of entertaining myself on my phone that by now is low on battery, I turn to the salesman for entertainment.
I asked him if he could tell me the highest dollar amount a person ever spent with him in the store. He told me that a Saudi prince once spent $200,000. But that’s not all.
After he purchased this bounty, he stayed in NYC. Armani received a shipment of 3 jackets. These jackets were made of farm raised crocodiles, each jacket unique in its own right. The cost of each jacket was $100,000.
Mr. Armani salesperson, an Armani employee for over 20 years called the Saudi prince to tell him about the unique-one-of-a-kind jacket. The Saudi prince asked what women everywhere ask when trying to justify an expenditure, “where would I ever wear it?”
The Armani salesperson, being a professional, not just an order taker, answered in the only way he could have overcome the objection.
Everyone I have told this story to since it happened answered the Prince’s objection in the same way: he could wear it to a wedding or a party . . .
That is not what the salesperson said. He said, “You never have to wear it. You will be one of three people in the world with this jacket”.
What I love about this story is that he did not go the traditional route to overcome the objection. Think about it. There is no wearing in the world that would justify spending $100,000 on an article of clothing.
He took the objection and like a really good wide receiver, moved it to another place on the field. He was no longer living in the world of overcoming objections.
He created an alternative universe of uniqueness. Do you think the Prince bought the jacket? Of course he did.
