Train on Price Queries, Find Your Version of Tiffany’s Spoon, and More Tasks for July

Jul. 30-Aug. 6

BUYING There’s still time to sign up for the INSTORE Show, the event for independent jewelers — to be held Aug. 13-15 in Rosemont, IL. Pick up lots of great ideas for the last quarter as well as some gorgeous new product for the holidays.

DISPLAY Got a lot of loose pendants cluttering up your cases? Put them on a chain and display them together.

Aug. 7-13

HOLIDAY PREP Launch a “wow project” to add something special to every step of your sales process, from your greeting to checkout, and including the take-in of repair jobs and delivery of custom design pieces. Ask your staff for examples of the best customer experiences they’ve ever had to get you started.

SALES Practice your Four Cs speech. You’ll soon be giving it all the time. (Start booking speaking dates.)

INVENTORy Promote your lower price-point items. What’s your equivalent to Tiffany’s famous sterling spoon? Do you have signs to make your customers aware of it?

Aug. 14-20

DISPLAYS Displays in need of refreshing? Call a few suppliers and issue them a challenge: I need to redo X cases for $Y. What can you do for me? “Most display companies have some items (returns, show samples, etc.) around they will be happy to sell at a discount,” says display consultant Larry Johnson. Start with your bridal case, as the financial return on your investment is greater.

Aug. 21-27

ONLINE MARKETING The average well-maintained Google My Business listing gets five times more views than commercial listings that haven’t been claimed by their owners. If your store falls into that latter category, get busy this summer by ensuring all your information (address, hours, map pin, reviews, photos) is accurate. Google has added a function that allows you to see the total number of views for your listing, broken down to see how many are coming from Google Search vs. Maps.

GIFT CARDS Investigate what it would take to sell digital gift cards directly from your website. True, it’s the kind of gift someone buys at 3 p.m. on Dec. 24, but you need start researching now. Gift cards get more popular each year, and young consumers don’t seem to have any issue with such digital gifts.

Aug. 28-Sep. 3

DISPLAY Fall is on its way. Create some fashion (not “costume”) jewelry islands around the store and throw a small fall fashion launch party.

MARKETING Experiment with some new social media initiatives so that you’ll be polished and effective come the holiday season. Perhaps start with a Facebook Live sale if you’ve never done one, or the use of video to show off new custom design jobs — jewelry needs to be in motion to really shine.