Gaining your customers trust

If you have been to seminars about how to gain your customer’s trust this is what you may have heard: “You should have prices shown on all jewellery on display.  Show the diamond grade on all price tags and tell them the grade when quoting the price. if it is a family store show pictures of your family. Display your GIA certificate and tell them the importance of the ‘4 Cs’. Tell them about your warranty and I am sure you could add a few.”
These have nothing to do with gaining trust.What they do is to let your salespeople show their ego. If there is one thing that turns your customers and friends off is showing your ego.  If you don’t think so then ask your wife. Women have perception and they see through this right away. So how do you gain a customer’s trust? Sell with your eyes, smile and establish a relationship by introducing yourself. Let’s take them one step at a time.

Sealing With Your Eyes – You may have all the right words but, if you are talking to a piece of jewellery while you are showing it instead of to the customer’s eyes, you are implying that you are not to be trusted. If you show discipline and do not look at the diamond ring, but look at your customer’s eyes, with a smile while you are romancing the jewellery it means you can be trusted.

When I point this out to salespeople they are astonished, especially when I ask them, “How can customers trust you when you look away from them when you quote a price?  Right away, this implies the price can be negotiated. Hold your eyes on the customer’s while quoting the price or on their forehead if they are looking down and remember, don’t end the sentence on the price. “This diamond is $1,500.00 and just look at the brilliance.”

Your smile – this and your enthusiasm are your most powerful tools in selling. I always run this experiment in my seminars. I scan my students and slowly talk to each for about four  seconds with a big smile and they in turn always smile right back. Then I do the same without a smile and they all tell me to stop. Try it yourself and you will get the same reaction.

It is easy to talk to your customer’s eyes when smiling because they will smile back and then you want to keep smiling. You don’t have to remind yourself to look at their eyes. If you are smiling, you will automatically do it. This is why I have observed in my forty years of training, salespeople who have a smile and enthusiasm outsell others who have more experience.  This is why I advise all jewellers to, hire by the smile, experience is secondary.

Introducing yourself – ask yourself this question, “How can I maintain a customer’s trust by selling him the most emotional product in the world and not tell him who I am and not care who he is? I seldom see salespeople introduce themselves in any jewellery store, in the UK, US and all the other countries I have trained. This is one of the first things my father taught me. I saw him smiling first at his customer’s eyes and to continue to do so while introducing himself before pausing. The customer did the same and my father replied using his name and then a relationship was established.

I couldn’t believe it because it seemed so natural. I did this, but only using my first name. He corrected me and said for me to be proud of my family name. I thought about it and he was right. By using my first  name I sounded like a waiter. I wondered why my father had such a large following. He was proud of his name and introduced himself to every customer. I did too, and before I knew it I had a following. Your salespeople will too if you give them the opportunity by taking the time to train them.

My father took the time and this is how I sounded and with a smile in my voice, “There is something I want to show that I believe is what you are looking for, by the way my name is Leonard Zell.” I held my eye on his and immediately he said, “My name is Bob Larson. Nice to meet you Leonard.  Mr. Larson, it’s nice meeting you too.” To remember his name I made sure I repeated it soon, within a couple of sentences, and then occasionally, but not too often, during the sale.

If I forgot his name it would be apparent because I would stop using it which implies introducing myself was insincere. This technique takes time to learn and the best way is to rehearse it is by roleplaying and to record it and then play it back on your phone. See my article in the July issue, “Are You Training Your Salespeople?” Remember there is only one way to increase your sales, without advertising and promotions, training your salespeople.

By Leonard Zell. This article first appeared in the August 2018 issue of Jewellery Focus