Apple’s retail sales strategy for Apple Watch revealed

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Ahead of next week’s Apple Watch event, Apple has begun training its retail employees on how to position the new device to customers. In a new report this afternoon, 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman shares 3 key points from their training including key features, iPhone compatibility and style.

According to selling guidelines provided to Gurman, Apple wants its employees to find out 3 things about their customers when trying to sell the Apple Watch: what do they already know about the device, is their iPhone compatible, and are they looking for a casual or formal watch.

The first query is pretty self-explanatory, Apple wants to know what customers have heard about the Apple Watch, what about it interests them, and what do they plan on using it for. As Gurman notes, Apple is operating under the assumption that customers have already heard about the device, and soft questions such as these make for a fairly easy sell.

The second question is also a no-brainer. Customers will need to have an iPhone 5 or later to use an Apple Watch, so if they’re interested in the wearable and have an older handset, this should be a pretty painless upsell. Chances are if they have an iPhone 4s or older, they’re eligible for a carrier subsidy, meaning they’d get a huge discount on the upgrade.

The final discovery point is a bit more complicated. As Apple has said, the Watch is by far the most personal device they’ve ever made, so this is kind of unchartered territory for retail reps. Apple wants them to find out the customer’s needs, tastes and material preferences, and if they’d like additional leather or metal bands to match various occasions. Apple is largely expected to talk more about Watch band availability and pricing at next week’s event.

It’s interesting to get a behind-the-scenes look at Apple retail employee training, and the talk track it expects reps to follow when selling the Apple Watch. The highly anticipated wearable goes on sale on April, starting at $349, and again we should find out a lot more details on Monday.

Source: 9to5Mac