After our class with Professor Jones this morning, we had our first meeting with our ambassador from Carrigart, Erin McLaughlin. Our team, the business development group, had a set of questions prepared for her. It consisted of questions such as asking if young people stay in Carrigart or if she viewed it as a dynamic or static town throughout the years. We thought we were prepared, but in the aspect of having a meeting in the standpoint of a consultant, we weren’t. After the meeting, our entire group of ten that’s doing consulting work had received constructive criticism from Professor Jones. He had told us we didn’t introduce ourselves properly, and how it felt more of a q&a when it shouldn’t of been. My takeaway from this first meeting is to be more formal, and that we were five steps ahead of ourselves when we should’ve been on the first step. I also learned that we have to remind ourselves that the client doesn’t know anything about us, and the introduction of little facts about ourselves can make the conversation a lot more meaningful.
Directly after we met with Erin McLaughlin, we were introduced to Joe Pietropola, Pitt Business’s EIR, and a highly accomplished individual with years of consulting experience and digital platforming. He provided much-needed insight and tips for our project in Carrigart. Since my topic was about off-season revenue, my question was what strategies have been most effective in driving customer engagement and revenue during the off-season. Joe was the perfect candidate for this question, since he had over twenty-one years of retail experience, even being a CTO at Dick’s Sporting Goods. He had provided me with examples of how they have multiple products that they can manufacture so they can stay in the market all year round. My biggest takeaway from him was the consulting lingo he had told us. He mentioned it was highly important to ask questions and gave us the 5 Whys template to use. I will definitely use this method when arriving in Carrigart to dig deeper into the actual needs of the local businesses.