Get three hot tips that are key to serving your clients best.

Oh, no. You’re locked out of your house!

Maybe not now, but it’s happened to most of us. Do you remember that moment? You get to your door. You reach for your keys, but they’re not there. You’re confused. You pat yourself down, checking pockets and pouches, to no avail. It’s an awful feeling. The sudden, disappointing realization that you don’t have access to your own home. It’s a feeling you probably want to avoid in the future.

How Does That Relate to Sales?
When a sales professional is faced with questions they aren’t equipped to answer, it’s like standing outside your own home with no way to get in. We see this all the time—new jewelry professionals who have surface knowledge of the basics but don’t communicate at an expert level—so the client walks away. That brings us to our first secret.

Secret #1: You Already KNOW What You Don’t Know
If you’re a pro you already realize that your sales staff needs regular training. Sure, they’re acquainted with carat weight, but many can’t articulate why differences exist in both physical size (due to shape or depth) and visual size appearance (due to light performance). Sure, they understand the color scale, but they don’t engage customers with expert information, like how D–Z color is graded with the diamond viewed upside down. Sure, they know cut grade terms but struggle to explain, in clear context, what terms such as excellent, ideal, and super-ideal really imply in the big picture.

More and more, today’s consumers are turning to the internet for information. There is a lot of noise online, and they rely on jewelry professionals to cut through the static and explain things in a way that makes sense. Doing that wins trust. Doing that wins sales.

Good news: Consumers prefer to buy over the counter, not online. But they also want to buy from someone they believe is a true expert. To that end, there’s a second secret that’s even more important than the first…

Secret #2: You DON’T KNOW What You Don’t Know
It may sound crazy, but it’s a luxury to know when you’re locked out of your house. Why? Because you’re motivated to corrective action! Your blind spot is not knowing what you don’t know. In the jewelry sector, that involves a number of quickly evolving areas. In the past months there have been major evolutions in the lab-grown diamond industry. Synthetics and simulants. Growth methods. Treatments. False claims. There’s a lot of “cowboy marketing” happening. Some of what’s being promoted is true. Some is patently not. Your staff may be able to thoroughly explain acronyms like HPHT, CVD, IIa and IIb. But what about PGT, AG, SCS-007, and other current topics? Do they know about those things?

Natural Diamond Benefits
Are you familiar with the incredible positive upstream developments in the natural diamond industry over the last half century—from environmental rehabilitation to sourcing and tracking initiatives to philanthropic actions, which benefit millions of indigenous people upstream in the diamond value chain? This information is critical for sellers of natural diamonds.

Secret #3: Use IGI eLearning to Train Your Staff
Breaking news! IGI has developed groundbreaking new e-learning modules, offered on a unique platform that permits interaction between the user and interface, creating a path for content reinforcement and verification of understanding. Courses can be taken on the user’s schedule and are available across multiple devices.

Improve your staff’s diamond, gemstone, and jewelry knowledge, from introductory 4Cs training to comprehensive education on lab-grown diamonds to timely lessons covering the vital benefits the natural diamond industry brings to millions of indigenous people upstream in the value chain. IGI has conducted ongoing seminars, webinars, and eLearning courses for jewelry professionals, trade organizations, and jewelers in several sectors, including leading luxury brands. We invite you to take advantage of this convenient effective training.

“There’s a lot happening in our industry right now” says IGI North American president, Avi Levy. “Those who know the latest developments are going to serve their clients best.”

Contact us for more information and sell more by “e-Learning” these secrets today!