LHH Rebrand. Is it enough just to give a company a new look? For Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH) the answer was no. After Landor (London) created the new brand identity, LHH engaged Carbon Design to give it life and help reposition the organization with buyers to sell a broader set of solutions.
For the past five months two Carbon teams have worked on new messaging, positioning and creative assets to give meaning to the identity.
LHH launched the new branding at an event in Dallas on January 22, 2020.
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by Katie Weisz Estimated read time: 1 Minute CEO, Scott Gillum, had the chance to be a guest on “AQ Blog and Grill” with host, Alan Quarry. As Alan states on his website, the show “dishes up food for thought on entrepreneurship, branding, startups and more in this video-based weblog.” In this episode, Scott shared more on the building of Carbon Design Co., how he has built consulting success around the idea of “working differently”, and how Carbon delivers value-based services thanks to the team and a “smarter not harder” approach. Follow the conversation here:
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“The best sellers are the people who make the product,” said my son as we were walking out of a store in a quaint town in Los Cabos, Mexico.
It was an interesting comment made after I had just purchased a pair of earrings for my wife in a jewelry boutique. The buying experience turned out to be an interesting “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” sales story, or in our case, the “Tourist and the Four Brothers.”
A few nights prior, after enjoying dinner in town, we walked the streets visiting local shops. The first jewelry store we visited was run by one of four brothers, all jewelry designers who had followed their father into the business. Each brother had their own style, which was reflected in their jewelry, shop decor and personalities.
The first brother’s store was white and teal, very similar to Tiffany’s. The display cases were decorated with high-end tequila bottles sprinkled among the jewelry, which immediately caught my eye. My wife, perusing the counters, settled in an area with rings while I chatted with the clerk behind the counter about the family and their business.
In working with my wife the sales person failed to realize that he wasn’t selling to a naive tourist but rather a very knowledgeable buyer who at one point in her career had managed a jewelry department for a high end retailer. A mistake often made by sales people who fail to do research on their potential buyers. As he pitched her on a ring she had intentionally requested to see, he failed to notice she was wearing one similar.
When buyers are in an unfamiliar environment, like we were, they will seek to find a frame of reference or an “anchor.” Something that they can connect to their knowledge base to aid in decision making. Being new to the store, and pricing in pesos, my wife “anchored” on a familiar ring. Trying on the ring she was able to assess that it was roughly twice the price and half the weight as hers. Now that she had a reference point, she determined that the store markup was about twice that of a US store.
The second brother’s store was bigger and had a vast selection of jewelry (and no tequila). The clerk, a niece of the designer, greeted us and carried around her calculator while following us around the store. A not so subtle message that she was ready to make a deal.
My wife found an area of rings and picked one out. As she asked questions, the store clerk mentioned they were having a promotion. She then tried to discount to close the deal which kept falling as we were walking towards the door. By the time we left, the price had fallen 40%, with an offer to call her Uncle to get maybe an even better price.
The last store we visited was white, simple and elegant. It didn’t contain a lot of inventory, in fact, one of the display cases was completely empty. The person working behind the desk was not a sales clerk, but an assistant designer who introduced us to the youngest brother in the family and owner of the store. He was the designer and told us about his creations apologizing for the lack of inventory.
We talked about his life, his education in London, and the fact that he didn’t want to get into the family business, but his love of designing drew him in. His real passion was designing furniture which he hoped to start retailing soon.
My wife found a pair of earrings and tried them on. As she did he explained the process used to give the silver hoops their shimmer along with the details about the gems used to enhance them. He brought over other silver earrings and pointed out the differences in the design process.
Deciding to purchase the earrings, we asked if they had a “promotion.” He said that Visa or Mastercard were offering a 10% discount on a purchase. The card companies, not him, offered the promotion.
As we were paying, I noticed a unique bottle of tequila sitting behind the desk. A dark blue bottle with carved symbols of the tequila making process along with the history of the Los Cabos area. He said it appealed to him “because as a designer” he appreciated the craftsmanship of the bottle. I loved the story (and the taste) of the tequila and he offered to connect me with the owner who lived locally to secure a bottle.
The first store tried to position itself as the Mexican version of Tiffany’s. The problem was, we had no prior exposure to the brand, so the brand promise and value were empty. The second store offered choice and price but made us question it’s authenticity and quality. (Given the amount of products offered we suspected the owner couldn’t have designed everything, and the discount made us question if the stone used in the ring was natural or man made.)
Later that night, I got a text from the store owner where we made our purchase, sharing the price and location to pick up the tequila. He didn’t have to follow up with me after we made the purchase but he did. It wasn’t an empty promise made to close the deal which happens far too often, but a genuine gesture.
In the end, my wife received a piece of jewelry she loves and I got a unique bottle of tequila but what we really bought, was the owner of the store. For the 20 minutes we spent in the store, a connection and relationship were formed through storytelling. It was both authentic and passionate, building a foundation of trust.
The experience made me reflect on the effectiveness of our sales and marketing efforts. What if we could train our sales people to act like “owners” or “designers” of the product; how might that impact their success? That question prompted another one which was, how many sales people ever receive training by the product group, or really know or understand the story behind the product or service they sell.
We can’t give the passion that comes with the pride in ownership, but we can train them to be storytellers, because as we experienced, buyers don’t buy from you, they buy into you.
As for the fourth brother, his store never opened. Guess it’s true, showing up is half the battle.
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The beginning of a new year can be a perfect time to pause to reflect on all the things in life and business that have shaped us over the past 12 months.
For Carbon Design, 2019 was a year of interviewing amazing people, making bold observations about sales and marketing, and predictions on what’s coming in business.
Join us as we look at our readers’ favorite posts of 2019.
#1 Do We Need Outbound Sales Anymore?
Our CEO, Scott Gillum, joined the Gartner’s Sales & Marketing Thought Leader Roundtable where he posed the question, “Do we really need outbound sales anymore?”. This question sparked a lively conversation that continued well after the meeting.
#2 Scott’s Interview with Carlos Hidalgo, Author of “The UnAmerican Dream”
When asked who the book was written for, Carlos stated,
“I wrote it from the perspective of an entrepreneur and a business owner and a professional. But it’s really a book to say, stop. What is the frenzy for and reassess your personal and professional relationships and define success on your terms.”
#3 Unlocking Growth by Learning How to Message to the Value Chain
https://vimeo.com/329172662
“Who invited marketing to the sales pitch?” It was said in passing, and intended as a joke, but the marketing team got the point.
The comment was made in a recent messaging workshop. The head of sales expressed his frustration at the messaging being developed by marketing. His point — there was nothing different. It sounded like the same sales pitch they had been giving customers for years.
“The odds of it happening are 1 in 1500 or .0007%, about the same odds of being randomly selected to come onstage at a concert hall. Similar to Courteney Cox being pulled on stage by Bruce Springsteenin his iconic Born in the USA video, of course without the scripting. And now that I’ve dated myself, yes, the odds of this happening increase with age.”
Read on more on Scott’s ill-timed detached retina- and the lesson he learned during his forced downtime.
Follow along in 2020 for more tips on marketing, business, and thinking differently delivered directly to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter at www.carbondesign.com/subscribe.
People, we have a people problem. The US unemployment rate once again hit a 50 year low at 3.5 percent this month. But that’s not the big story. Something more menacing is at work. The US crossed “peak employment” earlier this year — the number of job openings now exceeds the number of available workers.
This “crossing” has created a problem that now threatens to make buyers unreachable. It also changes the relationship between employee and employer. And it’s not just “skilled labor” (which gets most of the press) that is in rare supply it’s ALL labor.
Right now there are 400,000 entry-level sales positions on LinkedIn. According to CSO Insights, it takes 4 months to recruit a one and 9 months to make them productive. New hires who are mismatched for the role or company (15% according to CSO) turnover within the first 90 days. The time to recruit them could actually be longer than the time they spent with your organization.
With an average tenure of only 1.5 years and plentiful job opportunities, reps could and do leave before ever becoming productive. (To keep a revenue-producing position filled for at least 3 years you’re looking at least 2 hires, for 5 years at least 3 hires). And, you’re swimming in a very shallow talent pool, it’s become a decision of hiring a “warm body” versus an “able body.”
This is the reason sales organizations have become obsessed with hiring for the last few years. Crossing the “peak employment” threshold has only compounded the problem. Once demand exceeds supply, employees gain leverage. Add that to a generation, like Millennials, and you have a recipe for a whole new set of expectations that comes along with hiring. If you’re not providing a clear career path, advancement opportunities, upskilling/training, a vacation policy, etc that aligns with their expectations, they’re gone.
This “people problem” has unleashed machines to fill the void. Robo dialers are now making hundreds of dials a day, at a rate of 33 calls per connection (a dramatic increase from 3 calls to connect 15 years ago). AI has now made its way into ABM tools to try to help inexperienced reps be more productive and that’s about to create another problem.
We are now caught in a cycle of what Hank Barnes of Gartner termed “The Machine of More.” With Robo dialers now pounding the phones, sales has set its sight on outmarketing marketing — sales now sends more emails than marketing. This is all ending up on the doorstep of buyers, who according to Hank and Gartner, are now only spending 17% of their time during the buying process speaking with reps.
How did we get here?
Good economic times have created a mentality that there is a linear correlation between hiring and revenue — more reps equal more revenue. As if the number of deals and buyers are keeping pace with this expansion. It’s a number game, namely volume. Cast a wider net and bring back more fish…except that’s not happening.
CSO Insights’ annual Buyer Preference Study finds that only about half (53%) of sales representatives are achieving quota. So what are smart sales managers doing? Knowing that about half of the sales force is ineffective, they’re hiring (or trying to) more reps to make their numbers.
How do we get out of this mess?
Here’s a handful of ideas to consider for 2020.
Long term focus on new hires – according to Seleste Lunsford of CSO Insights, who spoke last month at the University of Texas Dallas Sales Summit, 60% of the sales organizations surveyed are not providing sales coaching. Let that sink in. We’re hiring entry-level positions, who might not be a good fit for the role, and we’re providing little to no coaching. Finding, training, coaching and retaining salespeople has to be a focus. Focus on hiring half as many reps and make them twice as productive.
Focus on conversion, productivity, and profitability – this “mentality of more” is not confined to sales. Investors, you’re complicit in this as well. If you’re working at a SaaS company with investors on the board, you have probably been given the mandate to work the numbers — X in the top produces Y out the bottom. That’s incorrect and it’s creating the wrong behaviors. To be rewarded in today’s market a startup has to focus on driving profitability. The easiest way to do that is to narrow your focus and double down on conversion rates. Do more with less, and do it better.
Watch for sales creeping further into marketing – as I mentioned earlier, ABM tools are using AI in the goal of helping reps become more productive. Here are two areas to watch that are dangerous. The first is DISC personality profiling. Scraping the digital domain, AI tools can build individual buyer profiles in about 2 seconds. In a sense, sellers can now create “one to one” personas that do not align with typical marketing created “one to few” personas. This conflict will cause mixed messages to be sent to an audience who is increasingly becoming tone-deaf. The second challenge is curation tools which allow sales reps to send what they believe to be relevant content to buyers in hopes of being “value-added.” It’s instant ammo in their email spam gun. It’s also a missed chance to use the information to generate more engaging thought leadership content.
Enable buyers – this is the key to changing the tide. Allow buyers to go as far into the sales process as they want and let them choose how and when they want to engage reps. Remove all barriers to information they might need to make an informed purchase decision. Provide digital guidance on how to find the right content specific to their needs on your site or other sites (this will require improvements in UX). Become the source of the most credible information available. According to Gartner, buyers don’t trust reps to provide ALL the information needed. Let buyers do the curation, and you facilitate the process of helping them find it.
Finally, If you take anything from this post, remember these two numbers. First, only about half of sales reps are making their quota, (a decline for five straight years according to the CSO Insight report). Second, 17% of the buying process is spent speaking with sales reps (down from 19% the previous year).
These are two lights flashing something is wrong. Buyers are signaling to stop, but instead of picking up that signal we are ignoring it and the machines are throwing more at them.
The reality that we face today is that the supply of sales reps now has exceeded the demand from buyers for them. We have reached “peak sales hiring.”
At the Sales Summit, I asked the audience how many of their organizations have asked customers what they want, how buyers wanted to be sold to, a grand total of zero hands went up. If you want to create a sustainable competitive advantage, especially if demand slows, find out how buyers want to buy. We have to stop shouting at them and start listening. The machine has to stop.
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It’s not unusual to find companies referring to their relationship with clients as “partnerships.” It’s common to find client logos on vendor websites. But how often do you see an agency or consulting firm’s logo on client websites? If you visit www.evepark.ca – that’s exactly what you’ll see.
Carbon Design, represented side by side with, a global architecture powerhouse, a world-class designer, and the project principal: the innovative green-tech engineering firm, S2E Technologies Inc. Under S2E’s leadership, these firms are inventing a new consumer category – one that integrates bold new ideas about housing and transportation – and radically resets the carbon footprint of both at the same time.
CASE STUDY
Did you know, that until recently restaurant owners only cared about the cleanliness of the food prep area? Most customers, and owners, assumed that if someone got sick after dining out it was because of food poisoning. That was until Carbon Design and Challenger Inc. helped “challenge” the norm by showing owners that half of the outbreaks in a restaurant were caused by people to people transmissions.
Now owners know where the “hotspots” are, and as a result, restaurant are cleaner than ever. Grab your face mask and enjoy a safe night out, but you may want to avoid the raw oysters 😉.
CASE STUDY
How do you do it? By giving clients and users what they want. Using the remaining budget that was to be used to update the site with the new branding we designed and built an entirely new site on a new platform. But audience needs are constantly evolving so the work never stops. Our team continues to audit performance and make improvements.
As a result, the two-year journey has paid off with the site being named #1 in the industry. Even more importantly, their key priority areas (site search, attorney profiles, etc.) were ranked in the outstanding category. Proving that excellence is a journey not just a destination.
