It’s “dramatically” easier to sell if you develop a friendship with the customer, seasoned marketing and public relations specialist Steve Feldman tells the Rapaport Diamond Podcast.
Feldman reflected on more than 45 years in the diamond and jewelry industry, where he has held sales and marketing roles at National Jeweler, Chatham Created Gems, Hasenfeld-Stein, the Gem Certification & Assurance Lab (GCAL), and more. He recently semi-retired and set up a freelance marketing business.
“You don’t want to buy from someone you don’t like,” he said in conversation with Rapaport’s Joshua Freedman. “But the reverse is also true. You want to buy from someone that you do like.”
The key message he transmits when training salespeople is “get people to like you,” he added.
Feldman explained why he likes to “kibitz” with his contacts — using a Yiddish word for “chat” — and why this is harder than before. “People wanted to have relationships. They wanted to know you, know more about you. It was just a lot more fun. Today, it’s business. It’s bottom line. It’s all about the almighty dollar,” he lamented.
Feldman recalled getting caught in a storm about the use of the word “synthetic” for manmade gemstones and noted he might be the father of the term “lab-grown.”
He also discussed a somber interview he conducted with Alexander Hasenfeld, a Holocaust survivor and founder of diamond manufacturer Hasenfeld-Stein.
Listen to the full interview here:
