Have You Seen This?

Did you see this?

Customers today can’t be coerced into buying anything. Suggestive
selling is what sells customers. Most sales people wait for the
customer’s initiative and don’t even ask someone to buy. That’s one
big reason across the country I have found that for every 10 people
looking at product the closing ratio is 3 out of the 10. Do you
realize that is you were to sell 4 out of 10, that 4th person would
mean a 33% increase in product sales without any added expense?

Our industry is particularly difficult for customers to walk in and
say “I’ll take in”. Why? Because in our industry the customer is not
ALLOWED to touch our merchandise without permission.

Think about it. You can get into a $75,000.00 car and smell the
leather. You can take a $500 jacket off the rack and try it on and
you can hug a fur coat.

You just can’t touch the jewelry without someone taking it out of
the case. Many people feel like if they ask you to show it to them,
it starts a buying situation and after all, they were “just looking”.

I have given out the site for a retailer for selling
(www.ricksegel.com) and I have bought ALL of his things. (Knowledge
is power). I’ve listened to his 6 CD set of How to Make Your Retail
Business Profitable. On the last CD Rick talks about selling and even
though he doesn’t mention jewelry he talks about this subject. Rick
used to own a clothing store and at one time had a sales staff that
was in age from 50 to 80. He wanted to turn things around and raise
his closing ratio without any big training changes. These are “senior
citizens”, after all.

So after watching a super bowl game he noticed that all of the
million dollar super bowls ads were nothing more than “Hey, have you
seen THIS?”

So he started his staff to ask “have you seen this?”. This phrase
has one advantage. A store full of merchandise is confusing. “Have
you seen this” FOCUSES the customer on one thing and its non
threatening.

Salesmen at trade shows do that, and you buy.

So start having your sales staff use “have you seen this” at least
on two occasions:

  1. If you can’t get the customer into buying (they’re just browsing
    or you haven’t excited them as of yet) pull out an item and say “have
    you seen this?” and place it in their hand or on their finger.

  2. After they buy, having an “add-on” raises your average sale.
    Don’t ask “would you like to see some matching earrings?” just say AS
    GET UP TO YOU WALK to the earring case say “have you seen this?” and
    pull them out and hand them to the customer.

Now that they are gazing at the earrings, now would be a good time
for a COMMAND! “Here’s a mirror, PUT THEM ON”. (Said nicely of
course.) If the customer says “I’ve spent enough”, finish ringing up
the sale. But if they say “Too big for me”, show a smaller pair.

Rick says the key to “have you seen this” is not in TELLING the
staff to use it but to SHOW BY EXAMPLE. You need to show it to them
tomorrow in front of them and show them how well it works.

It does work. Your goal is to increase your closing ratio and to
raise your average ticket. Two items on a ticket will raise your
average ticket.

David Geller
www.jewelerprofit.com

I have to second Daniel’s idea and add a bit of background to it.

Did you know that in the retail clothing industry, they actually do
studies of how many times a garment is intentionally touched before a
sale? And that they use that data in designing product lines,
creating enticing displays, and keeping product current? That’s one
reason why mannequins have changed so dramatically – people are not
likely to go up and “fondle” a sweater on a realistically human
mannequin, but are more likely to do so on a modified “hanger type”
mannequin. And the more the item is touched, the more likely it is
to be bought.

Karen Goeller
@Karen_Goeller
http://www.nolimitations.com
Handcrafted and Unique Artisan Jewelry

 And the more the item is touched, the more likely it is to be
bought. 

Karen, When I do a show I can tell pretty quickly which piece will
sell. It’s the one that I take out of the case the most. It’s even
more interesting how different peices get more attention in one area
of the country. Some shows all I do is take out work from one case,
the next show in a different part of the country that work isn’t
even noticed even though it’s in the same case and displayed in
exactly the same manner.

Larry

    And the more the item is touched, the more likely it is to be
bought. 

When I have a booth at an art fair I always hand people something
even though they don’t ask to see it. A person walks by and looks in
my case and I hand them an item and say, “look at the detail close
up on this piece”. Sometimes they will say, “no, I was looking at
that other piece” and then I can hand them the piece they point out.
Often they will slip on a ring I hand them and mention the size is
too large or too small and i go hunting to find their size or we
start using the ring sizers. Maybe once or twice a day someone will
back away and not want to touch something. Some people will comment
that they aren’t looking to buy anything and I say that" none the
less I’d rather get things out, move them around and show people
things than stand idle all day. I didn’t bring all my things and set
up my booth to just have the stuff sit in the cases. We might as
well get things out and play with them, it’s more fun for me this
way" ,and that’s exactly the truth of it for me. I’m pretty well
convinced that’s how most of my sales are made. I’ve never had
someone steal a piece I hand them.

In observing the people I usually can tell who will not respond well
to this and those people I leave alone. It is fun to try to “read”
people. Ladies with coppery hair and fair skin wear purple well and
I hand them an amethyst. Some people are “opal” people, some pearls
and some garnets. I mention this to people, (that they look like a
garnet person to me) and they are curious and we start a
converstion. There are bracelet people and those wearing a plain
black top whose appearance just cries out for a necklace. In
observing people also you can read which people would respond to
small conservative items or large showy pieces by the jewelry they
are wearing.

We create a lot of energy around my cases by cleaning and arranging.
If we stand in the back of the booth and don’t interact with people
they walk right by, but if we go out front to look in our cases to
check the arrangment of items, people will stop to see what we are
looking at. I so enjoy the atmosphere at these shows and interacting
with these enthusiastic show goers is really fun. Annette