Sales Strategy

Jimmy DeGroot: Make Your Staff and Customers Happy… Get Rid of Your ‘Rotten Meat’ Inventory August 08, 2024 (0 comments)

Green Bay, WI--If sales are down and your staff isn’t hitting their sales goals, you may be old inventoried. Sure, that omega bracelet and necklace in your estate case is beautiful, but it’s been in your store seven years! It’s time for some fresh inventory to get your staff and customers excited again.

I see it far too often, cases filled with inventory that’s paid for and the aging reports says average days in inventory is three-plus years. That’s more than three years of your team looking at it, cleaning it, re-tagging it and pulling it every night. Not only that, but your loyal customers that come back once or twice a year have seen it… a lot! Your love for that aged inventory is doing nothing for your sales team or your customers. Wouldn’t it make sense, if only for them, to sell it, change it, trade it back or even scrap it?

Let’s say you have $50,000 in aged inventory at retail. You’ve paid insurance, handling costs and $50,000 of locked up money you can do nothing with because it’s locked up in your showcases. That inventory you love so much is costing you a lot of money. David Geller calls it “rotten meat.” I can’t think of a more fitting description.

I know you love buying inventory, but so often I see the problem with underperforming stores is rotten meat inventory. It’s time to clean house and breathe some new life into your store with some new jewelry your salespeople get excited about and sell. Your customers will thank you with their wallets and your salespeople will thank you because they are hitting their sales goals.

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.