I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of the concierge at high-end hotels like the Waldorf Astoria or the Ritz-Carlton. If you’re unfamiliar, a concierge has one job and one job only: to please the guests of the hotel by catering to their wants and needs. If you’ve ever needed last-minute reservations at the fanciest restaurant in town, recommendations to keep small children happy during an extended stay or locate that seemingly impossible book you promised to bring your daughter when you return home, the concierge is there to solve difficult – even supposedly insurmountable – problems.
That brief job description of catering to the wants and needs of hotel guests is very similar to that of a salesperson. Much like a skilled concierge, the number one job of a salesperson is to help their clients get what they want with as little friction as possible. As such, the same traits that make a good concierge great are the same ones that separate the exceptional salespeople from the mediocre ones:
Anticipation – Both a great concierge and a great salesperson know what their clients want even when the clients don’t know themselves. Any promotional products salesperson can be responsive to the everyday request: 144 ceramic mugs with a once color decoration, in one location, and shipping to one site. However, the ones that can predict that the use of specific merchandise, in distinctive packaging, with individual delivery that will move the recipients to action are the salespeople that succeed wildly and create loyalty.
Details – An excellent concierge pays attention to every detail, no matter how seemingly insignificant. In other words, they hear what their guest is saying not just verbally, but nonverbally. The same trait applies to salespeople in that the details are what separates the great from the average: its understanding what the client has done before, who the target audience is, and what emotion needs to be elicited when the branded merchandise is received. The truly exceptional salesperson inspects every element of the order to ensure that the end result will be filled with surprise and delight.
Creativity – The best concierges possess a great deal of creativity; specifically, the creativity necessary to look at a problem and find a unique or innovative way to solve it. In a similar manner, the remarkable promotional products salesperson will find a way to resolve marketing challenges in ways that are best suited to the needs of each specific customer. Knowing that the solution for one client may not work for another is critical to ensuring that the expectations of each customer are exceeded as opposed to simply being met.
The extraordinary concierge and remarkable salesperson share one additional purpose: to enhance the experience of the customer in every way possible. At every possible opportunity, both will do everything in their power to not only solve the initial problem but will also be so memorable that the client will happily pay for that same experience again and again.
One final thought: there is an old saying that has been adopted by world-class hotels in relation to how they expect their concierges to act with guests,
“the difficult can be done immediately; the impossible will take a few minutes.” By adopting this mindset, you embrace the real purpose of sales which is to help people get what they want.
Bill is president of PromoCorner, the leading digital marketing service provider to the promotional products industry, and has over 17 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, immediate past president of the Promotional Products Association of the Mid-South (PPAMS), vice president of the Regional Association Council (RAC) board, and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, and developing branding that resonates with a target audience. He can be reached at bill@PromoCorner.com.