Key to Success: Beauty Barrage’s Brilliant Brand Ambassadors

Only 6 years after its conception, we couldn’t be prouder of how far Beauty Barrage has come as a company. Recently named in the top 10% of the 2020 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America, our best-in-class services have received recognition and honors from some of the most respected authorities in the business.

But beyond the milestones celebrated, we want to recognize the one facet of business we see as our beating heart. There is one aspect of Beauty Barrage that we know sets us apart – and that is our nationwide team of brilliant brand ambassadors. Our highly-skilled team of over 300 beauty advisors, trainers, and managers service over 3,000 doors across both the US and Canada. 

Beauty Barrage originally started as sister company Beauty Strategy Group. BSG is the division of business where we help brands with marketing, branding, digital, social strategies, and distribution. BSG was so successful at placing brands at retail, that many of our partners asked us for help in setting up a sales team to support the brand in-store.

Upon further research, founder Sonia Summers discovered “there was not a single company out there that offered a strategic, cost-effective and turn-key solution for creating and managing a field sales team. With consumers now having the choice to buy products anywhere, even from their couches, retail sales will only become more challenging for brands. It is imperative — now more than ever — to execute on a strategic plan in-store, in order to effectively showcase a brand.” After seeing this perfect storm develop, she decided to launch Beauty Barrage.

Beauty Barrage doesn’t hire just anyone to provide coverage in the store. Ambassadors are rigorously trained on the brand, the category in general, and how to navigate at each specific retailer. Our brand ambassadors are trained to follow a “consultative” sell, where we focus on problems and a solution. We even encourage and incentivize our team to provide the most meaningful and interactive training in-store with retail staff — this is where we see a “halo effect” in our sales. Sales are tracked through status reports after every shift, and consolidated reports are sent to our brand partners every week. We even periodically meet with the retailers to maintain cohesiveness. All of our brand ambassadors are W2 employees – not freelancers. Our field sales teams are provided with extensive education, encompassing everything from hygiene protocols, empathy training, sales development, brand training, and social media training.

Our brand ambassadors are social media savvy, utilizing the latest tools to boost your brand online and bring it to life in-store for your customers. When retail stores started closing during the pandemic, Beauty Barrage pivoted from “IRL” to “URL” – using social media instead to promote brands to a wider audience. We quickly redirected the efforts of our team towards online media skills such as live streams, virtual consultations, tutorials, masterclasses, and Instagram reels. “We’re not singularly focused on going into stores; what separates Beauty Barrage from anyone else is that we’re a blend of IRL [in real life] and URL, so it was an organic pivot and part of our strategy from the beginning,” says Sonia. Our brand ambassadors expertly use their smartphones for clienteling, to communicate with brands and customers, to post photos of in-store displays or even to alert shoppers of new in-store promotions. As a blend of both nano and micro-influencers, our brand ambassadors have built up followings of anywhere from 500 to 144,000 followers. 

After retail reopened, our talented brand ambassadors continued to utilize the social media skills they had learned while ramping back up their in-store support. This combination of both online and offline selling has remained key in our strategy to make brands more profitable, while also growing their digital footprint. The flexibility and duality shown by our brand ambassadors during the pandemic demonstrated that they are forces to be reckoned with – both online and in retail.

We developed our proprietary technology and mobile app to give our clients access to the data they need in real-time to help maximize ROI while providing the transparency and accountability we pride ourselves upon. The development of this application has allowed our team to be even more strategic. The functionality includes GPS/geo-fence tracking during ambassador shifts, as well as real-time schedules that both brands and ambassadors can download at any time. Brand Ambassadors also fill out a customized survey after each and every shift, along with images of brand merchandising, education events, or even customer interactions. It’s easy to see productivity as surveys are uploaded automatically at the end of each shift and accessible in real-time from a brand’s client portal. Not only is this great for accountability, but it’s proved invaluable for data-gathering. Check out one of our retail infographics below, which we were able to create using information gathered from brand ambassador surveys: 

Coming out of the pandemic, our brand ambassadors have proved to be invaluable to our success. The communication skills they possess both IRL and URL set them apart from your typical field sales team. They have shown unwavering adaptability in the worst of times, and we couldn’t be more grateful as a company for the perseverance they have shown. Follow @BeautyBarrage on Instagram to see our brilliant brand ambassadors in action.