Many sales reps who spend time with upper-level people in their organization (they go on a few sales calls with you, they sit down with you to talk, etc.) feel intimidated and as if they are wasting that person’s time. Don’t feel that way. They don’t. If you are a rising star in your organization, they look at spending time with you as an investment. It’s part of their job to help groom the next generation.
So, here’s one of the things I want to encourage: if someone from management comes to work with you, send him or her an e-mail thank you note within 24 hours of the visit. (Thank you letters aren’t just for job interviews and customers.) Say something like:
“I really appreciate your taking the time to come and work with me. I enjoyed getting to introduce you to some of my key customers, and they enjoyed the opportunity to interface with someone in our company in a larger capacity. I learned a lot from you, I enjoyed the time, and it just reminded me that I should send you a note and say how much I appreciate the opportunity to work here at XYZ Company. If there’s ever anything that I can do for you, either in sales, customer service or anything else, please don’t hesitate to tap me on the shoulder. I’ll do whatever I can to assist.”
A letter like this can be a career-defining moment for you. So, I’m just encouraging you that if your VP of Sales and Marketing comes to visit, or your Director who’s over the Regional Sales Manager comes to visit, write that thank you note and copy it to your manager. It’s a complete positive for you. It is one of the things that significantly raises your visibility within your organization and will pay off for you down the not-too-distant road in every area of medical sales: laboratory sales, medical device sales, biotechnology sales, clinical diagnostics sales, hospital equipment sales, imaging sales, surgical supplies sales, pathology sales, or pharmaceutical sales.
(Besides-it’s just nice. Wouldn’t you like to get a thank you from someone you’ve helped?)
Peggy McKee is the owner and chief recruiter for PHC Consulting, a recruiting firm providing top sales talent, sales management, marketing and service / support personnel to some of the most prominent high growth companies in the medical and laboratory products industry for over 9 years!
Our client companies provide capital equipment and reagents for the clinical laboratories or research laboratories, equipment and consumables that aid the physician/clinician in diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic information, software that provides the workflow improvements that have unending positive impact on the patient, physician and the laboratory professional and a number of service offerings in the medical arena (for example: laboratory service, imaging etc).
Our expertise is in providing: Sales, Sales Management, Marketing, Technical Service, and Support Professionals.
We provide top talent (usually the top 10% of sales force rankings) and reduce turnover (through exceptional client knowledge and candidate screening) this in combination with our reputation for smoothly facilitating the hiring process makes us the search firm of choice in this arena.
