Mark Elkhoury

~$15M+ in negotiated luxury jewelry deals. Writing on client psychology and what separates elite salespeople.

Luxury | Sales | Client Psychology

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

@RobbReport Corduroy has always looked a bit like workwear, which fine wool can't fake, and the better makers have stopped trying to conceal it. In a well-cut suit, the ridges set you apart on their own, with no need for a louder color or sharper silhouette.

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

@MansionGlobal Those rooms work because the dark walls make the furniture feel heavier and more permanent. Once you stop fighting the shadows, the lime chairs and the leather start looking much more intentional.

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

@realRickBlame @dieworkwear Agreed!

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

Most people have a fairly accurate sense of how they're perceived. Patterns in how you work, spend, and allocate your time send consistent signals, and over time those signals harden into a reputation. That reputation quietly governs who backs you, joins you, and trusts you, far more than we'd like to admit. Dismissing it as mostly illusion is the costlier error, imo.

[Morgan Housel @morganhousel]

The Psychology of Money Podcast

A False Sense of How People View You

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

A client was deciding between two pieces, one noticeably more expensive, and kept circling back to the price difference out loud.

I stopped trying to justify the gap and asked what she thought the larger piece said about the moment she was marking.

She went quiet for a second, then picked the more expensive one without mentioning price again.

At a certain point, is the client really negotiating cost, or are they negotiating whether the moment deserves it?

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

@dieworkwear Thanks for the reply. I owned a Jos. A. Bank Traveler many moons ago, and as I recall it served me well. That was early in my career, when I didn't know the first thing about a good suit or tailoring.

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

YouTube makes a bad pick basically free. If a video's not working, you're out instantaneously and ventured virtually nothing. Netflix, however, makes you commit to something that might not be good. Regret is cheap on YouTube and expensive on Netflix. Feels like an interface gap and not a content gap, imo.

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

A client once spent 40 minutes examining a piece, then said "let me think about it" and left without buying.
I almost wrote her off as undecided.

She came back three days later and bought something entirely different, twice the price, with almost no hesitation.

What changed wasn't the product. It was that she'd had time to decide this was her choice, not mine.

How often do we mistake a client's silence for indecision, when it's actually them doing exactly what they need to do?

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

@dieworkwear Tubular tees have no side seams, so the fabric just hangs how it wants. Mine's gone a bit lopsided at the waist, which I find actually adds character to something fairly ordinary and vanilla.

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

Asymmetric information warrants asymmetric conviction.

[Morgan Housel @morganhousel]

Taps the sign.

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

@preston_holland @flyairshare Looks just like the lav on my PJ! 😅

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

@PeterMallouk S&P in desperate need of a rebranding to the S&P fab 5

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

People roll dice harder when they want a high number and softer when they want a low one, as if the throw has any impact at all [I’ve personally witnessed this many times, and it never ceases to amaze]. Psychologist Ellen Langer found this back in the 70s, and it shows up everywhere. The lottery ticket you picked yourself, the elevator button you jab twice, the stock you're sure you can feel turning, etc. We'd rather believe we're steering a little than admit we're mostly passengers.

Illusion of control is fascinating.

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

The bigger effect probably isn't the money drivers save by detouring. It's what happens to the stations that used to coast on being closest. Once the price comparison shows up on the map people already have open, the pricey station has to answer for itself, and nobody has to go looking.

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

People often assume the hardest part of luxury sales is handling objections about price.

In practice, the harder skill is knowing when a client doesn't actually have an objection at all, just a need for a little more time, and resisting the urge to treat silence as something that needs fixing.

Trying to solve a problem that isn't there usually creates one.

The best salespeople let a client's pace be the client's pace, even when every instinct says to speed it up.

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

@awealthofcs You wanted efficiency? You got it!

Beggars can’t be choosers

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

@MrFamilyOffice $1-$5M is largely material inside the round, but still modest relative to the overall portfolio. The tighter constraint is on the other side. Once a company only notices checks north of ~$50M, even large families perceivably lose the leverage they assume they have.

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

@LuxuryWatchGuy1 😁

[Mark Elkhoury @MarkOnLuxe]

@jasonzweigwsj @behaviorgap @altruist Brilliant