I started my second job, selling fine jewelry, about eight months ago. Now, people have told me they perceive me as being perky, quirky, fun and caring, but no one has ever come up to me and said, “Celeste, you’re a great salesperson.” Nope, but since this job is base pay with commission, I’m certainly going to get creative. Right?
One day, a male customer, approximately 5’ 3”, came to our department acting very hostile. It was a big sale day with lots of customers waiting in line and he was loudly complaining and fussing while he was waiting his turn. I ended up helping him and right away he started yelling and screaming that he had bought a watch from us and it broke and he wanted to exchange it for a new one. When I asked him if he had his receipt, he said no, but that he had purchased it from us a couple months ago and I could look it up on his store credit card. I reminded him about our 30-day policy and that he needed to contact the manufacturer directly to have them fix it or replace it. As he listened to me he started getting more irate and loud and getting other customers waiting for their turn in line all stirred up. One of them actually said, “This would never happen at ___(one of our competing stores)!”
That was it! I quickly called for manager assistance to help me deal with this enraged customer who wasn’t accepting the answer I was giving him. Less than one minute later, two 6’ tall male mangers briskly walked over and asked what was going on. I explained the situation, and as the frazzled customer was looking on I realized that he was suddenly acting quite calm. As the managers went up to him and reiterated what I had said, he stood there quietly and attentively listened to what they told him and even acted cooperatively. By the time the managers had left, the customer had agreed to contact the watch manufacturer directly and all was well with the world. As the newly satisfied customer walked away, I was standing there thinking…”Okay, what just happened?”
What happened was a heavy dose of non-verbal communication…that’s what happened!
I clearly remember a lesson from my non-verbal communication class in college, which was quite a while ago. :o Generally speaking, men are perceived stronger than women, taller people are more impressive than shorter people and people with lower-pitched voices are more credible than those with higher-pitched voices. As I looked around at my fellow associates I realized, we were all women, of average height and softer high-pitched voices. Yep!! The two tall-male, deep-voiced managers got the situation under control with what they didn’t say rather than what they did say.
That got my wheels turning. How can I use that information to help my sales? The next day I wore heels to work!
When I walked through the store to my department, I felt a difference right away. Walking taller, I received more on-lookers and a male customer asked me about the sweater sale, which I did not know, but I invited him to come visit me later in the fine jewelry department…and he did!
He came over with samples of cologne and asked me to help him choose one. Hmm….no jewelry sales…but I definitely made an impression being taller. Well, at the end of the day my feet were incredibly sore…so no more heels, but maybe changing my looks would impact my sales.
Experiment: The next three days, with comparable sales, I wore a different wig and pair of colored contacts.
Day #1 - I wore a red wig with green contacts:
Day #2 - I wore a black wig with gray contacts:
Day #3 - I wore a blonde wig with blue contacts:
Can you guess which day I did the best in my fine jewelry sales? The black hair and gray eyes - with 458% of my goal. As a redhead, I made 100% of my goal and as a blonde, just slightly better with 107%.
*Side note – now if I were to choose a winning look for attracting men, it was hands down the blonde and blue eyes. One guy asked me out for drinks as he was buying his girlfriend a pair of earrings (booo….). I just pretended he was joking and giggled and didn’t answer him. Then, a few other very attractive men were totally chatting it up with me.
I continue to test out the black wig, sometimes changing it up, and consistently do well. This look was with blue contacts:
Why brunette? I have no idea. Listening to feedback from friends, the majority voted for the redhead look as the best of the three for me. I’m also told being a brunette makes me look older - maybe people want to buy a bigger ticket item, like fine jewelry, from someone who looks older and wiser. What do you think?
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