Essentials Consulting Package

Develop a public-facing statement about your sustainable sourcing practices that guide all your decision-making and make it clear to your customers and the world at large how your values align with your actions. The Guiding Principles Statement faces your customers, articulates who you are, what you believe and value, and how you integrate this throughout your business.

Product: 500-word statement.

Details: Includes 2 rounds of customer edits.

What is a Guiding Principles Statement?
A public-facing statement of your values and how they guide your business decisions and actions.

How can it be helpful for my team and customers?
It turns your convictions and ideas into concrete actionable principles that inform all aspects of your business.

How does it work?
CMC plays an editorial role, we help you define what’s most important for you.

A Sourcing Policy is a “Cornerstone” product. It is foundational, allowing you to make purchasing decisions with clarity and guide future communications about your jewelry materials. Who sees the policy is up to you. While it is intended for internal guidance for you and your team and for communicating your expectations to suppliers and vendors, it can be made publicly available for transparency purposes. This document is not intended to provide sales and marketing copy.

Product: Sourcing Policy

Details: CMC will draft a Sourcing Policy (up to 3 pages) for your business. Includes 2 rounds of customer edits.

What does a Sourcing Policy do?
It documents the course of actions you take on responsible sourcing, guides internal decision making and communicates these practices to external audiences (retailers, customers, press).

How does it help my sourcing practices?
It sets clear guidelines for your purchasing decisions and rules you hold yourself to, from general (human rights, environmental protection, fair labor, etc. - standard business must haves) to specific (material by material). A sourcing policy makes it easier to adhere to your core values and clarify under what circumstances you will or won’t take a specific action.

What does it do for my business?
It will professionalize your practices, help you talk more confidently about them, help simplify your sourcing decisions by making clear what you're willing to accept and what you’re not willing to accept. Make your life easier by having a policy to refer people to. You can even send it to suppliers in advance to see if there's alignment. It is also a document increasingly expected from retailers and even discerning customers.

What can I use it for?
It's a statement of intent about your sourcing efforts that can be shared with your customers. It helps you share the details of what “responsible sourcing” means for you specifically, as this can be different for different people.

You’ve told us that supplier calls make you nervous!

With some coaching from us and live support during one call, you’ll gain the confidence to have many conversations. The support we provide is in three main parts:

1. Provide background research on one (1) supplier of choice.
2. Join you in a call with your supplier - it’s up to you how much you’d like for us to lead in this call! We want you to feel confident and be able to use this experience as an example to follow for future supplier conversations.
3. Post-call debrief and recommendation for follow-up questions

Product: Transcript of the call (if supplier agrees to it), with notes and suggestions for follow-up.

Details: Live supplier vetting call (max. 1-hour long) and script.

How does a Supplier Interview Call help me?
We help you organize the information you have about the prioritized supplier, list the claims they make that you'd like to have more information on, identify basic questions that will get you closer to answering your questions, pinpoint any red flags, and learn nuances to watch out for.

What happens during the call?
Two (2) consultants from the CMC team are on the conference call with you. We can lead the call or we can remain in the background ready to assist. The call can be up to 1 hour long.

How can this help me with other suppliers and vendors?
The supported supplier interview helps you gain confidence. Jewelers like you are often intimidated by supplier calls, but these conversations can be meaningful and constructive. You can learn a lot about yourself, what you really care about, and gain insights around what is possible to know now.

It is good to be on alert about greenwashing, but sometimes it is hard to know what qualifies and what doesn’t. During a communications audit, we look at the words you are using to catch risky language as well as identify opportunities where you could say even more to convey your sustainability practices clearly.

Product: Document with analysis, feedback, and recommendations.

Details: Assessment of current language and claims on up to three (3) webpages and past 30 days in one (1) social media channel. It provides an example to follow for future copywriting needs.

What is a Communications Audit?
It is an analysis of the language you use and claims you make about your sourcing practices on public-facing platforms, mainly your website and a social channel.

Why is it necessary?
Taking stock of the claims you make about your materials and practices and assessing the language you use is necessary to make sure you avoid 'greenwashing' and any upsetting push-back.

How can this help my business?
The communications audit will show you where there might be gaps between your values, sourcing practices, and the way you speak about them. It will help you avoid greenwashing and increase consumer trust.

How will my customers benefit?
It will help you educate the public and be comprehensive and thoughtful in your communications to build trust with your customers.