The customer is still always right — at least in the eyes of any successful salesperson. Alex Feynerol, Svakom's international sales star, has carved an industry name for himself with a little Italian-bred hospitality and a tried-and-true approach to business relationships.
Feynerol can claim fame as sales manager at Svakom USA. Since debuting to the trade in 2013, the Chinese-American brand has earned worldwide acclaim as a top sextech design house.
We’ve only scratched the surface of the American market and we have plans of expansion already in the works.
Their sleek and innovative designs range from classic vibrators like the slim Iris G-spot toy to the app-controlled Ella Kegel-style bullet to the swirling, tendril-like fingers of the Nymph. The company's Siren, a double-tongued clitoral vibrator, was awarded Innovative Sex Toy of the Year in the sex toy design category at the 2020 XBIZ Awards.
“I love our products [and] what we stand for as a brand,” says Feynerol. “The sole goal of [the company is] creating sex toys of the highest quality in the market and selling them at a price that allows any type of pocket to afford them.”
Born in Bologna, Italy, Feynerol tackles all things sales at Svakom from his current home base in Miami. Though not one to boast about his knowledge, he claims his sexpert status only extends a few years into the past, but Feynerol was actually born into the pleasure business.
“I’d say that I’ve been a real sex toy expert only for three years, the period that I’ve been working for Svakom,” says Feynerol, “but in the past I’ve had multiple encounters with this industry due to my family-owned business.”
Back in Italy, Feynerol's grandfather was one of the country's first importers of novelty products and condoms. The company was known for party games and imported gifts, though Feynerol recalls getting a glimpse at the adults-only category before he was even technically old enough (by U.S. standards, anyway) to buy sex toys.
Those formative years built Feynerol into the ideal pleasure product salesman. Working both behind the scenes and on the retail floor culminated in a business approach from which Feynerol still draws today.
“To me, the customer service experience is the key to a successful business,” he says. “That’s what differentiates in the end [between] a long-lasting brand [and] one that [will] have a short boost of fame and then disappear into thin air.”
In fact, Feynerol's industry fame likely stems from his above-and-beyond attitude. He's as old-school as it gets in the customer satisfaction department. There's nothing he won't do for a client, no matter their purchasing power.
“Since day one, my main focus was to accommodate every single client’s request. It didn’t matter if it was a distributor, a store or a direct consumer,” says Feynerol. “[Even] if what was asked for was too much or if it didn’t follow the company’s rules, the goal is and has always been to get the customer to go home with a smile on their face.”
Of all the sex toy name brands where Feynerol could have landed, Svakom has proven a perfect fit. When pressed about his feelings for his employer, Feynerol gushes that he could easily write an entire page describing what he loves most about his job.
However, one aspect stands out as being truly superior in his eyes.
“The most important, I’d say, is the environment that surrounds us in the workspace,” says Feynerol. “We are all simply more than just coworkers. We’re a family. We know we can rely on each other in and out of the office.”
Feynerol and his Svakom family have spent the last few years building a reputable brand presence in the U.S. The company's sleek, techy products became initially recognizable at European and Asian trade shows, and they've since focused specific teams — like Feynerol's — on extending their overseas household name.
“It has not been easy to rebuild the brand from scratch, but finally after years, we can see the fruits of our hard work,” says Feynerol.
“We’ve only scratched the surface of the American market and we have plans of expansion already in the works,” he explains, “with the idea of increasing the size and our presence in the U.S., while also tackling the mainstream channels and leading the sex industry outside of the darkness where we have [been] forced to stay for so many years.”
Looking back, Feynerol comments that 2020 has been an unexpectedly wild year for his American-based team, mostly due to COVID and its intense impact on the market.
“For the first month or two [during COVID], it seemed like it was going to be one of the worst recorded months in the sex toy industry,” Feynerol laments.
However, as many retailers can now attest, the silver lining appeared sooner than expected.
“Luckily, the fear was put aside and it allowed people to actually explore more [about] their bodies, their limits,” says Feynerol. “And [just] like that, what seemed to be the worst period in our history of sales turned out to be the best one ever with, of course, the online side of the businesses thriving the most.”
With or without COVID, Feynerol already saw a major shift in what sex toy consumers chose at checkout. Over the last handful of years, Svakom has participated in a revolution that's ditching cheap, toxic toys in favor of the affordable luxury category.
According to Feynerol, the days of the PVC sex toy are long gone, regardless of how inexpensive they come. When comparing the industry's past and present, Feynerol points to the availability of more affordable, high-end quality products, which Svakom has aided in popularity.
“There has been a major shift in the demand of these items,” he explains. “A few years back, [the] majority of the consumers would go to the stores to buy the classic, battery-operated $20 vibrator, caring more about their expenses and less about what they were putting inside their bodies. Thankfully there has been a big jump forward in the [general public’s] view of sexual wellness, mostly thanks to the mainstream media that started promoting it more.”
To conclude Svakom's unique pleasure industry contributions, let us never forget that the brand's first eye-catcher was the SIIMI, an intelligent, insertable vibrator that allowed users to peer inside their bodies or broadcast playtime to a long-distance partner via an internal macro camera.
Needless to say, Feynerol's product and market expertise lends him an unmatched competitive edge.
“The future, of course, has the word ‘technology’ written all over it, [and] the last six months have been proof, with app-based toys receiving a boost in sales of well over 300 percent,” reports Feynerol. “The companies that are focusing on this side of the business for sure are the ones holding the key to a long-lasting success.”
