Showing clients impressive jewelry just above their budget leads to referrals and repeat business.

Never pre-judge, but be smart in your judgment when you “wow” a client.

When I was a young man and we went to a nice restaurant, if the experience was very good, we might have told one person or maybe two. Same if it was bad — we may have told one or two. Today, a young person can Yelp his experience and tell thousands how good or bad it was in a millisecond.

What gets referrals today is not your product; it’s the experience. It’s about you making every client think they’re the most important person who came in all day — even if you’ve already waited on 50 clients yourself.

So what does being smart in your judgment really mean?

First, you never want to intimidate customers by showing them something so expensive they could never buy it. They’ll think only the very wealthy shop in your store and they’re not worthy to come in. So when you wow someone, the timing — and wowing with the right product — is critical.

“Wowing” means showing the client something that she did not come in for. It is unexpected but not intimidating. When you show the client a “wow” piece of jewelry, it tells her that you’re willing to spend a little extra time with her. It’s a compliment; it makes her feel important.

So show smart. What does that mean? If the client is wearing a half-carat, show her something a little over a carat. If she’s wearing a carat, obviously, a 1-carat won’t wow her, but maybe a yellow 2-carat would. When you are unsure of her budget, show a carat not over $6,950. This is kind of a magic number for the price of a 1-carat today in jewelry stores; it’s easy to sell and it’s affordable. Or, run a “magic number” report in your store and find out what is the most popular price that your clients pay for a 1-carat diamond. Some magic numbers change across the country depending on the store’s inventory and the income bracket of the clients who come into the store.

Wowing clients is very easy. I have sold hundreds of carat-plus diamonds per year by doing this. We have a bad habit of overthinking things that are very simple and making them very hard.

While the client is waiting on a battery or picking up a repair, or you just sold her a $50 bead, right before she’s ready to leave, use a lead-in line. A lead-in line is something you say that creates interest. Never say, “Can I?”, “May I?”, “Would you let me?” or “Is there anything else?” because the client can always say no. Say, “Guess what’s in the vault?” or “Gotta show you my favorite” or “Wait until you see this.” Have a little energy in your voice. Excitement sells. Clients buy on impulse all the time.

We have to start exceeding clients’ expectations. Millennials say that the reason they shop on the Internet is because of how they are treated when they go into jewelry stores. They do not like snooty salespeople. You win by going out of your way to give them and all clients an experience they’ll never forget. They will send in more referrals than any other age group — and wowing them will send more referrals your way than anything else you do.

It costs a lot of money to bring the client in. So let’s raise the bar on their experience in our stores. Wow everyone.

Shane Decker has provided sales training for more than 3,000 stores worldwide. Contact him at ( 719) 488-4077 or at ex-sell-ence.com.

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