What kind of data analytics skills for national/key retail account mgmt
April 4, 2023 11:05 AM Subscribe
Would anybody have any idea what kind of statistical analysis skills and methods huge North American retailers would expect from their consumer brand account managers/sales reps?
I’m applying for large account manager roles in my old field of retail account management. In seeing news job openings online I see that as much as sales & retail account management experience they are specifically looking for some kind of data analytics skills. I left this field to get a master’s degree in heavy stats-oriented applied psychology which was recently classified by the gov’t as a STEM field.
With over a decade managing retail accounts across the Americas and recently getting formal education heavy on statistical analysis (master's degree). I have the typical sales and account management experience they are looking for I think that I should be pretty competitive. However, I don’t know what to expect yet from a consumer product manufacturer and large retailers.
Think of accounts of the sizes between Costco (800 stores) to Walmart (10,000 stores) and consumer electronics/home IT products. I’ve worked with smaller international divisions of Costco and Walmart many years ago but they were small enough divisions that deep analytics knowledge wasn’t required.
This is just a sample of the requirements from a job and company I would have loved to work for. It's an old job posting and just an example. A lot of this I am very familiar with except what they may be wanting an analytics education for. I have my thoughts but was hoping somebody here might have deeper insights. I’m assuming a lot of A/B testing and pre-post testing of promotions or comparisons across regional performances for different items in different markets.
I am also curious about what kind of analysis programs might be expected. I’m ok with SPSS which is most likely not relevant, a beginner with ‘R’ but what throws me is they are only asking for Excel skills so it might be that they really don’t really need EXTENSIVE and HEAVY stats skills. I don’t know what I don’t know.
I’m including more info below from the hiring company's job description and below that what I’ve been trained on.
This is pretty specific but I’ll take what insight I can get. Thanks for your input!!!
Job description:
- Sales, Inventory and Forecast Management, review retailer weekly sales and inventory by model.
- Develop a deep understanding of accounts, and market and be diligent tracking progress towards goals and objectives. Analyze the market and make recommendations to retailers using monthly NPD reporting. Should understand retailer total market size, margin requirements, and marketing tools.
- Competitive Analysis: Track promotions of competition at selected accounts.
- Bachelor's degree required (business and/or analytical discipline preferred)
- 2-5 years of professional work experience working in sales or analytics
- Proficient computer skills - MS Office, SAP; advanced Excel skills.
From my field's professional training guidelines:
Stats: This domain has to do with the various statistical techniques that are used in the analysis of data generated by empirical research. The domain includes both descriptive and inferential statistical methods, spans both parametric and nonparametric statistical methods, and includes both quantitative and qualitative research methods and data analysis. Among the specific topics included in the domain are: estimates of central tendency, estimates of variability, sampling distributions, point and interval estimates, inferences about differences between means and proportions, univariate and multivariate analyses of variance (fixed, random, and mixed effects models), and linear and non-linear regression and correlation.
Research methods: At an operational level, research methods includes, but is not limited to, the manipulation of variables (in experimental research), the concepts underlying and methods used for the assessment of the reliability and validity of measures, the administration of various measures (questionnaires, interviews, observations of behavior, projective measures, etc.), the use of various sampling procedures (probability- and non-probability-based) especially as applied to survey research, the conduct of research in the laboratory and the field with various strategies (experiment, survey, simulation, case study, etc.), the use of statistical methods to establish relationships between variables, causality, and the formulation of research-based conclusions. Specific knowledge about relative strengths and weaknesses of different research strategies, an understanding of qualitative research methods, and an appreciation of the benefits of alternative strategies must be developed.
With over a decade managing retail accounts across the Americas and recently getting formal education heavy on statistical analysis (master's degree). I have the typical sales and account management experience they are looking for I think that I should be pretty competitive. However, I don’t know what to expect yet from a consumer product manufacturer and large retailers.
Think of accounts of the sizes between Costco (800 stores) to Walmart (10,000 stores) and consumer electronics/home IT products. I’ve worked with smaller international divisions of Costco and Walmart many years ago but they were small enough divisions that deep analytics knowledge wasn’t required.
This is just a sample of the requirements from a job and company I would have loved to work for. It's an old job posting and just an example. A lot of this I am very familiar with except what they may be wanting an analytics education for. I have my thoughts but was hoping somebody here might have deeper insights. I’m assuming a lot of A/B testing and pre-post testing of promotions or comparisons across regional performances for different items in different markets.
I am also curious about what kind of analysis programs might be expected. I’m ok with SPSS which is most likely not relevant, a beginner with ‘R’ but what throws me is they are only asking for Excel skills so it might be that they really don’t really need EXTENSIVE and HEAVY stats skills. I don’t know what I don’t know.
I’m including more info below from the hiring company's job description and below that what I’ve been trained on.
This is pretty specific but I’ll take what insight I can get. Thanks for your input!!!
Job description:
- Sales, Inventory and Forecast Management, review retailer weekly sales and inventory by model.
- Develop a deep understanding of accounts, and market and be diligent tracking progress towards goals and objectives. Analyze the market and make recommendations to retailers using monthly NPD reporting. Should understand retailer total market size, margin requirements, and marketing tools.
- Competitive Analysis: Track promotions of competition at selected accounts.
- Bachelor's degree required (business and/or analytical discipline preferred)
- 2-5 years of professional work experience working in sales or analytics
- Proficient computer skills - MS Office, SAP; advanced Excel skills.
From my field's professional training guidelines:
Stats: This domain has to do with the various statistical techniques that are used in the analysis of data generated by empirical research. The domain includes both descriptive and inferential statistical methods, spans both parametric and nonparametric statistical methods, and includes both quantitative and qualitative research methods and data analysis. Among the specific topics included in the domain are: estimates of central tendency, estimates of variability, sampling distributions, point and interval estimates, inferences about differences between means and proportions, univariate and multivariate analyses of variance (fixed, random, and mixed effects models), and linear and non-linear regression and correlation.
Research methods: At an operational level, research methods includes, but is not limited to, the manipulation of variables (in experimental research), the concepts underlying and methods used for the assessment of the reliability and validity of measures, the administration of various measures (questionnaires, interviews, observations of behavior, projective measures, etc.), the use of various sampling procedures (probability- and non-probability-based) especially as applied to survey research, the conduct of research in the laboratory and the field with various strategies (experiment, survey, simulation, case study, etc.), the use of statistical methods to establish relationships between variables, causality, and the formulation of research-based conclusions. Specific knowledge about relative strengths and weaknesses of different research strategies, an understanding of qualitative research methods, and an appreciation of the benefits of alternative strategies must be developed.
Apologies for the double post. My guess is that big companies want their account reps to understand and make use of data driven reporting - whether its prescriptive or descriptive - and not bin it like Don Draper. They'll want account reps to use this reporting to inform their approach or pitch or judgement or whatever. They may want them to know how to ask analysts for things in ways that make sense to the analysts but meet the needs of the sales team. I don't think they're looking for actual doing analytics by their account managers (beyond excel filter/sort). Those skill sets just do not overlap at all. I'm not in the field but adjacent so consider this educated guess.
posted by everythings_interrelated at 1:16 PM on April 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by everythings_interrelated at 1:16 PM on April 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
To build on everythings_interrelated, if I saw something like "advanced Excel skills" without clarification, I would take it to mean you know how to use Excel for tasks without brute forcing things and you know a handful of keyboard shortcuts for things.
posted by mmascolino at 2:10 PM on April 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by mmascolino at 2:10 PM on April 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: "To build on everythings_interrelated, if I saw something like "advanced Excel skills" without clarification, I would take it to mean you know how to use Excel for tasks without brute forcing things and you know a handful of keyboard shortcuts for things"
The above was what I was thinking. This is why I wanted some hive mind love. Sometimes hiring managers think pivot tables are magic.
posted by Che boludo! at 6:57 PM on April 4, 2023
The above was what I was thinking. This is why I wanted some hive mind love. Sometimes hiring managers think pivot tables are magic.
posted by Che boludo! at 6:57 PM on April 4, 2023
In addition to Excel what is very helpful with the kind of reporting this conjures up is visualisation tools. One thing is you knowing how to get at certain details using a pivot, but having a nice dashboard you can pull up is like advanced magic to those who are already impressed by a pivot table.
posted by koahiatamadl at 1:02 AM on April 5, 2023
posted by koahiatamadl at 1:02 AM on April 5, 2023
The tools built into Excel are the bread and butter of statistics: linear regression, ANOVA, etc. Not a problem for you. It's quite possible that they have an industry-specific add-in for more sophisticated methods, but with a look at the required inputs and an hour with a textbook, you should be good to go.
A different concern about Excel is whether you are prepared to cope with Excel within the larger environment. I'm thinking of things like using Excel to extract data from an SQL database. Not-mentioned in their blurb, though.
It all boils down to what the boss man wants to see.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:11 AM on April 5, 2023
A different concern about Excel is whether you are prepared to cope with Excel within the larger environment. I'm thinking of things like using Excel to extract data from an SQL database. Not-mentioned in their blurb, though.
It all boils down to what the boss man wants to see.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:11 AM on April 5, 2023
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That job description is not advanced analytics or analytics at all. It's reporting. You need to know how to open excel and sort and filter.
Your education makes you WAY overqualified for that role. The Venn diagram overlap of sales people and analysts contains exactly zero people (er, well, one, since there's you). Capitalize on that. You might want something where you're directing sales analytics not doing sales analytics. Talk up how you understand how to turn data into wins into revenue. Talk up how you can meet the client where they want to be in targeted customer segmentation. Etc etc. Talk about how you speak both languages. Then guide your analysts to producing what you need. Because most analysts aren't good at (and don't want to) do customer/client facing anything.
If you want to do analytics, look for jobs that say masters required, phd preferred (phd's aren't going to work retail, it's not cool and they can have their pick of cool stuff). But you will probably be two degrees removed from face-to-face with your client/customer.
Don't take a reporting job because it will reduce the perceived value of your MS degree as time goes on. I mean, unless you're about to be evicted or something, and then take it and keep looking.
posted by everythings_interrelated at 1:11 PM on April 4, 2023 [2 favorites]