Macy’s “MEDP” Sales Manager - Keystone AssignmentBy: Brett Robertson

If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have said that I never thought I would be involved

in retail. However, now that I am a part of the Military Executive Development Program (“MEDP”), I am

honored. I am thoroughly impressed with how much goes into selling merchandise, and what great

leaders are in the store. I am especially grateful for such strong senior leaders in my store. Every day is

a learning experience for me in both learning the nuances of retail and re-tooling my existing leadership

abilities into the Macy’s methodology.

My first day at Macys, as a general statement, was like landing on another planet. I had to learn

the language, new words, acronyms and lingo, find my way around the store and immerse myself in the

‘Macy’s way’. However, I noticed that the store leadership functioned almost identical to the military, as

did the associates. Macy’s leadership structure is similar to the Military in many ways. The same

foundation and basic principles used in leading Soldiers can be applied to leading store Associates and

Managers. I feel that my military background prepared me for many of the assignments in the MEDP.

For example; my first shadowing assignment was Sales Manager, and around week three I began to see

how a Sales Manager role was almost identical to a Squad Leader in the infantry.

“As an Infantry Squad Leader in a Light Infantry Company; responsible for the welfare, fitness, morale and discipline of nine Soldiers; responsible for the individual training and maintenance of their equipment; primary instructor and advisor in the matters of tactics, personnel management and junior leader development; directs his Squad's tactical employment during offensive and defensive operations; responsible for the accountability and maintenance of all assigned equipment.”

“As a Macys Sales Manager, you will drive sales and selling with focus on the Macy’s customer using Stores Own Sales and My Macy’s processes. All activities related to presenting a clean, neat and organized shopping environment for our customers are under your direction. With training, coaching and development, a team of Associates will grow following your leadership.”

Sales Managers have to juggle many things along with being delegated additional tasks, like if

there is a store visit. The role of Sales manager comes down to how well you plan and prioritize tasks

and also effectively managing your team. After spending time learning the Sales Manager role, I began

talking to the Sales Managers about observations I made and started discussing ways to fix them using

my coaching skills learned through the Military, just how I would coach a Soldier. At first I didn’t realize I

was actually following the PACT coaching method, before I even learned what PACT was. As a Company

Commander in the military I often coached and mentored my Platoon Leaders (similar to the Assistant

Store Managers, “ASM”) using the very same techniques implemented with Macy’s PACT coaching.

Coaching in the Military can be done in various ways using a multitude of techniques. The three

main ways are; through a formal counseling statement (good or bad), leadership development classes,

or on the spot corrections. As a leader in the Military I typically did not give many on the spot

corrections for Soldiers, but would address these with the Platoon Leaders, unless there were safety

issues or leadership was not around. Most of the time I would note an observation and discuss it with

their leader either though fast feedback or coaching depending on the situation. That leader would then

come up with an action plan to correct or prevent if it was an issue, or continue if it was something we

wanted to sustain.

In the Military, formal counseling’s are done monthly and as needed. The types of counseling

are Performance/Professional, or Event-Orientated. The basic format of a formal counseling statement

is; purpose (prepare), key points of discussion (ask and listen), plan of action (collaborate on an action

plan) and leader responsibilities, and assessment (take action). When compared to PACT coaching, a

military counseling statement is extremely similar.

If a Soldier does something excellent it is also to be recorded using a formal counseling

statement, this allows for the Soldier to be recognized and to let them know they did an exceptional job

at a specified task. These counseling statements are then used to write the Soldier’s evaluation reports

and become auxiliary evidence of exceptional or needs improvement bullet comments as support. There

are other forms of non-formal recognition to commend a Soldier’s exemplary performance such as;

releasing them to go home early, bring them in front of a formation and let everyone know what they

did, give them an award if it was above and beyond, or a commanders coin.

Both Macy’s and the Military continuously drive to seek continuous improvement, recognize and

promote those who excel, and separate the poor performers (behaviors) that fail to be coached and

mentored. Just like at Macy’s it is important to document everything with your Soldiers and give them

every opportunity to succeed. The Macy’s coaching process has really impressed me for a few reasons,

first, Associates are coached to MAGIC and Executives are coached with PACT. In the military there is no

guide for coaching if you are not following a formal counseling statement. It is left up to each leader to

develop his/her own coaching plan, both formal (counseling statement) and informal (in the field

coaching) for Soldiers and Leadership. When I came into my unit as a Company Commander (similar to

Store Manager) I studied and evaluated my unit for a month, then sat with my leadership (comparable

to ASM’s and SM’s) and discussed areas that needed to be improved. We devolved a process for what

would be trained as it pertained to Leadership Development at all levels, and how we would focus our

coaching and mentoring process, also how we would change the culture. I stressed to my leaders that

we need to get Soldiers to want to do the right thing and want to excel, not just meet standards. This

model which I now see is called PACT, was used in this senior leadership meeting. My goal as a Company

Commander was to develop a Company of 135 Infantry men to fight and win in combat.

The techniques used for motivating employees at Macy’s is in many ways similar to the

technique I used with my company in the Military. In the Military I was able to create an atmosphere

where Soldiers would want to do the right thing, they had passion and drove themselves and others to

be the best not only as an individual but as a team and as a whole. It is a challenge to change the culture

of a whole team but when it does change it is monumental. This type of motivation can be directly

applied to Macy’s where we drive the associates to want to sell the most, open the most Star Cards, and

make ever customer who walks out the door feel happier than when they came in. Everyone is working

together as a team to drive the customer experience and sales. It takes a lot of tact as a leader to

motivate, and to learn what drives each associate, get to know them personally, and how to approach

each situation to help everyone learn and create a customer first atmosphere.

As a Sales Manager I learned that I was able to deal with customers very well, both the happy

ones and the ones that surely would have been detractors. In a two week period I received over 5

customer letters regarding how I was able to help them, and make them a happy Macy’s customer.

From the Military I learned how to read body language, and now at Macy’s I use this skill to pick up on

signals that a customer is not happy. I am able to listen, make them feel appreciated and they often

leave happy complementing many things. As a Sales Manager I learned you have to be an active

Manager and “manage”, not become another associate on the floor recovering the floor for any large

portion of your time. During my first short time as a Sales Manager, I felt as if I needed to help the

associates recover so I would spend a large portion of my time recovering the floor making my areas

look better. Quickly I found and saw as a Sales Manager you can’t spend time recovering your floor

(aside from before or after the store opens) because if you are, that means there is an associate in your

area hiding behind a register, or talking to another associate while you fix the area they are supposed to

be recovering. The SM coaching standards suggests “75% of each day actively leading the sales floor.” I

consistently walked the floor, worked side by side with associates, looked for opportunities to set

expectations, helped Associates with connecting and MAGIC selling, coached on the floor, recognized

good behaviors, redirected behavioral opportunity and followed up. While acting as a role model things

began to be much easier and customers were more satisfied with Macy’s service.

Every morning at the beginning of my day I read through all the customer letters. I rarely see

letters relating to “how messy” the store was, but I do see detractors relating to customer service “assist

and connect”, “associates not available at check out”, and of course “not accepting coupons.” As a Sales

Manager you have to plan your day and the Associate’s breaks, lunches, recovery shifts, fitting and other

aspects of the associate’s day. Without a doubt there are numerous tasks a Sales Manager has to juggle

during the day along with MAGIC walks that will happen twice during a shift, dealing with associate call

outs, trying to look for coverage for open shifts for the rest of the week, coaching, and other special

events. I quickly found it is important to empower strong associates who can help you while you

accomplish other tasks. This is very similar to what I told leaders in the infantry which was, “if you are

shooting (as a leader) who is actually leading?” As leaders we have many things we must prioritize, and

we must stay focused on the whole picture and direction of the Store Manager. If we get tunnel vision,

something will not be going as planned and in the end we will struggle to accomplish goals. It is just as

important to make sure that we don’t only have a plan but, other Sales Manager’s plans complement

our plan in order to support one another. As a Sales Manager, when you are not here the store is still

open, there is no pause button, you need to ensure other Sales Managers are on the same page and will

cover when you are not there.

I was surprised how much goes into selling merchandise. It is not as simple as putting clothes on

the floor by brand like I thought. There is a lot of hard work, logistics, detailed steps, many hours and

hands that touch the merchandise, from initially receiving merchandise to putting it onto the sales floor

presented in a way that appeals to customers. Overall, the most beneficial aspect of the Sales Manager

role was shadowing the SM and then walking in their shoes. I benefited from seeing each Sales

Managers point of view, along with having discussions with the VPSM and ASM’s. I found that

shadowing Sales Associates was not beneficial and I learned the most from observing, doing and

discussing my thoughts and observations instead. It is important to understand what the Associates do

and who you are leading, however, you still gain that knowledge over the 10 weeks and learn from

them.

In order to be successful I believe you have to have a supportive team of Senior Executives that

take you in as one of their own and show you the ropes. Through my experience with Macy’s so far I

have confirmed my philosophy that I can relate, and re-tool my Military Leadership skills to be just as

successful as a Leader at Macys.