by Calvin Lee (with the help of Tammy Wu)
These are random musings, which serve as notes to myself to help me provide
better customer service. If these notes help anyone else, I am thrilled.
Disclaimer: nothing here is medical advice, please see your doctor in
person. I do have a vein practice in Modesto, and feel free to call me for
an appointment: Modesto Veins (209)
551-1888.
Please visit my Santa Barbara marathon Expo Data webpage regarding Sigvaris and CEP sock sales 1 week after this one.
First time carrying Sigvaris Performance Socks! This event was the first time that we sold the Sigvaris Performance Socks.
I've carried their Sigvaris
Recovery socks for a long time. But today was
the first day I've carried their Performance sock. I've also carried the
CEP running socks for a while in the office, although I carried the Sigvaris
Recovery sock first, then the CEP, and now I've added the Sigvaris Performance
sock to my list of socks that I sell in our office.
Tammy and I are recreational runners who live in Modesto, California (USA). Tammy grew up in Georgia, and I grew up in New York.
We enjoy making web pages. Some of them quite bad (perhaps like this one). We also happen to be surgeons. Tammy is a plastic surgeon and I am a Trauma/General surgeon - but this doesn't mean we know anything special about running. We have a practice together called Surgical Artistry. And Surgical Artistry is the founding title sponsor of the Modesto Marathon. We wear compression stockings daily for work and while running, etc. We sell Sigvaris and CEP running compression socks in our office (209) 551-1888: www.surgerytoday.com
Our personal page on facebook is: www.facebook.com/modesto - feel free to contact us or "friend" us. Our business facebook is: www.facebook.com/modestoplasticsurgery
Last year we only had CEP socks, and we were at the expo for 2 whole days and for the whole time. The expo last year was indoors. CEP was completely new. I had a bunch of people from my own home town of Modesto, come to Fresno to buy these socks, because it was brand new. I sold 40 socks last year. This year I only sold 21 pairs of socks. The reason for the decline, I think, was because, I didn't have the support of the Modesto crew coming down to buy them - they already had the socks and felt that one pair was enough. Another reason was that I was only at this expo half the time compared to last year - that might actually be the main reason. I wasn't at the expo for both days. I came later on the second day of the expo. I had to work the previous day and couldn't make the expo on the Friday evening. Although, Friday evening expo last year was very poor in sales compared to the next day.
The type of customers who buy compression running socks in Fresno
As with last year, I've noticed that much of Fresno's runners are unfamiliar with the compression sock. I found myself explaining these socks to them, and they really haven't experienced them or heard of them before. I would say that over 90% of the sock sales this year were to people who were purchasing their first pair of compression socks. Last year I think the number would have been 95% new-to compression socks. So, we're getting a little bit better but not much.
I priced them the same.
I had one complaint about a CEP sock, it came from the race director of the SLO marathon. She had purchased a pair of CEP's and had worse swelling in her legs. She said that other brands didn't do this. I measured her and told her that she should check to make sure she had the right sizing. If not, she should consider calling the CEP sock company and see if they could switch out her sock. She seemed interested in a refund, but she couldn't identify her last CEP sock vendor. I would say that of the few customers who have tried compression socks before said to me that they loved them. I had some repeat customers that had purchased Sigvaris Recovery socks from me in the past, they came by to buy more socks, and they were mostly loyal to the Sigvaris brand because they had been happy with the previous purchase.
I've had to go over the benefits over and over at this expo because most of the customers haven't tried these socks before. Unlike Sacramento's CIM expo, where the customers already have tried these, or they have friends that have, the customers here were mostly new to compression running socks.
I like the last reason because I am a vein surgeon.
I sold 21 pairs of socks - including sleeves, Sigvaris, CEP. I only had black Sigvaris compression socks. I only had black CEP compression sleeves. I had progressive black, progressive white, green, and pink CEP running compression socks.
Most of the Data here is for CEP socks. I had many more CEP socks here at this expo than Sigvaris. I only carried Sigvaris black compression socks.
| Fresno Two Cities Marathon Expo November 2011 | |||||
| Sock # | Brand | Sock/Sleeve | Color | man or woman? | Size |
| 1 | sigvaris | mm | |||
| 2 | sigvaris | mm | |||
| 3 | cep | sock | green | woman | III |
| 4 | cep | sock | green | woman | III |
| 5 | sigvaris | mm | |||
| 6 | cep | sock | black | woman | III |
| 7 | cep | sleeve | black | woman | III |
| 8 | cep | sleeve | black | woman | III |
| 9 | sigvaris | ms | |||
| 10 | cep | sock | black | woman | III |
| 11 | cep | sock | white | man | III |
| 12 | cep | sleeve | black | man | IV |
| 13 | cep | sleeve | black | woman | IV |
| 14 | sigvaris | sm | |||
| 15 | cep | sock | green | woman | IV |
| 16 | cep | sock | white | woman | III |
| 17 | sigvaris | ml | |||
| 18 | cep | sock | black | woman | III |
| 19 | cep | sock | green | woman | III |
| 20 | cep | sock | white | man | III |
| 21 | cep | sock | pink | woman | IV |
| Sigvaris vs. CEP: 6 : 15. 6 sigvaris sold. 15 CEP's sold | ||||
| Brand | Socks Sold | Percent | ||
| Sigvaris | 6 | 29% | ||
| CEP | 15 | 71% | ||
I didn't push the Sigvaris socks. They sold themselves. I was mainly pushing the CEP socks. Many were familiar with Sigvaris because some of the runners had been to my office and seen Sigvaris socks before.
| CEP color preference socks only | ||
| Color | Socks Sold | Percent |
| black | 3 | 27% |
| green | 4 | 36% |
| white | 3 | 27% |
| pink | 1 | 9% |
| TOTAL | 11 | |
The four pairs of sleeves that are not included in the above data were black. But that was the only color of sleeve that I carried so this might not be fair.
| CEP sock vs. sleeve preference | ||
| Socks Sold | Percent | |
| sock | 11 | 73% |
| sleeve | 4 | 27% |
| TOTAL | 15 | |
| CEP men vs. women | ||
| Socks Sold | Percent | |
| Men | 3 | 20% |
| Women | 12 | 80% |
| CEP sock sizes | ||
| Socks Sold | Percent | |
| II | 0 | 0% |
| III | 9 | 82% |
| IV | 2 | 18% |
| V | 0 | 0% |
| TOTAL | 11 | |
(209) 551-1888
Located in Modesto, CA
Services in Plastic Surgery, Veins, Acupuncture, and General Surgery
email clee [at] surgerytoday.com (feel free to contact me!)
our facebook page: www.facebook.com/modestoplasticsurgery
Looking for a California Marathon to run in March?
The official webpage for the Surgical Artistry Modesto Marathon is
www.modestomarathon.com