Gene the Jeweler

Gene the Jeweler’s ‘Free Range’ Employees Set Their Own Sales Goals

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Published

8 years ago

February 5, 2018

Jimmy DeGroot

EMPLOYEES NEED SOMETHING to shoot for — a guideline to let them know whether they’re succeeding. In a jewelry store, that’s often a sales goal.

Gene the Jeweler, the fictional character created by marketing specialist Jimmy DeGroot, lets his staff members set such goals themselves. Which is to say, there are no sales goals.

“That’s sort of the beauty of how I run this business,” Gene says in the video below. “Everyone has the freedom to go and be the best ‘them’ they can be.”

They’re basically free-range employees. Gene doesn’t want to impose his own definition of success on anyone else.

If the business adage “what you measure is what you get” is true, you have to wonder what’s in store for Gene’s business.

Gene the Jeweler’s ‘Free Range’ Employees Set Their Own Sales Goals

Jimmy DeGroot

Jimmy DeGroot is a jewelry store manager who has been in the business for over 20 years. Now he spends his time training teams around the world at jewelrystoretraining.com and sharing marketing advice through his blog site at jewelrymarketingguy.com. Sign up for training videos here.

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Honoring a Legacy: How Smith & Son Jewelers Exceeded Every Goal With Wilkerson

When Andrew Smith decided to close the Springfield, Massachusetts location of Smith & Son Jewelers, the decision came down to family. His father was retiring after 72 years in the business, and Andrew wanted to spend more time with his children and soon-to-arrive grandchildren. For this fourth-generation jeweler whose great-grandfather founded the company in 1918, closing the 107-year-old Springfield location required the right partner. Smith chose Wilkerson, and the experience exceeded expectations from start to finish. "Everything they told me was 100% true," Smith says. "The ease and use of all their tools was wonderful." The consultants' knowledge and expertise proved invaluable. Smith and his father set their own financial goal, but Wilkerson proposed three more ambitious targets. "We thought we would never make it," Smith explains. "We were dead wrong. We hit our first goal, second goal and third goal. It was amazing." Smith's recommendation is emphatic: "I would never be able to do what they did by myself."