Recently, I heard about a top rep who won a multi-six-figure deal … three months after a purchase order had been awarded to the competition. Pretty amazing. Now is that a great salesperson, or what?
In a similar vein, I interviewed a candidate recently who stole a deal after the competitor’s product had already been purchased and shipped. Since the candidate was “late to the dance,” he annoyed the OR supervisor by asking for a trial of his product. He stayed persistent and got the support of the surgeons, and was able to trial his product for a week. The competitive rep caught wind of what was going on, and in the candidate’s words, the trial became a “slugfest” (fortunately, not literally).
In the end, the hospital shipped back the competitor’s unit and bought three of the candidate’s product instead. Not only did he supplant the competitor’s product, he sold the hospital two additional units. So it is not as though this deal was won on price.
Examples like these are worth pondering as well as admiring.
I think one of the tough things in similar situations would be to determine how much time to devote to pursuing such deals. Especially when it comes to converting capital business, the opportunity to do so may arise only every few years, so a hard-fought, uphill battle might make a lot of sense.
In the first case, the competition had had the business for 10+ years. Not anymore!
There are many factors that must have come into play, including the skill, experience and determination of the sales rep, confidence in his products and whole lot of tenacity to overcome many obstacles.
In the latter case, the rep was new to the territory and perhaps eager to have an impact. I appreciate how he was willing to take a few risks to make things happen. In the end, he told me was able to make amends with the OR supervisor who was so annoyed in the beginning. A lot of reps talk about the importance of having good relationships with their customers, but reps also need to be willing to rock the boat when appropriate in order to achieve their ultimate goal.
How fierce a competitor are you? When do you decide it’s time to give up and move on? Let the deal go? Especially in the last couple of years, when capital budgets have been tight, deals like these may be the ones that have made the difference between making quota, or blowing it out.
As I think back to top-performing reps I’ve interviewed, more than a few seem to have a proven ability to steal deals. Maybe this is one of the little extras that makes them a little better than the rest.
So the next time you come “late to the dance,” why not shake things up a bit? Maybe it is not too late after all. Maybe you should steal that deal.
“The impossible is often the untried.” – Jim Goodwin
Lisa McCallister specializes in recruiting for medical device sales and marketing positions with an operating room focus, such as orthopedics, electrosurgery, endoscopy and a wide range of surgical specialties. She has recruited two Rookie of the Year award winners. Connect with her on LinkedIn or check out her blog, MyJobScope.com.