When I started a watch trading, I was thinking about how to become the watch consigliere for people I know. I always like to make people feel special, and I thought the experience I had from my financial planning days might be beneficial to duplicate for my horology clients.
When I remembered that people want someone who they can trust, and knows watches while making them feel special; I knew that my experience would increase my local client base and help me become the watch consigliere everyone wants to deal with.
Some tips to becoming the go-to watch consigliere:
- Share that you’re a watch enthusiast /consultant/dealer with everyone
- Know where to meet new potential local clients
- Create trust
- Know watch brands and the market
- Make them feel special
Share what you do with everyone:
The more people know that I am a luxury watch dealer, the higher the chance I will get more people asking me about watches in that network. When I first started trading, I was telling people what I do all over social media, in-person, and even text.
I was not confident when first starting out, because I was relatively clueless about the watch world, but it was an excellent opportunity to reconnect with people I already knew, and build my knowledge base while practicing on them.
I told them that I buy and sell watches, and if they have any watches they would like to sell, I would be more than happy to help them.
Buying watches from people you know is very easy because you usually aren’t trying to sell them MLM or some other bogus product/service they don’t care about. I was offering them cash for their watches, which they are not wearing anyway. So as you can see, it was an easy discussion to have.
Through this method I was able to get several watches which I made a significant profit from.
Know where to meet local clients:
I have always been a promoter of my real passions. This made me think about joining various groups as well as clubs I was already interested in.
Since having kids, I wanted to figure out how to spend time with them, and simultaneously sell my watches. We joined a local private club where most of the influential people are members. Since joining the club, I made more than $1600 in profits without really trying to sell anything. It came very naturally.
People just approached me because they know I help people with luxury watches. Joining the club was one of the best decisions for the family and for mybusiness.
Other groups I participated in were BNI (business networking groups) as well as monthly Horological meetups in town.
In the future, I plan to visit realtor groups as well as salespeople’s networking events to let them know what I do.
I now realize that opportunities are endless because I have an advantage compared to other people. The reason is, I solve significant problems for potential clients. I can help them to unload watches they do not want, and give them cash as well.
Creating trust:
When I started watch trading several years ago, some people trusted me because they knew me well enough. However, I needed to figure out how to get a stranger to trust me. I knew if people could find trustworthy information about me online, and that I buy and sell watches honestly, they would feel more comfortable.
That’s why I created my watch site honzaswatches.com, Instagram account, Facebook account, Watch Forums accounts, and other social media presences. I felt would be relevant and help them see that I have nothing to hide.
I made a simple website where people can see watches I have for sale, read reviews about how I do business, and contact me whenever.
I leveraged IG and FB to allow people to see pictures, and direct message me.
The watch forums are also great because when one becomes active on them, others start to notice the participation activities. They feel like they can trust you a bit more too. I found several buyers in my town right from the watch forums alone.
In the end, trust is created by allowing people to find out who you are, being transparent, and proactive when dealing with them. If they ask for pictures or other information, I do my best to supply reasonable requests, and help them out to get the information they want.
Know watch brands and the market:
I knew when I started that I needed to learn more about watches. I realized that people were beginning to ask more specific questions about them. Questions like: which watch would be a good fit for them? Should they sell their old watch and get a Rolex?
The questions kept on coming to me and only me because my network realized I could answer all their watch related questions. So the more you learn about the watch brands and the market the more you become the go-to expert.
Here are some of my favorite resources to learn more about specific watches…
Watch friends are great resources because each of them has a different expertise. It’s much easier for me to learn directly from them than just reading books.
YouTube is another excellent resource because I like to watchTV, and this is another way to use my weakness (video distraction) and have it work in my favor.
Watch Blog posts. These are great because they’re an endless source of information in today’s world. Many people are sharing their knowledge with their avid readers. That’s one of the reasons I like to write as well. Because getting messages from people who enjoy reading my blog and guest blog post contributions is priceless. It doesn’t hurt that it drives more business to me too.
Watch Forums are also a fantastic resource. I like to browse Reddit, for example, because the amount of topics on watches is vast. There is a high chance that the subject I am interested in is already discussed at least one time on these enthusiast forum threads.
Make them feel special:
This is my favorite part of becoming the go-to watch consigliere. Because when a deal is done, I do everything possible to make my client feel special. It does not matter if it’sthe first or tenth watch they bought from me. I always write thank you cards and attach some Hawaiian chocolates.
Sometimes, I throw in a watch cleaning cloth as well or watch magazines. I know for a fact that only a few people will do the same, which will give me an edge over other competition when retaining my clients.
In the end, I know that being the best consigliere in my home town takes hard work and dedication, but I am confident I’m on the right path because more and more people are asking me for help. The referrals make generating more business easier and lucrative.
Cau, Honza