Alex Lepe
Marcelle LeBlanc knew something was off after she launched her fourth Velvet Box store in August 2015 in Lewisville. Sales were growing, but not as fast as they had at the company’s other three stores. That’s about as down as the downside has been in recent years for The Velvet Box, which sells a well-curated mix of lingerie, books, games, adult toys, massage oils, lubricants, condoms and bath items from its polished boutiques.
“After that fourth store, we just started to wing some stuff; we needed data,” says LeBlanc, who stresses that the Lewisville store is still paying for itself, even if at the lower growth rate.
But LeBlanc, a member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, moved to fix what she saw as a problem. She brought on Culture Index as a consultant; Culture Index uses surveys of owners, managers and other employees inside its client companies to promulgate a data-based hiring and management system that aims to eliminate bad hires, add top salespeople, pare interview time, and make executives more effective. LeBlanc also hired Peak Retail Group, which helps its clients manage purchasing and inventory flow. In February, she brought on a consultant to bring the Traction management system into her company. And in the search for her next store, also in February, she hired Fort Worth’s Buxton, which uses extensive analytics to recommend the best sites for retailers and other clients.
What did you learn from Culture Index? They said only two people fit the profile of great salespeople in our entire organization. We turned over our entire organization as quickly as we could over four months, 10 people [out of 15 employees]. We had a dip in sales in our Alliance store. Once we replaced those people, it was like stepping on the gas again.
What else? They took my survey and Brandon’s survey [Brandon Wilcox, Velvet Box’s buyer and operations director], and said the guy is a rainmaker, but you want to kill him half the time. It was as if [the survey taker] had been in our office. [Culture Index] said you need this third person with this type of [executive assistant] profile to complement you guys. It took six months to find her [and hire her in July]. She’s a visionary. She gets it. She understands my need to not have to say much in the office. She understands my directness and my curtness.
What’s been your investment in Culture Index? For our size business, the original investment was $10,000 in the first year and six grand after that a year. When you realize [a bad hire] is terrible, you’ve spent $20,000 in training.
What are you getting from Peak Retail? They consult us on our inventory. They look at our data and compare it to the rest of the world’s retail. They help us to create a better open-to-buy system and forecasts. They’re able to find red flags in the store. After our first year, $40,000 was invested with them. Our sales are up, our margins are up, and we have quantifiable data.
Where are you looking for your next store? How about Southlake? Do you cover that from your North Tarrant Parkway store? We looked at Southlake, but Southlake wasn’t having it. Right now, Frisco and North Dallas are booming. There’s nothing up there [in competition]. We will take the advice [Buxton gives] us. It may not match our guess.
Do you have the capacity to open another store right now? If we get a solid pool of people, we could probably move forward with another location. We can only grow as fast as our best people. I feel we’re teetering on not having enough people. It’s not like we’re strapped for cash. We have plenty of cash. But customer service is our No. 1 priority.