YEARS AGO, I did a store visit for a larger jewelry store. As I was chatting with their shop foreman, I heard a young sales associate say behind me: “They are sooo toast!”
I turned around and asked, “What do you mean by that?”
She replied, “Our boss taught us to ask every customer three questions and keep the answers in a dated tickler file.” She explained that whether the staff waited on a jewelry sale, a repair or custom delivery, they were to ask each customer:
1.“What is the next piece of jewelry you’d like to have?”
It would be great if the customer answered, “Oh, I’d love a diamond bracelet,” but if they said, “I don’t know” or “I’m good,” then the sales associate might suggest, “You know what might look nice with the emerald ring we just sized? This diamond and emerald tennis bracelet.”
2.“When would you like it?”.
They might volunteer “my anniversary/birthday is coming up soon” and give you that date. A response of “Oh I don’t know” meant that the salesperson would suggest their birthday, anniversary, Christmas/Chanukah, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or an upcoming childbirth.
3.“Who do I contact?”
This is the most difficult question. Some might be eager to tell you. Many might say, “Oh no, my husband would kill me for even suggesting it.” So how to circumvent this? By chatting and asking questions like “How many kids do you have?”, “How long have you been dating/married?”, “What do you do for a living?”, “And your husband/boyfriend — what does he do?”
After the client leaves, the sales associate enters the data into their point-of-sale system. Then the store’s staff writes a letter to the spouse/boyfriend: “Hi Robert, your fiancée was in our store a few months ago to pick up a repair/something she bought for a gift, etc. and we got to talking about her upcoming birthday, which is only three weeks away on the 23rd. She just fell in love with the emerald and diamond bracelet I showed her (picture attached). It would match her ring perfectly. It’s still available if you’d like to get it for her. You can come by the store, or I can even gift wrap it and ship it to your office if you like. Just give me a call.”
So, I asked her “How many people actually buy?” She responded: “All of them!”
I said, “Sorry, I don’t believe all of them buy; no one sells 100 percent.”
This was her powerful response: “I promise you that 90 percent of the men I send this to will be in the store within six months to buy what I wrote about.”
How can this be? Simple. Shopping for a woman is tough for most men. They don’t know what the woman wants, don’t want to guess, don’t like shopping from store to store, and more importantly, every man wants to make his woman ecstatic with the gift he gives her.
Try it and you could greatly increase sales without spending any extra money on advertising (except for stamps and stationery).