"My planogrammers can't merchandise. Can you teach them about visual merchandising? They make planograms that don't meet shoppers' needs." I hear it from nearly every retailer.

Problem #1: You hire planogrammers instead of growing them

Planogrammers are to Merchandisers what Architects are to Builders. The best architects have spent countless hours on job-sites. They know the difference between fasteners, fire-code and framing nails. They have swung a hammer and they know how to build. There is no difference in retail. 

So if you think what makes a great planogram candidate is experience with a system (usually BlueYonder ) that is 100% not the way to find a good merchandiser.

Good planogrammers have spent time in the stores clearing shelves, peeling off price labels, putting peghooks into slat wall and merchandising new products on the sales floor. And no amount of time learning planogram automations will replace that. So first of all, know this:

You can teach a merchandiser how to be a great planogrammer more easily than you can teach a planogrammer to be a great merchandiser.

Hire planogrammers who are already good merchandisers. You can teach them the system. Hire for POTENTIAL, not skill. You can teach how to use the system in half a year. Easy. You will be several years into your new hire before you realize you cannot teach them to be a good listener, good communicator and good business partner.

Problem #2: Your planogrammers are stuck planogramming

First, look at your company's buyers and category managers. What are their past experiences? Likely they are folks who used to b :

• inventory analysts (they understand the supply chain and vendors)
• merchandise planners (they understand the numbers)
• store managers (they understand the operations)
• merchandise analysts (they understand the processes)
• marketing analysts (they understand the customer)

In summary, your buying staff is made of people who will move in and out of the team. Your company benefits from their experiences throughout the organization. Their experience finds many paths to success. They are future company leaders.

Now look at your planogramming staff. How many bring a diverse set of skills and then move on throughout the organization?

The planogrammer is usually an entry-level HQ job. They arrive with a deficit of past cross-functional experience. And they are probably going to stay in plannogramming a long time without a lot of cross-functional career moves. Because learning the technology is such an investment. That's one root cause why planogrammers can't merchandise. (see issue #3)

Now look at your senior leadership. The C-suite. How many of them came up through Space Planning? If you can name one - please tell me. (Seriously. Is there any C-level retail executive in America that came up through Space Planning? ) There is too little career movement out of Space Planning to pollinate the rest of the company. Space planning folks build a skill set that is so technical that it is difficult to move across the organization with ease. The skills just don't seem to "translate." Why? Because we focus on the technology and NOT outstanding merchandising for our shoppers.

Problem #3: Planogramming systems stifle merchandising

Space planning systems are too complicated. It takes too long to learn. All that time spent learning THE SYSTEM is time your staff does not spend learning how to be better business people. Better partners. And better merchandisers.

Planogrammers live in a vise. Incomplete assortments arrive late and stores schedule labor for specific reset weeks. So, the only way to make up the difference is to ratchet down the time for planogramming. That's why planogrammers stay heads down. They do not have the time to review the way a planogram "looks" or "shops." All they can do is make sure the adds were added, the deletes were removed, and the most critical items have enough facings. Literally. To clarify, that is all the time they have.

Is it a surprise to anyone that planogrammers can't merchandise?

What you can do about it

Your company has spent millions of dollars on the total cost of ownership for the system your planogrammers use. It is not meeting your company's needs. Too many retailers have let technology lead the space planning function instead of cultivating solutions to meet the needs of merchandisers. You don't want a department filled with system operators who make planograms. You want merchandisers who are assisted by their system to create shopper experiences.

Retailers who make the changes and commitment to their shoppers and their people will be well poised to crush it in the future. They will win at the shelf because they have merchandisers. They won't accept that planogrammers can't merchandise. Who's ready to join the #SpacePlanningRevolution ?