During my Edward Don days we calculated that it took at least 7 contacts to open a restaurant account and as many as 11 to gain business at a hotel or hospital.
So how does a tabletop factory, dealer/distributor or rep group go about finding the hunter who can do something that is against basic human instinct which is to be rejected time and time again, and to still come back for more, with the same enthusiasm and passion as the first contact?
How does one find that sales executive who genuinely loves the thrill of the hunt and can sell in a professional and ethical manner, with an acceptable profit margin, and has the administrative and follow up skills that actually result in long term transactions and not one off deals?
This challenge is magnified when a trade show is attended. Here we see the entire foodservice industry on display and working the booths and aisles are many very nice individuals who no doubt work hard, travel a great deal, have good product knowledge, etc. but can they actually produce significant new business that is in the hands of well established competitors. I’m afraid that the answer in many cases is NO! I spend a great deal of time looking at resumes/CVs and most are full of meaningless activities that do not answer the three basic key end result areas of a written summary of a career, which are in order of importance:
· Can you make me look good?
· Can you make me money?
· Can you do the job?
Do you think that the Chairman of IBM looks at a potential President’s resume and doesn’t think about how his new hire will make him look to his Board of Directors?
Quite often I get calls from seemingly bright individuals that would like to come into our industry. The majority of them do not have a clue what it takes to rise to the very top in foodservice sales. The years of sweat equity necessary to extract profit from an industry that works 24/7, 365 days a year.
Over the years as an industry we have done a lousy job of attracting young people that should now be ready for hiring managers to attract. Hardly anyone wants or thinks they can afford extensive training programs. Many job orders that we get have associated position descriptions that require a quick and often unrealistic bang for the buck.
Most factories are not going to hire these well meaning foodservice “wannabees” and if they appear to have necessary spark, I tell them to get with a quality dealer or distributor and learn the business from the street on up. Learn to walk into a professional kitchen on a steamy, hot day and see the wonderful foodservice ballet unfolding in the kitchen, and on the floor, and to experience tabletops critical role in the customer’s satisfaction with the dining experience.
Now that some of the challenges of recruiting in tabletop have been highlighted, hiring managers have several key decisions to make, some of which are:
· Do I have a position description that is not written on a napkin but is well thought out with regard to key end result areas that have been discussed with other senior department heads such as Human Resources, Operations and Finance?
· What is the culture of my company? Hiring a tortoise when a hare is needed isn’t going to cut it.
· How much training will the new hire get? If it’s little or none then you are going to have to go for experience which is going to cost money, bring up possible counter offers and the curse of every hiring manager and recruiter – the non compete agreement.
· Who is actually going to lead from the front to train the new team member on how to acquire new business?
· Do we have enough support for the new hire in the way of product pricing, innovation and differentiation, supply chain efficiencies, advertising, tradeshows and collateral support, etc?
My next article will focus more on the candidate looking to advance his or her tabletop career and it will also give the hiring manager some ideas on the business of tabletop talent acquisition.
To learn more about Mike Hawkins and his recruiting firm, go here: http://www.mjhawkinsinc.com/
