What Big Lesson can We Learn from our Sales Reps?
I know what we all think of sales reps who are tenacious, persistent and obsessed with making a sale, but these are the same traits that make these same individuals great sales reps. They can’t be timid if they want to generate sufficient sales to meet their quotas and thus receive a big enough paycheck to pay their bills.
This is a lesson we can all learn from our sales reps and can catapult us to the next level of supply chain performance if like them we are willing to be more tenacious, persistent and obsessed with getting our own way. I know this to be a fact, since I observe almost daily how often supply chain professionals just give up at the first sign of resistance to the ideas and proposals that they are trying to sell to their management or peers.
I can’t even count the number of times I have been told by MMs that they won’t even attempt to talk to their physicians about their buying practices because they fear retribution by these same physicians. While my own empirical experience demonstrates that physicians are indeed open to talk about their buying practices if you approach them with respect, empathy and you value their time.
Can you imagine a sales rep having this give up attitude? I don’t think so! Not only would these sales reps find a way to talk to all of your physicians but they will make friends with most of them. Ultimately, they will sell something to your physicians because they never give up, waver or go away.
This is a big lesson we can all learn from our sales reps; they never take NO as a final answer. They just consider it an amber light that can be passed through in time with tenacity, persistence, and a determination to get their own way.
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