Paula Floyd of Headkount is a leading authority on beauty at retail. She is a sales and education executive with over 25 years of experience at beauty brands such as MAC Cosmetics, Benefit and more. Her outsourced retail beauty team at Headkount has an in-house vibe that has clients that include editorial and industry darlings Kosas, Lawless, Saint Jane Beauty, Merit, True Botanicals and more.

Paula was inspired to launch Headkount to allow brands to scale their businesses in retail by removing the overhead that comes with a full in-house field sales team after noticing the need to elevate the brick-and-mortar relationships that brands have with their retail partners, and that there’s still a strong desire from consumers to experience a brand in person. Headkount is a consumer-driven, cost-effective, and fast way to improve brand awareness, increase brick and mortar sales, and grow at scale, resulting in increased productivity and shipments, and significant new door growth.
 
Show Notes
Paula was first introduced to the beauty industry early on as a young consumer, a beauty junkie, and after many visits to the department store to see the latest products, Paula quickly knew she had found her calling. Years later, while at a party, someone showed Paula a small pot of concealer, and on it read MAC. Just weeks later, Paula was interviewing with the little-known brand and was hired as one of the first US employees. Working with MAC from the beginning through to and beyond their Estee Lauder acquisition Paula held numerous positions to help increase distribution, all of which contributed to the brand’s massive growth. She also led field sales and education teams, the driving force behind MAC’s success.

After 17 years with MAC, Paula expanded her horizons and helped to grow the retail sales for brands including Bare Essentials and Benefit Cosmetics. Her impressive background and roles range from Chief Commercial Officer, SVP of Retail, and VP of Sales and Education, where she partnered with powerhouse retailers like Sephora, Nordstrom, Ulta and Macy’s, as well as forged relationships in free-standing retail stores.

After an extensive career, many industry executives would have maintained a comfortable in-office job and simply continued to climb the ladder until retirement, but Paula’s favorite part of working in beauty was always in the field being hands-on with her sales team and customers, whether at her first counter job or her last senior-level appointment. Though there’s been a current emphasis on growth in the DTC channel for most brands, Paula saw the desire from consumers to still experience a brand in person and the need to elevate the brick-and-mortar relationships that brands have with their retail partners. There are only so many resources available for up-and-coming and legacy brands alike, and it can be challenging to support both DTC growth and in-store retail opportunities.

Paula knew that one hundred percent of the top 20 prestige beauty brands invest in a field sales team. Yet with the recent influx of indie brands, how can startups, even those that are on a hot streak and poised for greatness, afford the massive overhead associated with that oh-so-necessary team? Armed with her vast knowledge of the beauty industry, running large field education and sales organizations, and known for staying connected to the front line no matter what title she held, Paula realized she had the formula that would benefit so many companies. She put her passion for beauty and her love and respect for people to work and launched Headkount.



Headkount offers an alternative option that allows brands to scale nationally and quickly without the overhead that comes with an in-house field team. Headkount does all of the heavy lifting associated with driving retail, including a field education team, account management, operations, and an experienced head of sales to help drive brand retail strategy.

Most importantly, Headkount’s team of dedicated beauty educators creates and cements invaluable relationships with customers and retail partners. Less than 18 months after launch and pausing through COVID-19, Headkount has grown well beyond first-year predictions, and Paula is sought out by high-profile beauty executives and founders across the country.

Essential Data
Retail Sales Volume Pre-Covid vs. Post-Covid:
Post-Covid doors with in-store support are growing 3X larger than they were Pre-Covid, showing how eager consumers are to engage and shop. Those same doors are 18X larger in sales volume than those without in-store support.

Post Covid Shift with Brick & Mortar vs. com:
Pre-Covid volume split between B&M vs dotcom was 70%/30% and during the pandemic that quickly shifted to 30%/70%. At present, we're seeing a significant return of consumers coming back to Brick & Mortar and they are once again passing dotcom, making a comeback of 56%/44%. Some brands are already back to a pre-Covid mix of business.

Locations:
Priority retail doors have shifted significantly from urban to suburban, and even though doors that once received the most volume of customers, including Times Square, Union Square, The Grove, etc. are slowly getting more traffic as stores reopen, the suburban doors are no longer seen as playing second fiddle and are creating continued competition for the urban doors. The new priority doors are now found in suburban areas like Austin, Barton Creek, and Corte Madera, California, and even with Covid ending, these suburban doors are still holding their own.

Product:
The lip category, including lip liner and lip services, is on the rise as masks come off:
o   Though Lip Category searches show a -19.4% YOY decline, its future looks bright and it’s expected to grow by 22% within the next 12 months
o   In-store sales are picking up as mask restrictions are lifted 
o   Lipliner searches are +22%, Lip Plumper +15% 
o   In-store, Lip Plumpers are tough to keep in stock and brands are running out fast
o   Lip Services are showing a huge spike as searches for the Botox Lip Flip is up +158%
 
For more information, please visit Headkount.com or @headkount on social media platforms.