AGS boosts business through sales training
Program addresses obstacles specific to selling jewelry

June 16, 2008

The online portion of the American Gem Society's new sales training program is available now. It uses a multiple-choice format to school salespeople in skills such as conviction, pictured above.

By Michelle Graff

Seattle—The American Gem Society (AGS) has partnered with a national sales training firm to establish a program customized to address the obstacles specific to selling jewelry.

Introduced during the AGS Conclave 2008 held in Seattle in April, "Custom Sales Training: Measured Results" officially launched from June 4-5 during the Las Vegas shows.

The program includes a two-day course for salespeople ($695 per person), a one-day course for managers ($595 per person) and six online courses that can be taken multiple times over the course of a year ($295 each).

Using professional sales trainers from Philadelphia-based Richardson, the program employs jewelry sales scenarios designed to teach sales staff how to deal with real-life situations they might encounter on the sales floor.

AGS Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Ruth Batson says that during the two-day course, salespeople find out what type of seller they are—charismatic, technical, killer, quasi-customer-focused or truly-customer-focused.

They also learn how to assess which type of sales strategy, or strategies, would work best with a particular customer, and how to apply those to make a sale.

Within the two-day class, sales staff are asked to role-play to learn how to overcome common customer objections.

Batson says that after the program's launch in Las Vegas, the AGS will hold sessions anywhere or anytime, provided a retailer, or a group of retailers, has 15 to 20 people signed up for the training. The online course is available immediately. From the AGS' viewpoint, the sessions will pay for themselves in one sale.

"And it will just continue after that," Batson says. "We feel we can really make a difference in our members' businesses."

Michael Greene of Wick and Greene Jewelers in Asheville, N.C., attended one of the teaser sessions on the program offered at Conclave and calls the AGS program "the very best thing our industry has going."

Greene is helping to organize a regional training program tentatively slated for the week of July 13 in Asheville, and plans to send his entire 10-person sales staff.

The training will cost in excess of $6,000, but Greene says it is worth it.

The program is "absolutely tremendous," Greene says, in addressing issues relevant in today's world, such as Internet competition and how to sell in a tough economy.

Having a strong sales staff can make or break a retailer, especially when the economy is faltering, a fact that even mega-chain Starbucks can't overlook.

In February, the Seattle-based coffee giant closed its nearly 7,100 company-operated U.S. stores for three-and-a-half hours to re-school its baristas in the art of coffee-making. Starbucks realized it needed to focus on training, and with good reason.

A 2006 study conducted by the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania showed that 24 percent of shoppers complained it took a long time for them to be waited on by sales staff, 33 percent said they couldn't find a salesperson and 25 percent reported being ignored altogether.

And don't think word won't get around if your store gives shoddy service.

The Wharton study showed that 31 percent of shoppers who experienced a problem with a retailer, be it bad customer service or something else, told at least one other person.

While Greene is fully embracing the training, other retailers are taking more of a wait-and-see approach.

Ronnie Cox of John R. Cox and Sons in Sweetwater and Abilene, Texas, says he'll send two people from each of his stores to Las Vegas for the training.

"Probably we'll start with that and see how much we get out of it," he says.

Cox says the AGS consistently has quality programs, and sales training is always needed to keep salespeople motivated and focused.

In Texas, where the economy is buoyed by the high price of oil, Cox says the biggest obstacle he faces is finding good salespeople.

"When you do find someone who has potential, that's when you need training like this," he says.

But both Alexandria Rossoff of Alexandria Rossoff Jewels and Rare Finds in Seattle, and Nick Gizzarelli Jr. of St. Petersburg, Fla.-based jewelry retailer Bruce Watters Jewelers, say they are going to pass on the AGS program.

Gizzarelli says everyone in the store has many years of experience in the jewelry industry and a good rapport with customers.

"I believe in that sales program, but I think it's for bigger stores that have a lot of new salespeople," he says.

—E-mail: michelle.graff@nationaljeweler.com

Editor's note: This story first appeared in the May 16, 2008, edition of National Jeweler.