Thursday, March 22, 2018

Are You As Smart As A Hiring Manager? Don't Take It Personal If You're Not

Cognitive Computing
Have you applied for a position online and received this confirmation; "Congratulations, your application has been reviewed and you've been identified as a potential candidate to move to the next step in the process"? Then, you receive an email with a link to an assessment, which tells the hiring manager (presumably) about your Predictive Index, or, PI, as it's known. Sound familiar? There are several companies that administer tests that gauge character and cognitive traits, but, PI is one of the more common ones, so, I mention them.

https://www.predictiveindex.com/cognitive
Math is pretty important for most jobs I've had and if I'm hiring someone, I'd like to know they have some complex Math skills and an ability to think on the fly. Fair enough.

Well, PI has a timed assessment where you have to answer some 50 random questions about patterns, shapes, words and numbers, all in 12 minutes (see examples)! Now, they do tell you on the real test, most people do not complete all 50 questions and that answering all questions correctly is not expected, but, if you're like me, just knowing there are 50 questions and only 12 minutes messes with my brain before I even start (that's probably the intent by the PI folks).


https://www.predictiveindex.com/cognitive
For the record, I took the sample test on their website which consited of 20 questions in 5 minutes (self-timed) and scored 17/20 (sadly, it marked me wrong for choosing "ambiguous" when asked what the opposite of "conclusive" is. My other three choices were "positive", "finite" and "unusual". So, I technically scored a 90% as opposed to the 85% because they had a wrong answer (go figure). You can take the sample PI test here.




So, what do the results mean? Well, if you actually were able to read the results form a real PI assessment, you'd have an idea. But, since you're not going to see how you scored, you have no clue because the employer is not going to share those results with you. Besides, the score that the test spits out will only be used against a matrix in which the employer created the acceptable range. So, while I scored an 85% (read 90%), if the range is 92 or higher as being a perfect fit for the job, the hiring manager may pass me over since I didn't land in the pre-set range.

And, that's my point here. The acceptable range is whatever the employer sets as a benchmark for a specific role. And, then, they're relying on PI's science to tell them what the results mean. PI claims "when used correctly, the PI Learning Indicator is a powerful and legally defensible assessment for guiding high quality talent decision-making." Obviously, they feel pretty confident their system is up to the task, when used correctly.

Long are the days of filling out a paper applications and face-to-face interviews. Now, almost the entire process is web based. I hear of people who never even see another human for the entire process (excpet for Skype) until they start their new job. But, hey, it's 2018, and, if you can get a Ph.D online, shouldn't you be expected to find a job the same way?



Monday, March 19, 2018

A Bridge Too Far... How to React to Being Laid-Off

There's downsizing going on across many industries right now (ahem, Coca-Cola). If you've been affected, it's important to keep your eye on the prize... namely, your good name. It's easy to get down because you feel slighted, especially if you performed at a higher level than those employees that were retained. Just let it go. Companies are always going to restructure and for those staying and those who are let go, there's never really a good time for a re-org. You have to accept it as it comes. You hear it all through your career... "just don't burn any bridges". But, it never really resonated with me, until now.

It does no good to get disgruntled because your reputation is on the line. And, if you're like many, you've probably been in the same industry for the majority of your career, and, odds are, you're looking to stay in the same industry, perhaps go to a competitor you once thought of as the enemy (it's amazing what one phone call can do to your psyche). My point is, there are probably people you know who have preceded you to another company and they still know people at your old company and they talk, and, well, you get it. Stories and rumors travel faster than the truth and if you make a grand exit, everyone is sure to hear about it. Probably even your next possible employer.

I was recently impacted and it really hurt. I had about a month heads-up that there were going to be some roles eliminated and others would be changed. It was probably the longest, hardest 30 days of my adult working life knowing this could alter the trajectory of my family. I told my wife very early on about the impending changes. We'd been through periods like this before, so, it wasn't exactly foreign to us. But, this time felt different. I was at a different stage in my life and my career and I felt more vulnerable than before. I never really let on to her about how serious I thought the outcome could be because I didn't want her to worry at home while taking care of two kids while I'm traveling. It's already hard enough being married to someone who travels frequently. As fate would have it, I was out of town when I got the expected news... in the exact same city... in the exact same hotel as the last time I got the exact same news. It was a sad day for me and for many of my colleagues with whom I built great relationships while we built great brands. I will miss them.

My story is no different than countless others. This happens daily, and you know what? I'm pretty sure most people end up with a better job. So, why am I telling you all this? Because, this time for me, I received so much support from my customers that it really lifted me up. Many told me they had no clue my job was being cut because I pretty much stayed connected with them right up until my last day. Some were shocked as to how gracious I was in departing. On my last day, I attended a customer meeting and personally introduced many of my customers to their contact who would be taking over for me. I acted that way for several reasons. One, because I'm more mature than if this had happened twenty-five years ago. But, mainly, it was the right thing to do. It serves no one, not your customers, not your soon-to-be fellow employees, not your reputation, to act in any manner other than professional.

I did this because, down the road, I don't want to be remembered for how I exited, but, for how I performed while I was there. It sounds cliche, but, don't burn any bridges. And, that's a lesson worth passing down to your children.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Don't Pump the Brakes On Your Brand

Congrats, you've created a beverage brand! You've put in all the hard work behind ideas, development, trial, error, packaging, production, selling cases up and down the street, resetting coolers, stealing space, placing racks, hanging POS and hopefully getting re-orders. Now, the time comes where you've proven your concept beyond a dream and into a reality and it's time to find a distributor.

What is the best process for supporting your brand? You've grown it beyond what you and a few sales folks can handle. You're starting to spread beyond just your region. So, you've built a marketing team, a key account team and hired a director of sales. Landing with a national distributor is hard to do. Instead, you may have to use a patchwork or web of various distributor models to get your brand to retailers.

Has your key account team had success in gaining authorizations, and, more importantly, getting into the POGs of retailers. Let's face it, being authorized is one thing, but, getting into the POG is EVERYTHING. This is the first, and certainly not the last question prospective distributors will ask. It all hinges on this. Why on earth would a distributor want to take up space on their warehouse floor and on their trucks for a brand that THEIR sales teams have to sell in at a local level? They've already got enough brands to sell without having to take on another unproven one.

Let's face it, distributor sales teams are going to focus on the brands that sell best. This is where their volume comes from, so, it makes sense. Even if your brand delivers a substantially higher GP and revenue per case for the distributor compared to their other brands, it's all about volume. However, there is a time and place for your brand and even if velocity is slower, you have to be able to sell the distributor on the revenue and profitability benefits. To increase your brand's value, you have to show the distributor you've got skin in the game. You have to be willing to support them with key account programming at the local level. You can't just piggy-back off the distributor's own key account relationships in hopes of landing authorizations or POG space. For one, it does nothing to build your own reputation among the buyers of the world. Second, the next hot item that comes down the pike for the distributor in a few months, the buyer is going to say, "sure, I'll give you space... just put it in the place of one of your other brands". And, since your key account team has no real relationship with the buyer or distributor key account team, you're now outside the POG looking in. Because you haven't invested locally with the distributor, your sales are now suffering.

You need a team to call on the regional or market unit level of your distributors. You need people who deal everyday with sales center managers, area sales managers, district managers and even the up and down the street sales reps. When you have those relationships, that's where your brand begins to flourish and grow. You have somebody every week in a distributor sales meeting reminding the sales teams to remember that you have a hot retail coming up next week with their biggest retailer. You present monthly and quarterly reviews to the sales leadership teams. You spend time with district managers who are visiting stores in a given market. You actually spend a few days a week riding with local sales reps on their routes helping them to sell your product. You invest time with them showing them you care. You take them to lunch, give them a polo shirt, run incentives and track, rank and publish their progress. You create a competitive culture within their organization and pit one sales team against another for bragging rights... or even better, a free trip to the Caribbean or a nice cash prize.

The moment you stop doing all of this is the moment when your distributor stops caring. Sure, they'll be more educated on the category, they'll definitely know more about the brand itself and they really like you. But, you know what they say; "out of sight, out of mind". When no one is there to harass them every week about voids, out of stocks or lack of displays when in a hot ad, they forget about you and your brand really quick. If your brand's volume was skyrocketing versus the category, then, maybe you don't need to do all those things. But, when your brand represents less than one percent of the distributor's volume and you're number ten on a list of ten different monthly priorities that the sales reps have in a given account, all of a sudden, your nice GP and revenue don't mean that much.

It's all about relationship building, from the very beginning, all the way through to when your brand finally hits the big time. You wouldn't have made it this far if you relied on yearly distributor visits and occasional email reminders about your brand. No, you put in all the hard work required. You supported the distributor with front-line folks of your own and showed them you're willing to invest in their success. You've seen huge volume growth year over year. Why would you decide to change it all now? You're not the big baller, yet. You're a small fish in a very big ocean. You still need the inflatable floaters on your arms to keep your head above the water. Mess with this before it's time and you'll sink.



This blog is the opinion of the author. No individuals or companies mentioned have any affiliation with this blog. Gregg W Shore is a 29 year beverage veteran who writes his blog @DrinkPro, A View of the Beverage Industry, from the Inside Out. Connect on LinkedIn and follow on Twitter @DrinkPro