Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Welcome to another episode of Street Level Marketing. My name is Mark Lampleux where we're real people talking about real marketing strategies. Today we're going to be talking about getting to the decision makers, hitting your numbers and planning out your week. My first guest coming onto the show is Shannon Richardson. Shannon, how are you?
[00:00:49] Speaker A: Hey Mark, how are you doing today?
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Good. So, you know, I wanted to talk about, you know, what we're doing to get those decision makers. I know when we're doing marketing, if we're doing business development, trying to, you know, sell our solutions to other businesses, you know, to kind of solve their problems, you know, what are some of those things that, you know, we got to do to get past those gatekeepers, those people at the front desk that aren't going to let us buy, aren't going to let us, you know, are protecting the people in the back end, you know, to make sure you don't get there because you know, you're one of a hundred people probably coming into the door that day, you know, and you know, it kind of can frustrate a lot of people, especially new doing marketing and business development where you're out there, you know, every day doing the struggle and the hustle to, to, you know, make your quota, make your numbers and you know, you're getting all those no's. It can be very defeating, you know, and you know, take away your mojo or, you know, what's making you pumped about doing, you know, doing the job or you know, closing some sales, you know, and you got to close them sales to make your numbers. A lot of these marketing and business development jobs are based on production and based on what you can sell and how many, you know, meet your quota for the month. And if you don't meet that quota, you're not going to have a job.
So, you know, give me a little bit of feedback about what you do, you know, and how you see that problem getting through that to that decision maker.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Definitely. So it's interesting you use the term gatekeepers and I think that's one thing that's not talked about enough. People need to realize that, you know, when you go into an office or facility, to me with people, there's usually somebody assigned at the front who they're part of. Their job is to keep you out because the people in the back are doing the important work, they're doing the things they need to get taken care of on a day to day basis. So they typically have somebody that they'll say, look, if someone comes and asks to Meet with leadership or, you know, meet with somebody at a higher level for a sales call or what have you. Just take their number, tell them we'll give them a call back. Just a heads up. You're probably not going to get that call back. It's very, very difficult. But the main thing you have to do is you have to be likable and you have to be personable as those people that you're going to meet up at the front. Every person that you're going to come in contact with in these offices or in these facilities could be the key to get you where you're going. And the, the interesting thing is you don't know who the key is. You don't know who's going to be able to want. Be the one that may be able to get you into the back, who may be able to get you access to the person or even let you know who the decision maker is. So it's really about coming in. Don't come in hot, don't come in, you know, preaching about your product or your service that you're offering. I, I think you need to go in and they need to like you first. So you need to come in, talk to them, have a conversation. Just like they're just somebody you met in the elevator. And you can kind of expand into what you're there for. You know, you don't want to be too lackadaisical. You don't want to waste their time, but you want to, you know, let them know, hey, this is this, this is my name. This is what I'm here for, this is what I'm offering. Who would I need to talk to? Who is it that would be the decision maker in this process? And how would, what would be the best way to get a few minutes just in front of them? Few minutes is important because you want to make sure they know you're not coming in. Especially cold calling if you're coming in off the street on a random Tuesday. You don't want them to think you're coming in expecting 30 minutes of their time. It's kind of disrespectful to their business and how busy they are. But you want them to know, look, I'm very mindful of the fact that you guys are extremely busy. I just wanted to come in and introduce myself and see if there's two minutes I could have just to see how I may be able to help service your, your department moving forward.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, you know, and it's really kind of do you do any type of, you know, research before you go to, you know, to figure out what days and best get into the offices? Like how do you plan your, your day out to make sure that you're like optimizing your time 100.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: You need to, you need to have a little bit of background about where you're going because you want to know, you know what their, what their need is. Obviously you want to make sure you product or service, whatever it is you're, you're selling is aligned to something they're going to need and you need to know why it would be beneficial for them. So you can quickly explain that to them and say, you know, look, this is what we offer. I really think this could benefit you in XYZ way.
So that's, that's key. You definitely need to do a little bit of research. I, I'm an advocate of not going in with a pre written script. I think when you have something predetermined that you want to say going in, you're spending more time thinking about what it is you're supposed to be versus actually just having a conversation. So I think it's important to go in, know a little bit about who you want to talk to or what it is you're trying to accomplish. But don't go in having especially don't go in having expectations about how this is going to go. Like you said, you're going to get a lot of no's. And when you're in sales or you know, business development or marketing, you're going to get more no's than yeses. It's just the nature of the business that's not going to ever change. But those yeses are what keep us in business day to day. So we need to make sure that we're, we're emphasizing the positive and not getting discouraged by the negative. If you have thin skin and you get easily frustrated by having the door shut in your face, just think long and hard about if this is something that you really want to get into.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Now do you, if you get a no or you leave your name, you know, they tell you, oh, let me take your information, he's not available. You know, the person's unavailable, right.
How many times do you have a set amount of times that you go back, do you try to reschedule an appointment while you're there? Like what is your process? You know, when you're hearing those no's definitely.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: So you follow up is key. You need to make sure that you're following up At a regular cadence. You don't want to be annoying though. You need to, you need to gauge, you know, is there an interest here? Are they genuine? Because people are busy, everyone, you're busy, I'm busy. We all know everyone gets busy and you kind of need to gauge are they blowing you off versus are they genuinely just busy and just don't have the time to have the conversation right now. But would they be interested in it? So I'll typically go into an office or facility, have a very brief conversation with them, attempting to set up a, you know, a time when I can come in and dig a little bit deeper.
You want to make sure that you are, what's the best way to put it? You want to make sure that you are accommodating to their schedule. Look, you know, we need to be flexible. If they say we can't do it during the day, but we need to do evenings, we need to, I've met people on weekends, I've met people, you know, late in the evening. You got to make sure that you're willing to accommodate their schedule because ultimately they're going to be doing something that's going to help you in the long run. But yeah, it's definitely, definitely beneficial to make sure that you have some flexibility. You're okay with taking a no on occasion or quite frequently to be honest with you. But yeah, you just have to be persistent with it. I typically will follow up usually within seven days just because you want to make sure that you're, they don't forget your face, make sure that you're being proactive and popping back in. And one of the key things I do, which seems to work really well, it might be a little bit of fib at times, but I'll pop in sometimes, say, hey, I was in the building and just wanted to pop in and say hi, see if, you know, you guys had a chance to, you know, talk with leadership or anybody about me getting back in. Sometimes I'll say, oh man, we totally forgot, you know, we know you stopped by last week on Friday, let me see what we can do. So it's really just about going in, being personable. They need to like you if they want to work with you. Because if you're selling them a product or service, they're going to be working with you pretty regularly. So it's doing regular follow ups and just making sure that you're there. Consistency. You will very quickly learn if they are blowing you off, if they're not interested at all. Don't be overly Passionate about it. You need to be respectful of their boundaries. And one of the key things, I've worked in a lot of facilities where you go in and they may already have a structure in place where they're using something that fills their need. And I'll often tell them, look, you know, you, you got something great over there. I understand it's a good product. I know quite a bit about it. It's similar to what we offer. Totally understand that we don't need to be your primary. I'm perfectly happy being your backup for the time being. So look, if you're ever in a pinch where there's a product shortage or there's an issue with something that you're not happy with, just keep my information. I'm happy to stop out at any time just to, you know, make sure that you're staying front center. And being that backup can often turn into being their primary down the line. Often.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And then also, if you know what they're using, you can kind of give them some of the benefits of your product over theirs and show them some of the more, you know, unique features. I always tell people, especially when they're selling like software or things like that, usually a software has come out to fill the need of one that's already, you know, available. What are some of the things that you take with you that you leave? Like you like brochures, you know, what, what seems to work for you there?
[00:09:42] Speaker A: I like brochures. If you have a product demo, I think those can be beneficial, especially if it's in a well presented packet or package. So something that's a little eye catching, I think that can be very beneficial. You know, you and I have both had some, some experience in, in the healthcare field, doing business growth and development for that type of an environment. And you know, everybody brings them lunch and everybody does kind of the standard thing. So they're seeing three or four of those people a week coming in and dropping off coffee or donuts or lunch or what have you. So you need to find something that differentiates you from the rest of the pack. So it's always nice to have something that you can present and kind of leave behind and says, hey, this is, you know, what we have. You know, if you can get someone's email address, it's nice to send a PowerPoint or some information. Personally, I would rather walk them through that in person, then just blindly send it to them because there are things you're going to want to highlight about your product that you would be able to do if you're there in person. And one of the other key things that you know as far as a product or service you're offering, you don't have to be. You don't have to have the best product or, you know, it doesn't have to be revolutionary or be ready to change the world. I think everybody kind of has a tendency to think what they're selling is the best that's on the market.
You don't have to be the best. You have to have a product that's comparable and it's competent and good and it's able to compete effectively in the market that's reliable. Reliability is so key in sales. You want to make sure that you're meeting their needs from a reliability standpoint. But it doesn't have to be the best product in the world as long as it's a good product and it, it meets the needs that they have there. The biggest thing becomes you as the rep selling it to them because you're going to be the person you're going to have to deal with. So if it's an even playing field and you and three other vendors have a similar product, each one's going to have its own set of bells and whistles and features that differentiate it from the others.
You know, some of those things will be important to some people. Some may not be important to others.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: But that makes a lot of sense.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: Yeah, it's going to be about you.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to take a break here for a minute. You know, that was a lot of great information. And when we come back from the commercial break, we're going to start talking about how you go about plan in your week. You know, that'll be good.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Yeah, good one.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Welcome back to Street Level Marketing with your host Mark Lamplu and my guest, Shannon Richardson. Now we're going to start talking about another issue that BD people have, you know, is, you know, planning out your week. How, how do you go about doing that? Do you use a scheduling system? How many visits do you plan a day? How many do you try to hit a week?
You know, anything that can help you get, you maximize and be efficient with your time because we all know how things come up. We can forget about appointments, you know, we're become late, how we're going to plan through some of those problems that we have.
And, and you know, with business development, the more the gates you get into, the more people you see, the more opportunity you have for sales. And you know, it helps you with those averages and, and hitting your quotas for the month. So Shannon, you know, when you're out in the field and you're, you know, coming up to Monday morning, like, do you have a particular set way that you plan for yourself?
[00:13:39] Speaker A: Interesting question. I think in sales, one thing is that the, the only thing that's going to be consistent is going to be inconsistency. Really. It's, you know, it's every, I want to say every week, but every day is going to vary day to day. You're going to be running into different issues and challenges. So you have to be flexible. I think for me personally, one of the key things is you want to have some structure. But one of the challenges I see a lot of fresh, you know, new to the field reps or people that are kind of getting into the field for the first time. One of the challenges I often see is that they'll put so much of a focus on volume of meetings and volume of encounters. It's important we get it. I totally understand. You have to see people to sell people, there's no doubt about that. But you need to also make sure that you're giving yourself time to focus on each of them individually. So when you're coming in in a new role or a new company, new product, whatever it is, make sure that you're under scheduling yourself initially.
You need to give yourself plenty of time between appointments. And one of the, one of the biggest challenges that you can run into, and I've seen it, it's happened to me, I've done it. If you're in the middle of a sales call, you're talking to someone and it's running a little bit late, often they're going to run late because they're going to start late. You're going into their office, you're going to talk to them about something and a lot of times they're busy and kind of accommodating seeing you on the fly. So you're running a little bit late and you're thinking, all right, it's 1:45, I've got, I gotta be somewhere at 2:00. And then you're, you're already thinking about the fact that you're late for your next appointment, so you're discounting the meeting that you're already in. So I always give myself plenty of time for each meeting and then I give myself typically a 30 minute buffer between just to make sure that I have time to, if I do run over, I have time to get where I need to be. Or you want to make sure also when you wrap a meeting that you're taking extensive notes. You want to remember the names of who you talk to. You want to know specifically who you talk to about what different line items. So that way you can readdress those things. When you come back in a week. You want to make sure that they feel like you've been focused solely on them while you're, while you're there with them for that short amount of time. So I think one of the best things to do to accomplish that is to give yourself plenty of time for each appointment and between each appointment, especially if you're driving between appointments or between meetings, you know, that can, that can. You can't account for traffic. Especially, you know, we're in the, I'm in the D.C. metropolitan area. You can't really account for traffic and how fast things can get backed up. And you don't know what to expect. So timing is critical. You need to make sure that you're giving yourself what you need.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I know for myself, when I was doing a business development, I would pick certain days of the week like this. This Tuesday would be my tour day. So all throughout the month I would, you know, schedule my tours those days.
Wednesdays would be my in service lunch days. Fridays would be my opportunity to research new business, you know, to find potential new markets to enter and new places to go. Do you have any type of system for that or you just kind of plan it, you know, by the day, or is that, you know, how do you go about that?
[00:16:48] Speaker A: I, I think I typically do it day by day. Just in. Initially I kind of went with your, your pattern there, thinking, all right, Mondays will be my day to do X, Tuesday will be my day to do Y, which was great in the beginning. The challenge you run into is when you're scheduling follow ups, you're gonna have to be available for when they can accommodate you. So if Monday is your day to stop in the offices and talk to people and then they say, oh, well, when you come back next week and you come back on a Wednesday, but Wednesday is supposed to be your day to do something else. You have to be flexible with those types of things. So I think it's, it's always nice to have a framework in place, but a flexible framework. You want to make sure that you can make adjustments on the fly and kind of do whatever you need to do to accommodate the person that you're, that you're in front of.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: So over the last couple years, business development and marketing has kind of changed. We didn't have the, you know, Zoom meetings and, you know, you had to go out and actually drive to places and go through the offices. How are you utilizing these new systems, you know, in your, your day to day?
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Yeah, Zoom and teams is vital. We, we try to do as much stuff, especially internal meetings. If you're meeting with your team or someone that you're working with, it's always nice to be able to do those over Zoom. I, I think it's key to make sure that you're meeting your staff and your, you know, your, your, your group in person as well. But I prefer to meet potential clients in person. I think it's more beneficial to it. It's easier to convey your message when you are face to face. You can really take away a lot of the, the unspoken communication, what their body language is, how they're feeling about things. And you lose a lot of that sometimes over Zoom and definitely over email and text. That's, you know, I know there's been a shift to everyone kind of texting is the big thing now, which was a huge transition for me because I was, there was a time where I would never text a client because I kind of looked at it as being unprofessional at the time. That has changed. A lot of people use text, but you need to know when it's the appropriate time to introduce, introduce that into each relationship.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Are you seeing yourself like, like before when we're doing the Zoom, you know, before we had the Zooms, you know, you had to do one meeting at a time. You'd go to one location. But now with the Zooms, are you incorporating like several people into a Zoom meeting, you know, to maybe, how do you say, kill more birds with one stone, so to speak?
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I will, I will collaborate multiple people within the same facility. I'll never, I'll never bring people from two separate offices. A, their needs may be different and it's your job to know what their needs are and how to meet each of those needs individually and specifically. So I would never bring someone from, you know, business A and someone from business B, together on the same sales call on a Zoom or a teams meeting, what have you. That would be something I would avoid. Now occasionally, if we're doing a dinner event or hosting something like that, I think it is, it is reasonable to have a larger group there. But at that point you're having more of a conversation with everybody that's involved and making sure everybody's kind of, you know, feeding off one another. So. Yeah.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: And another thing that, you know, thinking about this too, especially when you're out, you know, driving to, you know, your service calls or, you know, your sales calls, how do you determine how far you can go and how, you know, you know, planning out the day with your drives and in between. And do you got you looking at maps like, how do you go about like overcoming that?
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll typically, I know you talked about, you know, do you plan Monday morning or whatever? I'll typically look at where my scheduled visits are on any given day, make sure that I've mapped that out to see how much time I'm expected to have between each and then also look geographically at the area to see what other potential clients may be close proximity. So if you're at an office, you have an opportunity to speak with them. There may be an office in the same building across the street somewhere, you know, a mile or two away that you're not always on that side of town. So you don't get to give that level of focus to them regularly. But if you're already there, maximize your time out there. You made the drive out. And as far as how far I'll drive, if it's a sale, I'll drive as far as I need to. It's, you know, really, that's the bottom line is you want to make sure you're getting the sales. So yeah, that, that really is something that, you know, you just need to optimize your time while you're out there. Make sure that you're using it to touch as many, hit as many touch points as possible.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: Are you, I know maybe personally for you, do you have to plan out where your territory is or is that something that's given to you?
[00:21:35] Speaker A: So our territories, me, I'm in medical device sales right now. So our territories are predetermined and broken down based geographic, you know, on geographic regions. But there is, there's overlap and there's. In most sales positions there may be overlap. And you know, typically if you're in a commission based sales position, every account is assigned to a person. So it's not uncommon for me to have an account, especially for high performers and high earners, you're going to have accounts that may be in somebody else's territory. The one key thing you want to do is make sure that you are very, very open with communication to the other reps that may be in that territory. You don't want two people from the Same company showing up the same day or back to back. You know, if I go in today and say, hey, do you guys have time? And they say, no, but you can come back next week on Monday. And then, you know, Sharon, who is my colleague in that territory, stops in the next day, they're going to say, look, we just told Shannon yesterday we can't see you until Monday. So make sure you're being very open. Keep those lines of communication open with the team to make sure that you've established, you know, where you're going and what the reasoning is. And you can also utilize other field reps as a resource to help out. You know, you'll get tied up some time and they can sometimes pop in and help out, answer questions or you know, assist a potential customer in any way needed.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: Are you using anything in particular, you know, to help manage your day to day? Any type of tools, you know, like calendars, like what are you using throughout your day?
[00:23:01] Speaker A: I just use Outlook, my Outlook calendar, I live by it. So it's, you know, integrated across all platforms. It's on my cell phone, my iPad, my laptop. So, and I always set alerts to make sure that, you know, I'm getting a heads up an hour before and 15 minutes before for each meeting to kind of let me know where I need to be next and what we have coming up.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Well, you know, that's, that's great information.
You know, it is important that, you know, one of the key things I think we take away from this is being kind of firm on how you process your day and how you put everything together, but also being flexible without a doubt, you know. You know, thank you for all that great info. We're going to go to another commercial break, so we'll be right back.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Great. See you in a few foreign.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Welcome back from our commercial break. And now we're going to talk about something that if you're in marketing and sales, it's probably the bane of everybody's experience existence and that's, you know, hitting your numbers. Everybody in marketing, we, we got quotas to have, we got metrics that we got to follow. You know, we're nail biting our teeth every month, you know, whether we're going to hit those or not. We all know that if we're not hitting our numbers and our quotas after a couple months, we're probably looking for another job or maybe, you know, this isn't the job for us. So let's go back to Shannon, our guest. Shannon, you know, what are some of the things that you do, you know, to track your numbers and try to stay on top of those.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: Interesting question. So I think luckily we're, you know, in a point where technology is advanced enough that it's a huge assist for sales reps out in the field. So most companies, if you're selling a product or a service, they're going to have some sort of a sales metrics tool that you'll be able to look at on the fly to know exactly where you are in regard to what you're monthly quota is and how much you, how far you have to go to hit your actual numbers. I think for me personally, one of the things you need to do is you need to know your quota numbers intimately. You need to be very, very familiar with what each sale means, how it gets you closer to your goal and how many you need to attain goals. So most, most, most companies put a dollar value as their quota. Say your quotas round number, say your quote is a million dollars for the month. You need to know exactly the exact number of sales that you're going to need to hit that one million dollar mark. And you need to break down how week by week you're going to be able to get to that point.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: Yeah, that, you know, that makes a lot of sense and it's going to be different for, you know, depending on what type of sales you have and things like that. When, when somebody's struggling, you know, what are like everybody has bad months, you know, it happens to the best of us. But when you start seeing, you know, maybe a pattern in yourself or in others, you know that you're struggling to hit your numbers, you know, it's almost like a domino effect because you start feeling real bad and then it also, it makes you kind of do your job worse because you're always kind of at the gun wondering like, oh my God, I gotta get this next one.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: Oh yeah.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: What are some of the things you do to like kind of manage that stress?
[00:26:50] Speaker A: So the nerves, like you said, the nerves will get to you. You got to really be careful with, you know, getting ahead of yourself. One thing, me and my team, we typically like to look at everything on a quarterly basis. So you're, you're monitoring day to day, week to week, month to month. But if you're looking at it quarterly and your quarterly goals are established, one month won't derail you then. Because I think like you said, one of the challenges you can run into is if you're only looking at it month to month, you have a bad month and Then all of a sudden you're. You're down. You're down and out. You feel like, okay, I'm not hitting where I need to be. And then it starts to snowball a little bit and can affect your confidence, which is so vital in this field. You have to go and you have to be confident. You have to know what it is that you're trying to accomplish. So I think looking at it at a quarterly clip versus just monthly, it gives you a little bit of leeway to say, you know what, I can kind of have a down month and it's not going to ruin what I'm trying to accomplish here for the quarter.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: True. Yeah. And, you know, once you. They always say I, you know, especially when I was.
After you close a sale, the best time to go get another one is right away.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Because you, you know, you feel good, you know, you, you hit it out of the park and you, you know that it's kind of like a natural reaction. Yeah. And it kind of emulates off of you, you know, to other people, you know, and. And it kind of comes naturally so you can pick up new stuff.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: Well, it's like you said, you know, they, they say you can hear a smile through the phone. You know, you talk to somebody, you call somebody in a customer service role, and you can, you can hear in their tone if they're smiling or if they're upset and frustrated. You just, it just comes across. You can hear a smile through the phone. I'm at huge believer in that. And like you said, coming off of that high of getting a sale is the best time to go and get another one because you're feeling good, you're going to have the confidence to back you up, and you're going to go in, you're just going to really be able to push yourself. You're going to be supercharged and be ready to go on to the next level.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Another thing that tends to be a problem with people in marketing and sales. And I don't know what it is at your particular, you know, position now, but I know in some of the ones that I've had in the past, there was always this fear that the sale is going to come. You know, you went in, you did your appointment, you know, and then you left. But then they called, they bought it through the phone, or they end up calling it the 800 number and not you directly to set it up. Is there, like, certain things that you do to make sure you're kind of keeping track of anything that comes into, you know, you know, what you, what you offer people.
[00:29:26] Speaker A: Well, I think it kind of goes back to what we said earlier. You know, being personable and making them want to work with you and can you, you know, I'm a huge believer in being candid, having very upfront and honest conversations with these offices and with leadership. Tell them, you know, you could call the number and they'll be able to accommodate you. But I want to make sure that this is handled at a high level and I'm going to be the person that's going to bring that value to you. So just give me a call, let me take care of all the paperwork, let me deal with all this. Nobody wants to fill out paperwork. Nobody wants to be stuck dealing with things behind the scenes. So let me be the one that's doing all of the background work and, and keep things simple for you. I'll bring you a contract. All I need is a signature. We'll, we'll facilitate everything else on our end. So just, it's, it's a matter of creating value in what you're able to offer and what you bring to the table and being personable so that they want to work with you specifically moving forward.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: Is there anything you do that helps you prepare for like, you know, you got a big sales meeting coming up and you, you know, you want to do your best, you might have a presentation to do. You know, is there anything you do in particular to like, prepare for that?
[00:30:30] Speaker A: Yes. So I think early on when you're just getting into a new product or a new field, whatever it may be, you need to, it's really about just knowing what it is you can, what it is that you're selling. You have to intimately know your specific product and you have to be prepared with questions. So I know a lot of people are uncomfortable with the role playing and meeting, you know, doing. I'll pretend like I'm the customer and you pretend like you're the sales rep. But if you have a team that you're working with, utilize them because they're hearing challenges, they're being, they're having those that opposition brought to them on a day to day basis. So have that conversation with them. Look, let me be the sales rep. I'm going to come in, we'll jump on a zoom call and you can be the customer and I'm going to tell you my side of things and then you present me with some challenges. So I'm ready to respond. And I may know some things that may come up that I wasn't expecting. Always lean on the people you work with because the things that you're seeing, they're also seeing. But you guys are going to be seeing different things as well. So share that information. It's really about just becoming well versed in what could possibly pop up.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Does you now you make a good point about the education and knowing what you're selling because that's going to come off, you know, authentic.
When you can answer those questions, how often does your team prepare? Do you have sales trainings?
You know, do you do them quarterly? Do them yearly? Like, you know, how often are you doing those?
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll typically do them twice a year. We'll try to get the entire team together. And my, my team, we're the Northeast region. So it does, you know, it involves a little bit of travel for some of the team, depending on where we are. Sometime we'll meet here in the D.C. area, sometimes it's in Philly, sometime it's, it could be anywhere. So we will try twice a year to get the entire team together to make sure that we're in a room discussing challenges and resolution to move forward. It, it's really, really key to also maintain even though you're only seeing them in person once or twice a year, we have weekly calls. We make sure that everybody gets on those as much as possible. And we really, really keep the lines of communication between our sales reps open. Everyone is very comfortable reaching out to anyone else. We huge.
I'm a huge advocate of sharing information. And one of the other cool things I know we talked a little bit earlier about technology and what apps and so forth you may use. We have a WhatsApp group text that everybody in the region can jump on and ask a question. You can ask something similar as, hey, you know, what was the price of product XYZ or what, what. What's this feature that we've, you know, have on our newest iteration of the device? What, what is, what are some real world applications for that? You throw that in the WhatsApp chat and you've got, you know, 20 or 30 different reps. Somebody's going to answer. And somebody said, oh, I saw that same issue last week. Let me tell you what it is that I did. Or it's so we use that a lot. It's really about open communication lines. So we have all the tech available in the world now to stay connected to everybody. So let's use it. We may as well.
[00:33:30] Speaker B: Yeah, we used Slack, you know, in the past and yeah, I used a couple Others. Yeah, you're right. It's good for sharing information and, and communicating back and forth with your team. When, when do you think it's the right time to ask for help? You're struggling, you haven't hit your sales. You know, you're, you don't know what it is. I mean, immediately. Yeah, immediately.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Don't be afraid. Look, we're going to run into challenges and the best sales rep on the planet is going to have a bad month, a bad quarter. At times things just, it's, it's the natural way of business. Sometimes things aren't going to be perfect at all times. So if you're running into an issue, look, I mean, we, we want to be self sufficient and you want to make sure that you're focused on resolving things independently. But if you are getting to the point where you're starting to notice you're being a little bit discouraged, you're like, oh man, I, I don't want to take this call. I don't want to go on the sales call today. I already know what they're going to say. I, I gotten four no's in the past two days. I just, I'm not up for it. I don't feel like dealing with it. Talk to somebody, Open the lines of communication. Talk to somebody. You never know what might be causing the issue. There could be, you know, in, in healthcare, for example, there could be something that happened with reimbursement rates from insurance companies or something could have transitioned. You may not be aware of. You might say something and someone might say, oh my God, I'm running into the same problem. This is why I looked into it. This is what we're running up against. So make sure that you are opening those communication lines to be sure that you, you're not going to have all the answers, but somebody on your team may make sure you use them.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: That's, that's a very good point. Shannon, thank you for all that great information. And yeah, it's really important when you're working. You know, when you're at a sales and marketing job and you got to hit your numbers, you know, when you're struggling, you know, reach out to your team, you get to help. They'll probably feel more confident with you as an employee when you're making the initiatives to, to better improve your, your numbers. And you know, just all the time.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: You know, you're gonna, your quota. This, this year is gonna, it's gonna go higher next year and it's gonna hire the year after. So the Goal is to make sure that you are not only hitting what your quota is this year, but you're already putting things in the pipeline if you're prepared for what's going to be coming up next year. It's just, it's a growth cycle. You just need to keep that snowball rolling down the hill, get it as big as possible.
[00:35:53] Speaker B: Yeah, true. So true.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: Well, we're going to go to another commercial break and we'll be back after a wear from our sponsors.
Welcome back to Street Level Marketing. I'm Mark and I'm your host. Now look, if you're, you're thinking about getting into sales, business development, you know, there's a lot of money to be made. You know, it's, it's a, it's a great career. You can, you do very well. But there's a lot of things that you, you need to know.
You got to prepare yourself because it's not for everyone. It takes a certain mindset, it takes a certain individual to do this. And you don't want to be in a position where you're starting jobs, stopping jobs, you can't find the right fit. So we're going to talk about, you know, what you need to prepare yourself to get into these type of roles, into these business development roles, these marketing roles. So Shannon, you know, what are some of the tips that you can give somebody that's watching that, you know, is thinking about getting involved?
[00:37:27] Speaker A: I think one of the main things you should do and we're fortunate enough that resources are out there now. Talk to somebody that's doing it. I think there's a common perception that, wow, I can get into sales. You know, I'm in medical device sales and any type of sales or I'm just going to make a really good living and money is going to be good. Typically in sales there is money to be made. There's a reason that it's a strong performing business and a lot of people want to get into it and it's not always easy to break into because it's, you're compensated well.
It's an enjoyable field to be in because you're kind of seeing different things on a day to day basis. So I think really talking to somebody that's doing it or that has done it is vital. One of the key things that I've done, which I hadn't done in the past and I kind of didn't really buy into it, but now I see how vital it is, is having a mentor. Having a mentor can go so far when it comes to opening doors and helping you to have some predetermined level of comprehension as to what it is that you're walking into and what it's going to be like. Like, so I think that's, that's key is making sure that you have somebody to talk to and someone that, you know, like we talked about getting frustrated or sales numbers aren't hitting where they need to hit, things aren't what we want them to be. Making sure you have somebody that you can talk to that can kind of work with you to help get you back on track.
[00:38:45] Speaker B: So, Troy, I. I've had, I've had mentors, you know, throughout the years, and more than one. And, you know, there's different websites that I read and keep up on new information and, and things like that. Is it, Is there any type of trainings that you recommend in the beginning? Like, what did you do when you were first starting out? Did you have somebody kind of training you or was it you were left up to your own devices? Like, how did it work out for you?
[00:39:14] Speaker A: So in my previous roles in business development, I think it was kind of, you know, kind of left up to your own vices, and you kind of went out and just hit the ground running and tried to build your own thing. One of the fortunate things now with a much larger company, and I think they have that structure in place where they have sales training, they have opportunities for enhanced learning opportunities in place. So you can always, like, I can, I can go onto my company's intranet and just look at what, what different courses are available. You can take courses, education courses at any time just to get yourself comfortable with different things. You know, it's not just about knowing your product, but you have to be comfortable doing presentations. You have to be comfortable speaking to large groups of people. You have to be comfortable getting those no's and talking to people that may be frustrated at times. So really, you know, exploit those different things that are available to you. Make sure you're making strong use of them and yeah, really just use what's out there for you. I've. I've been on both sides of it. I've had it where it's kind of, you know what, here go the keys to the kingdom. Go out the front door and see what happens. And then I've been in a structured environment where it's like, look, we're gonna hold you back a little bit. We, you know, you're excited, but we want you to slow down for a minute. Let's make sure. That we're going through everything. So you're well versed in what it is you're going to be running into.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I've been, you know, especially with newer, if it's a newer business or a newer startup. Yeah, you don't have the, the, you don't have the structure in place. You're kind of the one that's kind of making that happen. What, what type of personality should somebody have that's, you know, entering, thinking about entering marketing and sales.
[00:40:50] Speaker A: You got to be a go getter. You have to really be self confident. You have to enjoy talking to people, you have to enjoy having conversations. If you are, you know, somebody that's kind of in the back of the room and not really comfortable, just kind of jumping up, you know, you don't want to be somebody that puts their hand up. You just want to stand up and speak. If you have something to say, you're going to go ahead and get the message out. So I think it's key to be very, very outgoing and upfront and someone that's excited to talk to others. I, I think also one of the other things that coming in as a new sales rep, you need to understand that it is a very, very, it's a big commitment. There's a lot of time involved. This isn't a 9 to 5, it's not, it's not ever going to be. Sales is never going to be a 9 to 5 thing. You know, you're gonna kind of need to go where the potential clientele is. You're going to need to be able to accommodate their schedules and it really is, you know, there's a lot of times where I'll go in, I'll do a, you know, 10 hour day meeting with clients, doing, doing stuff throughout the day and then you kind of come home and some, sometimes you just don't want to take that laptop out of the case and really deal with anything else. But it's important. You need to make sure you're keeping accurate notes. You want to make sure that you have all of your follow ups documented and scheduled and you just need to really, really understand that there's a lot involved. But the payout can really, really be rewarding.
[00:42:08] Speaker B: Now I know when I, when I, you know, I, I, I've been in marketing, business development, sales, you know, almost 20 years now.
What are some of the different areas that you know, that you can enter into involved in these type of roles? Like, you know, is there different areas? Yeah, definitely.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: So you have your, your sales roles which is kind of the ultimate goal I think for a lot of, a lot of people coming to the business. You want to be the sales rep. You want to be the sales rep and the senior sales rep to make sure that you're at that commission based here. Because that's when the compensation really becomes interesting and exciting. But there's also, you know, you could be a product liaison or in healthcare, we were physician liaisons for a long time where you're kind of just kind of the go between and becoming that advocate for the services that you're offering to the community and speaking with people and letting them know this is what we can do and this is how we can make your life a little easier for your patients or for your, for your client base and help out, make sure that you're able to, to perform at the highest level possible.
[00:43:17] Speaker B: One of the things that nobody really told me and it was kind of learning by trial and error that I think would be good information for people thinking about wanting to get in one of these type of positions. Beings that it is a, you know, a commission a lot of times commission based or bonus based on performances, how to prepare yourself for that type of position as you know, for your finances. Because in the beginning it's going to take time to build those sales up. Like you know, what type of things did you do for planning out your budget and, and how did you take some of those things into account?
[00:43:56] Speaker A: You definitely, like you said, you, you will, it will take time to build your book of business. So you need to be prepared. Luckily, most commission based sales positions, you'll have a base salary and then you'll have your commission portion of your salary. So make sure that you're able to, make sure you're able to, to keep the lights on and pay your, your necessities with your, with your base salary and then you can look into your commission for, you know, the things that you want to go a little bit above and beyond. I think one of the interesting things is when you're in sales and a lot of people that aren't in the business may not know this, but you'll have your quota established like we Talked about earlier. 100, the quota is really your baseline. That's people think, oh, I'm at 100, I am killing it. Nope, 100 is your baseline. That's the minimum. That's where you, that's the minimum you want to be at. You really want to be at 130, 140, 150 because you're getting comped at 130, 140, 150% of your compensation structure. So it's key to realize that you need to make sure you're building your book of business, that it's going to be repeat customers. You want to make sure that they value your service and what you're offering so they'll continue to come back and utilize you specifically. But really, you know that that 100 to plan is kind of the, the baseline, that's where you want to start. And most companies now will get you into a spot where you are at least have some built in client base when you're first coming into a, to a territory to make sure that you're able to service your existing clients in the area while also building a new client client list as well.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that's so true. And, and you know, for example, a sales job, that business job I had years ago, you know, I had a, you know, a pay every week, it was a certain amount of money. But then when they tallied up the end of the month, they took that money back out of, you know, what you sold for a month. So you know, there were some guys they would owe money back to the company.
You really gotta, you know, budget your money correctly and make sure you're planning for poor months and yeah, good months.
[00:46:05] Speaker A: It's volatile. You're right, you're 100 right. It is volatile. You will run into those issues where you're having a bad month and all of a sudden things get a little tight. But it's, you know, you got to be responsible. You got to kind of know, this is what I have, you know, this is what I have coming up. This is what, what I'm gonna have to deal with. Make sure that, you know, and this is not necessarily just for us here on this conversation today, but general life advice, you know, make sure that you have a cushion. Make sure you put yourself in a, in a spot where you have at least a little bit socked away to make sure that you can get through some of those down months or some of those rough times. You want to make sure that you're not becoming discouraged because you know, when, when the bills are due and things aren't going as fast or as quickly as you want them to, it, it will get you discouraged even faster if all of a sudden you're worried about something else. So making sure that you just outlaw outlay, lay out a structure that keeps you in a good spot is key.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Now, well, you know, for the listeners, you know, when we're talking, you hear us a lot saying about, you know, talking about sales, but it really is another term that they use called business development. You're developing business for your, Your company and that, that all falls into marketing and business development. And, you know, so I didn't want listeners to think, oh, I thought we were watching a marketing show. Why are they talking about sales so much? But so much of that ties hand in hand.
[00:47:24] Speaker A: The lines are blurred. You're 100, right? It really does. I mean, and you can't have one without the other. And you get, you need to, you know, as a marketer or a liaison or a sales rep, you need to be able to do all of those things because they really, the. There is no clear, definitive line between those. Those things. They're all going to come into play, and you need to be well versed.
[00:47:43] Speaker B: In all, you know, thank you for being on the show and coming in and sharing your expertise. You know, it was a lot of good insights and I, I think the listeners are going to get a lot, you know, from what you shared. And I want to thank you again. And, you know, this wraps up our first episode of Street Level Marketing, you know, so I want to thank everybody for watching and we'll see you next week.
