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One Great Thing I Did Last Year (That You Can Do This Year): Find The Right Vendor To Fill A Need | June 10, 2015 (0 comments)
Merrick, NY—In our ongoing series titled “One Great Thing I Did Last Year (That You Can Do This Year)," The Centurion asks retailers to tell us about one outstanding thing they did in 2014 that turned out really well. This week—in honor of American Pharoah’s win at Belmont—we have our own triple-crown bonus! We hear from Jenny Caro, Jewelry by Design, Woodbridge, VA; Randall “Randy” Cole, The Diamond Vault of Troy (left), Troy, MI; and Larry Sanders, Sanders Diamond Jewelry, Pasadena, MD. All three retailers in this week’s story found a new vendor that really made a difference in their business and/or bottom line. Read on for each unique story.
Jenny Caro, Jewelry by Design. “The one great thing I did last year was realize I needed help with my sales training and recruiting,” says Caro.
She ended up finding just the right person to help. “I was fortunate to hire Vince Rath of Optimum Retail Solutions who has since come to my store monthly to help change our way of operating.” Rath’s company is dedicated to working with jewelers.
“Because he is consistently here working with us we are able to change bad habits and learn new ones that will stick. He not only has been helping my sales manager be much more effective but he is also helping my husband and myself become better communicators. Our business now is running over 30% ahead of when we started working together.” Definitely an optimum retail solution!
Randy Cole, Diamond Vault of Troy. For Cole, in a year of good things, one stands above the rest: “We took on the FireCushion brand from Hasenfeld-Stein. Diamond Vault of Troy sold the first two FireCushions in the world. It is simple and amazing stone.”
Cole committed to take on the diamond brand 12 months before it was released to the market. “At that time the cushion market was about 2% of total main diamond sales,” says Cole. “I felt strongly that the only way to create a bigger market is to have a better diamond. The FireCushion is a “true” cushion brilliant. On average, a FireCushion will return 98% of the light to the eye.”
Cole says the market has improved for cushions: they now represent about 7% of sales across the market but make up about 10.5% in his store—almost all of which are FireCushion.
For Cole, the end game is simple. “Why not sell a diamond that looks fantastic? We have had customers come in and say they would like to get a cushion but they did not like how they shine. All that changes when they see the FireCushion.”
Larry Sanders, Sanders Diamond Jewelers. Sanders joined Buyers Intelligence Network (BIG) with Abe Sherman. BIG’s “Balanced to Buy” program and Brand Share Network work well for him.
“Both of these have made it easy to reduce aged inventory and turn it into cash to buy new products,” said Sanders. The Balanced to Buy program provides insights into consumer behavior for jewelers. The system takes point-of-sale information and provides a new way of thinking about merchandise.
Click to view other "One Great Thing" stories in our series:
- Rethink Your Store Hours
- Hire Help For The Busywork
- Handwrite Invitations
- Update Your Store's Atmosphere
- Build More Community Relationships
- Optimize Your Inventory System
- 'Your Repair Is Ready' Phone Calls
- Facebook Engagement Photos (With Permission)
- Fundraising For Your Local Community
- Get Social With Facebook and Instagram
- Help Your Community Celebrate The Holidays
- Design a Locally Relevant, Salable Jewelry Line
- Traveling Jewelry Clinics
- Hold a Boot Camp to Teach Sales Associates