As a result of a bout of unemployment earlier this year, I was contacted recently by a headhunter (excuse me… recruiter). My resume was on file, and he had an opportunity which was right up my alley. Or so he said.
He described the position for me: it was with a recognizable supplier company within the promotional products industry. The job did call for someone with my skills of shaking trees and making it rain.
Knowing the company in question, I asked about a person that I knew worked there. As I saw it, I’d be taking his job. I was assured that was not the case, as my talents would be put to use contacting end-users.
(Sidebar here, as I know this column is read by many people outside of the promotional products industry. Long-story-short: suppliers/manufacturers are not supposed to work directly with end-users. That’s where our network of distributors come into play. Now back to our regularly scheduled column.)
It’s not unheard of for suppliers to market directly to end-users. Pick up nearly any business magazine and you’ll see ads for recognizable name brands in our industry looking to gain exposure with end-users. I get that and see nothing wrong with it. These companies (generally) take these leads and turn them over to distributors.
With that in mind, I asked the recruiter about his client’s plan. Would I be expected to contact the end-users on a sort of fishing trip, finding opportunities for the company? And that, gentle reader, is where our story takes a dark turn.
The leads I’d be generating were to be kept by the company and sold on a direct basis. At this point my spidey-sense was tingling, but I kept the conversation going. I asked what the company’s strategy was, once the distributor network our feet on the ground…learned of this. Did they have an answer at the ready for them, because I can promise you (the company) that they (the distributors) are going to find out and jump real ugly on you.
I commented to the recruiter that the company had better be prepared to hear this same question from other potential candidates. Further to that point, I told him that, if any other candidates don’t ask about this, they are not the right candidates for the job. He thanked me for my informed questioning, and said that he’d check with his client and get back to me.
I’m awaiting that follow-up call.
As unemployed as I was (bet you didn’t know there were different levels!), I wasn’t about to jeopardize my hard-earned industry reputation for a position that I knew was going to blow up in my face. Sad to say I’ve seen that movie before.
In an earlier go-round, I worked for another company who wanted to see bigger/better/faster/sexier results and said that we needed to start direct selling (selling, not marketing). I protested… reminding them of the three-year plan I’d created. All well and good but – that was then/this was now.
Sorry, my character wasn’t drawn that way. I knew that the moment I called on one of my clients’ clients… scratch that… one of my friends’ clients, my reputation was shot and my friendship was ruined. My business ethics (yes, I know, a contradiction in terms if ever there was one) wouldn’t allow me to do this, and I immediately started my evacuation routine, and for the record, I never made a direct call for them.
Seth Godin (excuse me… Marketing Legend Seth Godin) recently had a blog post about ethics. In it, he wrote “…most companies strive to be just ethical enough. To get ethics to the point where no one is complaining, where poor ethics aren’t harming their KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
“What if instead...
“Being more ethical was the most important KPI?
“Perhaps profit and market share and the rest could merely be tools in service of the ability to make things better, to treat people ever more fairly, to do work that we’re more proud of each day.
“It might be worth trying.”
I know I can live with the man in the mirror. What about you?
Mike Schenker, MAS, is a promotional industry veteran and member of the Specialty Advertising Association of Greater New York (SAAGNY) Hall of Fame. He can be reached at mike@mikeschenker.com.