Case Study: Largest Food and Beverage Company builds a high-potential sales leadership pipeline and boosts training ROI with Mercer Mettl

Developing a scientific framework that could identify the high potentials within a function without the manual bias

Largest Food and Beverage Company, one of the world’s five largest food and beverage firms (≈US$27B revenue, ~143,000 employees), needed a scientific, unbiased way to identify hi-potentials in its sales function because training was generic, ROI was low, and selection relied heavily on manager feedback. They engaged Mercer Mettl to design and deliver a virtual assessment center using tools such as the Mettl Personality Profiler, cognitive tests, functional MCQs, situational judgment items and a case-study simulator.

Mercer Mettl built a competency-tool matrix for frontline sales and area sales manager levels and assessed 450 frontline sales executives and 250 area sales managers virtually. The program generated Individual Development Plans, clarified strengths and development gaps, built a stronger sales leadership pipeline, enabled targeted training programs and increased engagement—giving the company a measurable, scalable way to identify hi-potentials and improve training ROI.