Prepared by: Peter Klinge, Jr., Regional Managing Principal – Salt Lake City
Industry: Music Wholesale and Distribution
Revenue: $14MM+, family owned
Location: Idaho

Client Background:

• Chesbro is a 100-year-old family-owned regional music wholesaler serving independent retail music stores. The company sells a range of musical instruments and published sheet music.

Business Situation:

• Revenue and profitability were flat for several years, but the great recession's impact on discretionary music playing and education exacerbated year over year declines from 2008 to the first half of 2009… Underlying the recessionary pressures were numerous other factors contributing to the business' challenges.
• A changing music industry and forms of media consumption affect small, independent wholesalers and their retailer customers.
• Retail consolidation over the years
  • Big Box stores that offer inexpensive music instrument products:
    • General merchandise stores e.g. Wal Mart, consumer electronics> Best Buy
    • Music retail chains
• Emergence of E-commerce and E-business
  • Easier for consumers and independent retailers to price shop close to wholesale
  • Technology facilitating facilitates abilities ability of buying groups for independent store participation; , thus reducing the role of the traditional wholesale distributor
• Closely held ownership and long-term management turned company inward
  • Leadership lost connection with customers
  • Difficult to innovate and attract talent to the company
  • Product development and buying stagnated
  • Financial, sales, and management decision making tools and processes dated, limited or non existent

OneAccord Solution:

• Get back in touch with customers and draw insights into their affinity for the Company's services, and build a process to manage accounts more effectively to meet demand
• Evaluate strategic directions for: a) mitigating immediate business declines; and b) identify key areas of company strength and growth potential> products, customer segments.
• Provide strategic and program recommendations for Internet Internet-based business development: social media marketing, ecommerce, etc.

Engagement Highlights:

Involvement began in the summer of 2007 and continued through 2009. Three stages:
1. Initial Customer insights, value proposition and key recommendations assessment
   • Spoke with key customers, and suppliers about the company
   • Discerned key needs, opportunities and strong affinity for the company's brand heritage and its commitment to service; Those stakeholders also expressed strong willingness to increase business with the company.
2. OneAccord in the Spring of 2008 was asked to provide an interim sales & marketing leadership role; The previous vice president left, creating a void.
3. In the Spring Spring of 2009, as the economic downturn adversely impacted the company, a team of OneAccord principals engaged to look at the entire operations: products, finance, and ecommerce to surface opportunities and mitigation strategies.
   • Sales Force Management
     • Account management programs with key customers
     • Sales training
     • Compensation planning
     • Sales and marketing reorganization
     • Sales process and tracking tools
   • Business & Leadership strategy
     • Complete review of product mix, sales and profitability to provide accountability, and information decision making support tools for buying, sales metrics for organization
     • Organizational and leadership roles definition and assignments
     • Developed and executed strategies for bottom line and top line revenue growth
       • Sales team focused on top 100 accounts and development of a value proposition and key solutions for pricing, terms, product mix
   • Marketing
     • Strategic marketing and tactical program recommendations
     • Analysis of web opportunity, needs evaluation,
   • Recommended Ecommerce/social media provider partner for pilot program in Q1 '10

Results:

• By Q 2 & Q3 of 2009 as programs took hold, the severe declines the company experienced through 2008 were significantly reduced;.
• A new business strategy was identified with various recommendations for future implementation;.
• Company began an online marketing initiative after years of delay;.
• Perhaps most importantly, the CEO determined that the transition OneAccord affected to new management responsibilities vis a vis OneAccord's interim and project leadership helped the company weather this difficult period. The CEO says:
  "OneAccord provided an interim VP sales and marketing talent who provided insight and experience that was critical to the success of the above projects. One of the greatest benefits in working with OneAccord is the variety of expertise from OneAccord principals… and their extended network of relationships… In a business and technology environment that changes rapidly, (the availability of OneAccord executives and resources) helped our small company to have access to critical resources."

When clients engage an OneAccord principal in an interim or project role the client benefits from a collaborative team of operating executives focused on revenue solutions.