Acquired in 2021, the brand’s high jewelry sales have doubled and its new “Lock” collection was an instant hit.
Squirrel Spotting: 10 Things Not To Do To Your Salespeople
From not micro-managing to not making them managers, Peter Smith lists 10 things retailers should avoid if they want to hold onto their top salespeople.

So I thought it might be interesting to compile a list of what not to do when it comes to them.
Here’s a list of 10. Let me know if you have any suggestions to add; you can email them to me or leave them in the comments below.
1) Don’t Subject Them to an Up System
Your most talented salespeople should spend as much time as possible in front of customers.
Forcing them to take a number while less capable salespeople engage customers is frustrating for them and bad for business.
They give your company the best opportunity to make sales, and they give your customers the best opportunity to have a great experience.
2) Don’t Deny Them a Meritocracy
No matter what plan you use for compensation—base, commission, bonuses, etc.—make sure your best salespeople make the most money.
Compensation plans designed to create a level playing field (i.e., we don’t pay commission but we all share the rewards equally), however well intentioned, miss the point entirely. It’s a great way to lose top salespeople.
3) Don’t Load Them Up With Non-Selling Duties
Great salespeople should be in front of customers at every opportunity. Activities and tasks that remove them from your customers will cost you money.
It’s called lost business. Hire non-salespeople to do non-selling tasks and let salespeople sell, as that’s what drives business forward.
4) Don’t Inflict a Bad Manager on Them
Clichés are clichés for a reason. Good people don’t leave companies, they leave bad managers.
If you inflict a bad manager on a good sales team, you’re telling them you don’t really care about their welfare, their productivity or their job satisfaction.
5) Don’t Try To Change Them
Nobody is perfect and top salespeople are no different. They are, however, perfectly suited to sales and that’s what they should be celebrated for. Don’t waste time trying to fix their non-selling imperfections.
6) Don’t Paint Your Whole Team With the Same Brush
There is nothing more demotivating to top salespeople than a well-intentioned but misguided manager criticizing the entire team for under-performance.
You are, in effect, telling the best performers they are responsible not just for their own results, but for those of less capable coworkers that you hired.
7) Don’t Burn Them Out
Even top performers need to switch off every now
That could be, for example, an occasional late-morning start, or a paid half day when they least expect it.
8) Don’t Micro-Manage Them
Good salespeople wake up motivated. They spend most of their time engaged in behaviors designed to make sales, and they spend most of their waking hours thinking about your customers.
Let them do what they do best and don’t try to micro-manage them.
9) Don’t Make Them a Manager
It is a rare case where salespeople step easily into a manager’s position.
The very ego that is necessary for their sales success often drives them in that direction, but they are fundamentally different roles. When making this change, you’ll more than likely be losing a top salesperson and gaining a poor manager.
10) Don’t Offer False Praise
One of the greatest traits of top salespeople is their empathy—their ability to read people and situations. They see through false praise and inauthenticity as quickly as anyone on your team.
Keep it real.
Great salespeople are precious cargo and they should treated as such.
They make up about 17 percent of all salespeople and the really good ones, what I describe as hybrids, account for about 4 percent of all salespeople.
If you’ve got any, handle them with care.
The Latest

Executives from Fred Meyer Jewelers and Riddles Jewelers have filled the roles.

The Victorian-inspired design is a functional lock and key.

De Beers Institute of Diamonds provides the very best in diamond verification, education and diamond services.

For over 100 years, JA New York has played an integral role in facilitating the evolution of our industry, while also honoring past traditions.


The trend forecaster and her guests explored unconventional jewelry designs, NFTs, AI art, and more during her Trendvision presentation.

The Emerging Designers Diamond Initiative provides diamond credit and mentorship to young brands helmed by BIPOC designers.

De Beers is sharing over 130 years of experience and expertise through the De Beers Institute of Diamonds with a selection of courses.

It will be located in San Antonio’s Alamo Quarry Market and will be Lee Michaels’ third location in the city.

Stephanie Gottlieb, Jewelers Mutual’s Mike Alexander, and Craig Rottenberg of Long’s Jewelers are among the new board members.

Rolex remained No. 1 while a brand known for its pilot watches slipped into the No. 5 spot.

Luxury retail executive Frédéric Levy has taken on the role.

Jewelry designers have until early February to apply to take part in Couture's Diversity Action Council program.

Morgan P. Richardson joins from La Perla.

The new portal will share information on responsible platinum sourcing and how it’s used beyond jewelry.

Purchased directly from Rio Tinto, the collection consists of pinks, purples and one red, none larger than 1.52 carats.

The AGS Ideal Report by GIA is a digital-only addition to GIA diamond reports.

The seven newcomers include executives from David Yurman, De Beers, and GIA.

The designer finds the modernity in classic motifs and family heirloom jewels.

She has more than 20 years’ experience in watches and jewelry, and says sustainability is the “greatest single issue” facing the industry.
Its focus are words like “sustainability,” “ethics,” and “responsible sourcing.”

Another “Designer to Watch” and Kim Kardashian’s auction purchase were among our most-read stories.

Herco President Reuven Itelman is retiring and selling the company, which will relocate to Ohio from California.

She was previously the executive director of sales and marketing for the De Beers Group-owned company.

It’s from a new collection of charms designed to go in the brand’s signature lockets.

Lonnie Iannazzo of Vincent Anthony Jewelers is the 2022 William (Wag) Wagner Business Excellence Award recipient.

The revised Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report-Dossier still includes the four Cs but doesn’t list growth method or post-growth treatments.