A Brief Introduction
I've lived two separate but related work lives; the first in
Retail, and the second in Retail Technology.
My first life was in retail, with over 15 years of
experience ranging from Store Manager, to Regional, to Director, to Vice
President. In fact, a vast majority of
my retail experience was in very high-service specialty retail – more
specifically in custom and made-to-measure men’s apparel. I like to highlight the made-to-measure
aspect of my experience because it brings to light two factors which I believe
to be highly relevant to my second life in technology.
- Made-to-measure clothing is a very difficult sale. It is difficult for a variety of reasons such as the price-point, the length of the sales process, the length of the time to deliver a finished product, and the level of expertise required to sell the product effectively. But perhaps more than any of the items listed above, made-to-measure is a difficult sale because it is not a finished product. In order to effectively sell, you must be able to not only understand your customer’s wants and needs, but to also be able to paint a final picture of the finished garment, and tell an effective story about the benefits. Trust me, it is far easier to place a garment on the shoulders of a man who can see how well it looks on him, than to place a swatch over his shoulder to ask him to imagine.
- Made-to-measure is also a very relationship-based type of selling process. Future sales come from a thorough understanding of the customer – their lifestyle, travel requirements, type of business, fabric and color preferences, and more. Follow-up on an initial purchase was important, but more important was identifying the next opportunity, and to always personalize each outbound communication. Perhaps more than any business it was highly focused on the concepts of Clienteling.
While there were many other skills I have learned in my 15 plus
years (such as fashion, textiles, patterns, training, operations, etc.), the
core skills of building relationships and the mechanics of the sale have served
me well throughout my career, and positioned me to understand the benefits of
Clienteling at a very personal level.
My second life in retail technology was borne out of my
made-to-measure clothing experience. While with Brooks Brothers I was
intimately involved in a body-scanning project for the measurement and delivery
of made-to-measure shirts and suits. Through one of our suit manufacturers I
was introduced to Bryan Amaral, the CEO of ImageWare Technologies, a solutions
provider for the custom clothing industry. The solution provided by ImageWare
was a unique combination of Clienteling tools and made-to-measure configuration
and order transmission. It was a perfect fit for the Special Order department
at Brooks Brothers, and I went live with it a few months later. Unbeknownst to
me, ImageWare was in the process of closing a sale with a luxury department
store to entirely revamp their made-to-measure department, and a few months
later I was employed by ImageWare to help in the details of that important
project.
While the made-to-measure business had considerable promise,
it was clear that to reach a real critical mass, the software solution needed
to focus more on the needs of the retail industry as a whole, and not just a
small niche market. Over the next couple
of years we redesigned the solution to focus specifically on the needs of the
broader Retail market, and more specifically on the features related to
Clienteling. As part of this initiative, the solution was also developed on a
mobile platform (then the Windows Mobile PDA). This mobile deliverable caught
the eye of Jerry Schwartz, the Chairman of Symbol Technologies (now part of
Motorola), where ImageWare was then acquired by Symbol.
While part of Symbol, the solution was further enhanced using a
more sophisticated Services Oriented Architecture (SOA), and I began to hone my
skills on software development and on technology as a whole. I began a Masters
program with NYU Polytechnic focusing on the Management of Technology and Innovation
in Retail. After two years with Symbol Technologies we were given the
opportunity to spin off as a new entity, and Retaligent Solutions was born.
Throughout my years in technology, I have held a variety of
positions including Director, VP, COO, and now CEO. My responsibilities have covered virtually
all aspects of the retail software business, and I have had the pleasure of
being engaged with Development, Services, Support, Sales and Marketing. I have also had the pleasure of focusing on a
set of solutions that fit my prior life in retail. As a result, I am
approaching nearly 30 years of real-world experience, and in all facets of
Clienteling and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) engagements. Retaligent has engaged with some of the most
prestigious retailers in the world, and my learning and understanding of each
unique business has been extremely fulfilling. With the acquisition of
Retaligent by Raymark, I have been yet further rewarded by being provided the the
ability to learn and contribute to such an exciting business, and an amazing
product platform. The recently released
Mosaic product really is like no other.
Clienteling and CRM are businesses I know and understand,
but equally are businesses I love and about which I continue to be
passionate. As I add to this site, a
vast majority of my posts will likely focus on Clienteling, Customer
Centricity, and other in-store retail initiatives; however I do reserve the
right to meander occasionally into other passions of mine, which may well
include made-to-measure, apparel, body-scanning and the like. After all, my
first life was thus far longer than my second, and it is a career of which I am
quite proud.
