In Fashion Part 24

How a Salesperson Makes His or Her Mark

It's hard to hire a designer, but a designer has to have talent and taste, and there are benchmarks to measure those things (what fabrics he or she chooses, what he or she wears, his or her sketches and references). When you get to sales, every salesperson will tell you about all the accounts that he or she sells to and rattle them off-"Saks, Neiman's, Nordstrom"-but the truth is that it's his or her current company who sells to those stores, not that person himself or herself. When they're having a great year, selling a lot of clothes, most salespeople come in and ask for a raise, says Konheim. "When they're having a bad year, they say 'Who can sell this s.h.i.t?'"

In the end, a salesperson's success is defined by his or her relationships with retailers. Building trust with buyers takes time, patience, and, normally, thick skin. But if you start with one a.s.sistant buyer at a time, you'll find that as you climb up the ladder in sales, your contacts will be rising similarly in the retail ranks. The first phone calls a potential new boss will make when checking you out? Your biggest and smallest retail accounts.

COOL, UNCOOL, TOO COOL?.

There's an old girls' network-a sorority really-that's all about cool. Are you in the club, or are you out of the club? Are you cool? Or, TOO cool? The irony is that what's cool and what's successful are often inversely proportionate. What's cool is small and cliquey. As soon as it's recognized, it's on to the next, undiscovered thing.

How to Find Your Place in Fashion

FIVE LESSONS FROM BUD.

Forget camp. "The most important thing is to spend your summers working at something from the time you are four years old. Forget about going to sleep-away camp. Take your summers and work at something. Little by little, you'll rule out what you shouldn't be doing."

Try out different jobs. "At fifteen, I was the equipment manager at day camp. Not my calling. Next I got a job as a soda jerk. The first customer came up and asked for a coffee, and I responded, 'Don't you know how to say please?'

"Then, after I was suspended from school for being too social during my soph.o.m.ore year at Dartmouth, I went to work on Wall Street because my parents told me that from then on out I'd be paying for my own education. After six months at Neuberger Lowe, I said, 'This is stupid. I'm watching the ticker tape of what other guys are out there doing. And I'm not adding anything.' If it had been just about making money, I'd have stayed there, but that wasn't it. I wanted to be one of those guys out there making the ticker tick."

Find something that intrigues you. "During the last two weeks of that summer, I asked my father to let me work in his clothing factory as a gofer. They had a hot-selling item, and I got interested intellectually about the idea of what makes a hot-selling item. I wanted to understand how it was, with all the stuff out there in the stores, that on the same day in Sandusky, Ohio, one dress style sells out. The thing was really an intriguing puzzle to me. And watching the ticker of the stock market seemed like a stupid thing to do. Fashion is really an artistic thing you can get off on. And you get an instant vote-if people like it, they will buy it."

Feel pa.s.sion. See the big picture. "Seventh Avenue has no rules. There is no resume required for being here. No entry level; no credentials necessary. It's just an amazing business."

Toughen up. "There is no such thing as an established player on Seventh Avenue. You are vulnerable every day. Reputation matters a little, but not that much. There's a saying: 'You're only as good as your last dress.' You can have the most rip roaring season with lines out the door and stuff selling. And the next season? It's a ghost land. Success on Seventh Avenue is measured in how well you can bounce back."

PROFILE.

LAURA M. GOTTLIEB Vice President of International Sales, Vince "Budding Fashionista" wasn't among Laura Gottlieb's numerous high school honors. Academic achiever, yes; all-star athlete, check; superlikely to succeed, yup. Growing up in Westchester County, New York, Laura considered herself a total tomboy, always into sports as an essential element to the fast track to success. At Emory University, the driven young woman focused on the most compet.i.tive fields she could find, first as a premed student, then switching to finance. Wall Street sounded like her kind of fun. It was soon after her first big breaks in finance that something weird began to happen: Her closet began to suffer from acute schizophrenia. Front and center were Laura's neat b.u.t.ton-down shirts and fitted suits, perfect as a Brooks Brothers catalog, but off to the side was a growing collection of edgy, alternative pieces from decidedly nonmainstream designers like Martin Margiela. The happy ending to Laura's confused clothing story is that she listened to her closet, and to her heart, and found her future in fashion. Executive Fashionista is what they'd call her now.

BACKGROUND.

Laura grew up in Chappaqua, north of New York City, and attended the compet.i.tive Horace Greeley High School there, where she played varsity tennis and lacrosse. The oldest of three siblings with supportive parents, Laura was diligent in academics and involved in community service while enjoying a healthy social life. "Although it was a fairly h.o.m.ogenous community, I was able to break out of the mold."

EXPOSURES.

"My mother grew up in Manhattan, and to broaden our suburban horizons, brought us into the city to see shows, museums, try new foods, and expose us to other lifestyles. In high school, a train ride into the city with friends to explore Greenwich/East Village, visiting haunts like Antique Boutique, Pat Field's, Unique, and Andis Chee-pies, was the ultimate experience."

BUDDING FASHIONISTA?.

"Not at all. I was a total tomboy, always into sports."

CHILDHOOD DREAM.

"I always thought I should be involved with psychiatry and/or psychology."

PSYCHIATRY TO SALES?.

"What I do is so relationship oriented. There is a psychology behind sales. So I am intrigued by that human element that I was attracted to even in my youth. There's still me in there."

WHY EMORY?.

"What I loved about Emory was that it was culturally diverse with people from all types of backgrounds from all over the world. It was also near a city [Atlanta] without being in a city, and it has a beautiful and warm setting."

SHIFTING EXPECTATIONS.

"I first attempted the premed track, but I realized at the beginning of my soph.o.m.ore year that it wasn't for me. I found myself signing up for finance cla.s.ses."

CRACKING THE BANKS.

"I decided to be a finance major because investment banking was hot at the time and compet.i.tive to get into. I knew I could handle the intensity."

EARLY FASHION FEELERS.

While at Emory, Laura explored the possibility of working in the finance departments at fashion brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan, and Ralph Lauren. "But there's no finance career track inside these companies. They told me, 'Once you have finance experience, get back to us.'"

FIRST JOB: ERNST & YOUNG.

"I did cross-training in different industries like retail, energy, and manufacturing within the investment banking group, and I worked with a partner who specialized in financing deals in the health care sector."

NEXT STOP: MERRILL LYNCH.

When that partner left for Merrill Lynch, she asked Laura to join her team there. "It was flattering to have the opportunity to be mentored by a woman on Wall Street. I'd also accomplished my goal of attaining a job in investment banking with a bulge-bracket [largest and most prestigious U.S. banks] firm."

LAURA'S STOCK-IN-TRADE Never overpromise. Always overdeliver.

FRUSTRATED FASHIONISTA?.

"There was something about banking that was not doing it for me. It was suits, five days a week. Meanwhile, I was dressing funky on the weekend. People a.s.sumed this was a backlash to my job, but I began to understand that fashion was a creative outlet that I needed in my job. Yet I didn't know how to accomplish that."

IN SEARCH OF A FASHION FIT.

"I had interviews at places like Gucci where I'd have had to start at the bottom, in the sample closet. They knew that without the challenge of more a.n.a.lytical work, I wouldn't stay long. At other companies I'd hear: 'You're bright. You're stylish. Get some showroom experience and get back to us.'"

FIRST FASHION JOB.

"[Being an a.s.sistant fashion buyer at The Limited] was grunt work-crunching numbers and doing financial a.n.a.lyses. But I'm great at this. To this day, people come to me with Excel questions. All my a.n.a.lytical skills have served me well. I'm grateful for my banking training."

UPPING THE GLAMOUR ANTE.

"Since I wanted something more up market, after a year, I found a job in sales for Lejaby [Warnaco's French lingerie brand]. I loved the product."

WHY NOT RETAIL?.

"I never wanted to work at a department store. I left finance because I wanted to be in an inspired environment. I wanted to be surrounded in the workplace by the lifestyle a single brand exudes."

STILL NOT A FIT.

The Warnaco environment proved too corporate for Laura. "It was time to move on into a more fashion forward company." On the plus side, "Lejaby got me some luxury experience and relevant sales experience since I opened the brand at Bergdorf Goodman and Marshall Field."

WELCOME TO ELIE'S WORLD "A girlfriend at Elie Tahari told me there was an opening on the retail side. I interviewed and got the position." Laura would spend the next four years at Elie Tahari, being cross-trained from retail to wholesale, domestic to international, working with consultants from around the world, and building a valuable network of relationships.

DECISION TIME: BUYER OR SELLER?.

"I started at Elie on the buying side, helping to open the SoHo, Las Vegas, and Chicago stores. Then, the sales director asked me to join the wholesale side." This shift would totally change Laura's path.

LAURA'S LESSONS EIGHT RULES FOR SALES.

Make the right impression when you walk in the door. Exude confidence and positive energy.

Don't resign from a company just before or during a sales campaign. "It's bad ethics. You cannot be seen to compromise your brand like this."

Keep a good working relationship with everyone you've worked with. It's a relationship business, and it's a small world.

Mix up how you wear the brand at work so you don't look as though you just stepped out of the look book.

Be discreet. Never discuss internal trade details, plans, or events with external resources.

Be correct. Double-check your work and e-mails. Spelling someone's name wrong in a casual e-mail is not OK.

Work is work. Never forget that it is a business and that social elements are secondary.

Never be unprepared or late for a meeting whether it's your boss, staff, or customer.

WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO GET INTO FASHION (WHOLESALE) SALES?

Relentless follow-up.

AND THE WINNER IS ... SALES!

Laura made the move, initially focusing on building the domestic specialty store business. Then, when Elie signed its first distribution agreement in j.a.pan, Laura was asked to be the liaison there. The opportunity to visit Tokyo and Osaka thrilled Laura.

j.a.pAN, DONE; UNITED KINGDOM, NEXT?.

"One day, the head of sales threw the business cards of the Selfridges and Harvey Nic buyers on my desk and said, 'See what you can do.' I brought in the buying agent from Harvey Nichols who loved the brand but had just accepted a position at Selfridges. We ended up doing a 'dual exclusive launch' with Harvey Nichols and Selfridges-a double coup."

OUTSIDE SUPPORT.

The company hired a consultant to a.s.sist in negotiating the more complex international deals. "I worked closely with one consultant for two years. He taught me about international markets. We grew the international business together, and he is still a mentor and a friend."

FREQUENT FLYER.

Laura went to Milan every season as well as making visits to Moscow, St. Petersburg, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Dubai, Paris, London, Germany, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. "No one had even been to certain stores in certain markets. I developed working relationships in all these places that continue to this day."

FREEDOM/STRUCTURE BALANCE.

"I realized at Elie that I love being an entrepreneur within a financially backed structure. I love doing the foraging and feeling ownership over my own business within a business."

DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL SALES, ELIE TAHARI.

"I got incredible cross-training-retail and wholesale, domestic and international. During my last five months, I was asked to oversee the Saks Fifth Avenue account, which was the largest piece of the domestic volume. I was overseeing international, the most significant area of growth, and Saks, the most significant account domestically. My career had blossomed."

THE ALLURE OF LUXURY.

One of the consultants Laura had worked with had signed on to be part of the relaunch of Halston. "He waved the carrot in front of me, saying 'It's Luxury! It's Fabulous! Come be a part of this!' I'd always thought the Halston brand had an amazing heritage. To be a part of fashion history was alluring to me. I was offered the position of director of sales, overseeing the global wholesale part of the business. I jumped at it."

SAYING GOOD-BYE TO ELIE.

"They were like a family to me. It was a business that I had cultivated. I was broken up when I walked out of there. I have a place in my heart for Elie Tahari, the man and the company. It was an amazing experience."

ELIE TAHARI ACCOMPLISHMENT.

Laura opened at least twenty-five countries and some eighty points of distribution.

HALSTON DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL SALES.

Laura started at Halston just after she closed Elie's fall sales campaign in Milan, which was the best time, in her view, to make a break. "I literally accepted the opportunity right after I got off the plane from Milan."

CAREER CHANGER.

STARTED AS: INVESTMENT BANKING a.n.a.lYST.

SWITCHED TO: a.s.sISTANT FASHION BUYER.

After three years on Wall Street, Laura Gottlieb decided to go with her heart and find a job in fashion. That meant taking a pay cut from her Merrill Lynch salary, but Laura was determined not to make less than her first year in finance so that she could remain independent from her parents. Luxury brands weren't a fit because her finance experience wasn't senior enough. When she interviewed at The Limited, "I made the argument with them that it would be easier to teach the fashion cycle to an a.n.a.lytical person than to teach the financials to an FIT grad. It must have worked because I got the job."

She's never looked back: "I always knew that being happy in my career was bigger than just working for a paycheck. I was always encouraged to do what I loved. That if you follow your pa.s.sion, the money would follow."

LAURA'S NICHE International expansion of domestic brands.

HALSTON HOP.

Even though her stay at Halston lasted only one year, Laura is thankful for the experience of helping to set up the infrastructure of a new organization.

WHEN THE ECONOMY TURNED SOUR.