Disqus - Latest Comments for jimackerman

Re: Should You Charge for Consultations? More Jewelers Are Saying Yes

jimackerman — Thu, 21 May 2026 11:42:21 -0000

I have literally been arguing this case for DECADES… Your time is worth something. If you don't value it, neither will the customer. You have real expertise they don't have and would have trouble finding elsewhere. Charge for your time and knowledge! If people elect to buy, you can credit your consultation to their purchase. If they don't buy, you've been compensated for your time investment, and they received value for their money.

A bigger issue, though, is making sure they don't walk out without buying in the first place. To fix the "I'll be back" problem do these 3 things… 1)Start your conversation with a guest by explaining what makes you different and better than the competition. Do this BEFORE putting pressure on them about what they want to buy. 2)Set clear expectations for their visit and get them to commit to those expectations, including your charges if a consultation is rendered. 3)Assess the buyer's "RISK" in making the buying decision. In other words, what are they trying to accomplish with the purchase and how important is it that they get it right. Those 3 things will increase closing rates, lower length of sales encounters and increase average transaction. (Reference the YES POINT Jewelry Selling System at JEMSInstitute.org)

Re: Shreve & Co. to Close SF Jewelry Store After 172 Years in Business and Open Flagship in Palo Alto

jimackerman — Fri, 17 May 2024 09:00:39 -0000

Conspicuously absent from this story is the reason why. Why close the SF store to open one in Palo Alto? Why not simply open a 2nd store in the new location? Could it be that the situation in SF simply makes it unwise, if not impossible, to stay open in SF? This seems to be a crucial element of the story that I wish the Instore staff journalists would have addressed. Am I the only one?

Re: These 10 People Are Dead Set on Changing the Jewelry Industry for the Better

jimackerman — Thu, 09 May 2024 08:41:22 -0000

An outstanding group to which I might also add Hadley Perry of Perry's Diamonds & Estate Jewelry in Charlotte NC. She is a remarkable contributor to the industry and her community.

Re: How to Create Less Pain and More Gain in Your Marketing

jimackerman — Mon, 06 May 2024 08:50:08 -0000

Some profound truths in what Andrea says here, particularly related to amplifying buyer "pain" and getting to their emotional reasons to buy. This is critical when dealing with individual buyers in the store. We have an entire sales training called YES POINT™ that focuses on this, simplifying the sales process and instantly elevating sales rates, unit of sale, customer satisfaction and floor jeweler success. Accomplishing the same things in your advertising is difficult and entails surprising, counter-intuitive approaches, perhaps the most difficult to swallow for jewelers is that longer ads WORK better than shorter ones. If you'd like to hear more about either YES POINT training or counter-intuitive marketing, shoot me an email: mail@ascendmarketing.com

Re: Only Half of Surveyed INSTORE Readers Still Use Direct Mail

jimackerman — Thu, 02 May 2024 09:19:06 -0000

This is insanity and sad. Our experience shows that, despite increasing postage costs, direct mail continues to deliver more customers through the door at a lower cost of acquisition for each of those customers, than almost any other medium. It CLOBBERS social media. It rivals email. It buries radio, tv, other print. Of course it must be done correctly and most jewelers do not do it correctly. But when done right it continues to be the single best source of large volumes of customers than any other way to advertise. Doing it right, by the way, means going directly counterintuitive to what you may think. If you're curious about how to make it work, shoot me an email and I'll explain it to you. mail@ascendmarketing.com.

Re: 4 Social Media Strategies That Can Build Your Audience and Your Credibility

jimackerman — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 08:47:06 -0000

My question for Emmanuel is, how many independent jewelers have time to do these things? And following up on David Brown's point from yesterday, what is the opportunity cost of doing them? While there may be some level of branding and engagement benefit, what other marketing and/or PR activities might you invest your time and resources in, that could yield better short and long-term results. While I like the idea of live jewelry styling sessions in particular, what is the cost of all this social media activity and how do you measure your ROI? I have jewelers who have had great success actually selling through digital media, with weekly specials and live video sales. Hauls of $10K a month are not particularly uncommon. They have avid followings and their efforts are instantly profitable. If you have time, personnel and money to do these other things, you're in a better position than most jewelers I know. If not, with due respect, I recommend more direct response oriented digital tactics.

Re: Why “Opportunity Cost” Should Be a Critical Factor in Every Decision You Make

jimackerman — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 08:43:10 -0000

Of course David is right about this. The trick is determining what those opportunity costs are. The good news is, some things can be absolutely tested and other can be anticipated by looking at historic or industry data. Pricing, for example is testable and therefore optimizable. Time allocation can be categorized and you can look at examples from other jewelers. For instance, store owners who allocate more of their time to sales training and marketing and offload much of their other duties to trusted lieutenants often grow their enterprises faster and bigger. Tracking the results of ad spend is another way to make sure you're optimizing your investment. For example, we've tracked a variety of media for generating ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) and find that, amazingly, Facebook and Instagram DO NOT provide as hight a ROAS as direct mail, email, SMS and a half-dozen other promotional alternatives. Therefore, to David's point, any ad dollars allocated to FB and IG may be ROBBING you of the chance to get more business, by investing those same dollars into more effective media. We talk a lot about these things at JEMSInstitute.org.

Re: How to Make the Most of Your Bridal Season Sales Opportunities

jimackerman — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 14:15:04 -0000

Shane is right about everything, of course. I wonder, however if there is a simpler way to get to EVERYTHING he wants us to do. I suspect there is, and we've got it in YES POINT Selling. Boil it down to just 5 simple questions.

Re: Soothsayer David Geller Predicts 2022 for Retail Jewelers

jimackerman — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 08:10:59 -0000

Excellent insights as always from David. One thing he didn't mention (but may be implied by his "next 6 months" thought) is inflation. If it increases dramatically – or even just a little – it could throw a monkey wrench in the works. People may be forced to shift their spending to essentials, which could hurt discretionary spending on things like jewelry. The amplitude of the inflation curve could force smaller jewelry purchases for some; eliminate them altogether for others. Keep an eye on this and plan accordingly.

Re: Plumb Club Research Reinforces Value of Digital Media to Jewelry Industry

jimackerman — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 13:06:52 -0000

Intriguing research. But a word of warning: There are a lot of nuances left for interpretation here. 1) Consumers lie, but sales numbers do not. My guess is the numbers are substantially inflated. That's not to say social media is not important. It is to say one should be careful about overestimating its importance to the point of diminishing use of other media. 2) In the article it was proffered that social media is not for selling. Who says, and why not? If you want to approximate the 59% number mentioned in the piece, use it to sell directly. 3) Other research confirms that consumers are most comfortable buying lower-ticket items via social media. Sot that's what you should sell there. These are just my top 3 thoughts. There are other implications. Love to hear your thoughts.

Re: Here’s Why You Should Hire A Secret Shopper To Shop Your Own Store

jimackerman — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 10:17:16 -0000

We regularly "mystery shop" both our clients and their competitors. Some of the horror stories will make your skin crawl! From a customer service perspective, most encounters are mediocre at best. From a SALES perspective most are nothing short of TERRIBLE! We shopped 8 stores of a 14 store chain and not one qualified as a good experience. We spoon-fed salespeople opportunities to show correct products and close business. NONE of them did. The shortcomings ranged from not knowing how to effectively greet people at the door to claiming they had no merchandise to fulfill the customer need. Appalling! Here are just some of the weaknesses we routinely encounter

1. No greeting or late greeting
2. Greetings that immediately raise customer defenses (Can I help you?)
3. Complete failure to assess customer wants, needs, and RISK
4. Showing product too quickly, before establishing rapport or assessing the customer's situation
5. Showing completely inappropriate products
6. Opting to show lower priced products even when the customer expressly wants more
7. Selling on price rather than value
8. Failure to close

Sadly, these are the NORM we discover across our mystery shopping escapades. It's true in large stores and small, in cities and country. It appears most jewelry salespeople prefer to be order takers and simply "fall" into whatever business they get.

Fortunately, we've been able to correct most of these problems, and others, for our clients, as we've trained them using our YES POINT selling system. We've seen remarkable turnarounds in stunningly short timeframes. The result is – most importantly – happier clients. But our clients' stores experience higher closing rates and bigger tickets, leading to greater sales, revenue and profits. Most gratifying!

Re: Retailers Want Help Fighting Bad Customer Behavior

jimackerman — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 10:29:59 -0000

While I agree there is no excuse for bad customer behavior, there is less excuse for bad employee behavior. Our organization has conducted mystery shopping excursions to jewelry stores in particular, specifically to evaluate the sales processes at these and competing stores. In general the sales processes leave very much to be desired indeed, but in some cases we have seen abhorrent behavior on the part of staff, particularly related to masking. For example, as a well-dressed man enters the store – a big store, by the way – Upon entering the store, the man behind counter looks up from working with a customer and brusquely says, "Put on your mask, sir!" With just a moment's hesitation on our shopper's part he says again, "PUT ON YOUR MASK!" (all this in the middle of his interaction with the customer standing at the counter, with him. Sadly the encounter degrades from there and even more sadly this kind of behavior is fairly common at this point. Surely by now, there is no excuse for stores not to have articulated specific policies regarding masking procedures and how to deal with customers regarding them, in such a way that customers do not feel oppressed and stores don't offend those customers, risking sending them away forever. A little scripting; a little training can go a long way toward correcting bad staff behavior. And I suspect, as they correct that, most bad customer behavior will also disapper.

Re: 3 Tips To Becoming The Most Resilient Jewelry Store Owner You Know

jimackerman — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 07:50:30 -0000

I particularly like Scott's insight on TIME BOUNDARIES. You're supposed to own your business, not the other way around. You should be "engineering" it so you don't have to be there all the time, or any of the time, for that matter. Realistically, for most of us, we DO have to be there much of the time, but that doesn't mean 10 -12 hours a day, 7 days a week. I suggest setting aside 1-2 hours a DAY for marketing and making those hours sacred. I suggest making them during the regular work day, with staff instructed not to disturb you for any reason during that regular time each day. Do that and watch sales soar, giving you the ability to hire competent, trusted lieutenants who can manage the operational aspects of the business, giving you the chance to enjoy your life.

Re: On Data: All About Valentine’s Day Jewelry Sales

jimackerman — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 13:44:05 -0000

Indeed Sherry. Exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. A great 2021 to you as well.

Re: On Data: All About Valentine’s Day Jewelry Sales

jimackerman — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 11:10:57 -0000

I love stories like this for 2 reasons. #1, it shows that our industry is doing well currently. #2, whenever you talk averages, there are some that perform above the average and some below. What is gratifying to me is the performance of our clients. I'm talking about 34% to 100%+ performances for the same 14-day period of February. Congrats to our assertive, smart-marketing clients for your performance in lifting the stats for the entire industry. I am so proud of you!

Re: January Retail Sales Soared on Stimulus Funds and Holiday Momentum

jimackerman — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 10:41:44 -0000

So… if your sales were up less than these averages, you can take that as a loss. If more, take it as a win. For example, our clients are experiencing increases upwards of 30%+. That's because they're not just sitting on their thumbs allowing the natural flow of the economy to dictate their success, but they are assertively marketing, which is multiplying the results they get from that natural flow of the economy.

Re: When Marketing, Be Clear Who You Want To Reach And What You Want To Sell

jimackerman — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 12:03:24 -0000

Andrea's points about being clear on your targets are spot on. And there's more to it than that. Driving people to a website that is eCommerce enabled, but not designed specifically to SELL is also a mistake, whether driven by PPC or organic search. Most jewelers websites are NOT designed to sell. Drive specifically-targeted prospects to LANDING PAGES, instead of your generic website, and make it clear and plain they are there to buy what you offered in your PPC ads. You may also need a follow-up process or FUNNEL to cultivate leads and convert them over time. When you put these systems in place, bigger ticket items driven to you by PPC can actually work.

Re: 7 Statistics That Explain Why Your Business Could Fail

jimackerman — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 09:24:19 -0000

David's insights here are valuable, as always. His conclusion is particularly on point… Prevention is better than cure. A couple of additional points… It's true that there can be many problems that cause cash flow shortages, but most of them CAN be solved by improving sales. The point about failure to bring something new to the market is also crucial. This is where INNOVATION comes in. As a jeweler, you may think you're carrying the same basic products as everybody else. If you can't differentiate by product, invent a way to provide a distinctively better service or delivery. This also speaks to David's point about business model. And of course, poor marketing – what you'd expect me to comment on – has an impact on cash flow, competition, and business model. I'd argue that because of that, poor marketing makes a greater contribution to business failure than indicated. Market and SELL your way out of most of your business problems.

Re: Online Marketing That Jewelers Should (and Shouldn’t) Do In-House

jimackerman — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 09:16:46 -0000

Good piece from Charles. All points relevant and worthwhile and a good breakdown of what you should be doing vs. what an agency can and should do. I'd only add that you MUST make OFFERS in MOST (not all) of your marketing efforts. Otherwise, your chances of converting are limited. Most jewelers are frustrated with the time and dollar investment in digital media, with little or no measurable – or even perceptible ROI. That's because so little of digital marketing includes a specific offer and CALL TO ACTION. Our clients, who have instituted the DIRECT RESPONSE approach to their digital marketing are finding those efforts are paying off much better.

Re: Online Jewelry Sales Grew 45% During Holiday Season, According to Study

jimackerman — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 11:00:29 -0000

So how do you evaluate your own performance in view of this study? If your overall sales were down less than 4.3%, consider it a win. If your sales were up for the period, consider it a big win. If your online or eCommerce sales were up less than 44.6%, that's not a win. If they were up more than 49%, it's a major win.

BUT a HUGE caveat… If you were previously selling $2,000 a month online, and during this period, you sold $3,000, that's a 50% increase, but still not very significant. And that kind of scenario is the MOST common one for jewelers. This is NOT an endorsement of putting the bulk of your marketing efforts into online sales.

On the other hand, we have clients who have unlocked the code to consistently doing thousands of dollars in a single hour online. Key word… CONSISTENTLY! Let me know if you'd like to know more.

Re: 2 Words Every Salesperson Should Be Using ... And 8 Other Business-Building Tips

jimackerman — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 08:37:56 -0000

What happened to the 2 words. Read the entire piece and didn't see them. I think they should be
"I recommend."

Re: Why Jewelry Retailers Should Fall in Love With Valentine’s Day

jimackerman — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 08:32:12 -0000

Amen Sista!

Re: How To React When Another Jeweler’s Employees Visit Your Store, Plus More of Your Questions Answered

jimackerman — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 08:46:45 -0000

Few jewelers REALLY know how their pricing stacks up against the competition. I ask them regularly, where their pricing sits compared to their competitors, on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the cheapest in town and 10 the most expensive. Most say 7. When I ask them if they mystery shop the competition, they invariably say no. I recommend annual mystery shopping of your biggest competitors to find out where you stand on price, selection and service. You don't have to send in employees. This is important enough to even hire a professional mystery shopper. You should expect to BE mystery shopped as well. As pointed out in this piece, gathering market intelligence is part of good business. The points about setting limits are valid.

Re: Hold 'Em test

jimackerman — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 10:52:48 -0000

Excellent. And there is something more you can do. Something that will attract customers as well as the right kinds of employees who will stay longer, and often work for a little less. That is, have a Unique Purchase Appeal. This is a marketing mission statement (and the brand characteristics that enable you to credibly make that statement) that sets you apart from the competition in a distinctive way. This gives your team a sense a of "team"; a sense of mission; that they are not just in a job, but they are carrying out something of consequence. The idea is that everyone wants to be part of something larger than themselves. Once you definitively articulate that, people will be drawn to your mission and want to stay.

Re: Want People To Stop Ignoring Your Ads? Be Relevant

jimackerman — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 12:15:47 -0000

True. And also consider who your audience is NOT. This may, in fact, be easier than figuring out who your audience IS. If you eliminate all the "is nots," what you'll be left with is the "IS." And remember this, you cannot be relevant to anyone who is NOT in the market at this time, but someone who is not in the market today, may be tomorrow, or next month, or next year. Which means, once you find ads that work, they'll continue to work, sometimes for years, because people come in and out of the market based on timing.