| Managing:Platinum Sales
Platinum Pointers
A plan to educate sales associates
BY CAROLINE STANLEY
You stock platinum at price points that work for you. Your displays look
great and you run platinum ads. What's missing? Platinum sales training.
Are your sales associates ready to sell platinum? Have you had a training
session for them?
Importance of Education
Having sales associates who know your product well is the easiest way to
differentiate yourself these days. Unfortunately, the biggest barrier to
platinum sales is misinformation. Once a consumer receives false information,
it's hard to set the record straight.
Sometimes consumers do their homework and know more about platinum than
your sales associates, according to results of mystery shopping experiences
conducted for the Platinum Guild International. If a consumer gets misinformation
from your sales associates, he or she may get a bad impression of your store
and walk away without buying.
Why Train? How?
Training takes time and effort. But it pays big dividends. Sales associates
who are ready to sell and armed with product knowledge and enthusiasm sell
substantially more than their counterparts. It all comes down to closing
the sale. Those who are trained do it better than anyone else.
To hold a platinum training session, follow the steps outlined in the
box. Need the product knowledge to go with the outline? Fax PGI at (949)
760-8780 on your company letterhead to get the 20-page Platinum Basics
training booklet. Tell us how many associates you have and we'll send a
booklet for each one.
Platinum Boot Camp
Gather the Troops
Entice your sales associates to learn more about platinum by letting them
know it usually carries a higher mark-up, makes loyal customers and often
begins a new buying cycle.
Pass the Platinum
Compare a piece of platinum jewelry to a similar gold piece. Ask your associates
to touch and compare them. What are their first observations? Ask them for
questions, then answer them by the end of the class.
Teach the Basics
By covering the following topics, your associates learn about platinum and
are able to answer your customers' usual questions. These facts don't involve
advanced selling skills. But they do allow your associates to feel comfortable
talking about platinum.
- History of platinum.
- Other uses of platinum.
- Platinum quality marks.
- Features and benefits.
- Differences in working with platinum vs. gold.
Selling Standards
Set up certain platinum standards. Perhaps it's having sales associates
show platinum to X number of people each day. Perhaps it's having a sales
goal of two platinum pieces a week/month, etc. Perhaps it's showing platinum
as an add-on sale to someone who wears a combination of platinum and yellow
gold.
– CS |
Caroline Stanley is a third-generation jeweler who grew up on the
sales floor. She is a past president of the Arkansas Jewelers Association
and the Southwest Guild of the American Gem Society. Caroline, a 1998 Women's
Jewelry Association Award of Excellence recipient, trains retailers across
the U.S. for the Platinum Guild International-USA Jewelry Ltd.
Copyright © 1999 by Bond Communications.
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