Amazon is coming Part II

And they never seem to stop. They just announced a $5 billion investment in a second headquarters in the US and to hire 50,000 people to high paying jobs. No other company has ever grown this fast. It is only a matter of time before they increase their selection of diamond jewellery in their UK site, just like they did in the US. To give you a good idea of what is coming, go to the US web site, www.amazon.com and enter, ‘diamond wedding sets’. Click on any item and immediately you will see a selection of seven more wedding sets, yet most salespeople seldom show a bridal couple a wedding set and the man’s wedding ring. Think about it. Wedding rings are compulsory for the bride and groom to buy. How can your salespeople not show them? They are acting like more of a robot then Amazon. I wrote about this in my last three articles on Selling to the Bride and Groom. This is an add-on sale and add-on sales are one of the most neglected sales techniques in retail jewellery. The national averages in the US are only 5% of sales and in the UK many of my clients have told me theirs are not even that much. Add-on sales are what drives online sales and could drive the sales in your store if you take the time to train your salespeople. To compete with Amazon or any online jeweller by discounting is not the answer, but closing more sales with add-ons is. In other words, sell more to the customers you have. Think of the sales you are missing when a salesperson sells a diamond dinner ring, but never showed a pair of diamond earrings. Amazon says its customers almost always buys more than one item and they are only a robot. Those extra sales are what fuels Amazon’s sales. They can fuel yours too. Their diamond quality is lower then most of you jewellers would stock, but I am sure that in time customers can select the size and quality of the center diamond. Why wait? Act now and go for more add-on sales. There are several reasons salespeople neglect this technique, “It’s too pushy”, “I could lose the first sale,” and “It’s too awkward after closing the first sale.” The answer is not to close the first sale, but when a customer commits, then you can show them the add-on, but avoid asking a question if they would like to see it. At my seminars I ask salespeople, “When you have closed an add-on sale how were your sales the rest of the day?” Without exception, they say they made more sales that day. Add-ons are confidence builder. Customers are in a greater mood to buy after committing to the first piece of jewellery, but are your salespeople in the mood to sell? Do they have that outgoing personality and smile when greeting and talking to their customers? I urge you jewellers to take three or four days of your sales and see how many multiple sales were made, total the amount and divide it by the amount of sales over the same period. This will give you the percentage of add-on sales and a wake up call that your salespeople need additional training. Just as important, I recommend either you or your manager be on the sales floor ready to assist when you see one a salesperson closing a sale without showing an add-on. The best way to get your salespeople motivated is to reward them on their individual achievement with a percentage commission on each sale. Make sure it is not tied into your store’s or any type of sales quota. They will be eager to learn if it is a meaningful commission. If you want to know how much commission, put yourself in their place and ask yourself what amount to you would be meaningful? Here is a Zelling tip. Add an extra commission on their add-on sales and you will see that extra effort to close more add-ons. You have not only increased your sales, but you will have happy salespeople competing against Amazon.