Service, its paramount in watch trading, It amazes me that people look at this industry and just see dollar signs. Money is important yes, but nobody likes someone who cares about their pockets more than them. In this article I will be writing about how to upgrade your service skills so that you can end up with more money and more clients.
Without further ado, here’s “How to Care” by Nick Campanella
1. Clarify Your Mission and Stick to it
I often get questions like
“Nick, how do I sell to more people?”
The truth, or maybe my humble opinion, is that you are trying to sell anything to everybody rather than many things to some people. This is not the way to go about selling, you need a niche
Begin by understanding your business niche. What do you do best? Who needs what you do? How do you best approach these prospects? These are some questions you might want to stop and think about before you start diving in. For me, I knew I wanted to sell to the fashion industry. I want to be THE go to guy in that industry to provide luxury timepieces ro red carpet stars and celebrities.
That means a few things for me, I need to be well dressed because no one is buying a watch from a damn company called Tailored Timepieces if I’m wearing sweatpants and an undershirt, I send gifts and hand written notes to retail clients on occasion because these people have large followings and are used to be the center of attention, they want to feel you put time in especially for them. I also don’t usually touch sub 2k watches because to me, it’s not luxury. I don’t appeal to the every day man because i’m not trying to.
So, if you want to be a dealer, work volume. If you want to be working with mid level watches. Don’t spend all your capital on rolex.
Once you have figured this part out, it’s now time to think about your weekly, monthly, and yearly goals. Start off by setting results goals to measure your progress, and track them closely. I keep an index card in my wallet and read it at least once a day. If I’m not working toward that goal, I adjust.
2. Solicit Feedback From Customers
Receiving feedback from your customers is essential in order to improve your business overall. Find out ways to solicit feedback, for instance, as a trader, request telephone numbers or email addresses to put in your CRM. If you aren’t adding at least 5 people to that a week, you miss opportunities
Try to gauge HOW your clients prefer to be contacted and do reach out weekly.
Do they like receiving texts?
Are they an older or busier client base and prefer an email?
Regardless of the manner, the important thing is identifying whether your business is meeting or exceeding your customer’s expectations. Get feedback often to increase your sales by improving your products or service.
3. Respond Quickly
I spent my college years in the real estate industry and it always amazed me how many phones were off when I needed something. They are the same people who complain about not reaching sales goals while simultaneously booking a trip to Cabo. The most efficient aspect of social media is that it works fast and is easy to use, the double edge sword is people have started to lack patience in an era of “right now”
I’m going to give you a piece of advice that, if this were a dating website, would be wrong.
“Be available”
Clients don’t pay thousands of dollars on a timepiece to be responded to eventually. If you are selling luxury timepieces, make sure you give that client a luxury experience. There’s no reason to go less than 24 hours to update a client on a shipping label, quote them on price or send them options on your next purchase. Personally I shoot for three.
4. Cross-Sell at Every Turn
A great way to increase sales without the added cost of a separate marketing campaign is to make sure your sales reps are cross-selling at every turn. Cross-selling is the act of offering new products and services along with those in which the customer may have expressed an initial interest. It’s important to think ahead and not just think of where a client is on their watch journey, but where they are going to be in 3 months, 6 months, a year. So for instance, if a client purchases a Superocean Heritage 2, you may want to offer them a Tudor in 3 months because of the similar movement in the Superocean, Than 6 months later, graduate thier “Rolex Jr”, to the real thing. The more you plan ahead, the more sales you receive.
5. Give a Shit
When I load up my CRM, I don’t just have their email or favorite watch. I make sure I know their birthdays, anniversaries, significant others’ names ect. I know you may think that’s an invasion of privacy but in an era of Facebook and Linkedin you can know more about someone’s personal life in 2 minutes than ever before.
Who’s getting married and needs a watch?
Who’s husbands birthday is coming up and needs a watch?
These key factoids can help differentiate you from other traders. I also hope that you don’t just upon up your phonebook when your clients open up their wallet.
I recently had a client who lost his job due to the pandemic, he put this on facebook after mentioning how much he liked my Cartier. So, what did I do? I called him to discuss his struggles, then I sent a card. Because at the end of the day, mom was right. Treat others how you’d like to be treated and I promise you it will pay dividends in both your personal and professional life.
Thanks for reading!