5 Action Points from skucamp, Palm Springs!

skucamp Palm Springs wrapped up last week with one of the most inspiring community gatherings we’ve witnessed yet! 

The event featured a new format with a speaker (or panel) sparking a conversation, followed by breakouts with suppliers and distributors in peer-led discussion groups that activated deeper connections and community building. The topics for skucamp were pre-selected by attendees in order of importance and included: leading and inspiring teams, supply chain challenges, sales, marketing, and more. 

Given how rich the topics were and how many ideas were shared by such an amazing caliber of pros, we were able to highlight (just a few!) key action points you can put into practice today!

(I) Design and invest in Yourself

Sarah Whitaker (Williams Advertising), Sean Mooney (Showpony), Alex Wier (Wier / Stewart) and John Vo (Whoopla) joined a panel hosted by commonsku’s President, Mark Graham, on the topic “Marketing is the New Sales;” sharing how marketing has taken a new priority in an age where digital has hit a new inflection point. From Sean and Alex’s focus on design-first thinking, to Sarah’s insight on her creative use of content, to John Vo’s insanely clever use of campaigns, it was clear that marketing is no longer just about image and message but about driving actionable sales results. John shared the ROI details on his most recent self-promo campaign, a kit that cost $7,000 to produce but delivered a whopping $413,000 in order in just six months. The action point from all attendees was clear: design for today’s sophisticated buyer and don’t just “do self-promo” but insanely invest in yourself and your medium by making your investment smart, sophisticated, and sales-focused. 

(II) Restructure & reinvest in your salesmakers. 

Salesmakers are no longer the role of one, lone wolf salesperson but rather, the combined work of a team. This shift in how we sell now was an opinion shared by Michelle Guetle (Callard Company) and Brett Boake (Score Promotions), who were joined onstage by Mandi Rudd, (Brand Energy). Co-hosted by Brian Gill (Thumprint) and Bobby Lehew (commonsku) on the topic of “The Changing Sales Game,” the panel discussed ways we could reinvent our sales teams and how to restructure roles to fit the new consultative dynamic. Plus, creative ways we could challenge our sales teams with quarterly incentive programs that include all roles (sales and non-sales) to inspire team growth. Agreed upon by each panelist, the one trait that the rep of today should hone is that of listening to customers in a way that humanizes the sales process. Mandy Rudd shared how she cut her teeth in sales by selling a limited availability advertising product and that flexibility and resilience is paramount to success. Action point from the sales panel? Review how sales are being done today by your teams. Is it being done by a personality or a group of personalities? And if so, does your compensation plan reward and incentivize everyone who works with clients?

(III) Practice Deep Empathy 

Catherine Graham, commonsku’s CEO, led the industry’s largest suppliers in a conversation about “Our Supply Chain’s Future.” Panelists included Jeremy Lott (SanMar), CJ Schmidt (Hit Promotional Products), and Chris Anderson (Hub Promotional Group) who talked about the complicated issues driving our current supply chain challenges. Jeremy Lott shared that our supply chain is not merely a supply chain but multiple supply chains even within the same product (ie, for a t-shirt: yarn as well as ink). The diversity and complexity of the multiple supply chains contribute to the ongoing crisis which includes three key areas: freight/logistics, raw material costs, and labor.

Chris Anderson summed it up best by saying that trying to foresee supply chain problems today is a lot like crossing a busy street, you look both ways (twice) and a plane falls out of the sky to hit you. Most of the challenges suppliers are wrestling with today are unforeseen. Though each panelist had a rough prediction on when things would smooth out, it was clear that we wouldn’t likely see our supply chain settle until Q4 of 2022 but that we could expect “an ascending year” of improvements after Q1. What was evident to all attendees was that it was a year of unprecedented difficulties for suppliers with the session ending on a personal note as each leader shared just how they were coping with such a difficult time. This leads us to suggest one key action point you can implement with your team right away: Practice radical empathy. You would be shocked at the levels suppliers are going to, to support this industry and keep customers happy. As critical partners, we must learn to continue to improve our communication (in both directions) and practice a daily, radical empathy. 

(IV) Market Yourself to Attract Top Talent

Day two kicked off with an amazing session led by Claudia St. John with Affinity HR Group on “Building an Inspired Team (The Post-Covid Edition)”. Claudia challenged and encouraged attendees all across the room with an intense round of highly actionable ideas to motivate teams and recruit top talent. Claudia talked about “the big quit” citing the radical transformation our work culture has experienced and how to capitalize on the opportunity. “Build a marketing strategy around recruitment,” stated Claudia. “Look to companies like Airbnb and how they use their hiring page to inspire people to come work for them, treat your employee recruitment just like your client recruitment.”

Claudia also suggested that most managers tend to hire from their gut instinct, which is dangerous and flawed. “Use a 3-part filter for hiring: base one-third of your interview process on panel interviews with candidates, one-third on likeability and whether they fit your values, and one-third on behavioral testing.” Behavioral testing is the one hiring practice many of us do not use but Claudia cited that their success rate skyrocketed to 93% after activating the right behavioral test. Action point: Start turning your design attention on your website toward attracting -not just the right clients- but the right employee and consider using Claudia’s 3-part hiring process as your new metric for success. 

(V) Invest in Tech That Advances Sales

The final panel was an interview featuring voices that represented every sector of the industry, from smaller distributors to larger distributors, suppliers, associations, and service providers. Panelists included Dale Denham (PPAI), Dan Pantano (Alphabroder), Kris Sorokwasz (ABGI), Catherine Graham (commonsku), and Quianne Perrin Savoy (Moore and Moore Merch) on “The Future of the Industry,” covering topics such as the end-buyer of tomorrow and the impact technology has on sales and ops.

What was clear from every panelist is that the buyer now is more sophisticated than ever before and that merch has reached respectability never before seen. That being said, where we invest our mental energy and our financial investments over the next twelve months matters the most, because the market is growing in demand and in economic strength. Dale Denham said to invest in shops, in pop-up shop experiences that help advance the sale. Technology is our greatest ally when it comes to leveraging our client relationships, from the ops efficiencies to activating sales opportunities, and if there is one place where you should invest for future sales, it’s easy tech solutions like shops that allow for stronger engagement with customers. Action point: Decide where you will invest in tech for 2022 but keep in mind both ops and sales but mostly, make your investment intentional about moving the needle on growth.

“An Egoless Experience”

During the afternoon, Catherine Graham, commonsku’s CEO, and Aaron Kucherawy, commonsku’s VP of Success, mapped best-practices from the two-day event to in-platform action by talking about how to put the days of learning into action inside commonsku. Suppliers joined commonsku’s VP of Supplier Partnerships for a breakout session related to today’s supplier challenges. And each evening consisted of dinners and parties meant to facilitate the most dynamic conversations possible.

For those of us on the planning side of our first in-person event since the pandemic broke, it was a stressful experience to plan and prepare due to the complications and uncertainty around gatherine. But everyone on our team said it was worth every single worry. Someone told me after the event that skucamp was “an egoless experience,” with “no peacocking,” and as we watched million-dollar agencies sit beside billion-dollar enterprises -each huddled over their own creative challenges listening to one another with intention- we knew we had crystalized something special. Gone was our Covid induced stupor. Gone was the anxiety about how it was the first time in 20 months that most of us had flown anywhere, much less mingled in a large group. It was an incredibly intense and heart-warming time together.

A special thanks goes out to our friends and sponsors: SanMar, Numo, Spector & Co, SnugzUSA, chameleon like, T-Tycoon Solutions, and Batch & Bodega.

On behalf of the entire commonsku team, we can’t thank you enough for allowing us an opportunity to encourage you, and please know that you also encouraged us. We are truly honored to serve such a creative and passionate community.

If you missed skucamp, don’t worry! Join us at skucon on January 9th in Las Vegas. And if you can’t make it to Vegas, we’ll be live-streaming the event too, but be sure and register and we hope to see you there!