This is one of a series of articles by Mónica Arias of Excellence Consulting, a luxury sales and marketing consulting firm based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These articles will focus on ways that sales and marketing professional in the jewelry and luxury industries can improve their techniques.When it comes to offering true beauties such as fine jewelry, someone who is in the sales profession but not in this industry may think it relatively easy to succeed in closing deals. The truth is more often than not, even when the jewelry pieces are signed by renown designers or belong to famous traditional brands, deals are not that easy to close.
Whether person to person or as a group, there is a tendency to trust mainly in the brand without taking into account we are dealing with people who are literally attracted by the luxury object. Either because they are really fascinated by it, they have seen it online, they love to purchase jewelry as an investment, want to have the “last” version of a collection, or simply because they just love jewelry.
This distinction of placing desire into the customer´s momentum helps salespeople identify what pieces we believe will make the “click” in their inner volition to purchase.
In order to understand this concept more clearly, if you own a jewelry store or you are a sales person in the jewelry market and you have been having difficulties in closing more sales lately, attracting more clients, or making your customers come back to you, it is necessary for you to stay open minded. Forget for a moment all you have learned so far, and get ready to apply these three keys that will help you close more deals.
Make your client your priority
Now, this may sound obvious, but be true to yourself and think for a moment: how many times have you really considered your client’s priority when in a sales process? Frankly, from my own experience, I just wanted to sell, partially because that is what I love to do, and partially because I focused the process in my expertise of making extraordinary demonstrations and being very good at closing, You know what I am talking about: we have the beautiful product many times backed by an excellent brand, we have learned to offer it by heart, we are experts in overcoming objections and we generally arrive to lovely deals. However, there are other times in which we know things did not go very well in the process. Something was missing, and we cannot understand what it was. Things gradually change when you make your customer your priority. You achieve this by taking advantage of some of the strategies I have used, such as: letting go of your objectives and eagerness to sell; going into the depths of the communication process you’ve established with the client; and using words of appreciation to show that it is the customer that you care the most about. It is in your true interest to you make the person feel fantastic about their purchase.
Prepare a list of special words and questions
If you have a list of words and questions that could help you describe your products more confidently and connect with your customers in a more natural way, you have a treasure-like tool that you will rely upon. It takes only ten minutes a day to craft the list and by the end of the month you should have a diary of strategic beautiful phrases, words and questions in order to study and use every time you are in the sales arena. Trust me, having this list handy is priceless because it can help you start a more meaningful, trustworthy relationship with your customers.
Stay in touch
Use your customer’s personal or professional information to stay in touch. It is your duty to continue to be present once they’ve left and returned to their hectic lives or have started to forget you. This is normal for all of us. We usually do not remember the salespeople we meet in a store, unless we have experienced such a great moment by purchasing something lovely from them. In any case, this may only last a couple of days.
Resort to your special list and, whether the customer purchased from you or not, do your job and ask for their information for future reference. If you find resistance, you could explain to them (using your list of words) that you wish to stay in touch even from a distance because you want them to be informed of the latest versions of the collection, new launches, and, most importantly, you would love to learn if you could be of future assistance because you value them the most.
More sales will follow once you have internalized these three keys as part of your performance and at the same time you will have set the foundations for providing excellent service.
Mónica M. Arias
Excellence Consultant: Helping you discover how to reach your next level through excellence.
contacto@monicaarias.com.ar