Sometime ago I was delivering a seminar to a state jeweler’s association when I struck up a conversation with one of the attending jewelers afterward. He told me how much he enjoyed my seminar on marketing for jewelers but wanted to ask a few questions.
After asking me about a few marketing techniques, he wanted to know if I would share my store’s annual sales volume with him. In return I said, “Ok, I’ll be glad to do so if you’ll first share your volume with me.” He then proceeded to say that his store had an annual volume of between 1.3 to 1.5 million.
After telling him our store’s volume was only slightly less he basically raised his eyebrow with a look that said, “Why should I be listening to you?” Here is where the story gets interesting and prompts the title of this article… so pay close attention!
Sensing the sarcasm in his retort I then asked, “What is the population of the city/town you are in?” Living in a large metropolitan city he reported a population of around 200,000. Still with the raised eyebrow, he asked me what the population of our town was. Friends, here comes the eye-opener!
I proceeded to tell the gentleman that we are in a small, mostly blue collar mountain town with a population of 3800! That’s a difference in population of 196,200! Then I could see the look of sarcasm give way to a look of astonishment when he said, “I guess we can see which of our stores has the more efficient operation in relation to population.”
Granted, our store does pull from surrounding areas, but even with all of this added in our population was still only slightly more than a tenth of his! My goodness, look at how much more opportunity the other jeweler has in terms of population size than we do! So this got me to thinking…
How efficient is the local independent jewelry store’s sales volume in relation to their population? How is their traffic flow in relation to population? How efficient are your marketing dollars being spent to reach the population of your city or town?
Here are a few things you might want to start looking at:
- How much does it cost me to bring in a new customer?
- How much does it cost me to get a regular customer back in the store?
- How do we sell more to that customer when they come in?
- I would also add, how do I reach more of my area’s population? In other words, what would be the most effective way to market to them?
I certainly hope this article has been eye opening for you just as the conversation with this jeweler was for me all those years ago. In the coming months, I hope to break down and answer many of these questions. In closing, let me ask you, “How efficient do you think your store’s sales are in relation to your area’s population size?” Talk to you soon!
Bill Warren, DDJM (The Doctor of Dynamic Jewelry Marketing) owns a successful jewelry store in the western NC mountain town of Hudson. Bill speaks to many jewelers organizations/associations on the subject of jewelry store marketing. He also consults one on one with jewelry store owners helping them improve their business. If you’d like to reach Bill call 828-729-1020 or e-mail goldman86@bellsouth.net Visit his blog at www.warrenmarketing.blogspot.com.
