Selling a product and selling an experience are two totally different things.

Despite the lagging economy, I had the chance to observe two very effective transactions take place at a pair of high-end retailers during my latest visit to San Francisco. At Tiffany & Co. on Post Street, the salesman, who greeted his client by name, was engaging and personable—and had a sense of exactly how much the client would spend. As a result, he suggested a modest bracelet charm, and completed the transaction within minutes.

Just down the street at Boutique Georgio Armani, I watched a saleswoman as she acknowledged her client immediately and indicated she would be “over there” should assistance be required. When the client did ask for help, the saleswoman seemed to know which jacket the customer had in mind. Efficiently working out the minor details, she closed the sale. While the saleswoman knew nothing about her client, she observed her as she browsed, and when approached asked a few salient questions with a sales book in hand.

It was clear that both salespeople established themselves quickly as trusted authorities, and narrowed down the selection to one item. Both transactions are studies in the economy of time and movement.

To understand the marketing of high-end audio, we can study the world of manufactured luxury goods, especially vanity goods such as jewelry and clothing. Effective luxury goods salespeople understand that their buyers are not just buying objects—they’re buying pleasant experiences, such as enjoyment of great music.

Consciously or not, successful high-end retailers create showroom experiences that enrich their customers’ lives and afternoons. How can you create not just a lust for your products, but the idea that the buying experience will enhance a customer’s  emotional well-being? How do you configure that buying experience into a selling tool—a tool that reduces rather than adds stress?

If we are to believe B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore in The Experience Economy (1999), their influential look at marketing, most effective customer experiences include four positive elements: entertainment, education, escapism and aesthetics. Designing richer, more successful customer experiences means incorporating these elements to some degree. A good way to create a framework for evaluating your own sales practices is to consider the following questions:

• How can you improve the aesthetics of the experience? Aesthetics are what make customers want to enter your shop, sit down and hang out. What can you do to make your environment more inviting, interesting or comfortable? How can you help the customer translate the enjoyable elements of your environment into their home environments? How will “your help” lead to increased value and profit?

• Once inside, what should customers do? The escapist element of an experience will draw in customers more deeply, immersing them in the demo. A live demo should have the same effect as reading a good book—an experience that inexorably pulls the reader into the story. Customers should be compelled to do more than observe: They should want be in the middle of the display as they hold the remote control and make hardware and software choices along the way.  In other words, think Customer as Event!

• What should customers learn about you, your services and your products? How can you educate them under the guise of entertainment? What activities or demonstrations will help customers hear and understand performance differences in equipment? What demonstrations will help customers better appreciate the musical arts? How can you turn that greater appreciation into a deeper desire to explore and experience your offerings?

• How can you make a customer’s interaction with your showroom—and your company—more enjoyable? How can you facilitate a more entertaining and dramatic demo or experience at every customer touch point? How can you create a sequence of touch points that invite customers to interact positively with your staff?

• If you operate a retail store with several vignettes or show spaces, what are you doing in each space to invite customers to imagine and explore possibilities for their own spaces?

• Sales is a difficult job. The difficulties wear on sales staff, and the wear will be perceived by customers. These difficulties can cost you money that you don’t realize is being lost. Imagine how much more pleasant it would be for salespeople and customers if every stop on your store tour included some element of entertainment, education, escapism or aesthetics in a way that invited positive interaction between staff and customers.

A better understanding of how the buying experience can enhance the emotional well-being of customers, and how the act of purchase can reduce rather than add stress, will help you, as a retailer, configure the selling experience into a selling tool.

Kent English is director of North American Sales and Technical Support for Pass Laboratories (passlaboratories.com). Based in Foresthill, Calif., Pass Laboratories is an innovative manufacturer of high-performance amplifiers, preamplifiers and speakers.