How HNW and ultra-affluent consumers qualify new relationships and introductions

March 12, 2025

HNW and UHNW individuals are smart and, as entrepreneurs, have built their businesses and, therefore, they desire their trusted advisors to present them the information to evaluate so they can make the decisions

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By David Friedman

The competition for human capital and talent in the luxury industry reflects the same intensity and trends shaping the broader landscapes for human capital.

We all know the proverbial mantra echoed across top market leaders that “people are our most important assets.”

Brands are very good at understanding their own “Brand DNA and voice” but need to complement this with a better understanding of their “VIP Customer DNA and voice.”

However, where many brands have fallen short is mapping and linking those insights into the ultra-affluent to recruiting and talent acquisition strategies that will resonate and drive market share for new affluent client acquisition while simultaneously increasing their wallet share among their existing VIP clients.

The same underlying pathology that drives a myopic focus on “brand DNA” has unfortunately overflowed into the lens these brands use for recruiting sales professionals for their VIP strategies. Their focus on making sure new talent understands their brand story and history is important and critical, but should not be allowed to eclipse key skills for understanding the DNA of their key clients.

Luxury’s ascension as an investment category and asset class

Combine that scarcity of talent with the ascension of luxury as an investment category with companies such as LVMH propelling the wealth of Bernard Arnault to heights where he is jockeying for pole position with Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for the wealthiest top ranking billionaire in the world, and the market for sales professionals in the ultra-affluent space is becoming even more constrained and challenging.

Add to this crucible a universal drive by luxury brands to expand beyond their own fiefdoms into being “lifestyle” brands that engage their VIPs across other areas of their life to build more awareness and differentiation, and the competition for the ultra-affluent becomes even more acute.

Fortifying a VIP and ultra-affluent strategy

Underlying and amplifying these trends is a shift towards the ultra-affluent and high-net-worth consumer as a way to both fuel the aspirational spirit of luxury while offering the downstream ability to scale the monetization of a brand.

As the ultra-affluent are more insulated from the vagaries of economic turbulence, they offer a hedge against the acute gyrations of the aspirational consumer as well as geopolitical driven revenue risk found embedded in geographical risk in such markets as China.

For many of the luxtech platforms, it is not the 20/80 rule – that 80 percent of their revenues come from 20 percent of their VIP clients – it is more like the 10/90 rule.

As brands seek to position themselves with the ultra-affluent and high-net-worth consumers, they will need to be able to translate their ability to “crawl around inside the head” of this coveted market to unpack and translate their core motivations into strategies for talent acquisition including the ideal characteristics for professionals that can masterfully understand and engage this audience.

There are two key ways to access and engage the ultra-affluent and high-net- worth luxury consumer: one, through their relational network which is why referrals are critical and, two, through their passions, hobbies and interests.

The critical foundational point here is that the ultra-affluent consumer is at the center.

David Friedman

How the ultra-affluent qualify new relationships and introductions: Why referrals matter

High-net-worth and the ultra-affluent consumers are being bombarded and saturated by brands targeting them, investments eyeing their capital and philanthropies seeking their donations.

With so much noise surrounding them, referrals are the one engagement strategy that penetrates and rises above the marketing noise.

Sales professionals in this market can attest to referrals being the number one source of new client acquisition. This reality is reinforced by the fact that ultra- affluent individuals are always looking for ways to qualify new relationships and introductions.

This happens in two ways: one, either I know someone you know and that connection conveys some sense of trust and authenticity or, two, we share a similar passion.

These two factors form the basis for how qualification happens and trust begins to be established.

Passions hobbies and interests

The other key window into the psyche of the HNW and UHNW, is their passions, hobbies and interests. They either are or will become collectors and the passion they have for whatever it is that gives them peace and solace outside the pressures and strife of their day-to-day lives becomes a core dimension to their identify.

How to recruit talent with the right skills for the ultra-affluent market based on these drivers

These key drivers form the very intrinsic nature and anatomy of the ultra-affluent while offering illumination on the characteristics and traits needed to successfully acquire and engage the high net worth and ultra affluent client by luxury brands across both their retail and VIP/VIC platforms.

These characteristics and skills can be identified, recruited, developed and inculcated in the existing senior sales and client relationship management professionals or in new or more junior talent.

The two most important habits of successfully accessing and engaging the high net worth and ultra-affluent include:

Curiosity: It might have killed the cat, but it is critical for engaging the ultra-affluent

The cornerstone characteristic and indicator of success in engaging an ultra- affluent prospect and client for a luxury professional is curiosity.

Those seeking to successfully access and engage the ultra-affluent need to be excavators of human narrative and enjoy the stories of people.

The quintessential expression of curiosity is asking great questions.

Most sales professionals have the subconscious drive to lead with their product and brand. Asking great questions is something everyone can do.

A psychological side effect of asking great questions is the building and cultivating of trust.

In his seminal work, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” Dale Carnegie pinpoints the essence: “to be interesting, be interested.”

Asking great questions conveys interest. The mark of a successful first meeting with an affluent prospect is if they did most of the talking.

We all know that “trust is everything.” There are many ways to build trust, but the most accelerated version of building trust comes from asking great questions.

Another key skill undergirding the trait of being curious is the discipline of digesting an individual’s passion, hobbies and interests and being able to distill that knowledge into two to three great questions about what is important to them.

Asking questions subconsciously converts that you invested time to get to understand them better and further underscores that your time together is best used focusing on understanding them. Asking great questions ensures people “feel” heard as well.

This discipline helps to cultivate the right mindset going into a meeting or for a first engagement. It is a reminder that the objective of the first engagement with a future VIP client is not to sell them but focus on understanding who they are.

The more you understand their personal DNA, you will be able to genuinely assess their fit with your Brand DNA.

Even if one does not use those questions, having them available helps to lay a foundation of confidence so that you can navigate the conversation with a sense of quiet confidence.

Being able to be quiet with an ultra-affluent prospect requires tremendous skill and confidence.

The biggest mistake that sales professionals make with VIP prospects is letting their lack of confidence manifest in an ongoing stream-of-consciousness babble.

Connecting the dots, “creating coincidences” and choreographing introductions

With an avalanche of brands and people focused on reaching the ultra-affluent consumer, their ability to qualify new relationships is critical for them. The primary way they do this is through referrals.

Thus, referrals are the number one driver of new client acquisition in the ultra- affluent space.

A referred prospect is four to five times more likely to become a client than other forms of lead generation, making it the most efficient and effective strategy for scaling new ultra-affluent and high-net-worth client acquisition.

The trust-building value cycle is truncated through a referral leveraging off the trust and history of an existing relationships. It is why the ultra-affluent guard their network so fiercely.

The ability for a sales professional to proactively connect the dots between their existing clients and future clients will be a fundamental driver in their conversion pipeline.

Any good sales professional can connect the dots reactively and that is table stakes for most sales professionals, but the top luxury sales professional will spend the time to map the social capital and networks of their key relationships to offer the ability to proactively then connect those dots to potential new relationships for which they would like to access through their existing relationships.

These sales professionals can then choreograph the surfacing of that connection by “creating a coincidence.”

In like fashion to being excavators of human narrative, they need to also be cultural anthropologists and social cartographers mapping and managing the social capital of their key clients and relationships.

The opportunities and paths will emerge for those who proactively invest in managing their client’s social capital.

Content mastery: Education and current affairs

The last key skill set that luxury brands should make as part of their hiring and recruiting for their luxury professionals as well as training and development in their VIP strategy is around the category I am calling “content.”

From this perspective, this content can be defined through two key lens: current affairs and education.

Understanding the context, trends and drivers impacting an UHNW prospect’s or client’s business and landscape further reinforces the strategy that you are attempting to focus on their needs and solutions.

Often, sales professionals and service providers will claim that their “bespoke” service and products are the key to their relationships with VIP clients, but how can anyone be bespoke if you do not also understand their emotional drivers.

For example, perhaps you are selling a luxury automobile to the owner of a small factory and manufacturing business where due to recent economic uncertainties the company had to lay off a substantial portion of its workforce.

Understanding these type of economic currents driving change in their business would give a sales professional insight into the prospect’s heightened sensitivity to optics, pulling the strings to his or her purchase decision versus focusing on the price and features of the new car.

Understand that ultra-affluent individuals are smart and, as entrepreneurs, have built their businesses and, therefore, they desire their trusted advisors to present them the information to evaluate so they can make the decisions.

Education is the best sales strategy without selling.

This population does not want to be sold to and so the professional that possesses the skill to present objective content in an educational format that empowers their prospects or clients to make the decisions will be the professional who wins and cultivates the relationship long term.

Need and growth for ultra-high-net-worth certification

Luxury brands seeking to develop and power their expansion into lifestyle brands will need human capital and professionals that can engage the ultra- affluent outside of their own singular dimension and touch the rest of the UHNW’s anatomy with fluidity and ease.

These unique requirements in the market by luxury brands for VIP engagement presages the need for specific HNW/UHNW certification programs that will equip sales professionals with the ability to understand the ultra-affluent mindset and empower them to engage confidently in conversations and float a month this target market effortlessly at marketing events.

There is also a parallel demand within enterprises to deploy customized and contextualized UHNW certification platforms for their employees within their own organizations and reflecting their unique brand voice, DNA and culture.

Many enterprises offer training and learning for their sales and account management professionals who lead their VIP efforts, but these programs fail to provide a portable asset in the form of certification that offers a tangible reward for this unique qualification and investment of their time and effort to cultivate their skills in this specific area.

These professionals will need to understand how to navigate the line between providing unparalleled service as trust advisor combined with a healthy respect for their client’s boundaries.

An industry certification program will further inculcate in professionals the right mindset for themselves to support building their own success within the VIP segments.

Lastly, this type of certification will help luxury brands create a systematic pipeline of qualified candidates, retain top talent and provide an on-ramp for those seeking a career path in luxury retail sales.

AS LUXURY BRANDS seek to pivot and position themselves for accessing and engaging the ever-growing ultra-affluent market, there are three key characteristics and habits needed to successfully access and engage the ultra- affluent: one, curiosity that generates trenchant and thoughtful questions; next, connecting the dots to create credibility resulting in referrals; and, finally, content mastery through education not sales.

Luxury brands that create a “balanced scorecard” for recruiting, developing and training professionals through this lens to be part of their VIP platforms will find that they can claim with authenticity that “our people truly are our greatest assets.”

David Friedman is cofounder of Wealth-X and a pioneer and serial entrepreneur in the wealth data and intelligence market. He is the principal of Friedman Ventures, a global UHNW data, certification and strategy consulting platform for understanding, accessing and engaging the ultra-affluent leveraging a portfolio of wealthtech and data ventures within the Friedman Ventures portfolio. He is also cofounder of the www.uhnwsymposium.com. Reach him at david@friedman.ventures.

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