Employers: Fear the Beer (or Wine) Truck

Buddy Young is a stellar employee.  He works in wine sales and has great rapport with his clients, his coworkers and his boss.  He outperforms his peers, and wins the President's Club award every year.  Buddy has been loyal to his company for ten years, and isn't interested in leaving to work for a competitor.  To an employer, Buddy Young is about as good as it gets.  So what happens if that Budweiser truck or Young's market delivery truck T-bones Buddy's car, sending him to the emergency room and causing him to suffer amnesia during the OND sales period?  Your company might just be in trouble.

Back in the day I worked for a large recruiting company.  We had tons of Buddy's doing extremely well for the company.  They were the reason the company was successful in so many markets.  But some of these people embraced the database and others couldn't be bothered with data input and upkeep.  My old boss, and now good friend, would always say that we had to "Fear the Beer Truck".  This meant that our company was doing well as long as those employees did their job, but that we were in big trouble if they ever left.  All the client information; including names, locations, past buying history, pricing plans and forecasting was often locked up in the employees' brains.  If Buddy left the company, or was hit by the beer truck, we wouldn't have any clue what was going on with his work.

Now at the old company we also had Rock Star, who was the most productive employee.  Rock had great rapport with his clients, and also worked the database like no one's business.  He put personal information, past visits, as well as all feedback and planning information into the database.  He could quickly manipulate that computer system to get updates, forecasts and call lists for sales blitzes.  He was always two steps ahead, and had the income to prove it.  But luckily for everyone, he put his data in the computer.

When Rock Star left the company, the company had all the data at their fingertips, and could keep the business moving forward.  They knew what clients were being called on, what their buying patterns were, and what pricing they were receiving.  For the company, they were able to carry on in a professional manner when Rock Star was gone.

Oh good, the company can carry on.  That will equal success right?  Well it is better than having no clue what was going on.  And I think it can often allow you to make the company look proficient and trusted when a employee leaves.  But success does not lie in data alone.  I put a great deal of stock in those personal relationships our employees foster.   No amount of data can outweigh a well connected salesperson, and no database can independently come up with a new angle to help our clients deal with a problem. 

So how can you attract and retain top talent and ensure the company will benefit?  I think a commitment to our employees is the first step.  Making the company valuable for the employee to work at and promote to others is paramount to getting those Rock Stars to join your company.  Once you have your Rock Star and Buddy Young on board, you need to build a culture that encourages the personal touch while capturing important data.  Along those same lines, a company needs to have an overlying culture that creates a company identity that envelops and enhances the individuals' contributions.

Creating great companies is a complex proposition.  But creating a strategy to avoid "fearing the beer truck" is a key piece of the puzzle.  Work to compliment your employees' talents with a usable reporting system.   You have to have very simple-to-use systems that your employees will get valuable information out of.  Our friend Rock Star was able to put his data into a finely-tuned computer program that let him continue making sales and making money.  So of course he used it.  Now Buddy Young was keen on getting his data into a useful system, but his company's technology was old and antiquated.  Why would he sit and put information in if it isn't going to help him make more money and keep his place as top salesperson?  He isn't going to.  He's going to be out on the road making calls, selling wine and making money.  So my recommendation to employers is to get great computer systems in place, foster the smart use of them, and recognize your employees who use the systems to their advantage.  Their advantage turns out to be the company's as well, and a puzzle piece that equals success.