Avoiding that post-Christmas attitude

Your customers were enthusiastic over the Christmas period and therefore it was easy for you to be, too. Now it’s a week later and you’re standing around looking for a customer. When you finally get one through the door, it’s not quite such an easy sell.

So what’s the problem? Has your customer’s attitude changed, or is it yours? To show you what I mean, just walk into your competitor’s store and this is what you may see. Sales clerks instead of salespeople – looking like robots, standing around with their hands behind their backs, without any enthusiasm and hoping for someone like you to come in.  

When they finally assist you, they think it’s still Christmas and are expecting you to make the first move and buy from them. Yes, instead of selling they are making a presentation, and waiting for you to say, ‘I’ll take it’. It is easy to become a clerk at Christmas time and unfortunately for those who do will have trouble getting back into selling after Christmas.

How do you avoid this and get back on track? Owners and managers should set an example, instead of standing around bored, stay busy. Do your paperwork over the counter, always looking up and being up front instead of in the back of the store where most salespeople and managers are. Be busy working with the jewellery, either cleaning it or straightening the display.  Customers like to approach a busy salesperson because they feel less intimidated.

Next, take a good honest look at yourself; check your enthusiasm. If you have it, so will your  salespeople and your customers will too because they will mirror you. We all like to wait on enthusiastic customers, but too often we are waiting for them to show enthusiasm first and then we react to their enthusiasm.Always have a customer react to your attitude instead of you to theirs. This keeps you in the lead and in command when selling. That is why salespeople who have a great smile and enthusiasm outsell others regardless of their experience or product knowledge.

Here is another good reason: when friends come into your home, you always lead them with your smile and enthusiasm. You smile and greet them first before they smile at you. You never size them up before you greet them in your home as most salespeople do to customers in their shop. Common sense says: “Treat your customers as you would a friend in your home.”

Following up on this I recommend you ask your salespeople these questions:

• Why do we hesitate to greet customers we do not know when they come into our store?
• Why are we waiting for customers to smile first before we smile at them, yet always smile first to a friend coming into our home?  
• Why is it when a friend of ours, brings over another friend of theirs to our home, we go out of our way to make that stranger our friend, just the opposite what we do with a stranger in our shop?
• Why does a customer have to come in three times to our store before we feel comfortable enough to treat them as a friend?

Regarding this last question, when I ask salespeople at my seminars: “When a customer comes in for the third time do you give them a much warmer response and feel more relaxed with them than you did when they came in for the first time?” The answer I get is always: “Yes.” Then I drop the other shoe when I say: “Then why do customers have to come into your store three times to get greeted like they should have been the first time?” When I tell salespeople this, they see the light. You will find that your salespeople are no exception.

COMMON SENSE

When training your salespeople always make sure what you are teaching passes this common sense test: “Would I like to be sold this way?” When I train salespeople and introduce a sales technique I demonstrate it playing the salesperson with and without a smile and enthusiasm and ask them: “If you had a return after Christmas how would you  react to a salesperson with a smile and enthusiasm?” They all said “very positively.” Then I asked, “…and without?”, to which they said they assumed they assumed they would have a problem.

This brings up more good questions. Have you checked your smile lately? When I ask my students: “When was the last time you walked into a retail store and remember being approached by an enthusiastic salesperson with a smile?”, I rarely see a hand raised. That could be your store and, heaven forbid, maybe you.

A good way to check your enthusiasm is with the recorder on your mobile phone. Even though many of us do not like to hear ourselves on a recording you have to admit it tells the truth. Set your mobile phone on the sales counter and re-enact the scene with another salesperson playing the customer approaching you from the entrance. Keep the recorder going through the entire sale.  

Of course, you won’t like what you hear. Few people do and that’s alright. You were not serving a real  customer anyway and it didn’t cost you a thing. Try it again, knowing this time what to correct. You will sound better, but you will want to improve your selling technique even more.  Now reverse roles. You will hear yourself as well and also help the other salesperson.

After a couple more attempts you will find that you are more comfortable and want to serve the next customer. What a pleasant surprise! You will find this customer has a very nice attitude. Don’t imagine that this was luck and this customer just happened to come in. Take the credit; it was you. The customer reacted to your enthusiastic attitude. This in turn motivated you and you became more enthusiastic and so did your customer. You will find it becomes a chain reaction and you will marvel how easy it is to make a sale. Yes, selling fine jewellery depends on your attitude. When you are up, you keep your customers are up. You cannot miss. Just remember, you have to start it.

This feature first appeared in the December 2015 issue of Jewellery focus.