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SAM, a DEI consultancy completes Quantum’s Complimentary Business Strategy Consulting Project

December 9, 2020

Stef Alicia McCalmon is an award-winning strategist and marketer who believes in the power of storytelling to inspire leaders to build equitable organizations. She is the CEO and co-founder of SAM, a diversity, equity and inclusion consultancy and content company. Ms. McCalmon’s work focuses on the intersection of media and advocacy, and her creative approach attracted the attention of Quantum Media.

To address the business and social challenges in 2020, Quantum Media, a consulting firm with deep expertise in the media, information, and entertainment industries, offered complimentary business consulting sessions to young businesses or startups. Preference was given to minority and/or women led organizations. Ms. McCalmon’s company SAM was selected by Quantum Media for its socially focused entrepreneurship and its need for guidance on the best way to move forward.

As a relatively new business in a DEI advisory market with pressing, actionable needs, SAM’s challenge is to communicate its unique offering effectively and grow its client base. Ms. McCalmon asked Quantum’s Ava Seave and Alisha Alonso for guidance about strategies to compete with both large corporations and small consulting businesses, structuring and pricing packages competitively, and a viewpoint about monetization models for its weekly newsletter.

Key takeaways from the session centered around defining the ideal clients’ problem statement that SAM is uniquely able to handle. Ms. McCalmon’s values and motivation for being in business is important, but Quantum helped her articulate the value and expertise she brings when a client needs to address a particular DEI management issue. She is able to describe how her service is an Organizational Design practice and can effectively tie it to her clients’ business value.

How to structure and price packages is a challenge for any consultant, and QM helped Ms. McCalmon shift her approach to make the client feel confident their needs were understood by investing as much time with them as possible upfront. QM demonstrated how to craft a proposal in modules or steps with different pricing so the client understands their optionality and gives more flexibility to finalize terms that make sense for both SAM and the client.

Lastly, QM addresses Ms. McCalmon’s weekly newsletter the tuesday tab as a marketing tool for her consulting practice. While compelling and beautifully written, QM suggested keeping a very focused approach and maintain its separation from her specialization in education and advisory services in the DEI space.

“Quantum Media heard and thought through some of my most challenging issues and really gave me a lot to think about. They helped me organize my approach and I feel better equipped to articulate how my passion and expertise on DEI issues can support a client to achieve their goals,” said Ms. McCalmon. #strategy #consulting #DEI #media