Sales Strategy

Jimmy DeGroot: You Need Some White Space on Your Calendar August 29, 2024 (0 comments)

Green Bay, WI--My friend was harping about how sales were “soft” the past few months and how he’s very active in managing his team. In fact, he’s too active because he’s got them chasing metrics, goals and procedures.

In our training and consulting, this is usually one of the first things we focus on to get store owners more scalable in their business. But in my friend’s case, he was taking it way too far and causing the team to lose focus of the most important thing, the customer. They lost their central focus chasing after the details.

I told him he needs more white space in his and their calendars. This is time that doesn't have a meeting, a phone call or a video conference. It’s time with the team either in one-on-ones or just being out on the floor with them, listening, talking, sharing, helping, smiling or hugging. In Gary Chapman’s book, “The 5 Love Languages,” he talks about the gifts of “quality time” and “words of affirmation” as languages that many people respond to. Giving this time is crucial to our teams to be heard and to build community.

If your schedule is packed so tight that you lose focus on your people, then schedule in white space. The irony is that if you schedule it, then it’s technically not white space. But I had to do this as a sales floor manager.

Every morning, I would make my list of must-dos for the day and I always left at least an hour to just be on the floor. Now I was lucky enough to have a great owner to share administrative duties with, but I realized that my team was the most important part of my job, and I need to invest in them daily to uplift, encourage, help and edify. If you can loosen up your schedule and get back to quality time with your team, you’ll find that investment of time extremely worthwhile.

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.