How I Came to MindWire, a VP’s Journey

A Strong Starter

Hi, I’m Dave! When I graduated from Michigan State University with my bachelor’s degree in computer science, I had taken a relatively non-traditional path. I would joke that I “aggressively” finished my 4-year degree… in 14 years. One hour at a time. I’m a great starter, but I get distracted.

During school, I joined an internship with IBM in Austin, TX and realized just how much I loved warm weather, and just how little I loved my chosen career path. But I went back to Michigan to finish my degree while working. 

I found a world I really loved: the restaurant business. Soon, I became a manager and then Operating Partner of an expanding restaurant concept. When exploring a potential buy-out option with the founder, it became clear that this particular path was one I did not want to take. Over a cup of coffee with Kevin, one of my foodservice sales reps, I announced that I was moving on. To what? I had no idea. He did.

A Persuader is Revealed

At the time, Kevin was moving up in his company and they were looking for his replacement. My new direction was clear. This began a three-decade career in foodservice sales, management, and sales operations. I loved the sales side of this world and was pretty good at it. In my first year I got very serious about a new-account sales contest. I took first place and won a new car. I discovered I really like winning. 

When I finally finished my degree, fourteen years later, I was succeeding in the foodservice sales world and working for a national company. As I was really tired of winter, it was time to move someplace a little warmer.

Seeking the Sun

By “a little”, I guess I meant a lot. My wife, two young kids, and I moved from Lansing, Michigan to Phoenix, Arizona. I loved not owning a snow shovel or windshield scraper anymore. 

In the valley of the sun, I joined Shamrock Foods, a large, regional foodservice distributor. It was with Shamrock that I was introduced to the Predictive Index^Ⓡ (PI). As Director of Sales Enablement for Shamrock, I was asked to investigate the training to become a Certified PI Practitioner, and to roll out PI to the Shamrock sales division.

The Fastest Assessment Ever

I remember when I took the PI. I was surprised.

Having taken many other “personality assessments” in the past, I was expecting a 20-to-40-minute slog having to make decisions like “Which one of these statements is more like you?” Instead, with the PI I was done in about 5 or 6 minutes. What? How can such a quick survey truly understand the depth of my complex behavioral wiring? I was skeptical.

Then, I read the result and my jaw dropped. I was truly surprised at how on point and accurate the report was. The insights made me realize why I was more successful at  sales and training than I was at computer science. The report explained my work style and strengths in a way that just made sense.

I was hooked. With the PI Software, my team developed job targets for hiring sales reps and started incorporating match-scores into the hiring process. I wished that I had found something like this resource years earlier.  

Freddie and the Red Beanie

Yes, ten years prior, without PI, I remember being a manager hiring a new salesperson. I specifically remember hiring Freddie. This guy lit up the room. Two District Sales Managers, a Regional Sales Manager, and the VP of HR completed interviews with Freddie and he “clicked” with all of them. The hiring team gave a unanimous and giddy YES!  We knew Freddie would be a top sales performer and that our customers would love him.  

But, two weeks later, Freddie nervously walked into my office and said that he could not handle the pressure. He quit.

He was not under a lot of pressure. He was still in training.

The general pace of our world was something we talked about during the interview, and at that time he said, “put me in, coach!” We were all legitimately shocked that we got this hire so wrong.  

Around the same time, we hired another sales rep who we predicted would be average. She ended up being a top sales performer and eventually a top sales manager for the region.

Humans are naturally flawed at predicting the future. Back then, I wished we had a magical hat we could put on someone that would light up bright green if they were a good fit for that job and bright red if they were simply not. I knew there were underlying behaviors and motivations that we needed to know about a person but just couldn’t see in an interview or on a resume.

So, fast-forward, there I was looking at this simple report that captured everything about me from being a way better starter than a finisher… to my attraction to change and productivity under pressure… to talking a lot and talking very fast. Yes, it’s all true! I was amazed that this quick assessment could know me so accurately.

Getting Buy In

When we implemented PI for hiring, some managers embraced it and recognized this tool as something that would reduce their headaches and help them get better results.  Others did not like when this new “magic beanie” would turn red after they already interviewed and fell in love with a candidate.

Over time, the benefits of using PI became evident. Those who relied on gut instinct alone would continue to see inconsistent hiring results. Hiring the wrong person for a sales role can be a multi-way losing proposition. The rep would often feel immense stress trying to meet expectations, while the manager would spend too much time and energy trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Sales were mediocre at best–both customer experience and company profitability suffered.

At one point, our EVP implemented an “Applicant Exception Form” on any candidate who came up as a red match to the job. If a manager still wanted to hire that person, the manager was asked to describe their detailed plan for how they would coach and work with this candidate to overcome the large gaps between the job needs and this person’s natural strengths. This new form process cut down on the number of poor matches that were hired–managers quickly realized the amount of work and responsibility that comes with a risky hire. They stopped taking these chances when they had to sign their name to a bad fit.

The Accidental Discovery

After successfully using PI to hire sales reps for about two years, I asked my Sales Training Managers in each of our four branches to do a little research. I wanted to see how our retention numbers had improved and what turnover looked like for the folks we hired using the PI methods. The results were positive, as we had increased retention and improved performance when hiring good matches to our model. But the big learning came from a misunderstanding!

One of those Sales Training  Managers misheard me and thought I asked for the PI match (Red, Yellow, Green) for every employee who turned over in the past two years. He examined the PI and performance data of 10 employees who were fired or quit from his branch . Astonishingly, 8 of the 10 were Red matches to the Job Target. Two of the 10 were Yellow. None of those who were fired or quit were Green matches.

What I learned from this experience is that a bad hire is not always a short-term problem. Sometimes it takes years for the employee to give up, or years for the manager to finally make a difficult decision. During that time, organizations can experience lost revenue and profitability, lower engagement and more work for the manager.

Sales and Leadership

PI became an integral part of the hiring and onboarding of new sales reps at Shamrock.  New hires were introduced to their own PI during their orientation program and managers had critical information about their new team members’ natural strengths and motivating needs. With PI, managers could have meaningful conversations that built trust and engagement quickly.

Then, I was introduced to Customer Focused Selling. My team of sales training managers and some top sales performers learned what the best of the best in sales did–consistently–to get the best results. These core concepts became foundational to the selling skills development of Shamrock sales reps. Combining sales skills with the insights of natural strengths from PI, we saw multiple record sales as years followed.

Coming Home to MindWire

When the pandemic struck, foodservice distribution businesses were hit hard. The immediate closing of restaurants resulted in a 70% decline in revenue. There were a lot of necessary changes, which included furloughs and terminations. After 30 years in that business, I made the decision to try something different.   

Exploring my options through multiple conversations brought me to Tom Riggs, co-founder of MindWire. Tom had been my PI consultant at Shamrock before creating MindWire with his partner Jerry Rutter. Reconnecting with Tom opened the door to conversations with Jerry and other MindWire team members. I admired their innovative business approach and their commitment to supporting clients throughout the employment lifecycle.

MindWire’s culture and values perfectly aligned with mine, so I eagerly joined. Learning more about utilizing PI and MindWire tools was exciting. Now, I work with clients from diverse industries, each with unique challenges and opportunities. I learn about their worlds and leverage both my personal experience and the collective expertise of the MindWire team to create tailored solutions. Continually learning to use the PI and MindWire toolkit, I help my clients achieve better outcomes, faster.

I am a Green match to the Job Target for a MindWire VP Getting the right people in the right seat is so important to maximizing engagement and results!  Better performance, better outcomes, happier humans… that’s what I help my clients achieve.

I guess you could say I was Wired for this kind of work.  MindWired!