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View Harry Joiner’s profileHARRY’S COMMENTS: We are working with Orthotic Holdings Inc. (“OHI”) in their search for a proven Director of Ecommerce based in Phoenix, Arizona.
About the Company
Headquartered in Hauppauge, NY, OHI is the global leader in durable medical equipment (DME) technologies for healthcare providers who treat diseases and conditions associated with the lower extremities. This is a big deal: According to the American Podiatric Medical Association, most Americans suffer from foot pain.
In many cases, the pain is debilitating.
Through its family of brands, OHI is recognized as a pioneer in the manufacturing and distribution of custom foot orthoses, ankle foot orthoses (AFOs) and therapeutic footwear. The firm’s footwear products alone offer relief from more than 20 types of orthotic maladies, and it distributes its products and technologies throughout North America, Europe and Australia.
It’s a big, established company for a big, established problem. In fact, if you take a gander at every private equity investor’s wish list, OHI’s got a lot going for it.
Now then, traditionally …
OHI has marketed through podiatrists (of which there are ~15,000 in America) and other qualified specialists, like so: A patient visits a podiatrist about, say, heel pain, and the podiatrist recommends a special shoe for Plantar Fasciitis. The patient says, “Anything you say, my feet are killing me!” and the podiatrist orders OHI’s Apex-brand shoes. The patient returns to the podiatrist for fitting a couple of weeks later.
Problem solved, right? Sure, for the lucky few who see a podiatrist.
Over 75% of Americans experience foot or ankle-related problems — yet most individuals visit their primary care physicians for foot-related issues. I’m not criticizing here, but there’s a lot my primary physician doesn’t know about feet. And when general practitioners see a podiatric case, they don’t know enough to recommend an OHI solution.
That’s an ENORMOUS opportunity for OHI.
There are literally tens of millions of long suffering people who NEED OHI’s products but would never hear about them through a specialist. Perhaps these poor soles (nyuk, nyuk) only get as far a Googling their symptoms — not always a good idea.
Yes siree, Bob! For the sake of everyone with sore feet, the time has come for OHI to take its online business to the next level. And that’s where YOU come in.
About the Role
As OHI’s new Director of Ecommerce for ApexFoot.com, you’ll bring an ownership mentality to the business. There’s a great team in place (Paid Search/SEO, Merchandising, Email Marketing and Web Development) and the business has grown like a weed in the last 24 months — but it’s time to take this thing to the next level.
Meaning, the buck will stop with YOU on all matters of ecommerce revenue and profitability. YOU will oversee the strategy to win new customers and maximize the value of the site’s current house file. How will you do that?
Well, there are several ways, including …
- Increasing the transaction size,
- Increasing frequency,
- Decreasing randomness
- Increasing the term of retention,
- Lowing costs per sale,
- Recovering lost customers,
- Multiplying / cloning by referral,
- and more.
You and your team will be expected to drive product sales through well researched planning, in-depth analysis of site analytics, customer shopping behavior, and execution of product and content features online that create a natural shopping experience to facilitate conversion.
Your team will develop / run / test / perfect integrated ecommerce marketing campaigns while supporting OHI’s Marketing team in the execution of company-wide initiatives. Translation: You’ll be the resident expert of all things ecommerce; the go-to-guy (or gal) for this strategically sensitive, high-growth channel.
You won’t believe how much we know about this search …
We spent a ton of time on the phone with OHI’s CEO (yes, the CEO) teasing out exactly what you’ll need to KNOW and DO to hit the ground running in this role. Some of the things we can share with highly qualified candidates include …
- The “real” background requirements for this position, along with the top five things all resumes MUST have to be considered for the role.
- The top five problems that exist due to this position being open. These are the little brush fires you will be expected to put out during your first month on the job. Every job has these — and this one’s no different.
- What your average day / week will look like in this role. There’s what you read in the standard job posting … then there’s reality. We’ve got the reality.
- The leading and lagging KPI’s that will determine your success in this role. In a nutshell: How you keep score.
- The major projects you’ll need to complete by Day 100 to be considered a home-run in this position. We’ve got the lowdown on how you can plug-and-play and drive REAL value in this job.
We have a massive amount of proprietary intel to share with qualified candidates. Our industry research for this ecommerce merchandising job exceeds 60 pages! Be sure to TEXT Allan Seibert @ (706) 318-1196 for this info. Or simply use the email link when you apply for the role below.
Accomplishments
Candidates for this role will have the following demonstrated accomplishments:
- Grown a brand’s revenue in B2C digital channels. Will have included identifying introducing existing and newly developed products to B2C through these digital channels.
- Led a team that successfully raised a brand’s awareness in eCommerce channels which led to increased brand revenues. Evaluate smart SEO, social media, and email marketing methods to increase customer traffic (sessions) and conversion rates. Measure brand awareness in a consistent and deliberate manner.
- Created a dramatically improved and relevant user experience on company’s webs sites. Own and manage Customer Experience including strict Design and Aesthetics, Content, Navigation, Info Architecture, Performance and Functionality. Build it for scale to minimize downtime and disruptions to customers’ interactions. Measure customer satisfaction/net promoter score (content shares, forward rates, and click-through rates) and make adjustments as necessary to maintain net promoter score >50%.
- Built a motivated team of eCommerce professionals. Experience assessing and upgrading team including identification of a successor.
- Delivered the results listed above in a profitable and sustainable manner.
Traits and Competencies
The ideal candidate will possess the following traits and competencies:
Results Orientation:
- Continually set higher goals that are ambitious but realistic for self and team, geared toward OHI organizational objectives.
- Posses a high level of self-awareness. Be willing to admit mistakes and make adjustments quickly.
- Hold subordinates accountable to their KPIs and milestones. Address under performance in a supportive, but candid and timely way.
Think Strategically
- Align the eCommerce strategy to the company strategy.
- Identify changes in customer trends and DTC marketing best practices. Adjust the OHI eCommerce strategy based on the insights.
- Make smart capital investments through the development and implementation of well-informed business cases and sensitivity analyses.
- Educate the team. Help the team and board understand how changes in DTC competitors, clients, and market segments will impact the business.
Be a good team player
- Align the eCommerce strategy to the company strategy.
- Identify changes in customer trends and DTC marketing best practices. Adjust the OHI eCommerce strategy based on the insights.
- Make smart capital investments through the development and implementation of well-informed business cases and sensitivity analyses.
Role model the expectations of an OHI executive
- Impeccable integrity: Create an environment of trust by acting with fairness and consistency, keeping commitments, and explaining rationale for decisions
- Excellent communicator: Strong written and verbal presentation skills
- Ego Maturity: High confidence and ability/willingness to drive decisions
- Intelligence: A creative thinker who is willing to proactively invest in new ideas
- Open-mindedness: Flexible, collaborative, and non-political/bureaucratic
Desired Experience
Must Haves:
- Experience owning the P&L at an early stage, but rapidly growing DTC eCommerce business.
- Experience leading full-scale digital marketing programs to accelerate traffic to a DTC platform in an economically sustainable manner
Nice To Haves:
- An in-depth understanding of search engine optimization, targeted digital ad buys, brand mentions, and factors that influence organic and inorganic customer acquisition and conversion high rankings, not just “Google” search placement
- Ability to identify opportunity for technical changes to technical/development teams
- 5-10 years of experience managing digital brands.
- Degree in Marketing with Online Marketing experience.
- Private equity experience
