The Pro: Jay Harman, Marketing Consultant and Regional Manager
American Solutions For Business (asi/120075)

Client: A large sporting goods company
Job: Help the client reinvigorate its branding with logoed merchandise that would appear in hundreds of retail stores across the U.S. 
Order Value: $750,000

Step 1: Network Everywhere

Jay Harman is an avid outdoorsman. That passion set the stage for one of the most lucrative deals of his career. At the end of a turkey hunt in Texas, the lodge owner presented Harman and his party with free branded merchandise from a sporting goods company. Harman’s heart leapt with a sense of opportunity. He explained he was in promo and asked if the lodge owner could connect him with the company that had provided the swag. The owner agreed. Harman wasn’t sure anything would come of it. But the owner, who’d developed a liking for the friendly and polite Harman, was true to his word. “We were loading the vehicles, getting ready to head to the airport, and he walks up to me and hands me my bag and says, ‘They’re calling you at 5 p.m. tomorrow,’” says Harman.

Step 2: Make a Good First Impression

Given the tight timeframe, Harman was as ready as he could be when the call came. It was the assistant to the sporting goods company’s top executive in the United States. Taking a consultant’s approach, Harman asked questions to get a feel for the client’s needs, and then talked about potential solutions he could deliver to meet those specific needs. “We talked for two hours,” says Harman. “She said she liked the way I thought and the concepts I was talking about and the capabilities we had. She asked me to put together a presentation and send it to her.”

Step 3: Put Your Heart Into It

As Harman learned, the company wanted to reinvigorate its branding. Part of that meant investing in branded collateral that could be featured at hundreds of retail dealers across the United States. Drawing on his knowledge of the company and the market it was courting, Harman developed a strong presentation. It made its way to the top executive, who soon rang Harman.

“He was so thorough, like he was interviewing me to hire me for his company,” says Harman. At one point, the executive asked Harman why he should trust him with the company’s business. Harman spoke from the heart: “I told him I’m a passionate outdoorsman, a passionate marketing consultant, and I have the ability to put everything in place for this project to be a success. That made an impression.”

Still, the executive wasn’t ready to commit. He decided to send Harman internal information to help him fully understand the company and its family of brands. He gave the ASB pro a few weeks to come up with firm branding concepts.

Step 4: Log the Miles

Documents in hand, Harman jokes that he did more studying over the ensuing days than he ever did in college. “I knew everything about the company,” he says. But Harman didn’t stop there. From his home base in Georgia, he embarked on a road trip, visiting dealers that carried the company’s brands in the Peach State, Florida, Alabama and elsewhere. “I looked at how this client was being presented, and how their competition was being presented,” says Harman, who also did research with the company’s marketing team. “I was trying to figure out something that would make them really stand out.”

Step 5: Conceive the Right Concept

All the mileage and research paid off. Harman, along with the help of his wife and business partner Jill, conceived a bevy of potential solutions themed around a distinct concept. “The idea was to catch the end-user’s attention as they drove by the retail location and then walk them up to the counter, with the end-user encountering the company’s brand the whole way, their attention staying on the brand,” he says, noting he created a 72-slide presentation replete with ideas.

Ultimately, the company called on Harman to present before the top executive and 13 category managers. So big was the potential deal that a couple ASB executives, including President Justin Zavadil, accompanied Harman for the presentation, as did Jill. Over the course of two hours, Harman presented the various ideas, explaining how they’d work in a store setting to augment the client’s brands. Powerful visuals accompanied the slides. In the end, the client’s top executive declared, “We need to reinvest in our brand. We have the money to do it. And we’re going with this young gentleman here.”

Step 6: Execute the Solution

In keeping with the “walk the end-user to the counter” concept, Harman delivered products that included heavy-duty flag banners and high-quality easy-up tents to be set up outside, as well as a wealth of full-color graphic floor mats, unique counter mats, window clings, metal tackers, other signage, floor graphics and more. Harman and his team saw to it that everything was properly kitted and shipped to each dealer – a process that incredibly, given the scale, went off without a hitch. “We did our homework ahead of time so we only proposed things that we knew we could deliver on time, as promised,” says Harman. “When it came to go-time, that helped make scheduling everything out and getting it delivered easier.”

Step 7: Reflect & Move Forward

The brand invigoration was a resounding success, evidenced by the fact that the client continues to partner with Harman. Still, it was this particular large-scale campaign that will always have a special place in Harman’s heart. “It’s my favorite job of my career,” he says. “It tied my passion for the outdoors with my professional skillset. When you’re driven by passion and go the extra mile, it’s really something what you can achieve.”