IHaving spent thousands of hours with jewelry storeowners and salespeople during the past 25 years, I have noticed that even during difficult times there are always those that are successful. In fact, there are pockets of prosperity all across the country. How can this be? And what are they doing that most stores aren’t?

In this article I will go beyond the “X Factor,” or the traits and personalities of successful people, which was a topic in one of my previous articles.  Instead, I will reveal how you can be one of the successful stores by taking the following three easy steps.

1. Be a team player:  Decide right now to bring value to your company. This may mean turning over a sale to someone else when you feel the chemistry and sale will better suite your customer.  Or cleaning and polishing a ring to support a teammate.  The bottom line is making each other look great, and your teammates will admire and respect you even more.  The most successful stores in the country work in harmony in order to help the store thrive. Just like a beehive working together for one cause; to serve the queen bee!  The queen bee in this case is your jewelry store. Now is the time to become a valuable team player while focusing on what value you can bring to your organization and co-workers. 
2. Ask your teammates what you can do for them:  Try an experiment today – ask a fellow salesperson if there is anything you can do for them to help with their sales today. When you ask a question like this you might get the “what’s in it for you” look on their face.  Simply state, “We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but if we help each other focus on our strengths, our passion and compatibility will skyrocket.  Then the store does great, the team feels more confident, and now you have lots and lots of honey!
3. If you are stressed over your performance or business, focus on helping someone else:  I have found the easiest way to become positive is focusing on helping others succeed. This will instantly put you back in action mode instead of reaction mode.  You will be amazed at how well this works.  The two byproducts of this are an added bonus.  First, you will “get out of your own way” and become more focused and productive.  Second, other team members within your company will see you as a team player and as being genuine. This is contagious and you will receive more positive energy in return! Once again the beehive is a wonderful example.  The collective efforts of worker bees, the queen, and all the other characters don’t care about the politics of whom, or how. They only know to make honey.  Decide right now that you will bring value to your company, and it will return to you over and over again.

 

I have told you the three steps you can take today to become one those “pockets of prosperity.” By being a team player and supporting each other in sales, by asking your teammates what you can do to better support them, and by taking a stressful moment that you may be having and turning it into helping others are the three greatest ways to have an amazing year.

Ivan Levi is a sales trainer and president of Ivan Alan Solutions™, a Chicago based company that understands the independent jeweler’s subtleties that puts them in a league of their own.  Ivan can be reached at 800-235-1918.