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Charlotte worked long hours side by side with her graphic
team, then with the printing crew, to produce a quantity of her new
posters in time for the spring New York retail sales convention.
When it looked as if the posters might not be finished on time,
Charlotte brought a toy whip to work and laughingly “cracked” it
throughout the office for several days. When the deadline was met,
she presented everyone with a customized poster that read,
“(Employee name) didn’t have to be crazy to come to work here,
but it helped!” Beneath the words was a photo of Charlotte
cracking her toy whip.
Sales at the convention were dismal. Orders from the Web and
in response to direct-mail catalog sheets were no better.
Telemarketing efforts to help reps stimulate retail interest
generated very little success. Finally, three of Charlotte’s oldest
employees came to her and suggested adding copy to the new
posters. They said they had always felt uneasy about the wordless
posters. They had always felt the idea was wrong for the market,
in spite of the local focus-group tests. Charlotte slept on it and
finally agreed.
During the next two weeks, she and her team ran the entire
new poster inventory through a sheet-fed press and printed quotes,
poetry and song lyrics onto every design. Charlotte discovered that
even the poster pictures on her remaining inventory of catalog
sheets could be overprinted with the new copy. And, because the
backs of the sheets were blank, she could imprint store addresses
(along with a discount offer) ... then simply fold, stamp and mail
to her market. Then Charlotte and the team members who
suggested the revisions flew to New York and presented the new
posters to the sales rep team.
Sales crept steadily upward during the summer and fall, then
jumped nicely during the holiday-buying season. The results?
Charlotte’s team lost only 11 percent of projected sales on the new
line. And, since the teen poster line had exceeded projections by
12 percent, the firm was 1 percent in the black!
At a special dinner party for “The One-Percent Gang,”
Charlotte announced plans to establish a “New Idea Review
Committee” made up of employee-elected team members whose
goal would be to develop, test and approve new product ideas —
The Five-Step StaffCoaching™ ModelC A S E S T U D Y