Creating Personalized Experiences = Customers for Life

Kat Morrow, a seasoned sales professional with 30 years of experience in the Jewelry industry shares her insights into the art of selling. She emphasizes the importance of building authentic relationships with clients rather than focusing solely on transactions. Kat's passion for her work and her deep knowledge of gemstones shine through as she explains how she strives to create a personalized and joyful experience for each customer. She also discusses the power of referrals and the value of treating every customer, regardless of their budget, with the same level of care and attention. Kat's expertise and genuine love for her product make her an exceptional salesperson who goes above and beyond for her clients.

Contact Kat -

Website - https://katmorrow.com/

Phone – 414-403-8700

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-morrow-a6ab196/

 

Leighann Lovely: Welcome to another episode of Love Your Sales. I have Kat Morrow joining me today. Kat has 30 years in sales. She is the former owner and CEO of Robert Hack Diamond, where she spent 20 years there. She is a graduate, with a gemologist degree from GIA, currently she's the owner and CEO of Kat Morrow, private gemologist, specializing in procuring fine diamonds and jewelry, [00:02:00] custom designing and jewelry appraising for private clients.

And she loves. Diamonds Kat. Welcome. I'm so excited to have you join me today.

Kat Morrow: Oh, good morning, Leighann. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. I'm excited for your business and to share my love of, um,

Leighann Lovely: jewelry and my love of sales. Yeah. And I find, um, I find what first diamonds I loved. What woman doesn't love diamonds?

Kat Morrow: right. I'll run into someone, but then maybe they love color gems. So that's

Leighann Lovely: okay too. , right. If, if I had, um, if I had the money, I would turn my, um, it would turn my little, my little fake necklace here that I, I made myself into a, a real diamond around my neck. But, um, I, you can make it happen. Yeah. for free.

No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. One day. Hey, one day. [00:03:00] So I, I'm wildly interested in the how. , selling and working in this industry, , works because as we were just kind of talking, this is a very different type of sale because there is a lot of emotion associated with sometimes large, well, even small, even small purchases.

Let's, let's first talk about, you know, just in general, how do you work with and engage? Your clients.

Kat Morrow: Okay. Well, I think the biggest thing is, is that we have to be authentic in what we do. And so, um, the type of sales that I do, as you mentioned, is very emotional purchase. It's something that people. Um, you know, they want an experience with it's not just, uh, very rarely an impulse buy when they're buying an [00:04:00] engagement ring or an anniversary or, you know, for some special occasion or even buying for themselves personally.

Um, they want to, you know, have. Have an emotional attachment. There's a feeling that goes along with that decision because they're buying something of value of, you know, lasting value that hopefully they're going to enjoy for many, many years and then pass on to someone else and, you know, important in their life.

And so, um, you know, the approaches that, um, you know, I'm. I've always focused on being very relationship focused versus transactional. So this is not a transactional type of sale at all. This is something where you have to, um, you know, build that trust with the customer and, you know, maybe you don't make the sale on the first, um, meeting with the client, but.

You know, if you've taken the time to really learn [00:05:00] about them, their interest, it's, it's kind of like really in, in most type of sales, you have to do a lot of, um, legwork to find out exactly, you know, what's the occasion, what's the purpose, you know, how, you know, you know, I don't even approach budget in the beginning because I really want to find out all about them and the person that they're giving this to.

And, you know, why they are deciding to, um, gift or purchase jewelry for this particular type of occasion. So that's, you know, that's really important is just getting to know your client and, and they have to know that you really have a direct interest in, you know, their life, their purpose, not just, you know, what can I sell you?

So if that makes sense.

Leighann Lovely: It absolutely makes sense. So, you know, there's a common thread when I talk to, you know, to everybody, it's, it's one, you have to show up, right? You have, and, and I don't say [00:06:00] literally walking in the door and showing up, you, you as the salesperson have to show up emotionally, mentally, physically, you, you have to be there.

Mm hmm. And then really engage to get this information. Right. But it seems to me that there is another layer to this, that, you know, we, when you walk into a business, there's very much a gathering of the facts. And that purchase is, while there is emotion involved, they, they want to have a good, happy feeling when you walk away.

There is a fact, factual, you know, does this meet all my boxes? And they're walking away going, okay, let's, let's compare and contrast on a factual, logical [00:07:00] basis. Whereas, I'm not, I'm going to guess cause I, I have never sold diamonds. I've never sold something that somebody is going to stare at, look at, have, feel, get a feeling from, you know, I'm married.

I got my engagement ring. I look at it every day and when I look at it invokes an emotion in me. Yeah, absolutely. Which means that the person who's buying this from you wants to invoke that emotion. Right. So when they're buying it, they're going, those boxes are so different. And the experience that they're going through when they're working with you.

It's not logical the way that most, [00:08:00] yes, there is some logic involved. You made a, you're right,

Kat Morrow: but it's more emotional than just, you know, I mean there is a compare and contrast, especially if they're buying a particular size or quality diamond or whatever. But in general, it's, it's very more of the gut feeling, their intuition, their instinct.

Yes. So how do you play

Leighann Lovely: to that? Yes. And maybe that's the wrong word. I don't know. How do you,

Kat Morrow: I think that's, that's, that's actually, yeah. How do you, you know, kind of hone in on that and capitalize on, you know, getting, getting on that level with them. And, you know, I guess, you know, to back it up a little bit, I have to say that, you know, I'm not an expert in sales, but I know.

What, what works for me and what works for my client. And that's through many years of, of kind of trial and error and perfecting all of that. Um, but I think, you know, the, the best way to describe it is that you have to go [00:09:00] into any interaction with a client, whether it's the type of selling I do or business to business with a hundred percent.

Um, passion and confidence in what you're doing, because if you don't believe in your own product or service, if you don't, um, you know, believe in yourself that you have, you know, the best ability to present and to deliver to that client, um, then, you know, you're, you're not going to operate from any kind of integrity or authenticity.

Because I love diamonds and jewelry so much. I don't think I could do as well selling, you know, computers or things that that don't have, that don't resonate with me as much, but I've always loved jewelry from like little on. , so. You know that it's like I love my product. I love my diamonds. I love my jewelry.

I love looking at them. I [00:10:00] love appraising them. I love trying them on. I love putting them on my clients for them to try on and and I love educating them about it. And that that's because

I have such a deep seated passion and love for my my product and my services. So. I think that authenticity comes across to my clients, and then that puts them more of in a relaxed state because they know that I'm not just trying to sell them anything.

I'm trying to sell them the thing that's going to be Lighting up their eyes, just like when you look at your engagement ring every day and love that. I want them to, you know, love and cherish their jewelry for many years to come. So that comes from my passion imparting that on to clients and then, you know, getting them excited and, you know, bringing in some technical things, but, you know, just [00:11:00] trying to keep it,, fun and asking them, you know, how do you feel?

Try the sun, you know. How does this make you feel? How do, how do you look in this? What, what do you think? And so, you know, it's, it's quite different than, um, you know, like I said, the transactional of doing business to business. You got to keep the conversation going. You have to keep it very, very personal and, you know, but knowing your boundaries, obviously.

Um, but I think the more clients trust you, the more they're going to open up to you. So, um, I think we're all,

Natural born salespeople, believe it or not, some people say, Oh, I don't know how to sell or I don't, I don't love selling. But when you think about it, you're, we're all, um, we're all salespeople.

We sell ourselves every day and in so many different situations. And so when you're when you're focused in on working with a client, and you know, whatever business you're in, you have to realize that You [00:12:00] do this every day, you know, you are a salesperson every day. And so now you're just bringing that culmination of all your knowledge and experiences and care and concern for your customers, you know, to find the best thing for them.

So I think once they know that, , then it's easy for them to kind of let down their guard a little bit and share, you know, what is motivating them to buy. Does that make sense? It

Leighann Lovely: absolutely does. And I got completely wrapped up in what you were saying, because it's just listening to you. And, I can tell and see.

 The passion that you have, I mean, it's, it's, and if you're just listening to this podcast, I mean, if you, if you, if you jump on and you watch, you know, this right now, the clip of, of Kat talking about her passion for, , you know, for diamonds and jewelry, it's, it's, it's amazing. I can see it [00:13:00] in. In your the way that you're talking about it.

It's unbelievable. Um, there's no denying how much you enjoy what you do. And I'm going to guess that that comes out, you know, I'm ready to buy. What do you have? Yeah, well,

Kat Morrow: you know what you mean? You talked earlier about preparing yourself to, you know, coming into the right mindset. Now that just doesn't mean, you know, mentally preparing yourself like, okay, I know my, I know my products, I know my services.

Yeah. You have to, you have to physically, emotionally, and spiritually prepare yourself as the salesperson. You have to, you know, show up in a certain way because let's face it. There's, there's, there are competitors out there and that's okay. We all actually can be, um, you know, motivated by having a little competition too, but if you don't show up.

You know, with, with joy, with energy, with life [00:14:00] in your voice, you know, with, with, um, you know, just looking your best. Okay. And that doesn't mean that we always have to wear the most expensive things or be in the best physical shape or whatever, but if you've put in some effort to make yourself show up in the best possible light to your customer, that sets you apart from your competition right there.

And they feel like if you've taken the time to put that much care into yourself to mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally prepare yourself, then They're going to take care of, they, they feel like I'm going to take care of them in the same way, if that makes sense to you, is that I want to share my, my space with them and pull, pull them into that as

Leighann Lovely: well.

So, absolutely. I mean, there, there, there have been people who have, [00:15:00] who, I've walked away feeling bad that I can't buy from, from somebody because they've put forth so much effort and they've done such an amazing job at the presentation or the pitch or the right. And it's not even the presentation or pitch.

Well, it is. It is. You just don't realize that it's their pitch, which is when you, when you realize that you're sitting across the table from somebody who is the greats. When you've been, when you've been pitched and you go, wait a second, did they just completely and totally pitch me and I want to buy from them and that that's when you know that you're sitting across the table from somebody who has reached a level beyond.

Great. Because you're like, I mean, all, everything in you goes, I want to buy from this person and I'm going to find a way to do it. And then you walk away [00:16:00] and eventually when you either can buy or when you do buy, the only person you think of.

Kat Morrow: Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree. I can't tell you how many of my clients become my, my, my friends, like my family, because you know, we, we do connect on such a, a deeply personal level because of the emotion and this type of buying.

And it's, it's joyful, you know, because, um, because then I know they're going to refer people to me or that I'm going to get future business out of them or whatever. And I've been in that situation too, where I've maybe not been in a position where I could buy from someone that I connected with, like, like you just described, but then maybe you refer someone to them.

You just give them a good review or you do something to reward them for, you know, being such, such an exceptional person. So.

Leighann Lovely: Right. Well, that's, that's, that's absolutely amazing. Yeah. [00:17:00]

Kat Morrow: You know, I have to tell you, I love the name of your company, which is love your sales. Because if you, if you love your sales, that's another way of saying love yourself.

Because if you don't love yourself and what you're doing and your product, and you don't believe in yourself. You cannot project yourself properly to your customers. So you, you've got to love the industry or in the business that you're in. I mean, you know, even if I always tell people we are all CEOs, like sometimes they'll say, what do you mean?

I don't own a business, but we're the CEOs of ourselves. We are our own brand. And so, you know, what is the brand that you're presenting to your clients? And what I'm presenting to my clients is, you know, that I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that they're happy, the [00:18:00] gift giver is, or the gift receiver is happy, and I'm going to go out and procure something for them, like I was doing it for myself or for my own family, because each person is important to me.

And it doesn't matter if they're spending, and this is key too. You have to treat the person that's spending a thousand dollars the same as you would treat the person who's spending thirty thousand dollars because you don't know that they couldn't refer someone to you that's, um, you know, going to buy something more expensive or whatever.

But to me, it's like, Part of that relationship building that thousand dollar customer. That's as important a sale to them as it is for the person who's buying something more expensive. So to me, it's, it's no difference. I'm, I'm treating everybody with the same level. And I, I have to tell you, I used, I, I don't like the.

Um, the expression under promise and over deliver [00:19:00] that's kind of, you know, like a main stages under promise. And then when you deliver great, they're really going to be grateful. No, you, you promise that the level that, you know, that you can deliver. I never under promise. I mean, if I can over promise and I'm already up here, that's great.

But I never under promise. Like I know what my value is and my worth is, and you know, the product and the service that I can deliver. So I set my expectations super high. And then if I go over and above that, then that's, that's a job well done.

Leighann Lovely: So that's amazing. Yeah. Now, now you made a comment that I, um, so, and here's something, you know, the referral, you treat the customer who buys a thousand dollars the same as you treat a customer that buys 30, 000.

And this is something that I often hear like in networking and people who will be selective in who [00:20:00] they. Um, talk with or meet with or schedule their time with, which I can understand people who, but here's, here's something that you, with what you said, it is vitally important that treating everybody, a customer, a buying customer, a non buying customer, you know, and, and this I'm going to refer back to, um, I was at a networking meeting and somebody goes, well, you know, the, the Mary Kay lady said that she wanted to do a one on one with me.

Why would I meet with the Mary Kay? Lady. And I'm like, because the Mary Kay lady knows absolutely everybody. And she will introduce you to everybody. She's a master networker. In fact, she could be sitting in front of the wife of the CEO of [00:21:00] the largest company in Milwaukee. Right. And, and I, I can't stand it when people discount.

others for what they think they're valued at. Right. And it, it absolutely drives me wild. I understand, you know, scheduling your time. We can't meet with everybody. Right. We still have to do the work. But you, the idea that a salesperson would discount somebody's value without ever taking the time to get to know somebody, that is vitally important to your success.

Right. Mm hmm. Thanks. Right. And could ultimately damage you. Right. If you are discounting people because you are choosing or saying that outright, that well, that person's only [00:22:00] going to spend 50. Why would I want to waste my time? Because that person who spends 50 could have or could know somebody that could spend 100, 000.

Right. Right. Right. Well, it's a

Kat Morrow: person who doesn't value relationship building then they're looking strictly for the here and now and that's short term gain and long term loss.

Leighann Lovely: So right. And so I love that you made the point to say, Oh, I, I treat each customer the same. It doesn't matter. Because that is, that is the key to having your referral base and, and, and trust me, I'm not a 30, 000 buyer.

I am your, I am your 1, 000, your 1, 000 to 3, 000 buyer who's [00:23:00] like, uh, that doesn't mean that I don't have friends who have 50, 000 rings on their finger. Right. And, you know, again, and this goes back to

having a army. An army of people out there that when they say, Oh, you know, I'm, I'm considering buying a gift for somebody. or especially of a certain age. If you have, you know, a whole bunch of people in the late twenties, early thirties, is that the general marriage age now? I'm not a hundred percent sure.

Kat Morrow: Yeah, actually. Yeah. Mid to mid to late twenties for engagements, um, been into early thirties, a little later than it used to be. It is. It

Leighann Lovely: is later than it used to be. You have a whole ton of referrals in that [00:24:00] age range, right? I mean, even if you just have 30 people that you made really happy. They refer one person, that person refers a second person that refers a second person refers a sec.

That could make or break your year. Oh yeah.

Kat Morrow: And you have to always reward those people that refer to you in some way or another. It doesn't always have to be a. You know, a gift card or, you know, it has to be at least a thank you, a call to say, Hey, that's really awesome that you, you know, send someone over to me, you know, you've got to acknowledge that, you know, and, um, and, and then make sure that you follow, follow up with all those referrals and those leads.

I mean, you know, the key is in. You know, just, you know, staying not hovering over people, but you've, you've got to, you've got to reach out and you've got to stay in contact with people and things like that and have proper follow through. But always think those people [00:25:00] that are referring to you, they're golden.

Um, you know, some of my best referrals have been from smaller sales or people that I haven't even charged for anything that I've done. Um, things just gratis because whatever I didn't. feel it was appropriate to charge because it was a quick thing or, um, or something. And it seems like I get great referrals and, and Google reviews from those type of people that are just happy that they thought that their purchase or their referral or their question was small, but it wasn't small to me.

It's all important because, um, Because they didn't know the answer to the question and I did. And so I was happy to be able to provide that service or that information to them.

Leighann Lovely: So, you know, and sometimes that is the, is the most important thing. Somebody comes to you and you're like, Oh, I can help you with that.

And you quickly, it takes you 10 minutes. [00:26:00] It would have taken them two hours. Right. And they are completely grateful. For your help and they go and give you a review because of something that you didn't even think of like you, you were like, Oh, yeah, that's I can get you that information or I can help you with that really quick.

And for you, because you're in your industry. It's, it's, you don't even think like, Oh yeah, I can. And all of a sudden for them, it means the world, right? And they turn around and they're like, Oh my God, that she saved me like three hours or four hours of research and floundering around. And that happens to me all the time where I'll reach out to somebody and I'm like, I'm completely a perfect example.

I was trying to change, legally change my business name. I have been working on it for a month. Okay. And I talked to a tax accountant and he goes, here's [00:27:00] what you do. I went and I followed his instructions. It took me 15 minutes. There you go. I'm like, what's the, I've been working on this and it was like, Oh, well this was really easy.

It's like, because there are people out there who know. Like, they just know that's their area of genius,

Kat Morrow: right? And so they're happy to gift you with that and, um, you know, that's, you'll remember that person, you know, and refer clients to that, that particular accountant. Absolutely.

Leighann Lovely: Correct. He specializes in business.

You know, in that particular area of businesses and he understands how all of that stuff works. And I was like, well, maybe I should have just gone and asked somebody like, and those are the things that may make or break businesses of being able [00:28:00] to gift. Information that become now, Kat, how much of your business is referral?

Kat Morrow: Well, um, I would say a good percentage now when I had the jewelry store, when I own the jewelry store, I did, um, a lot of advertising, you know, traditional, uh, television, radio, newspaper way back when, um, because we were talking about in the nineties and early two thousands. And so. Um, I relied a lot on people walking through the door, but now that I have my, you know, private business, I don't have a physical store location.

I work in person with people online. Um, and so a lot of my business, I would say at least 50 percent of it comes from, you know, referrals or former clients. And, you know, I mean, I still do social media. I still I still do, you know, events where I do vendor tables at country clubs. I hold trunk shows. I try to [00:29:00] do different things to get my name out there.

You know, this is a perfect example doing this podcast, which I'm so appreciative of. Um, but I just, I'm trying to. Show people that there's a different way of doing business, you know, especially since covid. So many things went remote and there were actually a lot of jewelers who closed their stores and went to more of a, you know, private by appointment like I do, but I feel like now I can even focus in a little better on my clients because I'm not so scattered running all these aspects of my business administratively and I can focus just on.

The relationships with my clients and finding the best, you know, products and services for them. And so, um, and I can offer it at a, you know, a smart, smarter spend because I don't have all that overhead and I don't have all that, you know, kind of stress and chaos going on. And so I think because I deliver that real [00:30:00] personalized attention, you know, people are loving giving me those referrals.

So, and I'm so appreciative of

Leighann Lovely: that. Well, that's amazing. And we're coming to time. So here's your, you know, shameless 30 seconds. How do people reach out to you? You know, again, your business name, give all of the, the short and skinny on if somebody does want to schedule an appointment with you, go ahead and give us that information.

Well,

Kat Morrow: you know, I always invite people to visit my website because I think it's a, it's a really great informative, um, website. Uh, it's katmorrow. com, basically my name, K A T M O R R O W, katmorrow. com. On there, you can chat with me, you can schedule an appointment on my calendar with me. You can at least see all the different services and things that I offer in the products.

And I would say, um, you know. I don't care what your question is, what your need is, you know, let me try to help you with all of your jewelry needs, [00:31:00] whether it's, you know, buying a diamond, selling something, because sometimes you get jewelry that you inherited, you don't even know if it's real or not, I can help you go through that.

I can help you sell it. You know, there's a lot of different services as a gemologist that I can do. So, um, Or my phone number. You can call me at, uh, 414 403 8700. But all that information is on my website. So just go there and, um, I'm happy to chat.

Leighann Lovely: Amazing. Kat, again, the, your insight has been so much appreciated.

Um, I really appreciate you coming on today. It's been an awesome conversation.

Kat Morrow: Well, I appreciate you, Leighann. Thank you for doing what you do and giving me this opportunity and, you know, I hope that it, it helps someone, um, you know, maybe just one little thing is triggered in their mind and, you know, if anybody's in the sales industry that wants to connect with me also just to, you know, so we can kind of share because I'm learning from other [00:32:00] people too, you know, you're never too old to learn.

I've always been a, you know, a curious cat, I say, because Oh. And I want to learn more things too. So I'm appreciative of connecting with other people in sales as well. Awesome. Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much.

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