I believe that jewelry customers will tell you everything that you need to know in order to develop a relationship, close the sale, and sell additional merchandise if you just pay attention. In other words, give your customers your complete, undivided attention. The ability to listen to, and actually hear what the customer is saying is probably the finest selling technique that a salesperson could learn. There is nothing more important than listening to a customer. There is nothing more important to a customer than being heard.
I was in a high-end department store, standing at a jewelry display case, while a couple of young salespeople were totally ignoring me talking about a television show that they had both watched the night before. The salespeople were totally ignoring the customers that were approaching the counter, me included.
It amazes me how often customers have to deal with salespeople that are busy carrying on a personal conversation with a fellow salesperson, ignoring customers. Talking on the phone not paying attention to what is going on around them, tagging merchandise, working on a display, busy doing paperwork (or school work), or in general not giving their customers the attention that they need and, more importantly, deserve. There should be nothing more important to a salesperson at that given moment than the customer that they are, or should be dealing with. If you should miss a key sentence, or a statement that the customer says, you may miss the key to closing the sale, focusing on the emotional reason behind the purchase, any potential add-ons they may want to buy, and so on.
Jewelry stores spend a fortune in advertising, marketing, displays, point of purchase signage, etc. in order to get potential customers to contact them or to come into their jewelry store. Yet, many salespeople turn customers away based on not giving them the attention that customers should be getting. You can always return a telephone call, there will always be time later to talk about your weekend, the last television show that you watched, do a display, tag merchandise, clean the glass, etc. But you can never get a customer back that feels that they have not been given the attention that they needed.
The only reason that we have salespeople, in any business, is to provide service to our customers, to turn potential shoppers into buyers, and to sell additional merchandise. All this needs to be done in a way that causes customers to want to come back for additional needs or purchases, and to sing our praises when they are talking about their purchase to their friends, neighbors and acquaintances. Only through giving your complete, undivided attention will that become a reality.
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