The JA Report: News, Tips & Trends from Jewelers of America

Switch Killer Sales for Sales Killers

Even the best sales person has those moments they wish they could rewind and start all over again. But once it has been unleashed, it’s hard to take back a “sales killer.” At Entrepreneur.com, Tom Hopkins shares mistakes that can kill sales in record time in his “Sales Tip of the Week.”

Sales killers to avoid:

Mentor and Align

Regardless of the outside factors influencing your business -- and we know there are many – it is your vision and leadership that really matter to your employees. Case in point, Carlsbad-jeweler Dale Condy, owner of Gems of La Costa, beat back the doom and gloom by creating stickers with a red circle and slash through negative sentiments like “Doom Gloom.”  According to an article from SignOnSanDiego.com, Condy began wearing the stickers and posting them in his store. The bad-news bashing sentiment has caught on, as he’s given out hundreds of stickers and is even getting requests from people out of state. 

Plan for Recovery

As you’ve adjusted your business to get through the downturn, it’s important to keep in mind the inevitable recovery that will follow. Marketing expert John Quelch looks at “How Marketers Should Plan For Recovery”, at the Harvard Business Publishing blog.

Quelch’s tips for those retailers looking ahead:

Research Your Customers for Optimum Outreach Results

Your business success depends on the customer and fulfilling their needs. It’s critical to keep this in mind, despite the downturn. “Improving customer focus is the key to achieving the kind of efficiencies that the current economy demands,” says David Diamond, president of strategic marketing consultancy David Diamond Associates. Diamond’s marketing strategies are covered in the Smart Reply Benchmarking Series White Paper, “5 Success Strategies to Grow Your Business Right Now.”

In order to develop a marketing profile that predicts customers’ needs, Smart Reply suggests mining your customer data to uncover:

Strengthen Your Brand

According to Interbrand Design Forum’s report on “The Most Valuable U.S. Retail Brands 2009”, brands are even more important during a recession. The report states that the brand accounts for 25% of the decision to shop at a particular store, and the trend toward large and impersonal retail spaces has been upended by stores with “more emotion, creativity and community.” As a retail jeweler, you have a distinct advantage when it comes to all three; it’s just a matter of capitalizing on them through your branding efforts.

David Peters, Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert, says you must work hard to brand not only your company, but also its products and services.

Peters suggests the following action items to achieve successful branding:

Face Frugality and Thrive

Consumers in America have cut back their spending, but that doesn’t have to mean jewelry is an expendable purchase. You just need to adjust your business to fit the new mindset. In “The Frugal Consumer: When Shoppers Lose the Urge to Splurge,”  JCK Magazine’s Rob Bates talks to industry experts about how to deal with this shift.

Check out these tips from experts on how to refocus your business to reach frugal consumers:

Learn Sales Strategies That Work for 2009

Like many retailers, your store traffic has probably experienced a downturn in this tough economy. But retail expert Harry J. Friedman says you can still grow your sales. He’ll be presenting this and other topics in “How to Thrive in a Threatening Economy,” a free webinar scheduled for Friday, March 31.
 
Friedman says retailers need to make 2009 the year of the individual salesperson who can meet and exceed his or her goals.

He offers tips on how you can achieve this:

Be Prepared for the Tough Task of Firing an Employee

As hopeful and exciting as hiring a new employee can be, making the decision to fire him or her is the antithesis. In “Summon Up Honesty and Respect…Then Fire People,” columnist Paul B. Brown of the New York Times offers ideas on how to handle this most difficult of work situations, gleaning suggestions from several sources.

Tips from the New York Times on how to best manage letting someone go:

Use Marketing Ideas from America’s Best Jewelers

The next wave of holidays (including Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day) and milestone events (like graduations) will be here before you know it, so it’s important to keep your marketing in front of existing and potential customers.
During a panel session on marketing during National Jeweler’s America’s Best Jewelers (ABJ) Retail Benchmarking Symposium, jewelers shared ideas on getting customers into their stores and buying.

Try these successful marketing ideas from ABJ panelists:

Know the Art of Good Customer Interaction

Every customer that walks into your store is a potential sale (and even better, a potential customer for life), but how do you seize the opportunity? Tom Shay, of Profits Plus, offers some ideas on how to make the most of your sales interactions.

Discover Shay’s tips to thrive with customer interaction and close more sales:

Creatively Connect with Customers

As we noted in our recent tip, “Cut the Fat with Creativity,” many businesses across different industries are trying to find solutions to today’s unique challenges.

This week, we share some creative ideas on how to grow your business from Small Business Trends’ “Outrageously Creative Tips for Saving Money & Growing Your Business” :

Make Your Store #1

While keeping your financials in check is critical during the downturn, you should also consider how you can position your store for success once conditions improve. In his presentation “The Art of Jewelry Retail,” Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert David Peters stresses the importance of positioning your business first, ahead of your competition.

To beat the competition, Peters advises jewelers to:

Glean Ideas from Unlikely Sources

As you guide your business through the economic downturn, the best ideas for your store can come from a variety of sources. Entrepreneur.com put this to the test in “Business Lessons from Alternative Sources.” Reporter Carol Tice scanned recent events to come up with unconventional sources of powerful business advice. These include:

Cut the Fat Creatively

One of the most challenging aspects of the current economic downturn is learning how to operate lean and mean, without harming your business in the long run. The good news is that many businesses are rising to the challenge and you can learn from their success. Small Business Trends has compiled 75 of their readers most “Outrageously Creative Tips for Saving Money & Growing Your Business.” 

Here are some of their outrageously successful ideas for saving money:

Don’t Focus On Price -- Increase Your Value Proposition

It’s tempting in the current environment to focus solely on price. While it’s wise to offer your customers choice, make sure your business remains value-driven.

Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert David Peters notes that when you sell for price, your customers respond by buying for price. These clients won’t be loyal to your store; they’ll be loyal to your discounts.

Peters offers the following ideas for keeping the spotlight on value and increasing your personal value as a professional:

Improve Cash Flow

As we’ve stressed since the beginning of the economic crisis, cash flow is essential to your businesses’ survival. In “Keeping the Cash Flowing,” Paul B. Brown of the New York Times shares ideas on how to improve cash flow in the coming months.

Cash-flow strategies from the New York Times:

Take Advantage of the Economic Recovery Act

Times are tough, so it’s critical for jewelers to seize whatever assistance and opportunities they can. One example is the recently passed “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,”  which includes much-needed small-business tax relief measures. In order to ensure that your business is getting the most from this new law, we recommend you check with your tax consultants.

Business provisions in the new law that could have the biggest impact on your business include:

Commit to Staff Education

An educated sales staff leads to a more profitable store. That’s why it’s important not to cut back on maintaining and building your team’s high professional standards. Tom Shay, of Profits Plus, says retailers must make a commitment to staff education.

Shay offers the following tips to thrive with staff education:

Be Proactive When it Comes to Staffing

In these “do more with less” times, it’s important that you don’t cut your staff short, even as you control your expenses. As Jewelers of America’s resident management and education expert David Peters notes, the rapid changes and challenges of the jewelry industry require a higher caliber employee -- a fact that can sometimes clash with the current economic environment.

Whether you’re trying to attract new talent or ensure your best people stay onboard, you need a proactive approach to employee attraction and retention. Peters offers the following suggestions:

Emphasize Your “Value Equation”

In these times of greater transparency and discounting, it can be difficult to connect with customers who are only focused on price. In order to succeed, you need to move the focus away from deals and make sure customers understand the value offered by your store.

Jewelers of America’s resident expert management and education expert David Peters says there are four components to the “Value Equation.” To increase the perceived value of your products, combine these four separate concepts in every jewelry sales presentation:

Effectively Cut Expenses

You have to be lean in order to survive. But there’s a big difference between smart cuts that won’t hurt your business in the long-term, and a crash diet approach that leaves your store starving.

At National Jeweler Network’s America’s Best Jewelers (ABJ) Retail Benchmarking Symposium -- held in January – jewelers, like William J. Curry, of Curry Fine Jewelry, shared ideas on how to smartly reduce expenses:

Climb Out of The Sales Dip

While it’s never welcome and can be painful, economic downturns can also force companies to get lean and mean – which leads to improved performance on the other side of the slump. The trick is to get through the low points.

Over at About.com’s Small Business Information portal, Darrell Zahorsky shares strategies for small businesses experiencing a sales dip.

To survive the sales slumps, Zahorsky says businesses must: