They typically account for about 2 percent of the
customers who walk into your store, but almost 50
percent of your sales. Yes, we’re talking the engagement-
ring buyer. He’s the guy the American jewelry
industry is built on. He’s often a little nervous, not
always willing to admit he doesn’t know much about
what he’s buying and often in need of credit. But treat
him well, ensure his first step toward a life of happily
ever after is a successful one, and he will ensure your
business thrives. To help you in this endeavor, we’ve sifted through 14
years of INSTORE editions, eight years of our sister magazine INDESIGN,
and the almost 2,000 daily tips we’ve sent out over the years to
find the best bridal ideas we’ve published, and then added a modern
spin. Sure, you’ll be familiar with many of them, but best practice isn’t
about knowing, it’s about doing. As we reach another proposal season,
embed these tips into your processes. And you’ll be saying I do to a
good last quarter of 2015. —
CHRIS BURSLEM

Men Are from
MIT,
Women Are
from FIT …

CLASSIC TIP: “Gender profiling”
is not a dirty phrase, at least
when it comes to engagementring
sales. According to The
Knot’s research, “stone quality”
is the most important attribute
for men when selecting
an engagement ring, while
for soon-to-be brides “style/
setting” is given priority over
other attributes. When it’s the
guy, talk about the quality of the
materials and construction. For
a woman, focus on the styling
of a ring.

MODERN SPIN: “When scoping
out new designers, check out
their Instagram accounts to see
what kind of following they have
and how on-trend they are with
end customers,” recommends
Cindy Edelstein of Jeweler’s
Resource Bureau.

Dump the Lab Report

CLASSIC TIP: Romance the
stone. This is the love business,
it’s about filling someone’s heart
with visions of a life spent with
their soul mate, not filling their
head with the numbers that
classify a dry commodity. Instantly
pulling out the lab report
whenever you show a diamond
is a romance-killer, “pure and
simple,” says Shane Decker.

MODERN SPIN: Promise yourself
that for the next month you
won’t bring out a lab report
when showing a diamond until
the deal is done or the customer
asks for it. Jewelers have to take
back their space and reclaim
their knowledge and their
skills, says Stephane Fischler,
president of the Antwerp World
Diamond Centre.

Build a Better Wallet

CLASSIC TIP: Let them touch. Nearly 100 percent of engagement
ring buyers do research on the Net, but only 10 percent
buy online. Why? Because it’s a product they have to touch.
What’s it mean for you? You need goods in the store. Bruce
Freshley of Freshley Media expressed dismay at the results of
our 2012 Big Survey, which showed the majority of stores stock
fewer than 10 1-carat-plus diamonds. “Even more shocking is
that the majority have fewer than 10 on memo,” he said. “You
simply cannot compete in bridal with a weak wallet. You’ve got
to have the right goods at the right price at the right time.”

MODERN SPIN: Memo up, although
do so
with an understanding
of the
carrying costs.
Be a hard-nosed
numbers guy
about this.

Aim Higher

CLASSIC TIP: Boost your average
ticket. Consumers are getting
older, wiser, and more cynical.
At the same time, if you give
them a good reason to trade
up, they will. “Most of us have
learned that the lowest price
isn’t always the best value,” says
Paco Underhill, keynote speaker
at the 2015 SMART Show. McKinsey
& Co. noted in a January
report what store owners have been telling us for the last few
years: “More people are trading
up from what
some consider to be
the standard 1-carat
diamond engagement
ring to 2, 3, or 4
carats.” This trend is
being reinforced by
the rising average age
of marrying couples
— they can afford a
more expensive engagement
ring.

MODERN SPIN: To be a player in
this market, you need to have
on hand a few aspirational
pieces, says David
Brown, president
of the Edge Retail
Academy. Even for
those regular customers
who can’t afford
a $100,000 bracelet,
it’s a thrill to try it on.
Start experimenting
with more expensive
bridal sets.

Aim Lower

CLASSIC TIP: A few years
ago, Torin Bales, owner of
Torin Bales Fine Jewelry
in Victoria, TX, realized
his store’s upper-end image
was scaring off young
customers and hurting his
bridal sales (at the time,
the segment accounted
for only 10 to 15 percent
of his business). So Bales,
with his ad agency, returned
to the mainstream
radio he had once thought
passé to broadcast a new
message: “Yes, young bridal
shopper, you can afford
to shop at Torin Bales.”
To support this theme,
he located vendors who
could make quality $1,200
engagement rings. And he
advertised his Wells Fargo
interest-free financing. He
also invested in social media
contests and provided
Blue Moon beer on tap in
the store. The results were
fast-coming and impressive.
The 200 rings in the
$1,200 to $3,000 price
range he brought in flew
out the door. “Having the
inventory as prepackaged
rings has worked much
better for us than semimounts.
Younger bridal
customers don’t understand
a semi-mount.” His
bridal business has nearly
quadrupled, to 40 percent
of his business, and margins
have never been better,
he says.

MODERN SPIN: Offer financing.
“If you go to any
mall store, they are really
selling a payment, not
quality or style. Once you
get them in, they’ll keep
coming back — for bridesmaids’
gifts, wedding
bands and anniversary
gifts, and they are sending
their friends and relatives,”
Bales says.

Shoot the Fish

CLASSIC TIP: Follow up.
For years we’ve been
preaching the need to
follow up on your engagement-
ring sales. But
only half of jewelers do
it, says David Liu, CEO of
The Knot. Speaking at the
SMART Jewelry Show in
Chicago, he said that according
to his company’s
recent research, just 51
percent of engagementring
customers hear anything
from their jewelers
after the big purchase.
This represents a tremendous
missed opportunity
when it should be like
“shooting goldfish in a
barrel,” he said. Including
wedding bands and
bridal party gifts, there is
an additional $3,000 in
jewelry to be sold after
the engagement ring purchase.
And then there’s
the lifetime value of the
customer.

MODERN SPIN: “Find
out their wedding date
and follow up,” says Liu.
“Use the media and communication
platforms
these customers are
using. Follow them on
Twitter, follow them on
Facebook, send your
congratulations. This is
a generation that cannot
share enough.” At the very
least, send a hand-written
thank-you note— they
are still among the most
powerful tools available
for building a long-term
relationship, and it will
put you in a minority of
jewelers — only 40 percent
of couples receive
such a note.

Find Out What
He Really Wants

CLASSIC TIP: Ask the right questions. When a customer
asks for a specific diamond, say a 1.40-carat,
round brilliant, H, VS1, GIA-certified diamond, your
first thought should not be, Dang, where can I get one
of those? But, why? The ultimate answer will allow
you to provide the customer with what he really needs.
Did he cite those specs because that is what he really
wants or simply because it’s something he picked up
at a random site on the Internet or because that’s what
his best friend bought his fiancée? Or is he just trying
to compare your prices with the jeweler’s down the
road?

MODERN SPIN: Your
job has changed from
dispensing information
to being a human solution
provider. If he just
wanted something different,
you’ve now created
the chance to show some
unique sizes and shapes
(rose cuts, old mine, organic
diamonds) that you
may have in stock.

Didn’t
Get the Sale?
Follow up Anyway

CLASSIC TIP: Don’t give up. The
next time a young couple comes
in and looks at bridal and then
leaves, follow up with a text
message saying “Do you have
any questions I can answer?”
urges Aleah Siegel, a sales rep
from Olympian Diamonds.
“This shows you care, plus
young people love texts,” she
says. They may well have had a
question they were too shy to
ask. “You will never know unless
you follow up,” Siegel says.

MODERN SPIN: Gallery of Diamonds
in Orange County, CA,
has a neat way of obtaining
customers’ email addresses:
If a woman likes a particular
engagement ring or other piece
of jewelry, an employee will
snap a photo of the ring on the
customer’s finger and then immediately
email it to her with
the ring’s information. In addition
to the key data obtained, it
keeps the piece and store top of
mind in the browser’s mind, and
allows her to easily upload it to
Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook
so her friends can see it, or
even forward it to her fiancé or
boyfriend.

Location,
Location,

www.location

CLASSIC TIP: Be easy to find.
Today, every diamond-buying
mission starts with a URL.
Make yours easy to remember,
because your store won’t be the
only site that prospective customers
visit.

MODERN SPIN: Go to any of the
following and you’ll find a successful
jeweler. Mayfair Jewelers:
Mayfairrocks.com; Alter’s:
hellodiamonds.com; Raymond
Lee Fine Jewelers: webuybigdiamonds.
com. What’s yours?

Stay Top-of-Mind

CLASSIC TIP: Advertise,
advertise, advertise. Being
a jeweler is like being a police
officer: nobody wants
to pay you much mind
until they need your help.
And at those times they
want someone they can
trust. That means your
goal should be top of mind
in your market — advertising
365 days a year, even
if it may be 3,650 days
before that engagementring
buyer needs you. But
at least by then he’ll know
where to go.

MODERN SPIN: Put the
shotgun away. Pick one or
two advertising mediums,
based on their reach and
return on investment,
and stick to them. That
requires courage, perseverance
and — sometimes
even being bored with
your own ads.

Talk the Talk

CLASSIC TIP: Speak the
language of love. OK, no
need to overdo it but the
right descriptive phrase
can help bring out the true
beauty of that lump of
compressed carbon while
also infusing it with emotion
and igniting desire.

MODERN SPIN: At the start
of every engagement season,
give your salespeople
a homework assignment:
Come up with 25 phrases
that describe a diamond.
If they need inspiration,
they should watch QVC
for half an hour and write
down all the adjectives the
well-trained presenters
on the shopping channel
use.

Jingle Bells,
Wedding Bells

CLASSIC TIP: Don’t rush the
sale. One of the cruel ironies of
jewelry retail is that the biggest
gift-giving season coincides with
the same month young men
feel most compelled to pop the
question. That requires a twospeed
approach to sales. “This
consumer is not preoccupied
with getting a package under
the Christmas tree, but rather
with making one of the most
important jewelry purchases in
their lifetime,” says Terry Chandler,
president of the Diamond
Council of America.

MODERN SPIN: Chandler recommends
training sessions
to prepare your sales associates
to effectively engage the
wedding-ring customer during
the season. Underscore the fact
that the bridal sale requires
a relationship. Train them to
change gears for this consumer
so he doesn’t feel rushed or
under-served.

Customer
for Life

CLASSIC TIP: Get ’em back in the
store. Ensure every customer
signs up for a yearly cleaning
and prong-check reminder. As
with auto sales, the real value of
a customer often doesn’t come
from the initial transaction, but
after he or she walks off “the
lot,” as a result of future purchases,
repairs, and long-term
good will. An engagement is the
beginning of a beautiful relationship — and not just for the
married couple.

MODERN SPIN: In 2015, personal
data is gold. Set your calendar,
automate cleaning reminders,
personal notes, phone calls …
and keep in mind that when
you’ve been a central part of one
of the most important transactions
in their lives, it’s not cold
calling, it’s good service.

Where
Everybody

Knows Your Name

CLASSIC TIP: When it comes to
diamonds, friendly wins over
expert. People often lack confidence
when buying diamond
jewelry, so you need to ensure
that everything about your store
puts them at ease, starting with
staff. It’s crucial they express the
idea that they’re there to help.

MODERN SPIN: Hire the best.
Research has shown great diamond
salespeople share similar
traits: They tend toward slight extroversion, and their patience
levels are in the median
range (they can wait to close a
sale without coming across as
pushy). “It’s very important to
have a qualified person with the
right ‘diamond DNA’ to make
contact with customers and create
a positive first impression,”
says David Brown of the Edge
Retail Academy.

Surprise,
Surprise:

Men Spend
More

CLASSIC TIP: Encourage
surprise
proposals. De
Beers research
learned that when
women were
involved in the
selection process,
they picked
cheaper rings. By
encouraging surprise
proposals, De
Beers shifted the
purchasing power
to men, the lesscautious
spenders.
And many men
could do with the
help. According
to a Men’s Health survey in 2011, 26
percent of brides
wished their proposal
had been
more romantic
and original.

MODERN SPIN: Next time a man
is wavering on
whether to bring
his intended in on
the selection process,
recommend
the joy of surprises
(Dave Richardson’s
booklet Pop the
Question is a good
place to start). And
don’t forget to ask
them to post their
ring selfie to your
Facebook page.

Theater of the Mind

CLASSIC TIP: Unlock their imagination. Chuck
Kuba came from a background in the performing
arts before returning to the family’s traditional line
of work and opening his own jewelry store. The two
really aren’t so different; one is played out on the
boards, the other in the imagination, says Kuba,
who is a big advocate of using the “theater of the
mind” to unlock a customer’s dreams and desires.

MODERN SPIN: “Nothing
can compare with asking a
woman to close her eyes and
imagine the perfect engagement
ring and then describe
it to you,” says Kuba, the
owner of Iowa Diamond in
Des Moines, IA. “It’s magic.”

The Four Es:
Expertise,

Education, Ethics
and Experience

CLASSIC TIP: Get your facts
straight. The Internet today
does a lot of the preliminary
heavy lifting when it comes to
imparting knowledge about
diamonds. That’s good and bad.
For one, it means you need to
get your facts straight, especially
when it comes to the origins of
your goods. Consumers today,
especially millennials, already
know a great deal about where
their buys come from. “An item
as common as a banana can
be traced to its source. If I can
see where a banana was grown, what can you do for a diamond
ring?” notes Larry Johnson,
author of The Complete Guide to
Effective Jewelry Display.

MODERN SPIN: Prep staffers by
placing “cheat sheets” (index
cards listing selling benefits,
origin info, and treatments)
near displays, says Johnson.
Keep in mind that this is not
just about playing defense; earn
a reputation as an aggressively
ethical jeweler and more young
consumers will seek you out.

Cut Trumps
Color and Clarity

CLASSIC TIP: One of the unacknowledged
truths of the jewelry
business is that no one actually
wants a “cheap” diamond.
They want the good stuff. “They
want quality, value and service,”
says David Brown.

MODERN SPIN: Search out superior
cut diamonds, possibly
giving thought to your own store
brand. “You have to have superior
cut diamonds — they are an
easier product to sell, and you
can get a bit of margin on them.
If you know how to sell cut — as
opposed to talking about clarity
and color — you can get a
superior price and learn how to
compete against the Internet,”
Brown says.

The Fifth C

CLASSIC TIP: Expand
your customers’ idea of
what engagement can be
beyond the four Cs, says
designer Todd Reed, who
incorporates rough and
opaque diamonds in his
works. “Be interested
in the diamond’s provenance.
Don’t emphasize
the four Cs, but rather the
fifth C — the character aspect
of it, and that’s pretty
priceless in a lot of ways,”
he says.

MODERN SPIN: For young
customers in particular,
having a diamond that
is different from “everybody
else’s diamond” has
become very important,
notes Reed, adding that
by stocking such unique
stones you will also be
adding a different kind of
client to your mix.

You Want Fries
with That?

CLASSIC TIP: Show the
wedding band with the
engagement ring every
time, urges sales trainer
Peter Canella. “I’ve been
using this technique for
25 years, and I can tell you
about 35 percent of the
time, the customer leaves
with both items.”

MODERN SPIN: Canella
says customers will typically
say they’re just looking
for an engagement
ring. “If your client says he
is sure about the engagement
ring but is uncertain
about the wedding band,
politely inform him he
is free to change out the
wedding band if his fiancée
wants something different,”
he says.

Drop Hints

CLASSIC TIP: Get a commitment
on the bands.
The current state of young
people’s finances and the
cost of precious metals
means it’s important that
you hint at the cost of the
wedding band early in a
bridal sale, says Michael
Lebowitz, vice president
of Buxbaum Jewelry Advisors.

MODERN SPIN: “Today, the
typical wedding budget
is quite limited, and yet
everything — the flowers,
the cake, the photographer,
the venue — is
important to the bride,
especially if it is her first
wedding. If jewelers don’t
make that sale early in the
process, or at least point
out the need to keep Xamount
available for the
groom’s wedding band,
they will miss out.”

Make it Special

CLASSIC TIP: Buy a diamond
at Sissy’s Log Cabin
in Pine Bluff, AR, and the
following will happen. 1.)
It will be set while you
wait. 2.) It is brought out
for you on a silver platter,
along with champagne.
3.) Salespeople will gather
around to congratulate
you. And 4.) One staff
member will sing Tanti
Auguri in almost perfect
operatic Italian. That’s no
ordinary experience.

MODERN SPIN: Try an
English version of Tanti
Auguri (best wishes)?
Nah, some things are best
left alone.

Paaaaarty!

CLASSIC TIP: Play dress-up. Damas Jewelry, a leading
jeweler in the Middle East, has private rooms in its
stores and throws engagement parties for couples to
watch a show and try on rings and bridal jewelry.

MODERN SPIN: Consider installing a large mirror
with a bit of privacy, and inviting a bride-to-be to try
on jewelry while she tries on her wedding gown. “It’s
easier to get someone to fall in love with it once you’ve
gotten them to put it on,” Paco Underhill says.

Offer a "Selection"

CLASSIC TIP: Banish
from view that big tray
of plain wedding bands
that you pull out to
show all the different
sizes you have. Sure it’s
convenient, but that
simple tray makes it
too easy to undersell
your customers.

MODERN SPIN: One of
your prime jobs as a
retailer in a world with
too much stuff is to edit
the choices offered to
your customers. Follow
a rule of not showing
more than three rings
at a time.

Sales Stigma

CLASSIC TIP: Don’t discount, at
least not loudly. Engagement
ring buyers have a mental stumbling
block with the symbol of
their undying love being “On
Sale!!!”

MODERN SPIN: A better approach
is to stealthily reduce the
retail price and keep retagging
until it sells — and add a motivating
spiff for the salespeople.

There You Are!

CLASSIC TIP: Money and your
reputation are on the line when
you drop a diamond and can’t
find it. But keep calm and smile.
You’ve got this.

MODERN SPIN: Try this: 1. Turn
out the lights, shine a flashlight
and look for sparkle. 2. If that
fails, put a stocking over the end
of a vacuum cleaner nozzle.

Follow the Customer’s Lead

CLASSIC TIP: Organize the
merchandise in a way the
customer shops. Group
your rings into stands
and trays that follow the
flow of your customer’s
thought process and your
selling presentation.
“Make it easy for yourself
to make it special,” says
Johnson. It also means
you never have to get up
and leave the customer,
often a fatal sales mistake.

MODERN SPIN: Unless
you’re dealing with one of
today’s heavily branded
items like Hearts On Fire
or Tacori where the name
is the draw, you should
sort by types — five primary
styles of mountings,
for instance — rather
than by brands. “If the
customer is interested in
a halo setting, why force
them (and your salesperson)
to move around to
six different showcases all
over the bridal section to
look at halos from six different
sources? Put them
all in one case and make it
easier on everyone,” says
merchandising expert
Sally Furrer.

Give it Space

CLASSIC TIP: The biggest mistake
in display, according to
Larry Johnson, author of The
Complete Guide to Effective Jewelry
Display, is hiding the good
stuff among the bad. Expensive
goods need air to breathe.

MODERN SPIN: Plan for it. Keep
your good items away from your
beads, chains and costume jewelry.
Not only will this help avoid
diminishing the appeal of your
best goods, but it will keep boisterous
younger customers away
from your diamond engagement
ring area. Your wedding customers
invariably want a tad more
privacy.

Go for the
Gross Dollars

CLASSIC TIP: Don’t get fixated
on margins. Dollars get
banked, not margins. Industry
analyst Ken Gassman cites the
example of gold and platinum
semi-mounts. A gold sale will
invariably edge platinum in
terms of gross margin by a few
percentage points. “And jewelers
look at that and say, ‘No, I’m making more profit on a gold
mount’ — well they’re really
not,” Gassman says, noting that
platinum, with almost twice the
average sale, will result in a lot
more dollars flowing from a sale
into their account.

MODERN SPIN: Seven out of 10
brides opt for white gold rings,
but Platinum Guild International
says that according to its
research a lot of them would
prefer platinum. To make the
sale, you need to have the goods
in stock. The PGI says retailers
who stock at least 25 percent of
their inventory in platinum are
“much more likely” to close a
platinum sale.

Promote
Platinum’s

Staying Power

CLASSIC TIP: Want to sell more
platinum? Demonstrate how it
dulls only a little over time but
still complements a diamond
as opposed to white gold, which
fades to yellow.

MODERN SPIN: Keep an old
white gold ring and an old platinum
one behind the counter
to show customers what happens
to the two metals after a
few years. One of platinum’s
strength’s is the durability of its
white color, which won’t fade
or change, similar to their marriage
(hint, hint).

Leave Love Notes

CLASSIC TIP: Always handwrite a sales slip for
a wedding purchase. It’s a personal touch that
allows people to know exactly what they have
purchased.

MODERN SPIN: What to do in 2015? Much the
same as jewelers were doing in 1915. Write out
the details such as the size, color and clarity of a
diamond and its setting.

Lend
Some Shine

CLASSIC TIP: Let big customers
borrow some nice jewelry for
their wedding. It will ensure
their special day is extra special.
And it pretty much guarantees
they will tell everyone they
know what great service you
gave them.

MODERN SPIN: Tiny Jewelry Box
in Washington, DC, includes
this little extra as part of a cross
promotion with the local Ritz-
Carlton that also gives couples a
complimentary one-night stay
at the hotel. And don’t forget to
take care of the insurance.

Loop
the Loupe

CLASSIC TIP: Lend that diamond
browser your solid-looking
loupe and tell him to go shop
diamonds elsewhere. Not only
does it show trust but it’s a great
way to get that customer back in
your store.

MODERN SPIN: “Spend time with
the client explaining what to
look for in a diamond when using
a loupe,” says David Geller. “Then urge him to go elsewhere
to see if he can find a better
diamond, adding: ‘Just do me a
favor and bring it back.’”

Treat
Women Well

CLASSIC TIP: The surprise proposal
is a nice tradition, but in
reality women are involved in
the decision two-thirds of the
time, doing research, talking
to friends and browsing stores,
according to TheKnot data. And
many say they are not treated
all that well when they walk
into a store alone. That’s pretty
shortsighted. “When they go
with their fiancés, they say they
feel much more comfortable,
they are paid more attention to
and made to feel special,” says
Kristyn Clement, researcher for
The Knot Market Intelligence.

MODERN SPIN: Offer brides-tobe
whatever is at your disposal
— time to browse, a friendly
smile, a seat at the espresso bar,
a glass of wine, a comfortable
chair, and they likely will return
with their fiancés.