Ladies of Luxury

From left: Trish Roberson, Jane Carter-Getz, Susan Robinson.

No pressure, more sales
Maria Frasca, Frasca Jewelers 

Maria Frasca of Frasca Jewelers sells to female clients the way she enjoys shopping — with a low-pressure, friendly vibe and lots of conversation. “We chat, we try things on, and sometimes we drink coffee or champagne,” she says of most customer encounters. “It is an organic process.”
   Frasca has stores in Palm Desert, California, and in El Paso, Texas — “a small winter resort and golfer’s paradise,” she explains — so many of her clients are affluent and wear fine jewelry. The trick to moving merchandise, she says, is to offer fashion-forward collections like Roberto Demeglio, that are casual enough to wear with resort attire both day and night. Another helpful move? Wearing what she sells.
   “Because we tend to be in our jewelry, women are drawn in to our store to see what is new,” she says. Plus, the store’s strategic move of not carrying watches also  means Frasca has more female shoppers.
   Many of them are not career women, however, so they’re a tougher sell. Working women “are used to making fast decisions, have their own money, and they know they deserve [a reward like jewelry],” she observes. “So we work hard to make the others realize that they don’t always need to have a man buy a piece of jewelry for them, even though our industry still advertises that way.”

Frasca’s top takeaway for selling to women: Make women realize that if they are already buying designer clothes, handbags and shoes, why wouldn’t they buy themselves designer or high-end jewelry? “The price points are similar, yet it is still a foreign concept for many of them,” says Frasca. 

Be relatable, build camaraderie
Trish Roberson, Roberson’s Fine Jewelry

After 28 years of running Roberson’s Fine Jewelry in Little Rock, Arkansas, Roberson’s husband wanted to relax — but she had no intention of slowing down.
“He said, ‘I’m ready to retire,’ and I said, ‘I’m ready to get into it!” she recalls. That was 10 years ago, and today Roberson’s business has flourished into an enterprise of jewelry experiences for women who love to collect.
   Through trial and error, Roberson learned to try events other than trunk shows for female clients who “will spend big,” she says. “If it feels like you are always trying to drag people into the store, then maybe you should try an experience.”
Her trips to meet designers in Los Angeles, New York and Houston, Texas, have helped her build a compelling camaraderie with many female shoppers. The reason behind the strategy? Psychology. For many women, purchases are emotional, and women want to hear meaningful stories and information about pieces, whereas men “just want to know the price,” says Roberson.
   “Our jewelry is art, and I’m taking them to meet Picasso,” she remarks. “Start thinking outside the store.”

Roberson’s top takeaway for selling to women: Be relatable and make women comfortable — show them you support what they support. Also important: using women’s intuition. Three years ago, Roberson flew a strong-willed designer to town to meet with a genteel client, but the chemistry wasn’t right. Roberson masterfully intervened through subtle de-escalation tactics, racking up five repurposing jobs that day. “I told the designer, ‘Let me lead now,’ and that paved the way for us to do more work for her, her friends, and her family,” says Roberson. 

 

Listen well, offer what’s wearable
Jane Carter-Getz, Belle Cose

Jane Carter-Getz’s onetime kitchenware store, Belle Cose, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, mushroomed into a quintet of shops merchandising gifts, homeware and clothing before it finally started selling jewelry. Carter-Getz’s first foray into fine was a trio of rose-cut diamond bangles in sterling and gold, which she priced at $5,000 apiece. Within three months, the shop owner had sold 15 of them.
   Today, jewelry accounts for two-thirds of sales. The store’s specialty is styles that women feel comfortable wearing daily and buying for themselves. “Our jewelry isn’t meant to be locked away and worn only on special occasions, but to be put on and worn to work, dinner, or picking up your kids at school,” she says.
   And while training in how to sell to women isn’t a routine occurrence — or all that necessary, given that 95% of the staff is female — attentiveness is a ritual. “We put a lot of focus on listening to the customer,” adds Carter-Getz.

Carter-Getz’s top takeaway for selling to women: Get to know each customer and interact with her on a personal level. “I think our female customers appreciate being heard, and the understanding we bring to trying to find the right fit of jewelry to highlight her personal style,” says Carter-Getz.

Model it and make shoppers try it on
Susan Robinson, Susan Robinson Fine Jewelry

Susan Robinson’s early career was a mix of banking, real estate, and legal recruitment until marriage gave her an entrée into fine jewelry sales. Her husband’s family owned a jewelry store, and after helping them with their business, she secured her own six-foot jewelry case in a well-regarded clothing store in Tyler, Texas — a move that helped her build an inventory and pave the way for the 5,500-square-foot Susan Robinson Fine Jewelry store she operates today. A key component of her business’s success is making sure that sales associates wear the jewelry the store offers.
   “It’s the number one rule!” says Robinson. “Customers see the jewelry on me and my staff and just want it. We get the jewelry on the customer, put them in front of the mirror, romance the stones and give a little education, and they say, ‘I’ll take it.’”
   Unlike men, who, according to Robinson, prefer watches, a more technical sale, and to make sure they are getting value, women can experience the thrill of wearing a jewel and enjoying how it feels and makes her look.
   Female sales associates, she adds, inherently have a better understanding of other women’s thought processes, because they share the passion for the product.
   “Woman-to-woman sales are so much easier,” notes Robinson. “It’s easier for women to know what other women like. And we can try it on and show customers how it looks on us. That is a great way to sell.”

Robinson’s top takeaway for selling to women: Get the jewelry onto shoppers’ bodies— on their ears, arms, wrists, necklines and fingers. Then put them in front of the mirror and “let the jewelry do its magic!” says Robinson. “‘You must try it on’ is our motto.”

Article from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2017. To subscribe click here.