Anthony, what were your first impressions during Minamoto training?
Positive. I am very pleased that Charmant is repositioning itself as a leading company in the titanium sector with a beautiful, innovative brand and a corresponding communication concept. We offer a very strong brand that differs from everything that our customers are used to from us. So I was really looking forward to the first impressions during the Silmo.
And now, after the Silmo, would you like to share your experiences with us?
For me personally, these 4 days were a real boost. Eric G. and I sold almost 500 pieces in 3 days, with Monday being a rather quiet day. Every presentation of the collection has been positive and I haven't had a single optician tell me that he or she doesn't like it. Nobody was surprised to see us in that niche with this type of product. For all of them, Minamoto fits our DNA perfectly and was exactly what we were missing in our portfolio. Each person had different favorites, of course, and at the moment I haven't been selling long enough to actually be able to say what the strongest models are. Maybe the model without the nose pads. That goes down really well.
The question of the price does not actually arise at all. I've even had customers for whom it wasn't expensive enough.
How would you like to start your day-to-day sales with Minamoto?
I definitely don't want to make the same mistakes as I did with CHARMANT by Caroline Abram. Here I have focused on my usual large customers without going to the designer shops and beautiful downtown boutiques first. I will now take a step back and see which stores I would like to see Minamoto in. This includes the analysis of my customer card index, which will enable me to identify the right potential customers that I would like to visit first. For example, I will not present the collection to everyone, like ATOL in Montargis (Leclerc shopping center), which has an extremely large range. I know they would take the collection to do me a favor, but this is clearly not the place for Minamoto in my opinion.
Do you have some tipps or advice?
1) Really take the time to tell the story BEFORE showing the products.
2) Personally, I only talk about the advertising material and the case at the end of the introduction. That's the cherry on the cake. There is another boost to the sales pitch when you show the washi paper. People's first reflex is to pick up the case and touch the washi.
3) Don't make it easy for yourself. Really take the time to analyze your area in order to place the collection with the right opticians.