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Sales Enablement
Developing Sales training and tools for seasonal apparel collections
Company: Peach, B2C
Stage: Mid-stage, growth
Responsibilities: Market research and positioning, creation of sales tools, marketing strategy, collaborating with Marketing, Design, and Sales teams
Background
Each season, Peach released a collection of apparel designed for a particular segment of women. While the apparel itself was created with both the customer and the current design trends in mind, I needed to take that information and layer on the current state of the market; more specifically: what value could our clothing provide for our ideal customer based on what's going on in their lives right now.
Taking the Design team's trend research, I conducted my own market research, looking into the current state of our ideal customers. I compiled an internal resource that highlighted things like customer concerns about their families and careers, their mental and emotional state, and how all of that played into their thoughts around their wardrobe. The quote above is an example of taking a particular piece, fabric, or feature from the collection and positioning it within current fashion trends as it pertains to our customer.
This resource served as the foundation for the Marketing team's strategy for the season, driving everything from campaign ideas to website updates to event strategies.
Working closely with the Visual Design and Marketing teams, we created a seasonal training guide for the company's external sales force.
It's worth mentioning that Peach had a unique business model that included a sales force of over 300 independent "stylists" selling their clothes. So the training materials we created served a critical role, offering all the information needed to understand and effectively sell the collection. A few times each year, we took the time to speak with stylists to find out what information they needed to effectively sell our products, and we wove those learnings into the guide each season.
The training guide itself was the main tool for stylists. It included a range of information such as:
Sales tools
In addition to training, I worked with the Marketing team to create a collection of sales tools to promote each collection. Again, this was a unique challenge because our tools were essentially marketing materials meant for the external sales team in addition to needing materials for our internal Marketing team.
Each season, we reviewed data to see which sales tools were used by stylists, in addition to surveying them to find out what might be a useful addition. Over time, we tested a range of tools including:
For each of these tools, I worked with the Visual Design team to develop the format and content of each, keeping positioning and messaging at the forefront.