Interview With Megan Crabtree, Founder of Crabtree Advisory

Laryssa Wirstiuk 00:08

Welcome to the Joy Joya podcast, where jewelry is joy and everyone is encouraged to add more polish and sparkle to the world. With topics ranging from marketing tips to business development, best practices, and beyond. This is the go-to podcast for ambitious jewelry industry dreamers like you. Hi, I’m your host, Laryssa Wirstiuk. Through this podcast I aim to empower and inspire jewelry entrepreneurs and professionals so they can thrive while adding more beauty to the world. I’m passionate about digital marketing for jewelry brands and I’m excited to share my passion with you. As we all know jewelry is joy, so I’ll gladly seize any opportunity to talk about it.

This is episode 171 and today I’m going to be sharing my interview with Megan Crabtree, the founder of Crabtree Advisory. Before starting her business, she built a long and successful career in the jewelry industry culminating in senior sales roles with several leading firms in the jewelry, retail and manufacturing space. She is a true industry veteran. She has personally provided training to more than 1500 Jewelry retailers throughout the US and Canada. She’s traveled the world and visited jewelry factories to solve quality issues in China, India, Dubai and Turkey. Crabtree Advisory helps jewelry manufacturers and retailers to streamline, improve quality and sell more. Their clients gain on average 30-60% more revenue after working with them. In this episode, Megan and I chat about storytelling and brand development specifically for manufacturers but also offering some great general tips, the secrets of successful manufacturer and retailer partnerships, tips for building and growing a product assortment in a strategic way and more. We also chat about an event that’s happening right when this podcast is being released. American Gem Societies Conclave and I’m specifically publishing this episode to correspond with this event. Both Megan and I are going to be speakers. We’re also going to be meeting in person for the very first time, so I’m really excited about that. But before we get to the solid gold of this episode, I’d like to take a moment to remind you that this podcast has both an audio and video component. So, you can either listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on YouTube by searching Joy Joya. I love creating this content as my act of service to you my awesome listeners and viewers and you can support the podcast for free by taking the time not only to subscribe, but also to leave a rating and review on iTunes which helps other jewelry dreamers find it too. In this segment of the podcast, I give out my sparkle award for the week.

During this segment I highlight a jewelry brand that’s impressing me with their marketing. The sparkle award is also interactive, so you can visit sparkleaward.com to nominate a jewelry brand that’s inspiring you these days. I might feature your submission on a future podcast episode. So, this week I’m actually spotlighting two brands Ariel Gordon and Mejuri, where two brands have both recently sent me direct mail marketing campaigns that caught my eye. If you’re watching the video of this, I have it up on the screen both of the brochures. I’ll also take pictures of them and in the show notes I’ll link to the photos so you can look at them yourself. So, Ariel Gordon Jewelry sent me a trifold mailer that highlighted some springtime looks as well it also had a discount code, and Mejuri sent a postcard reminding me to make a purchase for Mother’s Day. I liked both of these pieces of marketing collateral because they definitely caught my eye and stood out from my very overcrowded email inbox. I already do receive email campaigns from both of these brands, but most of them go unread and unnoticed and probably if they send me emails about Mother’s Day gifts or a spring style discount, I likely would have missed it. So, it’s nice that these pieces of direct mail really caught my attention and especially the Aerial Gordon one has some really beautiful eye-catching photography inside. Again, I’ll take pictures of those pieces and share them as a link in the show notes. As I mentioned, you can visit sparkleaward.com to nominate a jewelry brand that’s inspiring you these days and I might feature your submission on a future podcast episode.

So, let’s discuss some recent news related to jewelry or marketing. Each week I share my thoughts about three relevant articles. You can get those links by visiting joyjoya.com/signup. Once you’re on the VIP list, you’ll receive the weekly digest filled with new episode announcements. So, the first article is from Wired, and it’s about the future of copywriting for marketing, will it be generated by algorithms? This is a question that actually came up for me recently, thinking for my clients about the best approach for generating marketing content is it actually a person who’s going to be doing that or a combination of AI, and a person. Has that ever crossed your mind? From Facebook to Google to Amazon, more and more of our web usage is being controlled by algorithms. When it comes to creating effective copywriting, digital marketers are really beginning to embrace a text generated technology written by AI. This comes from services like Jasper, Open AI, and Content Edge, which all aim to create copy that generates more clicks and higher rankings on Google. Although these services make copywriting really fast, they highly advise their users to definitely edit and fact check content before they post any AI generated copy. Text generation tools are the next step in helping create content that boost a site’s search rankings. If you’re a solopreneur, or small business owner, and copywriting is a pain point for you, I would recommend looking into some of these tools because maybe they won’t replace the writing completely. But they could help you get out of blocks and help you generate content where maybe you didn’t have any before or maybe it wasn’t effective before. The second article comes from JCK. It’s called jewelry recycling gets radical through this collab and exhibition. So, the jewelry edit, radical jewelry makeover and ethical metalsmiths are partnering for a special collaboration, exhibition and sale. They collected donated jewelry from high end pieces to everyday consumables and participating designers and then they’re transforming these throwaway pieces into something new. I love this initiative because from a marketing perspective, it’s really raising awareness about the benefits and beauty of recycled jewelry and it’s also creating some visibility for the designers who are involved in this initiative. Some of the participating designers are Laureen West, Lauren Newin, Jeil Herland, just to name a few. The project which actually began in February asks jewelers, designers and consumers to really think about how jewelry is made. Also, the impact of its consumption and eventual disposal and whether the jewelry as a whole can really rethink this process for the better. The New to You jewelry designs will be showcased for sale at the jewelry library in New York from April 28 to May 7. Again, I think this is a really awesome initiative, raising awareness about an important topic and also providing exposure to designers who are participating in this program. Finally, you may have heard the news that Cartier is potentially or is definitely raising prices. So, this article comes from Yahoo Finance called Cartier CEO sees luxury demand withstanding rising prices. So, of course Cartier is one of the many high end luxury brands that plans on raising their prices to counter a multitude of rising expenses such as currency fluctuations, cost of materials, shipping and labor. The CEO Cyrille Vigneron said, “Any potential price increases by Cartier would likely be between 3 and 5%. The overall growth of world wealth and the overall distribution is coming in favor of global luxury and Cartier has had robust sales in the US, Europe, Middle East, South Korea and Japan. Unlike some other luxury brands with plans to open new stores across the US, Cartier is mulling brick and mortar stores outside of major cities like New York, Miami and San Francisco. Vigneron, the CEO has stated that ecommerce is really playing a vital role in the company’s planned growth. For Cartier their online sales grew 9% in 2021, up 1% in 2019. Even though online sales have slowed since pandemic restrictions have lifted, online sales growth remains robust and has helped Cartier also reach younger customers. All this could it be a sign of things to come? Could it be a sign of consumer shopping behaviors really interesting stuff? I’ll be interested to see how price increases related to the supply chain impact how brands handle their pricing strategies and their sales strategies moving forward. As I mentioned, if you want to get the links to the articles I share in this segment of the podcast, you can become a Joy Joya VIP by visiting joyjoya.com/signup. Without further delay, let’s get to my interview with Megan. Hey, Megan, thanks so much for joining me on the podcast today. I’m really excited to chat with you.

Megan Crabtree 10:38
Absolutely, I’m happy to be here.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 10:41
So, tell our listeners a little bit about how you first entered the jewelry industry and how your path in this industry has evolved over time.

Megan Crabtree 10:51
It’s interesting, I always say in the jewelry business, it’s very similar to the mafia. Even if you wanted to get out, you probably never could. I grew up in the business, my family had a retail store, my dad was a jewelry sales rep. I really started in the business in retail sales working my way from the ground up. I then transitioned to the national trainer of Simon G and covered all 1500 of his retail stores. Essentially lived in Hilton’s for like two years in between the US and Canada and then went back to the retail space. I worked for larger retail operations, worked my way up within the company’s as high as vice president. Then to create this full circle of the business, I actually left a great company and went on the manufacturing side and moved to New York, just to learn like what is the true cost of goods? What is it like in India? So that was amazing. When I was really successful on the manufacturing side, what I found was, I was successful because I knew the retailer, which was my customer. I knew how the buyers wanted to be pitched. So, I was very successful at it and so that’s why three years ago I founded Crabtree Consulting.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 12:08
Amazing. So, tell us a little bit more about your business, Crabtree Consulting, what makes it unique in the marketplace?

Megan Crabtree 12:16
So, when it comes to Crabtree consulting, we consult for jewelry retailers and manufacturers all over the world. We work on customized projects based on their opportunities and means every brand or every retail market is completely different. So, every client we work with different. I would say that when it comes to asking why we’re different, I don’t know that we’re different. But I can tell you what our customers think or reasonings why they think we’re different. One of the big things when working with Crabtree Consulting is we’re extremely hands on. When we take on a project, like let’s say, a bridal division, or a fashion division, we literally manage it from A to Z so that we can ensure execution. So, a lot of people can have great ideas, I can have great ideas, the brands can have great ideas, but execution is a whole different animal. So, that’s really our niche is providing that execution and making sure that the vision is exactly what the CEO wants.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 13:21
So who is the typical client that you’re working with.

Megan Crabtree 13:25
So really, the bulk majority of our clients are going to be the manufacturers and brands. About a year and a half into the consulting firm, we finally found where our map was, and where our niche was and it’s really working on the supplier side. The reason being is because we know their customer better than they do. Manufacturers they make products and they sell products, that’s what they do. But they’ve never worked behind a retail counter. They don’t know what it’s like to sell to the consumer and they’ve never been behind the seat as a buyer buying the product. So, because of that gearing those manufacturers and suppliers’ brains to think like the retail buyer it’s impacted their businesses substantially. Thank God, we were completely blessed through COVID and the average increase in the divisions we manage was 150% to 400. It was incredible. So, we were blessed through COVID.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 14:31
That’s so amazing. I remember the last time we chatted, you were talking about how your business has achieved such rapid growth in a short period of time, especially during this period of COVID. So, what do you think that these manufacturers are really meeting the most and not only that, like why now, why are they taking the action at this time?

Megan Crabtree 14:54
I would definitely say that in the retail space they’re quicker to adapt the manufactures. Like in the retail world when ecommerce became a thing and Blue Nile was launched, they easily adapt to that and learned how to combat people coming in with online sales or diamonds that they found. On the manufacturing side, they’re much slower. So, one thing when it comes to the manufacturers, like I said before is that, they literally build products and sell product, like, they don’t know what their data is, they don’t know how to run the reports, they’re not building a story behind their product and they have a big lack of streamlining within the different divisions within the company. So, with Crabtree consulting, where our wheelhouse is making sure all departments are on the same page in streamlining everything. So, working from the bottom with the factories that we have in India, streamlining that to the inventory team in the offices in New York, streamlining that to the marketing teams to make sure that they’re on the same page with product development, and then training the sales teams. So, that’s why I say we’re extremely hands on and that’s really where a lot of the manufacturers need help.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 16:13
Amazing. I don’t specifically like talk to jewelry manufacturers in this podcast. But I know that I have listeners in that category. So, it’s one another reason why I’m so excited to have you today because that is your specialty speaking to this group in the jewelry industry.

Megan Crabtree 16:31
Yeah, I think when it comes to retailers, really, we’ve worked with a multitude of retailers, typically retailers that are doing about 10 million plus, just because that’s our experience in our wheelhouse or the larger volume, kind of bridal powerhouses. So, we do a multitude of things with them. One big success story that we have is a workshop that we offer training retailers how to do in store events. The last workshop that we did the retailer increased the sales for their event, by 250%. So, that was like a huge win. Our biggest in store events, sales wise in a three-day period has been 2.2 million. So, that’s definitely something we’ve helped retailers as well with, along with inventory analysis, product development, we try to really be customized to each customer that we work with, just because every business is completely different.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 17:33
Yeah, that makes so much sense. So, on this podcast, I talk a lot about brand development and storytelling, but I’m mostly talking, as I said, to the direct-to-consumer brands, when I give my advice. I would love to know, why do manufacturers need brand development and storytelling as well? I think that’s kind of neglected in that space.

Megan Crabtree 17:55
It’s so neglected. They could even have a story, but are they telling it, like typically not right. So, that’s where the streamlining comes into play and it makes such an impact on the company, when it’s done. Is to work directly with those product designers in our factories, and be able to understand why they came up with that design? What was it inspired by? What makes it unique and different? Then streamlining that to the sales team. In so many instances, especially right before Vegas, every manufacturer is waiting absolutely last minute to develop all this new product. You even have some of them that it’s not even ready and it’s like shipped in two days after the show has begun, because they’re late. Because of that there’s no story for the sales team to be able to share with the retailers. It’s so important because I remember as a retail buyer, when you go to a show, what vendor does not have a round Halo engagement ring. Then on top of that, after you’ve been to 10 different vendors to look at, the product all looks the same. So, not only do you have to have a story behind your product and all of your product within these specific collections. But your sales team needs to know how to sell it.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 19:21
So, what are these retailers at the trade shows or the buyers, what are they seeking or craving to that would help them make the decision to purchase something when there’s like so much product to choose from?

Megan Crabtree 19:34
It definitely gets overwhelming as a buyer when you’re going from booth to booth to booth and, you go to a booth and you’re like, okay, tell me a little bit about your company and most of the vendors will say, oh, we’re a manufacturer out in New York. Okay, great. Everybody’s manufacturing. What’s different about you? So, one of the things we always recommend for our manufacturers is, when you have new buyers coming into your booth and they ask you what you do or who you are, be sure you can answer that strategically within 10 seconds. So, sharing things like problems that they probably have and why your company is the solution to that. So, if you’re a manufacturer that manufactures attorney bands, and you do everything in house, let’s say in California, and because of that, you can produce a piece from scratch in three to four days. That’s huge. Like most special orders for any brand, or any manufacturer, are 3-4 or 4-6 weeks. So, it’s important to point out those pain points for the retailer, and problems that they have and let them know that you’re the solution to that. You’ll then grab your attention to where they’ll sit down with you in the booth.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 20:54
Do most retailers have similar pain points? Or is there a kind of a process where you ask and qualify that buyer in order to understand how to solve their problem?

Megan Crabtree 21:08
Yeah, there’s a lot of common ones out there, like delivery time, or things that have to do with customization, like how quick you can provide a card. So, there’s a lot of common things out there, we’re actually going to contemplate at the end of the month, and we have a presentation that is based on trade show fundamentals. One of the things we break down is if you set up appointments in advance, or if you have a targeted retail list that you really want as a client, do your homework on them before they come to your booth. So, for example, if you sell complete live engagement rings, and that’s essentially what you want to pitch to this retailer, take a look at their website, see if they offer them now see what the quality looks like. You can see a little bit on a website and see what they’re charging by price point. When you then sit down with that buyer and say, I see you carry complete rings, you have a multitude of collections. But let me just share with you that, here’s a ring that’s similar to your website, it’s a third of a carat center. If you’re making a keystone markup, I can save you 30% on a complete ring like this. That’s impressive from a buyer. They’re like, wow, she actually did her homework, rather than just throwing trays upon trays at the buyers, your engagement rings, your wedding bands, like research is key before sitting down with a retailer.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 22:42
Sure. I bet that only takes a few minutes of time. It’s not like you have to do a deep dive into the customer.

Megan Crabtree 22:49
Yeah, its not like you have to do a data analysis or a homework report, like we’re back in school again, but just know something about them. I think it has to be something in business and something personally. So, if you see that retailer is giving back to a certain charity, that’s amazing to bring up to them, because that pulls the strings of their hearts, where it’s not like a pitch, you’re getting to know them. Like what is their why? Why do they give back to that charity? Then they might say like, oh, my wife actually has this. That’s something that completely breaks the ice and separates you from your competition.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 23:30
Yeah, that’s such a good point. So, I want to go back to what you said about the manufacturers and they’re telling the stories about the products and how you go into the designers and you ask them about like, why they made this product? What’s the deal with it? I think that a lot of people in my experience understands oh, I should be telling a story. But it’s, where do I get it from? Or how do I recognize that in my business? Then how do I actually communicate it? Do you have any tips around the actual getting the story out there?

Megan Crabtree 24:07
I think one thing that possibly what manufacturers can do is a case study or a survey, where they’re surveying retail buyers to understand them better, and to understand what’s valuable to them. At our firm at Crabtree Consulting, like this is where we play a big role in the product development, because we have our pulse on the business. We’re constantly in touch with the better retailers in the country. We know what’s trending. But aside from what’s trending, we also know what appeals to a buyer. So, some of the times it’s not that romantic story that you have to tell, it’s more so that you’re speaking to the buyer in their terminology. So, I used to always say like when I was on the manufacturing side, I’m speaking English as a manufacturer, to a buyer that speaks English. But a manufacturer speaks Spanish, to a buyer that speaks English, they don’t understand each other’s worlds. So, breaking it down to be centered and focused on what’s important to the retail buyer is key. So, for example, manufacturers that sell engagement rings, obviously, they have wedding bands that go with them. From a retail buyers world while that’s great that you have those options, when you’re buying into a product line, and let’s say you buy 30 engagement rings, now, when the manufacturer comes back to you and says, oh, well, you need all the wedding bands, guess what, that just doubled your order. So, if you work with the product development team in the initial stages of building those engagement rings, and you’re able to make a universal band that fits with all of those, and all they have to do is invest in three bands, white, yellow, and rose, but they match everything, what buyer would not buy that. Like that speaking to them in their terms, say, don’t invest in another 30 bands invest in three, because all of these stops like o’clock at three and nine and they’re going to be a perfect fit. What we also found whenever we have more of a strategic product development with our manufacturers, and it’s like, amazing to the buyers, they’re hearing this is that, they go in deeper. So, most manufacturers would say back to me like, well, why would I offer to sell three bands, if I could be selling 30. Because they can put them in other showcases besides your brand’s product, they can be a universal band across the whole store and they’re not just going to buy three, they’re going to buy 10, white 10, yellow and 10 rose. So, in the end, you sold 30 bands. So, that’s kind of just an example of what we bring to the table in terms of like building a story when you’re in the product development stage and not so necessarily doesn’t always have to be like emotional and romantic. It’s more so like, I know, my retail buyer, and this would be impressive to them and they’re going to be even more impressed when I’m recommending them to buy three bands and not 30. They’re going to think that they’re looking out for my better interest. So, that’s just one example of having a story and making it be appealing to the retail buyers.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 27:45
I love this approach to storytelling and having the product development process work hand in hand with that storytelling. So, one thing that I see very often because I work with a lot of direct-to-consumer brands, some like smaller independent designers, they are very much like right brained driven, they’re the creative types, they are approaching product development, usually from a more like the visionary, creative perspective, or it’s like I want to make this, like I think this will be pretty. Then after the fact trying to come up with some kind of like emotionally driven story around it. I really think that what you’re saying, even though you’re speaking directly to your manufacturing client, that this very same approach could apply to really any jewelry brand, to retailers even in the way that they merchandise, their stores. What are your thoughts about that? Do you have more to say about that?

Megan Crabtree 28:49
Absolutely. It’s almost like, before you create the products, like being in that product development stage, you have to think of how you’re going to market and pitch that and how it makes sense to who your consumer is. So, if you’re going direct to the consumer, or if you’re going and selling to the retailer that then sells to the consumer, like what’s valuable to them. So, if I’m a jewelry brand or manufacturer that’s selling directly to the consumer, I could possibly build stories on the pain points that the consumers are having out there and telling them I am the solution to that. Because that’s the same exact thing I was just sharing with manufacturers selling to retailers, like you have to be the solution to what they’re looking for. So, if the consumers out there and over 75% of them are shopping online prior to going into a brick-and-mortar store, what else have they found there online. Consumers get so confused with everything that’s online. Like where are their pain points are like, I don’t even know what to buy like a G color. I don’t even know what that is. If you’re in the diamond business, having like educational videos on why your diamonds are different, whether it be that there’s more transparency with your diamonds, there’s more trust with your diamonds, there’s more sustainability with them. Those are pain points within our industry right now. So, bringing those up in either situation, I think is valuable. I would also say that direct to the consumer, you could have some amazing like videos for storytelling. So, for example, when it comes to an engagement ring. A lot of people just design these typical, let’s say, round Halo rings, or even have a bigger problem when it comes to fancies, like pear shaped rings. Whenever they’re designing these rings, they do not think of the next step, and the next sale that the customer is going to buy. So, a customer buys an engagement ring, guess what they’re going to buy a wedding ring after that. What people are not telling them so this could be an unseen problem is that the head that is under the ring is sticking outward. Meaning that when they go to put a band up against that there’s a gap, it was not developed properly. If they would have actually, the head underneath moved it upwards, then the band would sit flush. So, doing storytelling online to say, are you getting an engagement ring that has a matching wedding band, and doesn’t have this horrible gap like that’s storytelling, that’s problems that they’re like, oh, my God, I didn’t even think about that. So, that’s just another example. We see it on the manufacturing side to retailers that they don’t think about those things in product development and it’s so important, because the bedroom retailers do think about that. So, when you’re pitching to those retail stores, you’re like, just so you know, every single one of our engagement rings has a flush fit band, so your customers will never have a gap within them and by the way, we’ve been sock all these bands. So, if your customer comes in, you don’t have the band, we can ship it to you the next day. Those are pain points that you’re bringing up to them. But they also start in making the right product in the product development stage to be able to say things like that.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 32:35
That was such a great example, with an engagement ring and I would say to you with the direct-to-consumer brand. Probably that customer knows, okay, I’m going to have to eventually buy wedding band, unless they just don’t know about that. But they’re not thinking about that when they’re shopping for an engagement ring because they’re caught up in the excitement of that part of the process. So, they’re not necessarily 10 steps ahead, okay, I’m going to need a band. But like you’re saying, if that education can come through the storytelling, and you can give a heads up and say this will be something you’ll have to think about and here’s why it’s important. You’re setting yourself up again, like you said, for that next sale and for that return customer and I agree a lot of people aren’t thinking about that. Speaking not a wedding jewelry, even like fashion, jewelry, how to style this? How can I build out my collection? How can I stack this? How can I layer this? How can I put more earrings, thinking in that product development stage, how you can get that customer to keep coming back for more and more?

Megan Crabtree 33:49
Absolutely, especially when it comes to stacking, we’ve seen it in the last couple of years, the sector has just like skyrocketed with self-purchasers that want to buy stackable bands, or stackable bracelets, or they want to layer and stack their necklaces. In that product development stage to be able to stack three different bands or three different bracelets or three different necklaces to where they only work all three together. You start with one bracelet but you sell three or it gets the customer to come back to your brand or your retail store. So, yeah, it’s key to really have a strategic process in place when you’re in that product development stage.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 34:37
Do you have any specific examples of brands or companies that you have worked with or even that you’ve seen in the marketplace that you think are really doing a great job with this?

Megan Crabtree 34:48
One brand comes to mind that I used to buy from when I was in the retail space and it’s a brand called Tacori. Most retailers are familiar with Tacori in the industry, and they’ve done a fabulous job in terms of storytelling, having a reason behind the product, and training the internal sales teams to be aware of that, and tell that story at the counter. Especially now more than ever, retailers need a story to differentiate themselves from the competition. Every retailer, when you walk in, they’re pulling out like a one carat GIASI2 whatever, triple excellent, how is your presentation different, and especially from the local market, and as well as ecommerce sites. Tacori has done a great job throughout the years, like building that story. So, they have one collection, that if you turn the ring actually upside down, the design that’s on the side is actually hearts upside down. So, there’s a reasoning behind their design. Whenever they’re presenting their product, they’ve done a great job using actually analogies that the consumers understand. So, there’s so many times in the retail world, direct to consumer world, every world in the jewelry industry where people are like, yeah, this is the shank of the ring, like shank? That’s not positive. Or like this is the experiment, they like walk into the retail store and they want to see one carat diamonds and the sales associates like yes, this is one carat F color SI2 excellent cut, no fluorescence, what in the hell did you just say? As a consumer, they have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. So, Tacori mapped out their rings and identified. So, for example, instead of saying Halo, they call it a bloom, that’s so much more appealing. Instead of a shank like you’re shanking someone, they call it a foundation. Instead of side diamonds, they call them spotlight of diamonds. They’ve made it sound beautiful and that’s a differentiator at the calendar. They’re like, what is the bloom, I want spotlight diamonds, oh, I love this foundation. This is beautiful. Rather than the typical dog and pony show that they’re going to get it every other retailer or every other website. It’s like, oh, my God, look at that yellow gold chain. So, Tacori has done a great job in terms of building that story that has to do with their designs, and then really educating the consumer as well as the retailers. It allows them to tell a different story at the counter and I think that’s one of the reasons why they’ve been very successful as a brand.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 37:44
Yeah, that’s a great example. So, this has been so informative. I love everything you had to say, especially the insights around the storytelling and the simultaneous product development. Is there anything else we haven’t touched upon today that you want to share with our listeners and viewers?

Megan Crabtree 38:02
I think I want to share a little bit about data.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 38:09
Go for it.

Megan Crabtree 38:10
It’s a common problem within jewelry retailers, it’s a common problem within direct-to-consumer brands, it’s common problem with the manufacturers selling directly to the retailers and that’s because a jewelry retailer is a jewelry retailer, a manufacturer is a manufacturer. They don’t think about data. Retailers have gotten better at this through COVID. Just because they had so much downtime. They’re like, okay, I need to look in what’s age, what’s selling, who I need to work with blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. On the manufacturing side, it’s a huge, huge hurdle. It’s actually one of our niches and how we start with a manufacturer is reviewing their data, editing their data, and then allocating their data properly. So, as a buyer, you walk up to a new booth, and you’re like, okay, what do you do? Hopefully, in 10 seconds, they say something that gets the buyer to come in and sit down. Then the buyer is like, oh, what are your top selling pieces? Oh, hold on just one second, while I go through 25 different trays, and it’s going to take me 15 minutes to pull out six different rings and then when I finally get to that point, then I’m going to hand this to the buyer and say this is a top seller. So, what’s a top seller? What I think is a top seller and what you think is a top seller is a totally different thing. So, what we train manufacturers and brands on is reviewing their data and editing their data in order for them to drive more data focused reports and streamline that to the team. So, the typical presentation they’re going through 25 trays, 10 minutes later, they pick out six different rings and they’re like this is the top seller. Whereas our clients, we will drive the marketing team to create packages so that there’s a story behind each collection and we’ll actually notate on that creative selling points based on the data. So, if I’m pitching your retail store, and I say, these are our top 25, sellers across the country, this ring alone sold 1000 units. If you purchase this package, it’s $12,000 and by the way, I’m going to do a one-to-one stock balance. How easy is that? They’re like, okay, yeah, that’d be great. If you’re not selling his packages, and you don’t know the data behind it, your retail buyer is going to buy one off skews, they’re going to buy six rings, like what does six rings tell on a story. But more importantly, you have to know your data and you have to give that to the sales team, so that your sales team can have highly educated meetings. Also, it’s not just about streamlining it to the sales team. You can take that information once it’s correct and utilize that in your marketing department. So, we talked about product development, what else happens in that product development stage is running the data focused reports. So, if I run the reports, and I have all my data properly allocated in collections, and I have the attributes of each ring, meaning what’s the halo shape? What ways are the diamond set, what color is the metal, and what collection that’s in and data is allocated properly. As a merchandiser, I would run the reports and say, Holy crap, 50% of our engagement rings sold, had a cushion halo. But my inventory, only 10% of my inventory has cushion halos. Now, when I go to do product development, I’m going to build 40% more engagement rings with cushioned halos, because I’ve had a good sell through on it. Right?

Laryssa Wirstiuk 42:13
Yeah. makes so much sense.

Megan Crabtree 42:15
Or if you’re looking at fashion jewelry, and you see a pair of earrings sells amazingly, can you expand upon that collection? If this sells so great, I should build four more of these earrings and multiple care total weight so the retailers can upsell, if they’ve already bought and sold that earring, why would they not purchase this? That makes sense to a buyer. So, what we find is manufacturers data is not correct in terms of style numbers, and descriptions. So, style numbers and descriptions, they never have a formula in place for these things and it’s so vital to the retail buyers. I was on the phone with a manufacturer the other day and he’s like, yeah, I get so frustrated that my retailers don’t enter the proper style number. Yeah, because you have 30 characters that make absolutely no sense. Of course, they don’t enter the right style number. But if you have a formula in place, all of your style numbers are going to be the same, you’re going to be able to see without looking at the piece, that’s an engagement ring, because it starts with the ER, or the same with the description, retailers want to put this on their website, they need a description. So, if in your descriptions, for a 14-karat white gold piece, you have 14 KW, and then some of them say 14KWG, that’s not a line, that’s not streamlined. So, we implement formulas for style numbers, formulas for descriptions. Then we look into their collections in their data to make sure not only they have the collections needed, and then we reallocate all the data so that we can run more data focused reports. The same thing goes for retailers, do they have the option to choose the halo shape in the center shape? Because a lot of times the cushion halo with a round center sells better than a round center with a round halo. So, do you have those attributes in your system so that prior to Vegas, you can go in with more data focus reports, and not buy a round center a round halo, but buy more cushion halo round centers. So, our middle name is actually data craft .

Laryssa Wirstiuk 44:33
I love it. One thing that stood out to me in what you said, especially when you’re talking about the manufacturers and the data, it sounds like not only is it helping internally in the sales process and like setting up your salespeople for success and setting up your marketing team for success. But you’re also setting your customers up for success because they’re going to be making more informed purchases instead of buying these one-off skews and then be more likely to buy come back in the future and have greater customer lifetime value because they are being successful in their buying, in their merchandising. So, it’s like a win-win for everyone.

Megan Crabtree 45:10
It’s totally a win-win. Like when it comes to retailers and manufacturers, I think I did like three different webinars through COVID on it, about this retailer and manufacturer relationship. It has to be a win-win to make sense. This is a partnership. So, it has to be even for both. You both have to be happy to stay in business together. So, that’s a lot of the things we do is to like even the playing field, because we have been a sales rep on the road, we have been a sales associate in the retail world, we’ve been overseas in China and India and Turkey and Dubai, to actually see what these people go through to actually make the product. So, because of our well versed and dual experience on both sides of the business, we really try to hammer that into our retail clients and manufacturers to help them understand the other point of view to it.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 46:11
Makes so much sense. So, Megan, tell me, what do you have coming up on the horizon? Well, how can people find you tell me a little more about what’s going on in the business?

Megan Crabtree 46:21
Oh, my gosh, there’s so much in the works for 2022. As a firm, we’ve expanded from one person being me to six people. So, that’s been-

Laryssa Wirstiuk 46:31
That’s awesome.

Megan Crabtree 46:32
A beautiful thing. We’ve hired some great people on our team with amazing experience within the industry, very credible, our clients love it and we all have our own niche that we work on, whether it be data or brand, brand telling or storytelling, and so it’s really been great for us. We definitely are expanding as a firm now, internally to grow more people as well as growing our customers. I would say we have a lot of things working in the digital world in terms of our LinkedIn is like completely skyrocketed. I’m like very humbled to say that in the first two days of us launching a newsletter. I think we have like 3000 subscribers.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 46:34
Awesome.

Megan Crabtree 46:35
So, I would say that for anybody that likes to read our columns, we write columns and in store and in Centurion, if they go to my LinkedIn page, just Megan Crabtree, if they click on the bell in the top right-hand corner, they will be the first to get these newsletters and columns. Also, we send out a monthly newsletter. I can’t share any more secrets. But we’re working on a lot of different things as a firm on the digital side. But because we have so many people that love us and follow us on LinkedIn, I’m sure we will actually share it on there.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 47:56
That’s awesome. Megan, you’re a rock star. I’m so impressed.

Megan Crabtree 48:01
You are too. Next time I’m going to interview you so everybody can learn more about what you do.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 48:05
Sounds good. Well, thank you so much for joining me today for this chat. I learned a lot. It was so fun to talk to you. Thanks for coming on the podcast.

Megan Crabtree 48:16
Absolutely. It was so fun to be here.

Laryssa Wirstiuk 48:21
I really enjoyed talking to Megan, what did you think you can learn more about Megan by connecting with her on LinkedIn, as well as through the Crabtree advisory website? crabtreeadvisory.com. Of course, you can always email me Laryssa. That’s L-A-R-Y-S-S-A@joyjoya.com. If you loved this podcast, please share it with a friend who’d appreciate it and don’t forget to subscribe as well as leave a review on iTunes. To purchase a signed copy of my book Jewelry Marketing Joy. Visit joyjoya.com/book for more information. Thanks for listening. Remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode. For more information about working with Joy Joya visit joyjoya.com where you can sign up to download our free eBooks about various topics in jewelry marketing.