Canna Business Profile
&
What ’ s The Secret Behind the
Illicit Brand Success ? by Clayton Stallings , The EVOLUTION Magazine
Many of our readers know , I travel around Missouri monthly delivering magazines , and I spend a lot of time popping in and out of dispensaries across the state . While dropping off the latest issue of The EVOLUTION Magazine , I frequently chat with dispensary staff or management , asking how sales are going , which products patients seem to be enjoying , and which are consistent sellers . One of the brands that is consistently mentioned by budtenders is Illicit Gardens .
Leo Mancuso , Director of Sales for Illicit Gardens .
The more I kept hearing “ Illicit ,” the more I wondered what ’ s the secret behind its success . I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give our readers an inside look at what an MMJ Industry cultivation and manufacturing business does to provide patients with great products . The following is a Q & A with Leo Mancuso , Director of Sales for Illicit Gardens . My questions are labeled The EVOLUTION Magazine ( TEM ) and Leo Mancuso ( LM ).
TEM : What industry were you in before your current role with Illicit Gardens , and how does it help you with your current position ?
LM : Before joining Illicit , I spent 20 years in the hospitality industry , mainly working in Nightlife and Daylife , primarily in Las Vegas , but also in Miami and NYC . I ’ ve found a hospitality background helps professionally regardless of what path you take in life . It teaches you the important interplay of operations , marketing , and customer service . To listen to our audience , I try to spend as much time in the field as I can . That means attending events , talking to dispensary staff , and interacting with patients , all to get a reading on what ’ s going on in the industry and how people are responding to our brand .
TEM : Your last job was in Las Vegas , and a lot of your team came from the Vegas cannabis industry . Can you mention a little more about your team and how their experience in Vegas helped with the Illicit brand ’ s success ?
LM : My team is the bomb , hands down . Some of us have experience working in Vegas , both on the hospitality side and in the cannabis industry . Most of our team members coming from Vegas are originally from the Kansas City area . The rest of the management team hails from St . Louis and Colorado . It wasn ’ t until Missouri began its medical cannabis market that they were able to bring everything they ’ ve learned back home and launch this company .
On the sales and marketing side , we bring big city grassroots-style marketing meshed with data-driven technologies needed to thrive in highly competitive markets like Miami , Vegas , etc . The work ethic required and demanded in those markets keeps the team focused on constantly improving to maintain market share , all without diluting the fundamentals of the Illicit brand . Nevada has some of the strictest cannabis testing requirements in the nation , which is something I found relatable to the gaming world , where health and safety requirements on the Vegas strip are heavily enforced . Carrying these skillsets and experience over has been a major contributing factor to Illicit ’ s success .
TEM : I know that Illicit Gardens was one of the first approved cultivation licenses to hit the MO MMJ Industry . How did this help with the brands ’ success , but more importantly , how did you keep the momentum with more and more product options hitting the market ?
LM : We were so fortunate to have been one of the first grows to have gotten up and running . That was possible through a commitment to the daily grind . We set a high bar for ourselves from the beginning , and keeping it there motivates us every day to push harder and innovate on all fronts . Our team has had experience with similar clients , and that ’ s allowed us to avoid some of the major cultivation pitfalls our competitors possibly weren ’ t ready for .
The Illicit facility was built with the elements in mind , both to protect against them and to utilize them in our favor when possible . This continues to pay off from an energy and waste conservation standpoint but also on the long-term viability and safety side . Once we had built our initial patient following , we turned our focus to customer retention . I ’ m proud to say ; we are one of the only brands that NEVER forced buyers [ dispensaries and MIPs ] into contracts . We never had to because of product quality and consistency .
Recently , taking cues from changes in the market , we rolled out new pricing , plus budtender and patient incentives . There are some very loyal Illicit patients out there , and we are so grateful to them and their feedback on how we can get better . We always want to deliver on our promise of quality .
TEM : Although prices have lowered across the board in the industry , Illicit ’ s price points still seem to be in the middle to high range . What are patients getting for that extra money ?