How not to succeed in medical sales: Spend Your Time Performing Low-Wage Tasks
Most medical sales professionals can answer the following question with little problem: What do you get paid to do?
The answer of course is: To sell!
Why is it then that I often find medical sales representatives performing low-wage activities instead of what they were hired to do? What concerns me more is that they always have a way of rationalizing it. What a great way to make yourself obsolete!
Let’s consider a common example of a low-wage task: Sales professionals who insist on making their own deliveries. When a sales rep who is earning a six figure income takes precious sales time to deliver equipment, instruments, or disposables to a customer, he thinks he’s working. He’ll rationalize it by saying, “I need to talk to the person who will be using the product. It’s a potential sales opportunity if I can see the doctor or speak with the office manager. I want them to see my face so they know I’m delivering personal service.” Really? Does this make sense? You might be working, but you’re not doing what you get paid to do…and it’s even uglier if you look at the math…
Take a sales professional who is earning $100K annually. Assuming 50 weeks per year and 40 hours per week (I know, your hours are much longer…just work with me here), that makes the paid value of this salesperson’s time $50 per hour. Realistically, the potential value of each hour is worth a multiple of that amount since using that time to sell may result in more business.
What alternatives are available to get the product to the customer? How about a delivery person? What wage does a delivery person earn? Realistically, around $15 per hour (or less) plus we can assume a gas allowance of up to three gallons per hour. Figuring $4 per gallon X 3 gallons = an additional investment of $12 per hour, for a total investment of $27 per hour to have someone make the delivery. But since you would have spent the $12 on gas yourself, the amount is moot. The net cost of the delivery person is $15 per hour.
So we have a six-figure sales professional whose current value is $50 per hour doing the job of someone whose value is $15 per hour. What is the potential upside of driving for an hour to make the delivery? From a sales perspective, it’s zero, unless you have a planned, scheduled sales call at the time and location of the delivery.
If the sales rep pays someone to make the delivery, and in that hour he closes a sale, what would that hour be worth? Without question, it has the potential to yield far more than the $15 it cost. In this industry, the right sales call at the right time could be worth five or six figures in income!
When you call your doctor’s office, does the doctor answer the phone? Does the doctor weigh you and measure you? Does the doctor hand you a cup to pee in and collect the specimen once you’re done? Of course not! These are all lower-wage activities compared to what a doctor is paid to do.
Don’t forget that as a medical sales professional, you get paid to sell. I acknowledge that you have other responsibilities that come with the job, but many of them can and should be done by someone else. Customers need delivery of your product and they may need some level of customer service, but when you spend your time doing low-wage tasks, you’re setting yourself up for something that may await you in the changing healthcare economic environment—A low-wage job!
In sales, if you’re not selling and growing, you’re dying. Spend as much time as possible doing what you get paid to do.
Mistakes in medical sales: How to fix them and earn the customer’s respect
If you sell medical devices, there are times when mistakes, oversights, and failures will have fingers pointing in your direction.
Your company ships the wrong product or a defective product.
You relay information to a customer that’s incorrect.
You forget to bring something that a customer or patient needs.
You fail to show for a scheduled appointment.
Even the best of the best medical sales professionals have awkward moments of error. Better to be prepared with a plan as to how you’re going to address mistakes than to bury your head in the sand and pretend it won’t happen to you.
Mistakes in healthcare have potentially serious consequences. If you develop a reputation as being careless, you will be shunned by doctors, hospitals, and other providers in an effort to reduce risk and inconvenience, and that reputation can last a long time. Customers might not remember all the value that you provided to them and their patients over the years, but they won’t soon forget the times when you screw up!
The good news is: They will also remember how you respond to and handle any problems or mistakes!
When something goes wrong, whether it’s with your product, your service, or something that your company or you did or didn’t do, you need to address it—even if the customer acts as if it’s not a big deal. You can’t afford a lapse in your customer’s confidence or trust where you or your products are concerned. Avoid this by addressing problems quickly and completely by doing the following:
-Take ownership of fixing the problem. Nothing ticks off a customer like a sales rep who tries to pin the blame on someone else. Maybe it’s not YOUR fault, but if you have the power to fix it… Fix It!
-Apologize for what happened. If you are the one who messed up, offer a heartfelt apology for doing so. If someone else in your company made a mistake, you can apologize without taking direct ownership by simply saying, “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
-Explain to the customer how the mistake occurred (or might have occurred) and what steps have been taken to prevent it from ever happening again. Most of your customers understand that human beings make mistakes, but they won’t understand if a mistake is repeated because of carelessness. Provide them with the confidence to move forward and trust you.
-YOU make sure that it NEVER happens again. Seriously! You’re in a situation where you’re going to have to be more vigilant. Have a plan in place to double-check all of your efforts for the customer and make sure it includes your company, your employees or associates, and especially yourself. One small oversight or moment of carelessness can cost you the customer’s business as well as your good reputation.
-Thank the customer for being understanding and for providing an opportunity for you and your company to become better at what you do so you can serve your customers better. Mean it!
I can’t promise that every customer will give you another chance if you should err, but your odds of salvaging business increase greatly when you take ownership of a mistake, fix it, and prevent it from happening again. Handle any mistake or problem like a professional and you will not only earn the customer’s continued business, you’ll also earn something that may be even more valuable in the long run—The Customer’s Respect.
Selling to Physicians—A problem or an opportunity: You’ve got 15 seconds.
If you sell to doctors in the U.S., it’s probably no surprise to you that many are not happy with their jobs and who can blame them. They are losing control of how they treat their patients, the government and insurance companies are telling them what they can charge for what they do, and the costs of maintaining a practice keep going up. A recent survey of 20,000 physicians confirmed their discontent in that 52% said that if they had it to do over, they wouldn’t go into medicine.
As a medical sales professional, you may be wondering, “So what does this have to do with me?” The answer is, “A lot!”
You have a 50-50 chance of calling on someone who wishes he or she was doing something else to earn a living. You have to acknowledge the possibility that the curiosity, wanderlust, and unlimited income potential that may have motivated some doctors to pursue a career in medicine has diminished. These doctors are not interested in spending time with salespeople just to know what’s available. The truth is, many no longer care. They just want to get through each day with as little interruption as possible.
Physicians who are less than satisfied with their careers often operate with a survival mentality, that is, “Don’t spend more than necessary (money AND time), do only what needs to be done, and don’t get sued.” Where do you fit into each customer’s thinking?
The Problem: If you are one of the majority of salespeople who is product-focused in your selling, you violate the time, money, and risk (don’t get sued) mindset. Whatever product you sell, customers already have a product that essentially does what yours does, or they feel they don’t need it. Looking at your product will consume valuable time and if they decide to buy, they’ll be spending money that they don’t want to spend. And finally, when you ask a physician to do something different than he or she is doing now, you introduce the element of risk because the outcome that will occur from using your product is unknown, even if it’s predictable (i.e., don’t mess with what’s working). So if you walk around trying to sell a “product,” you’ve already lost half your customers in the first 15 seconds of your sales presentation.
The Opportunity: Doctors who would choose another career over practicing medicine feel that way because of the increasing challenges in their professional and personal lives. When one of these physicians senses that you can eliminate, reduce, or make tolerable any of these challenges, you have their attention. Engage them in a compelling conversation that allows them to see, and more importantly to feel how they can achieve a desired or improved outcome for their patients in less time, with less money, and with reduced risk and you will have customers that are eager to buy. But this can only happen if you are focused on them and solving their problems or pain, not trying to sell a product.
What about the other 48% who said they would go into medicine again if they had it to do over? They might be slightly more open to meeting with sales reps, but truthfully, each of them is also a potential problem or opportunity. The bottom line is that most physicians won’t welcome an intrusion from a product salesman. However, they will MAKE TIME to talk to anyone who they truly believe can make their lives and their patients’ lives better.
You’ve got 15 seconds…
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A key determining factor for your level of success or failure in medical sales is in your pocket
After penning the title for this article, it occurred to me that some medical sales representatives probably have no idea what I’m referring to. You might be thinking that the key to success that spends time in your pocket is:
Your car keys: Wrong by a long shot. What you drive has nothing to do with your level of success, although you wouldn’t know that by a few new sales reps who lease the new BMW their first week on the job!
Your wallet: Wrong again, but close since you need to invest in your business to get the return that you desire. The problem is that your investment won’t get you very far if you don’t have and carefully use the item I’m talking about.
Your comb and mirror: No, that’s not it either. Grooming is important, but it’s not your stylish hairdo, your radiant smile, or your carefully applied make-up that makes you successful.
If you were to take the item that I’m talking about out of your pocket (or your purse) and allow me to look at it, I can make a reasonably good estimate of your level of success. Seriously!
It’s your calendar.
Whether you maintain a schedule in Outlook, on a smart phone, a tablet, in a paper and ink planner, or any other planning device doesn’t matter. What matters is what you schedule or what you don’t.
You see, your calendar reveals what matters to you most and by omission, what doesn’t matter to you much at all.
Let me remind you that the only difference between successful and unsuccessful people is how they think and how they spend their time. Let me share some specific sales examples with you.
Look at the calendar of an average or low-performing sales rep and here’s what you’ll find: a few appointments and a disorganized to-do list. These are people who schedule only the things that they don’t want to forget to do, such as a scheduled appointment with a customer, getting their teeth cleaned, or having the oil changed in their car. Everything else in their lives happens either when they get to it or when they feel like it.
What about top performers, the best of the best, the top 1%–what would you see when you looked at their calendars? The first thing you would notice is that their calendars are full and carefully organized. But here are three things you are likely to find in the calendars of top-performers that you will almost never find in the calendars of average or sub-par performers.
1. Top-performers schedule time to plan each day carefully—every day! They know that the efficiency they get from doing this allows them to get more done with less stress. They have a plan to call on each and every customer and influencer on a regular basis to stay top of mind. They also schedule time to plan each and every sales call in detail. I teach salespeople how to create a sales plan in about ten minutes, yet many still won’t take the time…yet they’ll spend hours or even days wondering what went wrong that caused them to lose the sale. Duh!
2. Top-performers schedule time for continuing education, i.e. to read, study, and listen to critical information affecting what they do every day. They study their products. They study their competitors’ products. They read industry journals. They keep their selling skills sharp by regularly reading about, listening to information about, and even taking self-study courses about healthcare selling. You might be thinking, “I would like to do these things, but I just don’t have the time.” Guess what? No one is going to give you the time! You have to create it and schedule it. If you’re not in the top 5% of sales producers in your company or your territory, this is probably why (along with your unscheduled, helter-skelter work habits).
3. Top-performers schedule time with the people they care about most. Do you walk around telling people, “Nothing is more important to me than my family?” If that’s true, then time with them is scheduled in your calendar. Let’s face it; it’s easy for the people in your life to take a back seat to pressing business issues. This creates relationship problems that affect how you think and perform at work. Top-performers know the importance of solid relationships in their personal lives, so time with those they care about shows up in their calendars.
If you ever find yourself wondering why you’re not hitting your sales numbers or why you’re feeling stressed-out and burned-out, the answer is probably in your calendar. The good news is that it’s easily fixed. The bad news is that most of you who read this will continue to use your calendar for nothing more than to know what day it is.
What’s in your calendar?
Medical sales: Don’t be a commodity
More and more products in healthcare are being viewed by decision-makers as commodities. In an era of accountable care, products that are good enough are displacing those regarded as the “gold standard.” Selling commodity-type products can be a challenge, but the bigger problem is when you, the sales professional, are a commodity yourself.
Hopefully, your value proposition is not explained by simply telling your customers that your product is the best. For one thing, they don’t believe you and for another, they don’t want the best. Most just want an acceptable product that produces acceptable outcomes at the lowest price.
Products that get the job done and are almost indistinguishable from competing products are, by definition, commodities. If the only differentiator you offer for your product is price, then you’re a commodity too. Not good.
Let’s say you sell adhesive bandages—just the plain vanilla kind, no special coatings or proprietary secret formulas. Just some sticky tape with a piece of gauze is all that you’re selling. How do you differentiate such a hard-to-differentiate commodity so that a customer might feel like it’s worth more than a me-too product?
Offer more.
Buyers and sellers of commodities focus on price. There is always more than price—there’s you! What additional value can you morally and legally offer the customer to make a difference?
Can you or an assistant help with inventory management?
Can you provide in-services to staff with accompanying CEUs or CMEs?
Can you provide just-in-time delivery to minimize inventory costs for the customer while providing the same level of dependability?
Can you bundle products together to give the customer even better pricing, reduce the cost of acquisition and win more business in return?
Does doing business with you and your company mean less mistakes, less stress, and less work?
Are you having best-practices conversations with procurement managers and financial personnel to help them make better buying decisions? Do you share information and methodologies that help customers to be more efficient and competitive? When you do, your value goes up.
Even if your product is seen as a commodity, you can be the differentiator that gets the sale. Commodity sales reps sell price. World class medical sales professionals differentiate themselves by revealing unseen opportunities and helping the customer to operate more efficiently and produce good patient outcomes at a lower cost.
You might sell a commodity, but you don’t have to be a commodity.
A Stupid Medical Sales Question That Makes Your Competition Look Good
Sales reps know they should use questions during a sales call to identify needs and priorities as well as to control the flow of the conversation. Often though, sales reps ask questions that actually work against them.
I listened as Gary, a sales rep who hadn’t been hitting his numbers, asked a couple of common questions to a cardiologist. The conversation went something like this.
“Dr. Barnes, which coronary stent are you using during your PCI procedures?”
The doctor, obviously a man of little patience replied, “You already know the answer. You’ve asked me that before.”
“Right, you’re using the ABC stent as I recall. What do you like about it?”
The doctor, seemingly annoyed with the question answered. “What do I like about it? It works in almost all of my patients, I’ve been using it for five or six years, and I’m completely comfortable with it. Bob, the sales rep with ABC is one of the best reps I’ve ever worked with. He returns my phone calls within five minutes and he always has an immediate answer to my questions. He is easily the most knowledgeable sales rep I have ever met. Also, the value analysis committee at the hospital informed me that the ABC stent is the most cost-effective stent they stock, so I’m keeping the hospital happy when I use it.”
Gary asked the next overused and rarely productive question. “So Dr. Barnes, what don’t you like about the ABC stent?”
The doctor, now even more annoyed, replied, “Nothing that I can think of.”
It was as if Gary was oblivious to what Dr. Barnes had just said as he continued. “Great. Well I’m here to show you our new stent…” Gary launched into a one-sided 90 second speech that ended when Dr. Barnes interrupted, “Thanks for coming by. I’m going to stick with what I’m using.”
When Gary and I got back in the car, I did a quick debrief while the call was fresh in Gary’s mind. “Gary, what did Dr. Barnes spend the most time talking about during your conversation?”
Gary shrugged and meekly responded, “He told me about the product he was using.”
I prodded Gary to be more specific. “What did he tell you about the product?”
“He told me how much he liked it.”
I summarized, “Dr. Barnes used most of his words during your conversation to tell you what he liked about his current product and about his current sales rep. Why do you think he did that?”
Gary hesitated for a moment. “Well, I asked him to.”
My final question to get Gary thinking was, “How did that information help you in your sales effort?”
Gary just nodded reluctantly to acknowledge the point I was trying to make: his questions were not only useless, they were also counterproductive. Gary helped the doctor to sell himself that he had already made the right product choice!
Customers won’t switch to your product because they like the competitive product they’re using. They’ll switch when your product offers them something that their current product does not. So why waste time and reinforce a customer’s current product decision by asking him what he likes? Instead, first ask yourself this, “What does your product deliver to the customer or the patient that the customer’s current product does not, that both the customer and the patient would like to have?” The answer to this question should identify the topics to discuss and you can now formulate the right questions to create the discussion. The right discussion likely has little or nothing to do with what the customer likes about his current product.
It’s not your job to convince the customer to keep using the product or service that he’s using. Your job is to convince the customer that your product is a better choice and it’s hard to get there by asking him to sing the praises of your competition.
Successful Medical Reps Are Like Pilots: “The Right Stuff,” Only Closer to the Ground
I used to think that pilots were men and women of almost super-human skill, until I learned how to fly. The truth is becoming a pilot just isn’t that difficult. There is a lot to learn, but it certainly doesn’t require extraordinary intelligence or coordination. It’s a learned skill, that’s all.
There is no question that professional pilots, that is, those who fly for a living, can perform at a higher level of competency. While some of them are chest-puffers who would like us all to believe that they were gifted by the universe with rare abilities, they maintain a higher level of flying proficiency simply because they do it more often and the aviation world holds them to a higher professional standard. The “right stuff” is nothing more than the result of putting in the time to learn and practice the skills to meet this standard, whether it is done voluntarily or by mandate.
Before I deliver a keynote or workshop to a medical sales or pharmaceutical sales force, I spend time interviewing many of the salespeople at different levels of experience. There is often a common reference to one of the exalted sales superstars in the organization. When I ask sales reps what it is, in their opinions, that make the “great ones” great, the perceived answer is hard work, an abundance of knowledge, and innate sales ability. When I ask them if they think they can achieve the same level of success, some have the confidence or cockiness to say yes, but many express a level of doubt.
Selling in the world of healthcare is no different than becoming a pilot. It requires a specialized set of skills honed through disciplined learning and practice plus fastidious work habits. Out of the thousands of sales people I have mentored over the years, I can’t think of a single case where superior intellect was responsible. The best of the best put in the time to learn their craft and approach every sales situation strategically with a plan; much like a pilot trains, plans, and conducts a flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a term for pilots who don’t get the required training or take the time to thoroughly familiarize themselves with information that affects a flight: GROUNDED. Flying proficiency isn’t an option, it’s the law and it’s monitored through regular recurrent training and checkrides. Preflight action is mandatory because unfamiliarity with enroute weather or known hazards at a destination airport can be deadly. Great pilots aren’t great because they were born with the right stuff, it’s because they do the right stuff.
Most medical device and pharmaceutical companies don’t have such stringent programs to create and measure sales ability. They provide a level of training, a quota, a product and a territory. The rest is usually up to the salesperson with some monitoring of activity and sales volume. The result is a distribution curve of sales results that identify some as star performers, some as under-performers, and the majority as average performers. How would you feel the next time you stepped onto an airliner if piloting ability was left to the same variables? “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome on board. We’re pleased to announce that our pilot today is Captain Redtail. He’s an average performer who this year has completed more than 50% of his flights safely.” How willing are you to “sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight” on that one?
No one is born knowing how to fly a plane any more than anyone is born knowing how to sell medical devices. Yes, some people will learn faster or more easily, but almost anyone who puts in the time with effective training will have the right skills set to succeed.
Remember, medical sales is a zero-sum game. When you don’t win the sale, someone else does, and it’s probably because he or she worked harder than you did to get “The Right Stuff.”
Social Media and the Aspiring or Veteran Medical Sales Rep
Social media and medical sales: good or bad?
During breakfast this morning, my wife C.J. asked, “Do you think corporations have the right to ask job candidates to reveal their Facebook page?” She was surprised by my answer.
I said, “Yes. Companies have the right to ask. Job candidates also have the right to say no, but that may not be a good move with respect to getting hired.”
How a sales candidate uses Facebook or responds to questions about Facebook says something about them and their judgment. I was interviewing candidates to fill a sales position for a small medical device company. After reviewing over 100 resumes, I narrowed the candidate pool to five. Following a round of telephone interviews, there were three finalists I planned to bring in for live interviews, but first I decided to check each candidate’s Facebook page.
One candidate did not have a Facebook page. One could interpret it two different ways. Perhaps the candidate viewed social media as a big time-waster or the flip side could be that the candidate didn’t recognize the potential value of social media. The lack of a Facebook page did not affect how I considered the candidate.
Another candidate had a minimalist presence on Facebook. She gave little information about herself other than where she lived, where she attended college and her interests which included aerobics and a passion for cooking. I was impressed that she used a professional head shot for her profile picture, which suggested to me that she favored a professional approach to things. Her page had little impact, but it did no harm either.
When I located the third candidate on Facebook, I said out loud, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Her profile picture displayed a picture of a girl wearing a wet t-shirt standing on top of a bar surrounded by other girls in wet t-shirts and a cadre of obviously drunken admirers toasting the ladies on the bar. While this left a bad impression, I read through some of her FB posts in hopes of finding some redeeming qualities. Sadly, most of her posts were laced with poor grammar and F-bombs…lots of F-bombs! Did this candidate’s Facebook page say something about her judgment and character? It did for me. She was out!
What about those of you who already have the job…do you think you’re free to post whatever you want on your Facebook or LinkedIn pages? Oh sure, you have activated all of the privacy settings. No one will see anything you post except those who you allow, right? Are you willing to bet your job and business on that?
Anything you post online, either in a website, forum, or yes—social media site such as Facebook, is for all intensive purposes in the public domain. All it takes is one person who has access to your information to pass around some less than savory information about you or a picture you wish was never taken and your reputation is toast.
A great word of advice is to never post any information online that you would not want a customer or someone from your company to see. Yes, you’re entitled to your privacy, but online, privacy doesn’t exist, regardless of how you create your Facebook privacy settings.
In an era of increased scrutiny for corporate behavior and regulatory compliance, assessing good judgment in potential medical sales representatives is essential. Good judgment says that when you’re competing for a desirable medical sales job, you’re prepared for questions about your social media habits and behaviors, including, “Would you mind if I took a look at your Facebook page?” Do you have the right to say no? Of course, but your interests will be best served if you can do so without it looking like you’re trying to hide something. From an interviewer’s perspective, I think it’s a fair question in terms of testing a candidate to see how well he or she handles stress in a critical sales situation (which is what a job interview is!).
What do you do when one of your customers sends you a “friend request?” Will your page reveal anything about you that may change the customer’s perception of you? You could ignore the friend request or just say no, but that sends a message as well, doesn’t it, such as, “I don’t want to be your friend!”
If there is anything on any of your social media sites that you would not be comfortable sharing with everyone you know—get rid of it. Don’t be misguided by thinking that your right to privacy protects you. When it comes to getting hired, keeping customers, or keeping your job, it’s too much to risk.
Medical Sales: Helping your Health Care Customers to Stay on the Ethical Path
The vast majority of the medical sales professionals I encounter are ethical people. I can tell by how they talk and act, where they focus, and how the occasional moral conundrum affects their sales decisions and activities.
Ethical behavior has surfaced as a key issue in health care today, especially in terms of paying attention to what device and pharmaceutical manufacturers are doing to influence physician behavior. Sales representatives frequently complain that this oversight has placed them at a disadvantage, but that can only be true if your selling approach involves activities that are now verboten or frowned upon.
The obvious victim of ethical oversight is buying the customer a meal. When legions of pharma reps are closed out of physician practices because their only way in has been eliminated, that clearly substantiates the intent of the rules to prevent such practices. If Dr. Smith lets Mary into his office when she brings lunch, but doesn’t have time to see her otherwise, what does that say about the ethical intent of Dr. Smith?
I don’t think pharma reps are being unethical when they use a meal as means to get in front of a customer, but perhaps they are being complicit in enabling the customer’s unethical behavior. Part of the healthcare provider’s job is to avail himself or herself of any technologies or products that improve the patient’s condition. When healthcare providers allow access only when they receive a perk such as a meal or other amenity, is this ethical? If you believe not, then you should feel good about not contributing to that behavior.
As a medical sales professional, your job is to convince the customer that your product, your company, your service, and you are there to improve the patient’s condition in tangible ways. When you do this, you are facilitating and driving ethical behavior in your customers. It’s easy to shrug one’s shoulders and write off a customer’s unethical approach to doing business as the customer’s will and not yours. The fear of losing the sale can be overwhelming and it can cloud your own ethical thinking such that you rationalize that it’s out of your control.
Ethical behavior in medical sales goes beyond what you initiate or offer. When you cave in to a customer’s less than ethical demands, it’s no different than if you initiated it yourself. You can help the customer to do the right thing by focusing on the patient. Any value proposition you offer must overshadow the insignificance of a free meal or similar.
You know that icky feeling you get when you agree to do something that doesn’t feel quite right? That’s telling you that what you’re doing isn’t best for you, nor is it best for the customer and the patient. Don’t justify unethical behavior by thinking, “If she doesn’t buy from me this way, she’ll buy from another rep, so it may as well be me.” Don’t believe it. Instead, do the right thing and help your customer to do the right thing too. Sell so that you keep your customers focused on the only thing that should matter: Doing what’s right for the patient.
Medical Sales: Know When It’s Time to Call a Competitor
I answered my cell phone on a Thursday afternoon as I was driving between accounts. The voice on the other end said, “Mace, it’s Dan Adams, how are you?” I was more than a bit surprised to be getting a call from one of my top competitors. The words that followed surprised me even more.
“Mace, you know Dr. Hernandez, right? I just left his office. He has a surgery in a couple of weeks and when I was looking at the patient’s x-rays, I thought that your system might be a better fit for the patient than mine. Would you be interested in stopping by Dr. Hernandez’s office to talk to him about this upcoming surgery?”
This seemed rather strange to me—one of my strongest competitors was throwing me a case with his biggest customer who was also the highest volume surgeon in the territory. I had not even been able to secure an 
appointment with this surgeon, let alone convince him to give my implant system a try. I was feeling both excited and hesitant at the same time. Why was Dan offering this opportunity to me?
I figured I had nothing to lose. I thanked Dan and found myself the next day sitting across the desk from Dr. Hernandez in his office…for the first time! I reviewed my product with the surgeon and he said, ”Dan Adams said that your system would probably be the best fit for this patient. He was right. Let’s schedule the surgery.”
I felt like I needed to take Dan Adams out for a steak dinner. I wasn’t sure at that moment why he did it, but Dan just gave me a huge opportunity with one of my biggest sales targets. Any time I got into the operating room with a new surgeon two things usually happened. The first was that he would find I knew my product and how to use it effectively. The second was that he would invariably be impressed with the simplicity of the product compared to whatever he was currently using. Out of respect for Dan who handed me this break, I decided not to turn it into a sales call but instead decided to provide Dr. Hernandez with an ideal experience.
The surgery went perfectly and I could see that Dr. Hernandez was impressed. He invited me to stick around and take a look at the post-operative x-rays with him. When he looked at the films, he smiled and said, “Perfect.” Before I could ask if he had another patient with whom he would like to use the system, he remarked, “This is why I have stuck with doing business with Dan Adams all these years. If his system isn’t right for the patient, he knows which system is. He always puts the patient first.”
Considering the highly competitive nature of medical sales, it’s painful to hand business to someone who spends his or her life trying to take money out of your pocket. But if it’s the best thing for the patient, Do It! It is better for the customer and the patient to have a good outcome with a competitor’s product, than to have a bad outcome with yours. Giving away a sale is not an easy thing to do, but when you do what’s right for the patient—every time—you rise to a level of professionalism in your customers’ minds that can make your business untouchable.
Dan gave up his commissions for one sale, but in the process he reassured the customer that he was doing business with the right sales representative. Thanks for throwing me a bone, Dan, and more importantly, thanks for a valuable lesson.
