I attended a Telesales Training Course in Chicago on Oct 19th and 20th. Art Sobczak from Business by Phone was the trainer and creator of the program. He told us that he had been in sales from the time he was 13, and has been helping people sell more in less time for the past 25 years. He definitely got my attention with his different approach to sales. He immediately brought up a list of things that “sales” people do, that are HUGE mistakes, and I pretty much had made all of those mistakes. He said, don’t call up a customer just to “see how they are doing” or “Just want to make sure you received the samples” have a purpose for calling, even if it’s not to discuss the product, but an idea you had for the customer. His approach was to call the customer to offer them “the result” not “the thing”. He spoke a lot about building relationships, getting to know the customer, and to do unto them, as I would want done unto me. The biggest take away was “Find the pain, and make it hurt worse”. That is a statement that can be applied to all areas of life, and really opened my eyes to a different perspective, which is the customer can sell themselves on the product, all they need to do is start thinking about why they don’t like the current vendor they are using. The other take away that I found extremely valuable is that I don’t have to constantly talk about the products to make a sale, and if I do what I say I’m going to do by following up, and providing answers to questions, the customer will continue to purchase from me, as well as be open to try new things down the line.
Art has a lot of tips and information that he provides during the training and after. His website is full of ideas, he sends out a news letter, and has a blog where people can write in and ask tips. I found him to be very helpful! He was very generous with his time and spent one on one time with anyone who wanted him to. I personally asked him a few side questions that are specific to my situation, and he had really good answers for me. After spending 2 days in his class, I can definitely say that I learned a lot of simple, common sense tips that will be easy to apply to my daily calls.
After my 2 days in the training class, Marc Brignola, the sales rep in the Chicago Area for my company, came to pick me up so that he could introduce me to some of his Fertility Clinic Acounts in his territory. The first day we took the train down town, and we met with Svetlana at RGI. She sat down with us and discussed how she was very happy with the vitrifciation, and she had never seen such beautiful embryos in all of her life. She had concerns regarding their pregnancy rates not increasing even though the embryos are such better quality, Marc let her know that he would check with Wayne and they would get back to her on that. I was also introduced to Max at RGI; I had previously worked with him when I was in customer service. It was really nice to meet him since I had taken many orders that he had placed over the past year or so and had built a relationship with him. Secondly we visited Juergen Liebermann at FCI-Chicago. He gave us a tour of the rebuilt facility after the flood they had earlier this year. He spent over an hour speaking with me about what they do there at FCI, and his role. I appreciated how passionate he was for IVF! He spoke about how their process works with the vitrication, and where they do each specific function. He also talked a little about stem cell research, and gender selection. He was very informative and I could tell that he was very passionate about what he does, which was really refreshing to be around! Lastly we visited Nikki Winston at University Of IL, Chicago. We spoke with her about ASRM, and how they were unable to attend, she also brought up a seminar she had went to for Irvine, but had to leave shortly after she got there. She enjoyed the talks at the seminar. At the end of the visit, Marc had asked her how the evaluations were going for samples he had sent her a month or so ago, and she had forgotten all about them, but assured Marc she would try them out and would most likely purchase from us. This meeting was a definite “relationship” meeting, Marc didn’t really bring up the products at all, he focused on speaking with her about things that he knew she would want follow up on, and at the end he brought up the samples that he sent her. It was a fun day getting to meet customers and visiting labs! I especially enjoyed the personal contact that was made with each customer and being able to travel around to meet them.
My last day in Chicago, Marc and I visited customers in the suburbs of Chicago. First we visited FCI-Glenview, we met with Seema and she spent a lot of time going over their andrology process with me. It was good to see exactly how the products are used and stored in the lab. She showed me slides of what the semen looks like before the wash, and after the wash. I was familiar with the products before, but now to be able to say that I can see the difference before and after using our products is something that is very valuable when making my calls. Secondly we met with Dr. Ding from Oakbrook Fertility, he talked about the lab being under construction and the changes they are making, Marc asked him if they were going to ASRM and they were getting ready to head out for their flight right after our meeting. The last facility we visited was Dr. Greiss with Midwest Fertility, The FDA was in their office and he couldn’t meet with us.
The overall trip really helped me feel more comfortable and knowledgeable, not just about our products, but about how to talk to customers and change my approach. I have to say that it was great having the training class, and then seeing firsthand the techniques being used when visiting customers with Marc. Over the past 2 weeks I’ve been putting all of the techniques to work, and I’ve noticed a change in the way the customers are responding. It’s exciting to have positive feedback from the customers, as opposed to someone who would rather get you off of the phone as soon as possible. I really enjoyed going to Chicago and I’m very grateful for the chance to go and learn and better myself.
