I’ve worn many hats over my years at Duke Cannon, helping the company reach new heights on every dimension, growing sales in all channels, and delivering strategic growth opportunities. As I joined Duke Cannon, as the first ever hire, the company wasn’t profitable. Throughout my time, and up until 2017 with minimal personnel, Duke Cannon’s sales grew to 7 figures. Throughout my time, I contributed repeatedly toward a 100% YoY growth rate. Below are some of my greatest hits.
Merchandising Development - helping the brand stand outAs Duke Cannon’s wholesale presence grew and I successfully positioned the company with reps across all 50 states, it became clear that the next piece of the puzzle for the brand’s continued success in its wholesale channels was finding a way to stand out. Retail, especially in the gift industry, can often times be described as chaotic clutter. At best, stores leverage merchandising techniques to offer a clutter-free shopping experience, but often brands still get lost.
The opportunity was clear. I conceptualized, sourced, and organized several merchandising solutions that brought the brand and the product to life, simplified the wholesale shopping experience, and drastically increased wholesale order averages.
Each display varied in footprint and assortment. They were designed with a common theme, taking cues from other industries, and intended to deliver a cohesive brand presence across a variety of store formats.
Core accomplishments:
- Display programs deliver 60% of wholesale channel revenue annually.
- Established key display manufacturer relationships
- Created easy to shop bundle assortment, reducing time to purchase
- More than doubled customer averages
- Increased in-store sell-through and, in turn, customer reorder frequency
- Elevated the brand in cluttered retail environments
- Expanded brand consumer reach
Early on Duke Cannon lacked any business awareness. We had no idea who was buying our product, when, how much they were spending, how frequently they were reordering, or who was selling it. We had a bit of insight with our consumer sales, but wholesale was a relative mystery.
It all started with a question…
Our investor simply asked me, “How many active wholesale customers do we have?” I didn’t know how to answer that question. What I did know, is that we had a lot of data from sources like our e-commerce order capture platform (Magento) and our shipping software (ShipStation). So I started downloading the data…all of it. Trying to find ways to tie it together and answer that one question.
Eventually, I had the answer. I developed a file that allowed me to continuously load in sales data, understand order patterns, identify order averages, track order frequencies, and much more. It gave us insight that we previously lacked. It presented us with the ability to make better growth decisions.
This file/database also gave me the ability to develop a robust forecasting model that helped me leverage historic trends, add levers, and project annual growth targets.
The file as a whole gave us a lot of complex insights we previously lacked. It also tied in with our rep team and gave us the ability to track rep metrics in a much more granular manner.
Core accomplishments:
- Built a robust excel model with a single data feed.
- Developed an forecasting model with 80% accuracy.
- Provided business metrics on the health of Duke Cannon’s largest channel.
- Provided continued awareness on: order patterns, order averages, new customer acquisition, customer attrition, regional penetration, and active customer numbers.
Duke Cannon started selling wholesale in November of 2013. With distribution limited to just a handful of doors, it was my objective to figure out how to accelerate our growth in our highest potential channel at the time – independent gift. I already knew that attending trade shows, something I eventually fully coordinated for Duke Cannon, was a clear path to acquiring new customers. But the challenge was that 9 months out of the year, there were no major shows. During that period, new customer acquisition was slow.
By the middle of 2014, I had hired our first rep group. At the start of that year I didn’t even know what a rep was. By the middle of 2015, we had the entire country covered. All in we had 170 reps across 7 different sales organizations. There was no rule or guide book on how it was done. I had to observe, ask questions, and adapt fast. I structured their commission agreements, executed training, and maintained a continuous dialogue with the sales team to answer any questions, challenges, etc. I was also responsible for our showroom merchandising, presentation, and show execution with each rep organization.
Core accomplishments:
- Hired a sales team of 170 reps through 7 different top sales organization.
- Coached, trained, and mentored reps to outline, meet, and exceed aggressive sales results in each territory.
- Worked with each organization’s leadership to maintain a strong and steady growth strategy within their respective territories.
- Added 1500 new customers annually all while increasing order frequency on an ever growing base.
- Continued channel growth at 100% YoY.
As Director of Sales, one focus are of growth was the acquisition of key accounts that gave the brand regional or national distribution. Many of these key accounts were selected for their brand fit and/or for the identified opportunity in bringing in men’s gift items.
I acquired distribution for Duke Cannon with the below accounts:
Core accomplishments:
- Contributed over $8MM in Specialty customer sales over the course of 4 years.
- Established strategic relationships with key retailers in various channels.
- Acquired over 3000 doors of distribution among specialty and national customers.