There’s not a lot of attention being paid these days to the high-end luxury market-yachts, French villas, the Mercedes S Class-it all seems to be in poor taste on some level.  It’s as if the whole country has hunkered down, clipping coupons, eating Ramen and adopting a “wait and see” mentality on everything from visiting the dentist to buying a new home.

So you can imagine my surprise at a WSJ article on, of all things, “How to Sell a $35,000 Watch in a Recession.”  The eternal optimist and a “true patriot” as my husband says, I am not the most frugal of consumers, and yet nonetheless it struck me as hugely surprising that anyone could sell a timepiece for the price of a BMW in today’s wilting economy.

Jean-Marie Brücker, the salesman in question (of course that’s his name) and chief executive of Pôle Luxe, a Paris-based luxury-sales consulting group, (Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels are clients) says business is booming in the recession.  He is opening new offices in New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai. He drives a Ferrari and has 61 luxury watches of his own.

But how, one must ask, can someone thrive selling such an obviously superfluous product when Whole Foods is spiraling into the red over $5.99 organic berries?  The answer made me smile.

The first tactic comes straight from Las Vegas, the second, from Great on the Job.  Regarding the first, there is a key tenet in casino marketing which revolves around flattering the men, distracting their wives, and keeping both around as long as possible. The longer the patrons stay, the reasoning goes, the more likely they are to spend money.

The second tactic, which the article describes as the “macaroon technique,” involves sandwiching the exorbitant price of an ultra luxury watch between two positive and emotional sentiments. “Madam, this timepiece (or diamond or handbag) comes from our finest workshop and it has a value of $10,000. If you buy it, your children are sure to enjoy it for generations to come.”

Positive, negative, positive.  Positive: this timepiece comes from our finest workshop.  Negative: it costs $10k.  Positive: your children will enjoy it for generations to come.  This is the same tactic I use when teaching people how to answer a question they don’t know the answer to. Here’s what I say you should do when asked a question you don’t know the answer to:

• Here’s what I know (positive)
• Here’s what I don’t know (negative)
• Here’s how I’ll figure it out (positive)

In fairness, I don’t couch the strategy in the positive/negative framework, but that is essentially what it is.  My point is that everyone knows something-the goal in business is not to sound like you don’t know anything.  So if you’re asked a question and you don’t know the answer-that’s okay.  You can acknowledge the fact.  More important is your ability to show that you do know something relevant or timely or related to the subject at hand, and arguably more importantly, you’ve got the ability to go get the answer.  Forward momentum-go figure it out.

Practice the strategy and you just might wind up one of Jean-Marie’s next customers.