[Scene: Open workspace at the firm's* office.]
Monday.
Timmy, a 21-year-old analyst from Carnegie Mellon, has been furiously hammering away on the phone. In front of him is a pile of resumes, culled off of monster.com, of people who currently or recently worked at a particular division of a major CPG company, on behalf of the client, another competing CPG company in the same market. His goal; to ferret out their trade spend as a % of sales and their sales organizational structure.
Timmy: "Yeah, hi Ralph, your resume came across my desk, and I was interested in hearing about your work experience."
....
Timmy: "Hmm hmmm, and what did you do there?"
....
Timmy: "ok great, and what types of accounts did you work on.... ok, and what were your reponsibilities with that account..... oh, so you worked with trade spend then?"
....
Timmy: "What types of trade spend activities did you manage?"
....
Timmy: "Wow, that's interesting. Are those big activities typically? Wow, you managed all that, that sounds great?! .... hmmm ok.... that's like what, 7% of sales or something, right?"
....
Timmy: "oh that's right, 9%."
....
[Timmy, having captured his information, now moves on to secondary targets.]
....
Timmy: "and did you have people reporting to you? How long did it take for you to get promoted? Was there good training involved?"
....
Timmy: "Mmm, I see. So you were organized by product line, then, right?"
...
[Timmy continues for a few minutes]
....
Timmy: "I'm sorry? No, this isn't about a job. I work for a research and consulting firm, and we are doing a survey to understand some broad trends. .... No, I'm sorry, I can't give you my phone number... I said my name was Timmy..... sorry Sir, thank you for your time."
[Click. Mission Accomplished.]
* True quote, but from a previous consulting life and firm.
