Selling at the high end: the five traits of people who sell well

Our designers do the selling

In our Milan showroom, on the second floor of Corso Matteotti, the client doesn't meet me. They meet the team, who are designers. At first it looked like a disadvantage, because you can't have them play the table game or use the aggressive techniques taught on sales courses. In fact it is a huge advantage, because the client wants to talk to a technical person who will draw their kitchen. Of course the designers go through our in-house sales training. But it is consultancy dressed up as selling.

The method we use, which I developed with a sales trainer who worked with us, runs over three appointments: the first to disqualify anyone who isn't in target, the second for the design within budget, the third for the close. The five traits below serve this method. Without the method they are just nice words.

1. They can read the person in front of them

The ability to build a relationship comes first. At the first appointment the client wants to see the product, so you don't sit them down straight away: you offer a coffee, give them a quick tour, work out what kind of person has walked in. Then you sit them down and explain how we work, the same method they have already read about on the website. This is the moment for the relationship, and it serves a specific purpose: finding out the budget and the urgency without making it feel like an interrogation.

In class they always ask me: questionnaire or off the cuff? No questionnaire. People don't want to be interrogated. You ask the questions with the utmost courtesy and a tone of innocent curiosity: “What kind of kitchen would you like?”, “In what material?”, “Had you thought about a budget?”. You start wide and work your way to the number. Anyone who can do this without reading the questions off a sheet can sell at the high end.

2. They want to learn

Willingness to learn is the trait that separates people who grow from people who stand still. I don't make the kitchens I made five years ago, and the client who walks in today isn't the client of five years ago: they have done their research online, watched the videos, read the blog, and they arrive with questions. A designer who doesn't keep up to date on the product, the method and the client will, after a year, be explaining things the client knows better than they do.

That is why every new hire starts with us as a paid intern, six months plus six. We pay a fair wage. But it is a period in which you learn the method, and if someone has no desire to learn it, you find out before you hire them.

3. They know the product the way the maker knows it

The desire to know is the third. In luxury the client buys for two reasons: the inner one, status, and the explicit one, the quality of the product, which they need to justify the purchase to themselves and to others. The designer works on the second: the handwork, the 45-degree detail, the hand finish, the six-centimetre plinth. If they don't know these details better than the client, the client has nothing to justify the €70,000 with.

And there is something else they need to know: the positioning. With us it is explained during the negotiation, quietly, that we are direct: with no chain of agents and dealers draining value, the discount I can offer goes further than anyone else's. Whoever sells has to know the reason behind every number they say.

4. They have a work ethic

In class I say it with a phrase I'll tone down here: the timid salesperson doesn't bring home results. Aggression is banned in luxury. I am talking about persistence: calling back, following up, preparing the second appointment, not letting the client leave without an order if the budget is there. To a client who wants the €100,000 kitchen but has €30,000, I propose the right collection for them, and I close. If the designer lets them go away “to think about it”, they have thrown away the work of the marketing that brought the client in.

And there is a floor you don't go below: someone with a €10,000 budget is not a client in target, and the designer has to be able to say so. It is the hardest part to teach, because the team tends to want to please everyone. But if you go below the threshold, you lower the perception of the brand for everyone else.

5. They communicate without pushing

Communication skills, at the high end, are the opposite of what people think. Marketing has already done the work: photos, videos, testimonials, articles. When the client walks in they have already decided to trust you, otherwise they wouldn't have climbed to the second floor and rung the bell. The salesperson's job is to guide the client: show the design, explain the pre-agreement on payment, 50% with the order and 50% before the product leaves the factory, and close.

The discount, which is set in advance, is never advertised: it only comes out when the offer is presented. That way the client thinks “I'm getting a deal because I'm buying direct”, and the rational side supports the emotional one. Whoever communicates well in luxury knows when to talk and, above all, when to keep quiet.

The method comes before the people

A designer with these five traits but no method sells whatever they manage to. With the three-appointment method, with a showroom that already filters people through price and the second floor, with marketing that brings in qualified people, they sell on the company's terms. If you run a business in Italy and sell at the high end, people matter. But first make sure you have a system to put them in.

From my book Direct from Milano and my classroom courses. Figures and examples updated to September 2026.