US jewellery gurus to visit Australia

Nationwide Jewellers has secured high profile US sales expert Shane Decker to present at next year’s International Jewellery Fair while David Geller will be the main speaker at the Nationwide annual conference. 

Decker was a hit at last year’s Sydney trade fair, where he presented his four-hour ‘Diamond Sales Seminar.’

Nationwide Jewellers managing director Colin Pocklington said he had just concluded negotiations with Decker to attend the 2013 Sydney fair after the success of his previous visit.

“We had wanted Shane to return this year, and we tried to get him here but he was unable to visit Australia for personal reasons, but we have now finalised the tour for 2013. Last year we had a packed room with over 150 people so I’d expect as many again, if not more,” Pocklington said,

Decker will conduct an extensive, three-hour diamond jewellery seminar and sales training course on the Saturday afternoon before the fair as well as present four, 45-minute seminars on the Sunday. 

“The sessions will be different to last year’s and will follow-on from the initial training begun in 2011 which was enormously successful,” he added. 

Pocklington said that many members saw immediate results especially in the areas of selling diamonds and diamond jewellery, and he believes that with the slowdown of the bead trend it’s even more important that independent jewellers get back to concentrating on diamond jewellery sales.

“The thing with Shane is he not only offers motivational training, he actually gives you specific selling examples to use in the sales process. Within a week of his seminars last year I had members telling me how they’d put various techniques into affect and couldn’t believe the results. I remember one member saying, ‘I used Shane’s sales techniques and I quickly sold a $5,000 diamond ring.’”

Margaret Fay, owner Fay’s Jewellers in Devonport Tasmania, agreed that Decker’s seminars were very educational. “He was riveting. We came back [to Tasmania] and put a number of things into practice straight away,” Fay said. “The main thing we took onboard was reviewing our attitude towards diamond sales. He [Decker] said that not everyone who enters your store will be looking to buy a 1-carat diamond but you should presume they might be and that is one of the things that has made a significant difference.” 

Fay said the sales training was very worthwhile and she learned how to use another of his “little gems” which was being aware of the importance of the reason for the customer’s purchase.    

“The customer should be reassured that this is the day he/she is buying a gift that will be remembered as a celebration/token of 40 years of marriage or any other memorable occasion of family history,” Fay said adding, “I even sold a 'divorce' ring under the same guise - slightly different sentiments, but it was still a memorable occasion for my customer. She also invited me to her party.”

During his first visit to Australia Decker was asked about the difference between the Australian and US markets. He noted that there was a lack of weekly sales meetings in Australian jewellery stores and was quick to point out that “sales people in the US have sales goals to hit every month and that if they didn’t hit them, they would get terminated.”

“They make more money in the US but their sales people write $500,000 to $1 million a year by themselves. That’s more than some stores do [in annual turnover] down here,” Decker said.

In addition to Decker’s second visit to Australia, Pockington has also announced another US expert to visit Australia. David Geller will be the lead speaker at Nationwide’s annual conference, which will be held on the Gold Coast next May. 

Geller is held in high regard in the US, where he advises independent jewellery stores on how to increase sales of custom-designed jewellery and how to increase their repair business. He also consults on running and pricing a profitable store and setting up point of sale programs. 

Pocklington said that one of Geller’s pet topics is how to clear old stock. “We will have him present on a number of topics including, ‘Why inventory might not be a money making investment afterall’ and ’12 ways to get rid of old stock’. His expertise is different to Shane Decker’s and David will cover many other aspects of jewellery store management.”