Sales Strategy

Jimmy DeGroot: November Crew Check October 24, 2024 (0 comments)

Green Bay, WI--Okay folks, we’re entering the final two months (eight weeks) of the year and right now you should have all promotional, inventory, team and training plans in motion. So here’s a little checklist to see if your team is truly ready to make this Christmas the best it can absolutely be.

1. Outreach happens now

Everyone should be in touch with your customers from the prior five years, noting their past buying patterns and to see what inventory you now have on hand that could be their next purchase. They should be contacted in November to come in and buy early.

1. Inventory check

What new inventory do you have in the cases that your best holiday shoppers have not seen before? Are you still holding onto that dusty old memo for 2 years thinking your customers are going to suddenly love it in 2024? They’ve voted “NO” on it, so in order to stay relevant, you need fresh, hot items in the cases.  

1. Promotions & Events

Are you giving your customers an opportunity to celebrate the holiday with you? Since we’re in the business of creating lifelong customers and relationships, let’s create meaningful events for our customers to show them that love. The only way chain stores do this is with advertisements, flyers and the word “SALE.” While these are great to reach thousands of people, let’s make our events really special by focusing on our good customers and the relationships we have. Put a jeweler’s loupe to your events and ask, “Are our customers gonna feel the love from us during this event?”

1. Sales and Customer Service Training

Does your team know how to sell when you have a rush? Do they know how to properly greet a customer with professionalism and let them know they will be helped shortly? Does your team know how to bring customers efficiently through the sale while still maintaining high integrity and great communication? Can your new person handle a sale for every product in your store beginning to end with no help? Does your team know all your promotional, advertised and flyer pieces and their matching counterparts for add-on sales? 

1. Big Hairy Audacious Goals

Do you have clearly defined team and personal goals set along with the rewards for hitting them? Also, consider having big goals for the subjective things that make your store great, such as number of hero moments or number of ‘we saved the day’ events? Having goals such as these create teamwork and empathy that really makes the season special for your people. 

1. Great Advertising

Let’s face it, everyone in the world has already started advertising. For any of your messaging to cut through all the hype, it needs to be sincere and truly relevant to your customers. Try not to use “AD-SPEAK” in your ads, rather look to messages like my friend Mike Buley (Jewelry Ads that Work) and Nick Faila (Collected Concepts) for messaging that can cut through the clutter and cause people to take notice. In my opinion, everything else is just a waste of advertising dollars.  

There you have it. If you have these concepts all loaded and ready to go, you’re all set to make the best of this holiday. If you need any last-minute help with any of these things, we’re always just an email away jimmy@trainretail.com.

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.