Having worked with many retail management teams, buyers, designers, merchandisers and planners and extensive experience in building and redeveloping sales teams, I know how to help a wide variety of people from start-ups to established businesses.

I offer a comprehensive understanding of and guidance through key elements of doing business in the fashion industry: merchandising and sales strategy, sales management, business development and organizational design.

In partnering with me on just some of the following services, the results you can expect include an improved bottom line, a thoughtful distribution strategy, impactful and well-edited collections, updated product direction, more motivated and productive teams, established best practices and reporting to ensure a successful selling season and consistent brand messaging.

Additionally, I offer my advisory services and expertise to private equity firms to support through the due diligence and discovery phases.

SALES & DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY:

• Support in developing quarterly, seasonal or annual sales plans based on your company’s structure, capabilities and long-term goals
• Develop realistic by-door and by-region plans and identify the relationship between production, shipping and sell-in strategy for success
• Organizational analysis  – determining the best sales and sales support/customer service structure for your company
• Training your sales staff – HOW TO: make impactful presentations to buyers, appointment and market preparation, market follow-up, closing the sale, phone selling and conflict resolution
• Support to analyze and impact seasonal sales and stock performance to meet internal and retailer margin expectations
• Create by-rep and by-account projection templates to track monthly progress to goals, identify new account opportunities and manage challenging accounts
• Distribution analysis and support to launch your brand in various channels including department stores, specialty stores and off-price
• Demonstrate how to organize and lead a successful sales meeting for domestic or international sales teams of any size
• Maximizing the web as a sales tool

MERCHANDISING & LINE PLANNING:

• Support to execute seasonal line plans from ground up including identifying key fabrications, color and trend direction, optimal SKU counts, core vs. fashion balance, and hindsighting
• Guidance to develop product to achieve internal and external margin requirements
• Line editing to allow for concise and impactful market presentations, smart seasonal product flow and impact on the retail floor
• Line/Product segmentation – key for larger lines or those brands looking to expand into broader distribution
• Merchandising and marketing ideas for your team to take out into the stores; creating strong relationships with specialty and department store staff
• E-Commerce support – Identifying the best merchandise mix, presentation of products and maximizing the “shopability” of your website
• Go-To-Market – Creating strategies to maximize the sell-in and sell-through each season. Including identifying key trends/big ideas and how to message them to buyers, minimum assortments, meeting seasonal sales plans and development of best selling tools
• Guidance on producing the most saleable and cost effective sample lines

BRANDING:

• Development of a comprehensive strategy to ensure all elements of the brand are seamless and aligned – including product packaging and labeling, marketing materials, website, sales tools, signage and messaging to retailers
• Guidance through potential collaborations and partnerships from strategy to product development

ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY & TEAM BUILDING:

• Provide thoughtful analysis of your company’s organizational needs and suggestions to build the best teams
• Guidance on best-in-class team-building and development of best practices to empower your employees and get the most out of your teams