May 15th, 2008 by Barry
How to Sell to the Rich - Part 5 - The Final Word
Category General |Lest you forget, the rich are people, too. They’re just wired differently. But once you, as a marketer, figure out their wiring pattern, they’ll be worth their weight in gold to you.
Listen, everyone breathing has needs, desires and emotional responses to specific stimuli based on past and present experiences. In other words, and in practical terms, once you understand what turns a person on… they’ll be putty in your hands.
Now, it’s of course dangerous to classify an entire demographic using broad generalizations. Nonetheless, there are certain desires and wants that the rich as a whole share (and even the not so rich, for that matter).
By the way, when talking about selling to the rich, we’re not talking about selling “need to have” products, as outlined in the previous post. What we want to sell to the rich are discretionary products, “want to have products”, and the more expensive the better. Why?
Two reasons, they carry a better margin, of course. Secondly, the rich can afford it!
And also, because with a higher price tag it’s naturally assumed that the product has a higher value, a better quality and greater appeal. It’s just the way we human beings are wired - all human beings, rich and poor alike.
For example, take two identical pairs of household scissors. One is priced at $1.99 and the other at $15.95. Because of the higher price point, it will be assumed by the prospective buyer, at least at first glance, that the latter pair of scissors is of better quality, how ever better is defined.
So this leads us to the true key to selling to the rich.
Now understand that the rich enjoy a certain status within society. They’re viewed as being more privileged than the rest of us. And, by the way, they share that view, too.
And they fully enjoy the perks of their status and wealth - they enjoy the indulgences that only they can afford. Indeed, why shouldn’t they? They achieved their success and wealth, hopefully through hard work, brains and ethical means, and now they want to eat the fruit of that tree.
And your job, as a marketer, is to satisfy that desire, that want, by placing a plate of ripe and delicious fruit from that tree of just rewards in front of them.
Oh, yes, the rich also enjoy impressing others with their wealth and status - and they are also steadfast in protecting and fostering that perception. And because perception is reality, the same key to selling to the rich also applies to selling to those who want to be rich.
So what is the key already?
Well, I already gave it to you… but you didn’t notice, because it’s so simple and obvious.
Here it is… it’s all positioning…
Position your product or service in such a way so that it’s perceived as something that only they, the rich, can access and afford (exclusivity), that will affirm their place on top of the wealth pyramid (entitlement), that can only be owned by a few (scarcity), and that will create envy among others (vanity).
Succeed on all those levels and price is nothing more than a minor detail.
In the last post I challenged you think about how you would go about selling a pair solid 24 kt. gold scissors to the rich.
They obviously don’t need to own such an extravagance - so it needs to be positioned as a “want to have” product.
How do you do that? With deft marketing and packaging.
Create exclusivity. For example… “These scissors are only being offered to a select group of people who have been identified as being… flatter, flatter, flatter.”
Create entitlement. For example… “These scissors should only be owned by those who can appreciate a work of consummate craftsmanship; who will hand them down to the next most deserving generation of, yada, yada, yada.”
Create scarcity. That’s easy (but it’s got to be true.) For example… “Only one hundred of these exquisite scissors have been minted, so on and so forth.”
Appeal to vanity. For example… “Imagine what your friends will say, the chorus of oohs and ahs that will chime, when you bring out these scissors in its crystal display case, blah, blah, blah.”
Get the picture? Good! Now go out and sell a pair of gold scissors.
–Barry
www.WritingWithPersonality.com
Popularity: 22% 
May 16th, 2008 at 4:12 am
This blog has much full of useful matter that leads us to the true key to selling in the internet marketing.
May 24th, 2008 at 3:34 am
I do think that certain words, phrases, and (ok , i admit it) even stretching the truth, can, and does, work.
The harder part, I believe, is putting those “pitches” aka promos/advertisments, in high traffic formats.
A blog, website, and press i have all acquired through hard work. However, I am begining to realize that a platform to promote one’s (mine is Art) “thing,” is not only a faster route, but probably expensive. I would be willing to pay-I just need, as most people would, something as simple as a List, of the (preferably highly referred) best forms: from Ads in magazines, to local newspapers (the daily free downtown seen has several)-this is the article I need you to write! Hah.
Though I don’t agree with everything you say, your headline was the “selling point” of the very story which was how marketing, when done right, is: “Get ‘em from the first line.”
People may have disagreed with you, but the words
“Selling to the Rich” had ‘em hooked righ then.
jr
my blog:
http://www.colorspeaker.com
May 26th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Nice article about Internet marketing and online opportunities
October 28th, 2008 at 6:00 am
FANTASTIC! (I have gold scissors but they are only 18kt)
thank you so much!
November 25th, 2008 at 4:47 am
I really enjoyed that. Thank you.