When one person is responsible for raising average ticket and closing ratio, everyone benefits.

The job description of a salesperson is to turn shoppers or lookers into buyers. Yes, we expect them to be nice to our customers and keep the good vibes going. There is a whole list of things to do to accomplish “turning shoppers into buyers.”

On the other hand, the job description of a sales manager is to increase the store’s average sale and closing ratio. How is this done? By keeping track of the staff’s numbers and coaching/training/role-playing to perfect the process of turning shoppers into buyers.

Let’s talk about the sales manager and how this person increases sales in the store without spending a dime on advertising. The typical American jewelry store closes three out of 10  shoppers (33% closing ratio). The typical average product sale varies but is around $400. So if 10 people walk in and you sell three of them a $400 item, sales equal $1,200. If you could close four instead of three, sales would increase by 25%. And if you sell them each a $500 item instead of a $400 item, sales would jump by 20%.

But wait! Sell four people out of 10 a $500 item, and sales jump dramatically. Sales go up 40 percent, all from selling one more person and raising the average ticket by $100.

At my former store, we used a tracking system developed by The Friedman Group. The form tracked three areas per salesperson: repairs, custom design sales, and product sales.

Every time the sales staff waited on a client, they would write the dollar amount if they closed the sale, or a slash mark if they didn’t.

Add the quantity of items sold to the slash marks, and you have total people waited on today. Then count the number of sales and divide by the total waited on, and you have closing ratio.

So let’s take just one store number: Product sales. 

Mary Beth’s average product sale: $520

Marvin’s average product sale: $480

Susan’s average product sale: $1,250

The store’s average product sale: $750

Susan is 23 and has only been selling jewelry for six months. Meanwhile, Mary Beth and Marvin have been in the business for 10 years. Susan’s a star. You want both Mary Beth and Marvin to increase their total sales. You’d never say to them, “Look, Susan is green and doing $1,250; both of you should do that or more.” No, the job of the sales manager is to get both Mary Beth and Marvin’s sales up to the store average of $750!

If you did that, wouldn’t total store sales go up?

That’s the job description of a sales manager.

David Geller is a consultant to jewelers on store management. Email him at dgellerbellsouth.net.

This article originally appeared in the December 2016 edition of INSTORE.