Sales Strategy
Jimmy DeGroot: How’d That Go? May 28, 2024 (0 comments)
Green Bay, WI--In this week’s training video at Train Retail, I challenge our sales teams to ask one simple question after the customer leaves the store: How’d that go?
People are much more open to what they realize themselves than what someone else tells them they should be doing. Asking the question, How’d that go? is a perfect example of this principle. A simple self-analysis after the customer leaves is a great way to get our salespeople thinking about what needs improvement in their sales presentation. For people that are amazing sellers with high closing ratios, they need to be asking, “What can I do to go from 60% to 70% closing ratio?” For those that are just starting out or exist in the average, there are hundreds of questions they can ponder to grow.
If you want to see improvement in your sales team, simply print out a few hundred half sheets of paper with the question, How’d that go? On the top. For each interaction with a customer for the next week, each salesperson writes their thoughts on the sheet. After a week of recording thoughts, have them review each of these and look for a theme. Then in one on one’s with the boss, discuss it. You might be very surprised at where your team needs help or where your store can improve.
Besides the self-realization principle above, jewelers will often say,“I can talk to my people ‘til I’m blue in the face, but Jimmy as soon as YOU tell’em to do it, they do it!” This might be the prophet in his own hometown principle from the Bible, but in any case, I encourage you to do whatever you need to do to get people to realize that no matter how many years or days they’ve been in the independent jewelry business, there’s always room for improvement.
James (Jimmy) DeGroot is a professional jewelry sales and operations trainer from the jeweler’s side of the counter. Having been in management and the jewelry business for over 20 years, Jimmy offers weekly training to jewelers nationwide via the Train Retail website. Jimmy is an AGS titleholder and specializes in training relevant and timely methods for jewelry teams. He can do a full training on making Bridal Presentations the best they can be, among many other regular training options. Contact Jimmy at jimmy@trainretail.com or call 920-492-1191.