A well-known eyewear sales expert has joined the Eyes Right Optical ranks in a new position that’s helping independents understand how they can restructure their eyewear mix for better business results.
Mr Marc Sanchez has cultivated a 20-year reputation across the New South Wales/ACT independent optical scene as a methodical, respected frames sales rep – but even now he’s never had a better time securing appointments to chat with busy practice owners.
The reason: he’s just taken on a newly created business development manager (BDM) role at Eyes Right Optical, one of the nation’s top frames suppliers who independents readily welcome into their stores, as he’s quickly discovered.
Often when Sanchez calls a practice, they tell him to stop introducing himself; they instantly recognise his French accent. It’s a familiarity and trust built over many years with companies like Rodenstock, Mimo (14 years) and Marchon. Seeking new opportunities in early 2025, he received a call from Mr Mark Wymond, owner of Eyes Right Optical, who saw a chance to align Sanchez’s experience with a new service for independent customers.
Within five weeks of starting, Sanchez has visited 120 practices in 53 Sydney suburbs, providing consultations that help practice owners better understand the brands available through the four Wymond-operated eyewear supply businesses, including Eyes Right Optical, and how it might fit with their practice objectives.
This new BDM role differs from that of a traditional sales rep who carry many bags of frames and are keen to talk business. Instead, Sanchez carries a couple of trays and helps practices swiftly get to the bottom of untapped potential in their frames range. A more comprehensive sales rep appointment follows soon after.
He looks more holistically at their frames range, offering tailored advice in a no-pressure environment.
“Reps are often go, go go, but I like to call myself a rep without bags,” he says.
“I’ve been very honest with Mark [Wymond] and since joining, everybody has been so welcoming and keen to meet, and that’s not because of me, that’s because of the Eyes Right Optical reputation.
“We must be doing something right. Yes, there is great product, but it’s the customer service behind it – people often remark that it’s just so easy to work with Eyes Right. Plus, customers can feel and see it’s a family-owned business, with a great range of frames, flagship brands, a well-structured portfolio – they know where they are going.”
Bringing Sanchez into the fold is just another way Wymond is seeking to elevate the customer experience. It’s a winning combination, blending a respected sales rep across NSW/ACT with an eyewear supplier that has a clear objective to help its customers grow.
“It’s been great to see Marc’s passion and enthusiasm for the industry,” Wymond says. “He’s been selling eyewear for 20 years and he’s very methodical and process-driven, which is what you need for this role. He’s a real industry expert; it’s only been a short time but he’s really making it his own.”
One of the mantras Wymond lives by is “making the customer look good”.
It starts with bringing to Australia the latest designs from overseas brands like ProDesign, Face à Face, WOOW, William Morris, and more recently, Italia Independent. But there’s so much more to it, like a 93% fill rate for next day delivery, and stocking all collections at the companies’ warehouse in Scoresby, Melbourne.
With spectacle sales accounting for 35% to 40% of the total revenue of each practice, it’s vital independents nail their product mix backed up with an efficient and effective service.
“When practices have the customer standing there in front of them, we will walk down the aisles of our warehouse to confirm it’s in stock, and yes, that it will likely arrive tomorrow in the colour and quantity requested. When you’re on the frontline with the end-consumer in front of you, you don’t want there to be any ifs, buts or maybes,” he says.
“We invest a lot in staffing and training and don’t run the operation down to the bone, staffing levels are high to provide a high level of customer service, because if you don’t, then it just ricochets down.”
Brands that can stock an entire practice
Sanchez has been meeting with practices of all shapes, sizes and vintages.
Often, it might be businesses stocking a few brands from Eyes Right Optical, or maybe it’s more established customers seeking new ways to optimise their eyewear mix.
One of the key messages he is delivering is the opportunity for practices to streamline their frame supplier arrangements.
Is it necessary to be dealing with multiple frames suppliers – as many as 30 in extreme cases, as Wymond has discovered – when they can go deeper with fewer?
Wymond, and his four eyewear supply businesses, are ideally placed to offer this.
In addition to Eyes Right Optical, and along with sister Ms Lisa Wymond, he operates Modstyle, supplying quality Australian-designed eyewear for more price-conscious consumers after the latest look; Sunglass Collective, a pure sunglass company with exclusive rights to the Bollé and Serengeti ranges in Australia and New Zealand; and Morel Australasia, the local subsidiary of leading brand in French independent eyewear, Morel.
It means he has 20-plus brands that can cater to any practice demographic, whether it’s a child (Kensie, Kaleyedoscope), a young professional after a sophisticated look (Charles Stone, ProDesign), or a cycling enthusiast requiring prescription sunglasses (Bolle). Perhaps it’s an environmentally-conscious patient seeking sustainable eyewear (Project Green), a fashion-oriented person seeking to make a statement (WOOW, Face à Face), or someone looking for design and quality at an affordable price (Avanti, Eclipse).
By investing more in fewer supplier relationships, Wymond says practices will know who they’re talking to on the end of the phone, may enjoy more flexible terms and be given the benefit of the doubt with things like warranties.
“In the market, there’s some big successful practices, but they’ve spread themselves thin across so many suppliers, meaning they can’t access that level of goodwill, or they haven’t got a true brand strategy in place,” he says.
“But it’s also the time spent processing invoices, rep visits and calls. To use that extreme example of 30 suppliers, that’s 30 people you’ll be dealing with every few months, whereas if you cut that down to 10 or fewer, you’ve just saved 20 hours.”
Although it goes against Wymond’s nature to talk up his work, the four companies under his stewardship have enough stock and variety to be the foundational eyewear supplier of any independent practice. Of course, it’s good for his business, but the big motivation is to help his customers succeed in an increasingly competitive landscape.
A big part of Sanchez’s role is communicating this to practices that might not be aware of the portfolio’s breadth and depth.
“The best way to describe Marc’s role is that he’s coming in almost like a lens rep,” Wymond adds.
“He’s going in to talk about our brands with the owners, the frame story out front and how we can streamline your business operations because we’ve got a brand that might quite easily substitute in. He goes in to talk more holistically about the business, the brand profile, how we can help, how we can work even more with them.”
By providing a snapshot overview of the portfolio during his visits, Sanchez aims to distil it to a few recommendations, ultimately leaving the ball in the practice owner’s court.
“I was recently at a practice with four brands from Eyes Right Optical, he’s very happy, and we got on to the topic of school holidays, and it was an opportunity to show that we have a kid’s range, and the response was ‘yes, why not?’,” he says.
“Other times it’s about advising practices that are very well established with us about how they can go to the next level, reactivating doors or even opening new ones for us.
“If I can help them improve their business, that’s extremely rewarding for me, and the big reason I have stayed in the industry for 20 years, which I hope to extend much further with Mark and the team at Eyes Right Optical.”
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