How to Make Successful Alternative Perfume Recommendations Professionally
Don’t be stymied by someone telling you that they’ve already discovered their perfect perfume, one that says and does it all perfectly, a fragrance that exemplifies their personality, preference, sense of style and lifestyle. Never get involved in an argument about someone else’s preferred brand of fragrance, because you’ll have them heading for the hills instantly, never to return.
Instead, compliment the person sincerely on having found a personal favourite fragrance, before asking him/her their opinion on the prices of imported perfumes. At least nine times out of ten, the person will mention that perfume prices are fast becoming prohibitive, if not unaffordable.
This is the ideal time to enquire about whether they’d be interested in discovering a very close likeness that belongs to the same olfactory group, possibly one that’s inspired by the original, but is produced locally from the finest imported, similar perfume oils at a fraction of the original imported product’s price.
Remember, you have 69 perfumes in your Papillon range, plus 5 women’s and 5 men’s fragrance lotions and luxury body lotions (selected fragrances), so there’s bound to be a close match, or certainly an entirely new signature fragrance that conforms to each preferred olfactory group.
Use Resources at Your Disposal
When faced with the scenario of a potential customer declaring that they already have a signature fragrance, then naming it, but expressing the wish that it was more affordable, it’s time to use the resources at your disposal. Fragrantica.com is a good resource for making your argument. For example, if the customer wears La Panthère by Cartier, look at your Papillon perfume list that states which original perfumes serve as the inspiration for each of our own perfumes. For our example, La Panthère is not amongst those on our list.
Consult Fragrantica.com. At Papillon, we love this highly informative, extremely helpful website. We like to call it “the Facebook of Perfumes”, and you will find Cartier’s La Panthère there, as well as heaps of information and the description that it is a “sensual and bold floral fragrance – Chypre”. Select “Perfume,” enter “Cartier La Panthère” and all the required information appears. Return to our Perfume Product list and/or our detailed Fragrance Notes list, both of which tell you at a glance which of our alternative Papillon perfumes belong to the Chypre Floral olfactory group.
Now you’re ready to give several alternatives, professional recommendations and suggestions, which your customer can immediately test and try from the relevant samples in you Papillon “Business in a Box” tester kit. Once your customer expresses interest in one or more of your professionally recommended, alternative perfumes, surprise and delight them with your price and assurance of quality, emphasising the fact that Papillon perfumes are just that – perfumes, and not considerably weaker Eau de toilettes.