Be a Leader as Well as a Learner in eCommerce, With Todd Hassenfelt - Episode 191
INTERVIEW WITH TODD HASSENFELT
DESCRIPTION
Todd Hassenfelt is a Senior Director of Ecommerce at Simple Mills, a friend of Bobsled, and a very inspiring professional. He joined us on the Ecommerce Braintrust podcast today to talk about managing up, internal stakeholder engagement, and his journey of continuous learning. Having his finger on the pulse of eCommerce and retail trends, Todd continually serves up his insights into what current events mean.
Make sure to tune in to find out more!
Todd Hassenfelt is the Senior Director of eCommerce at the health food brand Simple Mills. Todd has versatile experience with leadership roles in both Brick & Mortar and eCommerce channels while being a key contributor on both Sales and Marketing Teams depending on Company needs. He has Brand experience at large corporations and startups while growing both challengers and established leadership Brands. Todd, who is a curious learner, is currently at Simple Mills on the eCommerce team with Jeanna (gina) Lee. Simple Mills is a high-growth, female-founded health and wellness food brand in the Crackers, Cookies, Baking Mixes, and Soft Baked Bars categories.
“Be an expert without having “expert-it is” – no one knows everything.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Tod's eCommerce journey started with Matt Goodson, his first eCommerce hiring manager.
Answer the question “How does this impact the company?”.
Does your team have a growth mindset? Ask, “How do you learn?” in an interview.
Build relationships with advocates within the company - ask how you can help others to achieve their goals.
Build up a catalog of information. Tod keeps a folder of news articles for around 70 topics so he can educate internally and make connections.
Ops is the eCommerce and the heartbeat of any eCommerce organization.
Follow the consumer and where they are going.
Everyone says hands on the keyboard, but it's also eyes on the screen, and seeing things like the consumer do, and asking curious questions.“
eCommerce professionals need to be both - a leader - evangelizing and educating internally, and a learner - keeping up with new info with tactics.
The leader side is inspiring - executing current initiatives and helping others no matter where they are in their journey. No matter how you're teaching, it's going to take time for different people at different stages.
Be patient, and you have to be humble. That’s the learner side. Be okay with asking questions.
It's not just giving the information, it's providing context to it.
Think like a consumer and be able to translate Brick & Mortar and eCommerce for people inside the organization.
38% of consumers will look at a product detail page while in a store. There is the importance of reviews, the importance of content, not just when they're buying online, but also when they're buying in-store.
Figure out how people learn & engage: in slack channels, “did you know”, or pop quiz - gamify.
Present more options, including “the cost of doing nothing”.
If you don’t care about who gets the credit, you can get more done. Focus on the company goals, not just eCommerce goals.
Experiencing things like a consumer - especially product content.
Compare digital to traditional shopper marketing: endcaps, etc.
There's a huge need for eCommerce professionals out there and a lot of demand for this skill set. It's a great time to be learning, and a great time to be leading.
It's better to admit when you do fail and be honest about it. That will build more trust than if you try to pretend everything's perfect. There's always someone better than you out there. And if you don't get better, and you stay the same, you're actually getting worse because there are others out there improving.
Be honest with what's working and what's not, because that will give you more credibility and trust within your organization.
A comparison really works - present one option that you want, but then have one or two worse options.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Connect with Kiri Masters
Connect with Todd Hassenfelt
Learn more about Bobsled Marketing
Learn more about Simple Mills