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OLD-FASHIONED SALESMANSHIP AND NEW SOCIAL MEDIA MEAN SUCCESS AT SAMUEL GORDON JEWELERS | July 04, 2012 (1 comment)
Oklahoma City, OK--While Daniel Gordon of Samuel Gordon Jewelers, might be best known in the trade for his outstanding social media skills, he’s better known to customers as a super salesman who’s also super organized.
Fourth generation jeweler Daniel Gordon started out by not working in the family business. He and his father, Gary Gordon, had an understanding: when the time was right, he’d come into the firm, but not before. After a two-year hold, he did. He started working in customer service, learning the back end first, working with repair customers. After he’d been working with repairs for about nine months, a customer came in for ring cleaning. He dropped off the ring and told Gordon he wanted to look at diamonds, but that he didn’t like salespeople.
“I asked him if I could help,” said Gordon. “I wasn’t a salesman; I’d had no sales training.” Gordon’s agreement with his father was that he would work in service for a year before he could go into sales, and he was a few months shy of the mark. But the customer agreed to let him show diamonds, and Gordon spent most of that day with him—as well as the next day, when he came back and brought in a friend. That customer ended up spending $32,000, a substantial amount even today and certainly in 1997 when the incident happened.
Gordon credits his lack of sales training for the sale. “I think I’ve done so well in sales because I haven’t been trained in sales.” But that doesn’t mean he believes sales training is wrong. Samuel Gordon does train associates, just not for the kind of selling that emphasizes closing the sale no matter what. “We hire people that have ‘natural’ sales ability and train from within, using techniques passed down from generations that are ‘tweaked’ for today's savvy consumer,” he explains, calling it a mix of old-fashioned values intertwined with modern-day communication skills.
Along with sales, Gordon found he had a talent for merchandising. During his customer service year, he spotted a ring in to be cleaned, liked the design and found a similar one to stock. It sold once a month for a year, resulting in a 12-time turn. Not bad for a rookie!
But after the $32,000 sale, not surprisingly, Gary Gordon moved his son right over to sales. “I used to eavesdrop on the top sales guys,” says Daniel Gordon. “I took a little bit of each of their great qualities and ended up being the number-one salesperson in my second year. I wanted to be the best at everything I did, while being very ethical and fair.”
Today, Gordon does lots of sales. He’s in his 17th full-time year at Samuel Gordon’s. He’s built up a nice clientele, generated a ton of contacts off ‘social,’ as he refers to social media. Samuel Gordon’s Facebook page is here. Today, he’s turned into a man with answers, with questions coming in via social media. Gordon deals with two to five questions a day. “The questions are not always about sales, but it’s another communication. Every day I deal with people I met or cultivated online,” he says.
Gordon credits his dad with giving him lots of freedom to try new things and the success that’s followed. “He’s not just open to it, he really loves to see improvement,” said Gordon, reflecting back on the path that combined sales and social media at Samuel Gordon Jewelers. His dad told him “if you think we should do it, we will,” Daniel said. But it’s no surprise the elder Gordon would be open to new ideas. He himself did the exact same thing when he took over the family business in the late 1980s, turning traditional jewelry store marketing on its head and using public relations and promotions so creatively that he actually became somewhat of a celebrity in Oklahoma City.
While customers may connect with Samuel Gordon Jewelers via ‘social,’ they still come to the store because of its merchandise mix. “We’re still focused on designer bridal,” said Gordon. “That’s our strength. We also carry fashion designer lines, like Scott Kay. I find it fascinating that bridal designers also do well in fashion, but it’s not always a success when fashion designers try bridal.”
“We’re heavy in designer and we’re proud of the lines we carry. Brands attract people. As long as they are salable, unique, and in demand, people want them,” he concludes.
The Samuel Gordon sales floor.
Samuel Gordon Jewelers has approximately 100 linear feet of bridal showcase space and even more in fashion. The store is 12,000 square feet, with 8,000-9,000 devoted to the showroom and the remainder to the shop.
Along with designer bridal and fashion, Samuel Gordon Jewelers carries a mix of watches: Tag Heuer, Raymond Weil, Tissot, and Icelink. They also do custom manufacturing in their shop on premises; they do everything but cast platinum. They outsource CAD-CAM. “If it’s technically possible, we can make it,” says Gordon.
Gordon is firm about his shop not touching anything with copyright issues. “We’re sensitive and respectful about intellectual property. We’ve actually made a sale because we would not copy a ring,” he said. “They bought something else and they were very impressed. Our policy is that we can miss a sale if it’s by doing something unfair or unethical to a person’s creative work. It’s the worst thing you can do.”
Samuel Gordon Jewelers employs approximately 20 people including “an amazing” sales manager, full office staff, sales associates, three bench jewelers, full-time watch maker, inventory person and shop manager.
Obviously Samuel Gordon Jewelers believes in social to reach its customers, but that’s not its only outreach. “I’m a firm believer that the true winners in traditional media are the smaller guys,” he says. “We like country club guides where people look at them to see themselves. We’re no longer in newspapers (a recent development). We still do some TV; we do email blasts from time to time, along with direct mail.”
Gordon has just finished a traditional billboard campaign that works well for both the drivers and the passengers. Gordon notes that passengers often see a billboard and, since they are not driving, can connect to Samuel Gordon Jewelers online via their website, Facebook or Twitter, etc. “They are empowering themselves, getting their own information,” says Gordon.
Gordon is careful to integrate his Internet and social presence into each and every outreach the store has. Customers can scan a QR code for more information in-store; there’s a sign on the front door to download the Samuel Gordon App as customers enter and exit; there’s another reminder sign in the repair department when everyone is looking at their phone as they wait. Even the store’s jewelry cleaner has the website address on it (and has since 2000).
Daniel Gordon is known as Oklahona's Most Social Jeweler, left. At right, marketing the store's own app.
Next on Gordon’s list is to incorporate an e-commerce strategy. “We wanted to wait until we’re ready,” he notes. He had an “aha” moment during a trade show lecture given by Michael Schechter, digital marketing director for Honora. Gordon says Schechter said to find a call to action for your website.
A page from the Samuel Gordon online catalog.
“I wasn’t thinking of it like that,” said Gordon. “Our website is a tool. Now our main call to action is to contact us for more information.” That call to action cannot be missed on their website jewelry pages. “We used to get one a week, or maybe one a day, max. Now, with the way the site is redesigned, we get seven to ten inquiries a day. I see it as lead generation. There’s lot of talk before anyone is going to hit a ‘buy’ button.”
Gordon has definite opinions about working with clients, online or off. “Be efficient and beneficial to your client. Be more productive, efficient, and knowledgeable. Become a knowledge-based machine. Be the best at organizing and storage,” he says. And he’s not kidding. Using his iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro, along with a free app named Evernote, Gordon tracks his customers’ browsing and buying. “If they saw a ring a month ago, I can pull it up: the photo, the tag, any notes, and they are searchable, even my handwritten notes. Or, if a customer wants to come in a few months to look at diamonds, I set a reminder with Siri to get diamonds in a few days before. I work to constantly make it the most frictionless experience I can for my customers.”
“Technology makes it easy to be on top of your game,” he said.