Stable, long-term partnerships are the dream for both retailers and vendors. They’re beneficial to both parties. They’re beneficial to customers. They lower costs for vendors, as the cost of acquiring new customers is much higher for B2B than B2C businesses. On top of that, B2B has a much longer customer journey and sales cycle than B2C, with various stakeholders deliberating for months on end in search of the best partnership, which means it takes time to start seeing those customer acquisition costs come back in the form of revenue. On the retailer side, cutting ties with a vendor and searching for a new one brings unforeseen costs and causes unwelcome disruptions for the retailer and their customers. Stability is good for everyone.

As important as they are, healthy business relationships built on trust and mutually beneficial results are hard to come by. B2C businesses want vendors who can reliably supply them with the products their customers want and can grow with them, while B2B businesses are looking for customers that can provide high lifetime value, which requires both customer loyalty and growth. Too many potential partnerships, however, are never given the chance to grow. Before you head to the negotiating table, make sure you go in with the right mindset, the right tools, and the right knowledge. Here are some tips for doing just that.

Negotiation Is Cooperative, Not Competitive

Zero-sum thinking is a belief that in order for you to gain something, someone else has to lose something. If a potential client seeks a concession during negotiations, for example, a zero-sum thinker would believe that making the concession is a defeat for them and a win for the other party, who they see as a competitor rather than a partner. If terms are favorable to me, I win, says the zero-sum thinker; if I make concessions, I lose.

Negotiation isn’t a zero-sum game with a winner and a loser. In any relationship, even a business relationship, there is a give and take, and both sides will change as they move closer together. The trick is to look at this change not as a loss but as growth. Growth is change, and to grow, you have to accept that you’ll be different at the end of a journey than you were at the beginning. The two sides aren’t in competition; they are working together to get their expectations in alignment and create something new. And if they can’t reach an agreement, that cooperative relationship doesn’t end; it just changes. You may not have gained a client, but you have established a relationship that can help you network and build your reputation as a cooperative negotiator.

Understand Your Value and Your Values

Before sitting down with a potential client, know what your business stands for and what value it is capable of delivering. A smaller retail partner aligned with your vision may be better for your long-term success than a larger account with different goals and expectations. Landing a big client might provide a huge short-term gain, but finding a client who shares your ideas about growth, your approaches to marketing, your communication styles, your documentation and conflict resolution processes, and your overall business strategies will potentially provide greater lifetime value.

Approach Negotiation Strategically

Seek out potential partners strategically, not based on vibes. Someone you get along with on a personal level might have very different goals for, and ideas about, business than you. Put your strategy and long-term goals first, and ask yourself how this partnership will help you achieve those goals.

Make sure that your potential partners understand your strategy and goals from the beginning, and ask them to outline theirs. If the very foundations of your business philosophies diverge, any partnership is unlikely to be a long-term one. You might make a sale, but you won’t develop a partnership that delivers high lifetime value.

Gather Data

Before negotiating terms of a deal, understand what your needs are. Calculate your customer acquisition costs, which covers all of your sales and marketing expenses: salaries, ad spend, spending per channel, and other associated investments and costs. Calculate the lifetime value you expect this partner will generate. The right data will give you a clear picture of what exactly a good deal looks like.

Build Relationships, Even if You Don’t Close the Sale

Throughout the process, remain respectful and amicable, even if a deal falls through. A retailer might not think a vendor is the right fit for them now, but they might change their mind later, so don’t ghost them after they give you a “no thanks.” Stay in touch and follow up with them periodically. A pleasant negotiating process, even if it results in no sale, can benefit your business. You’re building a reputation for respect and honesty, and you’re building a network of industry relationships. It’s all part of building the long-term strength of your business.

Jewelers put so much time and effort into honing their skills at the bench. There’s a ton of both practical and theoretical knowledge you need just to reach an acceptable level of competence, and once you reach that level, you still have to keep practicing those skills day after day for decades to master them. Some basic skills have not changed much in thousands of years, while others seem to be radically changed by technology every decade. There are always new tricks to learn, techniques to perfect, tools to master. It’s truly a profession where you can never stop learning new things, which is why education is such a big part of AJS.

With so much effort devoted to perfecting your work at the bench, it’s easy to forget about soft skills. While those hard skills make you a jeweler, soft skills make you an indispensable employee or a successful businessperson.

In this installment, we’re going to look at one of the most important soft skills for jewelers: time management.

Why Time Management Skills Matter

Jewelers tend to wear many hats: designer, repair technician, salesperson, appraiser, inventory manager, business owner. All of these job duties take different amounts of time, and you can get so focused on one aspect of the job that the others suffer. Managing your time properly helps you charge the right fee for a service, plan your day more accurately, work without surprises, and tackle the right tasks in the right order.

It takes some time and experience to get a feel for how long different tasks should take. If you’re still learning the ropes as an apprentice or early-career jeweler, ask your mentor or supervisor how long various tasks take them, and how long they expect you to complete them. If you’re an experienced jeweler training someone else, make sure to pass this information along to your trainee.

While you would rather focus on the stuff that got you into this profession in the first place, it’s those more boring or frustrating parts of the job that keep you in business. Most jewelers would probably be happy if they could spend their whole day with customers or at the bench designing, fabricating, or repairing, but the reality is that administrative tasks can take as much of your time as the more fun and rewarding tasks. Time management skills will help you get the balance right.

Developing Time Management Skills

Observe your energy levels. If possible, do the work you are absolutely dreading first thing in the morning. Get it out of the way while you still have energy rather than let it hang over your head all day and then rush to get it done at the end of the day. For many jewelers, that work is probably administrative tasks like bookkeeping and inventory. Save the project you can’t wait to get started on as a reward for finishing a dull task: the dessert you get after eating your vegetables.

Know the value of your time. If you’re a small business owner, you might prefer doing things yourself to paying someone else to do it. But you also have to consider yourself as an employee earning an hourly rate. How much is your talent worth? Every minute you spend on tasks that can be delegated is a minute you’re not spending on something that requires your special skillset. Knowing the value of your time will help you put into perspective which tasks you can delegate and which you should do yourself.

Track time. Estimate how long you think something will take, and then time how long it takes you to actually do it. You might find a big discrepancy between the two numbers. Most people, but people with ADHD in particular, tend to grossly underestimate how long it will take them to do something and end up getting in way over their heads. To make sure your estimates are accurate, base them on the data you’ve collected on yourself, and then give yourself a little extra time.

Make lists.  When you’ve got a lot on your plate, it helps immensely to write it all down. One of the most effective kinds of lists you can make to help with time management is the Eisenhower matrix. Divide a piece of paper into quadrants (or open a spreadsheet, if you prefer). Label the columns, left to right, “Urgent” and “Not Urgent,” and label the rows, top to bottom, “Important” and “Not Important.”

• Tasks that are urgent and important: Complete them first.
• Tasks that are urgent but not important: Spend less time on them or assign it to someone else.
• Tasks that are not urgent but important: Pick a time in the future to handle it after you’ve handled your most urgent and important tasks.
• Tasks that are Not urgent and not important: Let yourself forget about them. The alternative is to leave them for when you have absolutely nothing else to do.

Often, you’ll find that very few tasks are both urgent and important, and labeling them appropriately will give you the impetus you need to get them done. You’ll also feel less pressure to do the less urgent stuff and feel less guilt for ignoring them. When you’re overwhelmed, you might find yourself doing something easy and mindless as a way to avoid a more difficult, urgent task. Organizing your tasks according to urgency and importance will help you avoid this kind of procrastination.

Review your lists every time you complete a task. Assign deadlines to tasks, and schedule a time to tackle non-urgent tasks. Move items from the “Not Urgent” list into the “Urgent” list as their deadlines approach.

Whether you use this system or not, the important thing is that you develop a system. Experiment with different ones until you find one that works for you.

Set goals. Setting goals with deadlines and measurable outcomes is something every business owner should already be doing. Setting long-term, strategic goals will give you context for the individual tasks on your plate. You’ll focus more on projects and tasks that advance your business goals and less on things that take up time but don’t really affect the bottom line.

Reduce distractions. Set aside blocks of time for particular tasks so that at the beginning of the day, you know what you’ll be tackling and when. Let coworkers know when you’re going silent for an hour or two and won’t be responding to emails or Slack messages. If you’re used to constant intrusions and distractions, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish with two uninterrupted hours.

What It Means to Seize the Day

Time management skills are the difference between feeling constantly behind and being one step ahead. Without a plan, you’ll always stay in a reactive mode, just trying to keep your ship afloat in the storm. Finding the time management techniques that work for you puts you back in control of your day so you reach your destination no matter which way the winds blow.

As we experience another generational changing of the guard, it may be time to rethink the way we communicate with customers. The relationship between buyer and seller is ultimately transactional, but that relationship communicates far more than the exchange of money for products. From the customer’s point of view, a business isn’t just a provider of goods and services; it’s also a reflection of themselves, their values, where they fit into the world. The tastes and values of our customers will determine the most effective way to communicate with them, and those tastes are changing.

With the oldest members of Gen Z soon entering their 30s, luxury marketers have to shift their focus to understanding the consumption patterns of a new generation. And it feels like Millennials have only just grown up! While it’s easy to overstate the importance of “generation” as a demographic category and to reduce the complexities of each individual’s personality to the range of years in which they were born, there are enough similarities between members of a generation to draw broad yet useful conclusions about their behavior as consumers. So what conclusions can we draw about our Gen Z customers?

Unlike previous generations, Gen Z (and to some extent, Millennials) tend to view luxury goods as self-expression rather than signals of wealth and status. Emblazoning yourself with a logo to align yourself with the brand’s status is out; wearing things that feel authentic to your sense of self is in. That’s why legacy brands whose logo is the main draw, such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci, have struggled to connect with these younger consumers.

For young people today, knowing who you are is important. Authenticity matters again, and authenticity is the opposite of status seeking. Consumers who seek status are aspirational: “if I wear this, people will see me in this way.” Or, “people who belong to this high-status group that I want to be a part of wear this brand, so if I want to be seen as one of them, I should wear it too.” Gen Z, broadly speaking, is more concerned with authentically expressing their individuality.

When Gen Z becomes the main driver of luxury sales, it will be harder to say, “we’re cool (or sexy or refined or whatever your brand is), so if you wear our stuff, you’ll be cool too.” Contemporary attitudes have reversed this consumer-brand relationship. A Gen Z consumer is more likely to think, “I am cool (or sexy or refined or however they see themselves), and this piece of jewelry can help me express that.”

It doesn’t matter who made it or what kind of status the brand name carries. What matters is that the branding and voice are authentic and clear. It will be harder to connect with Gen Z consumers if you don’t have a clear sense of why your business exists, what your brand represents, who your products are for. But if you can answer those questions, you’re one step ahead in appealing to Gen Z. 

The jeweler’s profession is one of the oldest in the world. Some of the most ancient archaeological artifacts, dating back some 100,000 years, are decorative in nature. For almost as long as modern humans have existed, we have been finding ways to shape the products of nature into objects that beautify our lives.

The jeweler’s legacy includes some of history’s most beautiful works of art, from the opulence of the mask of Tutankhamen, to the delicate precision of Etruscan granulation, to the intricate, overflowing beauty of Mughal ornamentation. How did these artisans create works of art that resonate through time and across cultures? Through a combination of vision and technique.

Jewelry is a special artform in that it is a practical, hands-on craft, a theoretical science, and an art you have to live and feel. There aren’t many other jobs that fulfill the needs of the body, mind, and soul so thoroughly.

That’s also what makes it such a difficult craft to master. It takes years of practice just to reach competence, and many years more to master even one aspect of the craft. To become the best jeweler you can be, you need to keep your old skills sharp while constantly learning new ones. That’s why the Atlanta Jewelry Show is bringing you BenchFusion, the only gathering in the United States designed specifically for bench jewelers.

Gain New Skills and Knowledge

There aren’t many professionals whose skillset is as varied and eclectic as the jeweler’s. There’s always something new to learn. Seeking out professional development will keep you at the top of your game. Whether it’s something as big as some enlightening piece of theoretical knowledge that changes the way you think about your work, or as simple as a little trick that makes something you do every day ten times easier, the right workshop can take your work to a new level.

Learn New Technologies

The jewelry industry is notoriously slow to adopt new technologies .This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; don’t try to fix what isn’t broken. We’ve been using some of the same tools and techniques for thousands of years, and it’s not a bad idea to adopt new tools only after careful deliberation and gaining a real understanding of the benefits of a new tool.

At the same time, lots of digital tools have become indispensable to the jeweler’s arsenal. CAD/CAM, 3D printing, laser engraving, and robotics have all found a place beside the hammer and dapping punch. Professional development workshops give you a place to learn about these new tools, try them out, and decide if they fit into your practice.

Pass Your Skills Onto the Next Generation

Just as jewelers’ skills are built on the work of all those who came before them, today’s jewelers have a responsibility to keep the profession alive by passing their knowledge onto the next generation. If you’re interested in taking on an apprentice, there’s a BenchFusion workshop for you.

AJS Is the Show for Bench Jewelers

Some of us are more practical or experimental, adept at figuring out how to do things through practice. Others prefer to have a strong theoretical basis to the way they work. The best jewelers tend to combine both approaches. No matter your level of experience or area of expertise, there is a BenchFusion workshop that will help you plug some of those gaps in your knowledge, brush up on some old skills, or find the new tool or tech that will transform the way you work. See our full list of workshops and register for BenchFusion here.