June 2008
AGS boosts business through sales training
AGS boosts business through sales training
Program addresses obstacles specified to selling jewelry
June 16, 2008
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| The online portion of the American Gem Society’s new sales training program is available at that time. It uses a multiple-choice format to school salespeople in skills such as conviction, pictured above. |
By Michelle Graff
Seattle—The American Gem Society (AGS) has partnered with a national sales training firm to establish a program customized to address the obstacles specific to selling jewelry.
Introduced during the AGS Conclave 2008 held in Seattle in April, “Custom Sales Training: Measured Results” officially launched from June 4-5 during the Las Vegas shows.
The program includes a two-day course in the place of salespeople ($695 per person), a one-day course for managers ($595 per somebody) and six online courses that can exist taken multiple times over the course of a year ($295 each).
Using professional sales trainers from Philadelphia-based Richardson, the program employs jewelry sales scenarios designed to teach sales staff how to deal with real-life situations they might encounter on the sales floor.
AGS Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Ruth Batson says that during the two-day course, salespeople find out that which type of seller they are—charismatic, technical, killer, quasi-customer-focused or truly-customer-focused.
They also learn how to assess which type of sales strategy, or strategies, would work best with a particular customer, and in what plight to put those to make a sale.
Within the two-day class, sales staff are asked to role-play to be informed of for what cause to overcome common customer objections.
Batson says that after the program’s launch in Las Vegas, the AGS will hold sessions anywhere or anytime, provided a retailer, or a group of retailers, has 15 to 20 people signed up for the training. The online course is available immediately. From the AGS’ viewpoint, the sessions will pay for themselves in one sale.
“And it will just continue later than that,” Batson says. “We feel we can really make a difference in our members’ businesses.”
Michael Greene of Wick and Greene Jewelers in Asheville, N.C., attended one of the teaser sessions on the program offered at Conclave and calls the AGS program “the very best transaction our industry has going.”
Greene is helping to organize a regional training program tentatively slated for the week of July 13 in Asheville, and plans to send his entire 10-person sales staff.
The training will cost in excess of $6,000, but Greene says it is worth it.
The program is “absolutely tremendous,” Greene says, in addressing issues relevant in today’s world, such as Internet rivalry and how to sell in a tough economy.
Having a strong sales staff can make or break a retailer, especially when the economy is faltering, a fact that even mega-chain Starbucks can’t overlook.
In February, the Seattle-based coffee giant closed its nearly 7,100 company-operated U.S. stores for three-and-a-half hours to re-school its baristas in the art of coffee-making. Starbucks realized it needed to focus on training, and with good reason.
A 2006 study conducted by the Wharton School of employment at the University of Pennsylvania showed that 24 percent of shoppers complained it took a long time for them to be waited upon by sales staff, 33 percent said they couldn’t find a salesperson and 25 percent reported being ignored altogether.
And don’t think word won’t get around if your set by gives shoddy service.
The Wharton do one’s best showed that 31 percent of shoppers who experienced a problem with a retailer, be it bad customer service or something else, told at least one other person.
While Greene is abundantly embracing the training, other retailers are taking more of a wait-and-see approach.
Ronnie Cox of John R. Cox and Sons in Sweetwater and Abilene, Texas, says he’ll send two people from each of his stores to Las Vegas for the training.
“Probably we’ll start with that and see how much we get out of it,” he says.
Cox says the AGS consistently has quality programs, and sales training is always needed to keep salespeople motivated and focused.
In Texas, where the economy is buoyed by the high price of oil, Cox says the biggest obstacle he faces is finding good salespeople.
“When you do find someone who has potential, that’s when you need training parallel this,” he says.
But both Alexandria Rossoff of Alexandria Rossoff Jewels and Rare Finds in Seattle, and Nick Gizzarelli Jr. of St. Petersburg, Fla.-based jewelry retailer Bruce Watters Jewelers, say they are going to pass on the AGS program.
Gizzarelli says everyone in the store has many years of experience in the jewelry industry and a good rapport with customers.
“I believe in that sales program, but I think it’s for bigger stores that have a lot of new salespeople,” he says.
—E-mail: michelle.graff@nationaljeweler.com
Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the May 16, 2008, edition of National Jeweler.
Whitehall in default, weighing options
Whitehall in default, weighing options
June 17, 2008
By Michelle Graff
Washington, D.C.—Amid default notices from two suppliers and liquidity issues, Whitehall Jewelers Holdings Inc. is “considering various financing options and may seek protection under the federal bankrupty code,” according to a shape filed on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C.
“Based steady the company’s cash on hand as well as current and anticipated cash flow from operations, the current borrowing availability under the senior credit agreement is not adequate to meet the company’s working capital and capital expenditure needs beyond the end of June 2008,” said an 8-K form filed on June 16. “Therefore the company needs additional financing in the near term to fund its working capital and capital expenditure indispensably. The company is actively considering various financing options and may seek protection under the federal bankruptcy code.”
According to an 8-K form filed on June 16, Fabrikant Receivables LLC served Whitehall with a default notice for not paying principal or interest on a $3.1 million promissory note and $1.56 million in trade debt (before positive disputed offsets).
According to the filing, if Whitehall doesn’t pay within 10 days of the June 11 notice, then Fabrikant can declare the note “due and payable upon demand.”
In addition, on June 11, Rosy Blue Inc. served Whitehall with a default notice for a $2.07 million promissory note owed to Rosy Blue.
The filing states that Whitehall failed to pay invoices totaling more than $81,000 due Rosy Blue in late May and early June.
Overall, the SEC filing states that as of June 13, Whitehall owes a total of about $13.5 million in trade debt in the form of promissory notes owned to other inventory suppliers.
As of April 11, Chicago-based Whitehall operates 375 retail jewelry stores under the brands Whitehall Jewelers and Lundstrom Jewelers.
Earlier this year, Whitehall purchased 78 supplies in 17 states from bankrupt Friedman’s for $14.3 million.
The Jewelry Channel going off-air
The Jewelry Channel going off-air
June 18, 2008
By Michelle Graff
Austin, Texas—In yet another sign of tough economic times, a Texas-based jewelry television network announced it will cease operations in early August.
In a letter to the Texas Workforce Commission obtained by National Jeweler, Austin, Texas-based The Jewelry Channel Inc. stated that, “We plan to shut the company down permanently and turn out the employment of our entire workforce in 60 days,” around Aug. 4.
The Jewelry Channel employs about 106 people, according to the letter, which was signed by Jewelry Channel President Sri Burugapalli.
According to the Austin Business Journal, The Jewelry Channel, a 24/7 nationally broadcast direct-sales channel, launched on April 18, 2007.
Jaipur, India-based jewelry manufacturer VGL Group owns The Jewelry Channel, and the on-air retailer was slated to market and sell the company’s products, according to the Journal.
The Jewelry Channel’s Web site states, “The Jewelry Channel USA brings you the best-quality jewelry at the most competitive prices. We can do this because we’re part of one of the largest jewelers in the earth with workshops in India, Thailand and China.”
When it went on-air in 2007, the Journal reported that VGL had high hopes for the reticulated, aiming for it to employ about 700 people by 2012.
At the parturition the channel launched, VGL Senior Vice President Manoj Shrimali told the Journal his company chose Austin because it wanted to establish a U.S. channel in the Central Time Zone and because Austin was business kind and had an educated workforce.
“Everyone in the U.S. wants to move to Austin,” he told the Journal. “Everything that our channel is with reference to we can find here.”
Prior to starting The Jewelry Channel, VGL launched two other jewelry television networks in 2006, in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Bidz.com to join stock index
Bidz.com to join stock index
June 18, 2008
Culver City, Calif.—Online jewelry auctioneer Bidz.com direct join the Russell 3000 Index after the close of the market on June 27, the company announced on Tuesday.
The Russell 3000 Index is market-cap weighted and measures the performance of the largest 3,000 common stocks incorporated in the United States and its territories.
The index is intended to provide a comprehensive barometer of the broad market, and is reconstituted once a year to capture new and growing equities. The latest reconstitution is set for June 27.
According to Bidz.com, the Russell 3000 Index included it on a preliminary membership list released put on June 13. Final membership lists for the Russell 3000 Index and other Russell exponents will be posted on June 30.
“The addition of Bidz.com to the Russell 3000 Index represents another milestone in our company’s short 10-year history,” Bidz.com Chief Executive Officer David Zinberg said in a media release. “Inclusion in this well-known index will serve to further expand the investment community’s awareness of our achievements as we continue to grow and enhance shareholder value.”