LOS ANGELES, CA - What's the best way to key into the luxury market and begin acquiring clients who can afford top-of-the-line products and one-of-a-kind designs?

According to Leonard V. Casey, MBA, who spoke at the recent Luxury Kitchen and Bath Collection event in Los Angeles, implementing a "Preferred Client Business Strategy" can help designers and dealers build a client base of more upscale clients. This strategy revolves around by targeting the right clients, engaging in effective business strategies and maximizing referrals from the types of clients most likely to bring highly profitable jobs to your business, he noted.

Casey, who spoke on a panel addressing business strategies that draw the most affluent clients, suggested that the key to success is zeroing in on Baby Boomers, the generation that possesses the largest disposable income in history. Couple this with the fact that aging Boomers have fewer and fewer obligations as their children grow up and leave home and the growing desire for secondary homes, and it becomes clear that Baby Boomers comprise an economy-proof center for a designer's business, Casey believes.

He pointed out that where younger generations can easily postpone remodeling when an unfavorable economic climate or financial concerns intrude, 55-year-old empty nesters can't it's their moment, and they have to go for it.

So, even if there is a decrease in the low to middle segments of the kitchen markets, the high end will continue to stay strong. And in today's low-mortgage-fueled remodeling boom, the upper end of the market is growing more quickly than the mainstream.

The other factor in Casey's recommendation to kitchen dealers to focus on older high-end customers is the fact that the lower the budget, the more the customer wants control of selecting the products and establishing price point. Busy upscale consumers, on the other hand, are more comfortable with letting a designer shepherd a project for them which means less time spent hand-holding and educating a client about real costs versus their imagined ideas about what they think a kitchen should cost.

Casey's strategy for successfully building a base of upscale clients centers on increasing the size of an average sale, as well as on improving the closing rate by asking effective qualifying questions. He cited statistics which show that people who entertain frequently are the most likely purchasers of kitchen products and remodeling. And, unlike more intrusive questions about income and home value, "How often do you entertain?" is a casual question that can appropriately be asked early in one's communication with a potential client.