Jewelers of America is the official education provider at the JA New York show, offering a full slate of instructional programs and seminars covering relevant jeweler topics including profit strategies, selling techniques, marketing, product knowledge, legal issues, e-commerce and more. Participants leave with a clearer understanding of the present state of the jewelry industry. We also host a booth with information and resources on membership and its benefits.
For more information about JA New York or to register for an upcoming show, call VNU Expositions, the show organizer, toll-free at 800.650.1591, or visit the JA New York website, www.ja-newyork.com. To sign up as an exhibitor, please call 646-654-4986.
Jewelers of America is hosting special, free Education Seminars, at the JA New York Summer Show, July 26-29, 2009.
JA New York Summer Show 2009, Education Seminar Schedule
Sunday, July 26, 2009
2:30 - 3:45 pm
25 GREATEST SALES TIPS EVER!
David W. Richardson, CSP, Principal, Richardson Resource Group
Come to this fast-paced seminar and be prepared to take notes, because you will learn powerful action-oriented sales techniques you can immediately use upon returning to your store. After 27 years working with jewelers from all over the world, Dave has catalogued more than 1,000 sales tips that work. Now, you will learn the 25 very best. Use these in today’s challenging economy and watch your business grow. In this dynamic and compelling session, Dave shares his secrets for presenting and selling high-ticket jewelry items with confidence and easy-to-use closing techniques that drive increased profits.
4:00 - 5:15 pm
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST:
Brand DNA, Infrastructure
and Success
Kate Peterson, Principal,
Performance Concepts, Inc.
“If you can’t adapt, you won’t survive”. In nature, evolution – fundamental changes to structure or function in response to shifts in environmental demand – is the phenomenon through which plants and animals survive in a constantly transforming world. The same is also true in business, but rather than being a matter of course, business evolution is a matter of choice – of planning and strategy. Those who choose well – who let go of the “way we’ve always done it,” while reaching out for innovative solutions that serve the needs of today’s customer – will turn the corner stronger than ever, as they head into this all important fourth quarter. Have you made that choice? In this lively, interactive presentation, you’ll learn to identify the essential “genetic code” of your store brand, while pinpointing the strategies you’ll need to build a solid infrastructure and to equip your business for success in today’s transformational environment.
Monday, July 27, 2009
10:30 - 11:30 am
RECESSION PROOF YOUR SALES:
It’s All About ROMANCE!
David W. Richardson, CSP, Principal, Richardson Resource Group Retail Panelists to be announced
We don’t sell rocks and metal; we sell love, commitment, memories and, most importantly, ROMANCE! Our products mark the most important milestones in our customers’ lives. Talking to your customers about creating memories is much more important than talking about facts, features and the data on a grading report. Romance helps put a customer in touch with their emotions and builds levels of desire that naturally lead to bigger ticket sales.
Attend this presentation and you’ll be hearing from one of the industry’s leading experts on romance as well as from successful retail jewelers that have mastered the art of romance in their stores.
11:45 am - 12:45 pm
LOUD AND CLEAR (AND
INEXPENSIVE)!
Obtaining Public Relations (PR)
Through Local Media
Helena Krodel, Director of Media
and Special Events, Jewelry
Information Center (JIC)
Retail Panelists to be announced
If you’re looking for a way to effectively promote your fine jewelry store without spending a lot of money, this seminar will provide you with the information you need. Local media PR reaches out to your target audience, puts you in touch with your community, positions you as a local leader and drives positive attention and traffic to your store. Helena Krodel and her panel of expert retail jewelers will offer insights and practical tips related to:
- Making the most of free advertising opportunities
- Redefining your unique selling proposition, so it’s easy to communicate
- Writing press releases that bring media attention to your store
- Uncovering the PR contacts among your local media and building mutually beneficial relationships
- Getting the most PR benefits from charity work and community involvement efforts
2:15 - 3:30 pm
ANGELS, DEMONS AND
EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN:
Understanding the Fine Art of
Customer Retention
Kate Peterson, Principal,
Performance Concepts, Inc.
Retail Panelists to be announced
Customer retention is not only a proven and cost-effective strategy, but in today’s retail world it’s an imperative. With the hard statistics proving time and time again that 80% of your profits come from only 20% of your customers, customer retention must be your number-one priority.
Attend this seminar, and you’ll learn, from both our expert and retail panelists, how to build a customer retention strategy that leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction, increased sales and greater overall profitability.
3:45 - 5:00 pm
YES, TRAINING IS THE ANSWER!
New Ideas for Optimizing
Sales Training
Doug Fleener, President, Dynamic
Experiences Group, LLC
Retail Panelists to be announced
Training – the ongoing development and reinforcement of knowledge and skills – is more critical now than ever before. Shifting markets, increased competition, evolving products and ever-changing customer needs and preferences create challenges that can only be successfully overcome through training and education.
This seminar combines Doug Fleener’s unique style with the knowledge and experience of our expert retail panelists, and teaches you:
- Effective training techniques
- How to match training to performance issues
- The key features of successful training programs
- Powerful training option on limited budgets
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Special Tuesday KEYNOTE
Session,
10:15 am -12:15 pm
TIMES ARE TOUGH, SO IT’S
TIME TO GET GOING
Harry J. Friedman, Founder/CEO,
The Friedman Group
Renowned author, speaker, consultant and retailer Harry J. Friedman will discuss what top jewelry retailers are doing to ensure
an increase in transactions, while maintaining a consistent highperforming sales culture. He will give you an overview of how to take your jewelry business from surviving to thriving, from doing well to doing exceptionally well. You’ll discover:
- Is your company culture helping or hurting your business?
- The key performance indicators that drive sales
- How to set performance and behavioral standards
- Why not setting sales performance minimums will set you up for failure
- Recruiting facts and myths
- Interviewing techniques that help you make the right hiring decision
- How proper training can help you thrive instead of just survive
- The real meaning of “motivation”
- How and when to discipline
- On the floor coaching that turns ordinary salespeople into highperformance sales professionals
12:30 - 2:00 pm
THE BASICS OF MEMO
TRANSACTION:
The Dos and Don’ts (Benefits and
Risks) of Trading on Memo
Cecilia Gardner, President, CEO &
General Counsel, and Suzan Flamm,
Assistant General Counsel, Jewelers
Vigilance Committee; and Dione
Kenyon, President, Jewelers Board
of Trade
Doing business on memo is a complex topic that jewelry manufacturers and retailers must understand. As the jewelry industry continues to conduct business in today’s unstable economy, memo transaction has taken on increased importance and consequences.
It is vital for jewelers to know how to protect their businesses from risk at this venerable time. Attend this seminar and learn about consignment agreements, UCC filings, protecting your business in an event of bankruptcy, the steps to take to check credit worthiness, how to monitor significant changes of debtors and more.
Information presented in the seminar can be found in “The Essential Guide to ‘Memo’ Transactions,” co-produced by JVC and JBT. The Guide and seminar were developed to respond to industry concerns, especially now, about the consequences of sending goods on memo and provides jewelry firms with a step-by-step method to best position their businesses in cases of economic reversals.
Seminar attendees will receive a copy of JVC-JBT Memo Transaction Guide.
2:15 - 3:45 pm
THINK INSIDE THE WINDOW:
Have You Thought About Sod?
Johnathan Sanders, Director of
Business Development, Diane
Murphy, Director of Sales
This session promises to be the highlight of your week. In true Martha Stewart fashion, talented Chippenhook designers will create a series of windows while you watch. As they create their windows, you will learn what they are doing, why they are doing it and the actual budget for each design. The right window is a statement. It’s your brand. It’s a lasting impression that establishes your products and entices customers to buy.
During the action-packed seminar, you’ll watch windows receive makeovers depicting how to keep things fresh, compelling and relevant to the season. If your store has windows, this is a can’t-miss seminar where you are sure to learn a lot and probably laugh a bit as well!
Attend this seminar and you’ll learn how to:
- Create sales using dramatic visual presentations
- Develop a universe of fresh thoughts
- Use genuine creativity as a sales tool
- Have your customers talk about your store
- Maximize your staff’s creativity to its fullest
- Understand your customer’s visual mindset
4:00 - 5:15 pm
GRAB FIRMLY, SHAKE HARD!
Using New Technology and
Innovation to Reach the Modern
Consumer
Michael J. Hagan, Chief Operating
Officer, SCVNGR Inc.
Today’s consumer is not listening. In years past, marketing was easy: buy the best billboard in town and a couple of catchy jingles, and you’d have a full showroom of people dying to buy your product. These good old days are gone. Today’s consumers are experts at dodging your advertisements. Brands need to leverage new technology to get beyond the cash crunch people are experiencing. You’ve got to adapt to the modern consumer by embracing social media and buzz marketing, but it’s a complicated and confusing landscape. Don’t throw your money out the window, chasing after each and every tech fad. Learn about the right concepts and technology that reach people in a new way. In this session, discover what works, what doesn’t, what’s sustainable and how to achieve consistent results effectively and inexpensively.
Topics discussed in this session include:
- How to use social media to reach the right people with the right message. We’ll show you why $100 dollars on Facebook might be worth $1000 on MySpace, and how you might get all that buzz for free on Twitter!
- How to transcend advertising by creating news-generating events using mobile technology. Mobile phones and alternate-reality, realworld games are changing the marketing landscape.
- Best strategies in word-of-mouth advertising. Everyone knows that the best way to generate new business is through word-of-mouth recommendations. But how do you get other people to talk about you? It’s no big secret; we’ll show you the five components necessary to seed a WOM campaign.
- How to deliver real-time targeted ads that track a user’s experience on your website and customize their user experience. Did you know you can alter the content displayed at your website given a visitor’s browsing history? Sound hard? It isn’t. We’ll show you services that make it easy.
- In-store technologies that help create customer loyalty. You can shift your customer’s focus from Internet bargain hunting (a battle in which everyone loses) by offering high-tech custom experiences to your consumers. We’ll tell you how.