Sales Strategy

They’ll Never Know What Hit ‘Em: Creating A Customer Experience Like None Other May 26, 2021 (0 comments)

Phoenix, AZ—For the second morning of the Centurion Show’s education experience, James “Jimmy” DeGroot of The Jewelry Store Training Institute revved up show attendees with a rousing presentation about how to help staff connect better with customers using personality traits.

If you’re the store owner and the top salesperson, you have to change that because you have to leave the store sometimes, said DeGroot.

“As owners, you’ve got all the magic. You’re the person everyone comes to. They love you as owners, so owners tend a lot of times to be the top salesperson in the store. The challenge is how do you replicate this a little bit so you can step away and take a vacation? 

But if owners give the sales staff the knowledge and and just a few little things to create an amazing experience so customers walk away and say “gosh, they’re amazing. I don’t know how, but they get me,” not only will they be able to take a vacation but their closing ratio will go up in a huge way, he said.

“What if your closing ratio went up 10%? What if we could just improve everything by 10%? By 25%?”

DeGroot sat down at a piano and played eight quick music selections, asking the audience to choose their favorites. Their choices reflected the kind of people they are—fun, detail oriented, a director, someone who likes to be behind the scenes, and so forth.

“Each has a different role to play in the store. And each customer also has a similar personality trait, and you have to connect with them in the way that they relate to,” he said.

If you have a fun person as a customer but you speak the language of the perfect detail person, you’re not connecting, he explained. As an example, going into scientific detail about a blue zircon will turn that customer off, he said. But when he describes the gem in wondrous fun terms, she is enthralled.

“When we use the wrong language with the customer, we lose the sale. But when we turn over the sale to someone who speaks the customer’s language, we keep the sale. What if our staff was able to recognize these people and pair up with the right customer?”

He described one of his salespeople who had a very low closing ratio but everyone adored her as a person. Naturally, she was unhappy about her performance, but DeGroot reassigned her to the back office—where her meticulous, detail-oriented personality was perfect. She managed inventory and other administration beautifully.  

He also described another salesperson, Kathryn, who was a very fun person and could sell anything. She was a top performer—a closing ratio of 70%—but  if there was any follow-up to be done, it never happened, to the great frustration of customers.

“If she sold a piece that required follow up of any kind it was a nightmare. Customers would call and say Kathryn was going to call me two weeks ago,” said DeGroot. But instead of using the stick, he found a better solution: another salesperson named Diane, who spent too much time on details and did not have a great closing ratio. He paired the two up and results skyrocketed.

“How do we bring this to our team? We start conversations. Ask each other ‘do you think I was connecting with the customer?’” he said. 

Use the buddy system and have a daily morning huddle to review what’s likely to happen that day, what customers are coming in, what their personalities are, etc., said DeGroot.

“It’s not about me getting the sale or this commission, it’s about getting the sale for the store. When you’re speaking someone’s language, they’re going to love you and don’t know why.”