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Jay-Paul Thibault - 23 years of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plus 22 years of Pay Per Click Marketing PPC
Jay-Paul Thibault started a successful dot-com in the late '90s, having always been attracted to sales and the art of selling. His first business had to do with sales; while in college, he worked for MBNA selling credit cards and was continually at the top of his sales team while working there.
He has developed his skills through a combination of learning how to run a business and work with the customer by his dad and enriched his sales knowledge with all of the courses he has taken having to do with teamwork, leadership, and perseverance. From the beginning, his attitude was one of the customer's needs always came first. He knew that one of the most important things to have is the art of listening, that it is an art because of the effort and practice that goes into it, and how rare it is when you find a salesperson who can do so efficiently.
His business originated by a chance meeting in 1997 at Williams-Sonoma in Atlanta. While working there, he worked there part-time out of college to get the discount; he met his future business partner. They spoke of the internet, its potential, and why it would be such a great opportunity in the coming years.
In the fall of '98, they founded Web Marketing Ventures (WMV) and began developing a business plan. The core plan they came up with was simple: The company would focus on a low transaction quantity with a high average transaction. The site would use extensive photographs of the products (this was significant because most culinary retailers were not using photos). When a product line was carried, the entire line would be offered, and all items on the website would be kept in stock. There are many more, but he said we needed to stop here.
So, these rules were laid out, and through the years, they made minor modifications to the model but never deviated from it in a drastic manner. Because it was just the two of them and the initial inventory consisted of a pallet's worth of cookware, Jay-Paul felt that the company needed to project it as being much larger. This was done with a few quick fixes. First, WMV would use a toll-free number (not yet being done on the web, most companies at the time did not even have a phone listed). Second, WMV would have phone coverage 24/7. Third, WMV would offer free shipping on all orders no matter the price (this was not yet done). Finally, they would get the product shipped out quickly; if the order did not ship out in full within one business day, the customer would be contacted and get 50% off the ENTIRE order (this too had never been done).
These four policies were all easily doable except for the 24/7 phone coverage. Jay-Paul Thibault took this challenge on by taking the calls out of his home (the business grew in the basement for nine months before the inventory became too large, and the neighbors began to look at him strangely when 18-wheelers pulled up to his house with pallets of cookware). Whenever the phone rang, Jay-Paul was within two rings of the phone and usually just a few steps from the computer. While driving, he forwarded the toll-free number to his cell and came up with a reason as to why he could not take an order at that time. This went on for the first few years of the business. Then, after several employees had been hired, Jay-Paul's choice was to forward the calls every night and take care of the customer service and additional development in the off-hours.
The warehouse was one of the most unglamorous, non-air-conditioned (in Atlanta, this is saying something), roof leaking, mosquito-infested, but inexpensive place available for the first two years after moving the operation out of his house. For the first 14 months, Jay-Paul and his partner went without a paycheck; all the profit was reinvested, and more inventory was purchased. By the third year, the operation had moved to a 9,000 square foot warehouse (with air conditioning!), had ten full-time employees, and 100's of thousands of dollars in-house inventory, all from the reinvestment of those first months. By the third year, WMV had grown to become one of the top ten All-Clad dealers in the USA, larger than Amazon (in All-Clad) and larger than many department stores. While Jay-Paul had been a stock boy in 1997, he was having dinner with Chuck Williams and Emeril Lagasse as a peer just a few years later.
The story goes on, but that is all there is until the movie comes out ;-)
Remember that just a few simple rules of sales were responsible for his success: search engine optimization, customer service, always being available for the customer, offering a competitive edge over the competition, and just a few others that he won't reveal on a public website :-)
He knows that he can apply these concepts to any product or service he sells and be successful at it.
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