HALO Studios
The coolest, most difficult-to-visualize thing I have done. Scroll for the case study. Note: this case study contains some designs that were made by designers under my supervision in addition to my own, as well as input from other departments.
overview
A new program designed to help independent salespeople to land larger business and to generate additional sales was spearheaded by Me! I helped create and grow a design program from the ground up to a $20 Million annual producer. Here’s how:
Something from nothing.
Our company underwent a series of acquisitions and mergers with various smaller companies. This made the company rethink the access to internal programs given to employees (design services being one of them) So they created a division in the types of salespeople that worked from the company. This sales force was placed into two categories:
Program - large companies, big $, streamlined sales/design process.
HBS - Outside contractors, clients from their local high school up to the size of Target, varying levels of expertise on the sales side.
The VP of Creative and I (Tom Havens, click for his linkedin) came up with the idea to help provide premium design services to outside contractors.
A la carte Menu Style: Salespeople need a presentation, a few mockups, I provided it. But word of mouth spread and we grew. Oh boy, did we.
To the Left: The cost guide for the first month of the program. Simpler times.
finding diamonds.
The underlying challenge that I found developing this program was two sided:
Finding the right team: finding, hiring and keeping teammates on this project was a unique challenge. It was blindingly busy, the project turnaround was quick, the onboarding was still being developed, the team had to be very comfortable with lots of ambiguity.
Ultimately, my team ended up with myself overseeing 3 core designers and a roster of freelancers. If you get a sec, take a look at Katie Brown, Bethany Ladd and Cass Conner.
Finding the right salespeople: The outside contractor “market” was as variable as the client market. Once the program picked up some steam, we had to focus on finding salespeople that were driven, had potentially lucrative clients, that could communicate with and be trained to work with a creative team.
In the first year we found ~40 that fit the bill. By today, there are hundreds.
building the bridge.
As the program meteorically rose, we found the same pain-points continuing to bubble to the surface.
Questions about billing, about partnering with clients, about pushing sales, about working with creative were a few of the hits.
So we built the bridge while walking across it; training docs, website, how-tos, company-wide marketing meetings, presentation seminars, onboarding meetings. I spearheaded all of this infrastructure so that our team could concentrate on what was important.
The work.
The outcomes
The 1st year: the HALO Studios/HBS team grew from 1 (Me) to 2. We worked with ~40 Account Teams, We made the company about $8MM dollars in signed contract and won business relationships with monsters like Sysco and Mellow Mushroom.
The 2nd year: The team grew from 2 people to 4+ a freelancer roster. We worked with over 100 Account Teams. We made HALO over $20M in signed contracts. We won business with companies like The Hartford, Unitedhealth Group, The Seattle Seahawks, and saved existing company relationships with Crunch Fitness and Spenga.
It is notable that in these two years, while we were kicking so much ass, the company as a whole saw profits go down for the ‘22 and ‘23 fiscal year