Over the past semester (or past 5 months for those of us who aren’t fortunate enough to still be in school anymore) I have really immersed myself into the “Trunk Show” mentality. While not always being present at the majority of trunk shows that have taken place, I have tried to fully understand each event through our dedicated Design Consultants.

I was given the pleasure to take a nice, week-long tour of North Carolina in March and visit schools such as Wake Forest, High Point, UNC Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University UNC- Wilmington and Eastern Carolina University. What I found, besides my re-kindled love with Chic-Fil-A, was a huge market of girls who were the quintessential Emma Graham customer. I was also able to meet several of our amazing Design Consultants, who all were the perfect hostess to me and their EG guests. It was so nice to finally put a voice with a face and really interact with and get to know some of our DC’s that I work so closely with everyday. Each girl taught me something new in the realm of how they hosts their shows, how they reach the female population on campus, and what girls on campus are looking for.  

As the spring season came to a close this month and we began gearing up for summer and bringing on a great new team of Summer Design Consultants, I have really been reflecting on all the knowledge I had gained from previous trunk shows. Each trunk show has given me an opportunity to take something valuable away from it. Whether it be a sales tactic, setup strategy, marketing technique, creative invite etc. everything has been super helpful moving forward and planning future shows. We are working on compiling all these tips into a new Design Consultant training for all of our Summer DC’s to help them be even more successful. Below is a sneak peek, & my top 5 lessons from this past season:

5. Be prepared : Don’t wait to the last minute to schedule your show. This will directly affect your attendance.

4. Know your Products: Study our styles, fits, prices, company history, don’t be caught off guard with customer questions.

3. Network: Use your connections, we know you have friends, we know you’re cool…

2. Be a Personal Shopper: All those friends you have, find out their sizes, color & style preferences and social calendars so you can have items picked out for them to try on at your show.

1. Believe in the Brand: If you’re not sold on our product, you won’t be able to sell anyone else on it either.

We are learning something new each day with our Direct Sales Model, and my job is to relay that information to all of our Design Consultants to better prepare them as they hit the pavement this summer expanding our outreach and customer base. We are so lucky to have so many girls passionate about Emma Graham and believing in the Direct Sales channel. The fresh ideas that come from young college students are inspiring and you girls are our eyes and ears to our customer base. Any creative tips you have for trunk shows & Design Consultants, send them my way!