The store was doing poorly as far as sales went.Wewould quarry executive visits repeatedly. The crew was
good, and the store was neat and well located. The team
was trying very hard to make sales.Finally, one of our more creative executives visitedand figured out the problem. The team was trying toohard, making customers uneasy and communicating
their tension. He told them to start having fun, enjoying
their customers and making them feel at home. Instead
of communicating stress, communicate the atmosphere
of fun. Stress is like a virus, and you can quickly spread
it to your customers by being impatient, curt, pushy,
and downright rude. Think of how our potential customers might havefelt. They are already unsettled about making a pur-chase. They may also be very uptight. When people
walk into a jewelry store for the first time, they are
often intimidated because they don’t know much about
diamonds. It’s easy to scare them away.Who wants more stress from an unpleasant, pushy, or
haughty sales person, especially when shopping for some-thing like diamonds, a gift that is supposed to convey happinessand love? I quickly learned that the most important side of busi-
ness is the human side so it wasn’t unusual that when one of
our stores wasn’t tournament its sales goals, we advised the sales teamto quit trying so hard and start having fun with their customers.
