The Art of Selling: B2B and More!

Most people are always striving to better themselves. For proof, check the sales figures on the number of self-improvement books sold each year. This is not a pitch for you to jump in and start selling these kinds of books, but it is an indication of people's awareness that in order to better themselves, they have to continue improving their personal selling tips abilities.

To excel in any selling situation, you must have confidence, and confidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge. You have to know and understand yourself and your goals. You have to recognize and accept your weaknesses as well as your special talents. This requires a kind of personal honesty that not everyone is capable of exercising.

In addition to knowing yourself, you must continue learning about people. Just as with yourself, you must be caring, forgiving and laudatory with others. In any sales effort, you must accept other people as they are, not as you would like for them to be. One of the most common faults of sales people is impatience when the prospective customer is slow to understand or make a decision. The successful salesperson handles these situations the same as he would if he were asking a girl for a date, or even applying for a new job.

Learning your product, making a clear presentation to qualified prospects, and closing more sales will take a lot less time once you know your own capabilities and failings, and understand and care about the prospects you are calling upon.

Our society is predicated upon selling, and all of us are selling something all the time. We move up or stand still in direct relation to our sales efforts. Everyone is included, whether we're attempting to be a friend to a co-worker, a neighbor, or selling multi-million dollar real estate projects. Accepting these facts will enable you to understand that there is no such thing as a born salesman. Indeed, in selling, we all begin at the same starting line, and we all have the same finish line as the goal - a successful sale.

Most assuredly, anyone can sell anything to anybody. As a qualification to this statement, let us say that some things are easier to sell than others, and some people work harder at selling than others. But regardless of what you're selling, or even how you're attempting to sell it, the odds are in your favor. If you make your presentation to enough people, you'll find a buyer. The problem with most people seems to be in making contact - getting their sales presentation seen by, read by, or heard by enough people. But this really shouldn't be a problem, as we'll explain later. There is a problem of impatience, but this too can be harnessed to work in the salesperson's favor.

We have established that we're all salespeople in one way or another. So whether we're attempting to move up from forklift driver to warehouse manager, waitress to hostess, salesman to sales manager or from mail order dealer to president of the largest sales organization in the world, it's vitally important that we continue learning.

Getting up out of bed in the morning; doing what has to be done in order to sell more units of your product; keeping records, updating your materials; planning the direction of further sales efforts; and all the while increasing your own knowledge - all this very definitely requires a great deal of personal motivation, discipline, and energy. But then the rewards can be beyond your wildest dreams, for make no mistake about it, the selling profession is the highest paid occupation in the world!

Selling is challenging. It demands the utmost of your creativity and innovative thinking. The more success you want, and the more dedicated you are to achieving your goals, the more you'll sell. Hundreds of people the world over become millionaires each month through selling. Many of them were flat broke and unable to find a "regular" job when they began their selling careers. Yet they've done it, and you can do it too!

Remember, it's the surest way to all the wealth you could ever want. You get paid according to your own efforts, skill, and knowledge of people. If you're ready to become rich, then think seriously about selling a product or service (preferably something exclusively yours) - something that you "pull out of your brain;" something that you write, manufacture or produce for the benefit of other people. But failing this, the want ads are full of opportunities for ambitious sales people. You can start there, study, learn from experience, and watch for the chance that will allow you to move ahead by leaps and bounds.

Be Better Than Good

If greatness is your goal, whether in your business life, your personal relationships or your own personal growth, here are some guidelines to get you on your way. Greatness is possible! You can achieve the goals you set for yourself and you can make a difference in your own life and those who live and work around you! Set greatness as your goal! Here’s how:

Identify greatness for yourself. While there are some basic generalities that most people would consider great, there are broader definitions of greatness, ones that each individual sets for him or herself. For example, most people would consider Mother Theresa great while only some would consider Donald Trump great. Helping humanity is a broad generality while building a real estate fortune isn’t. So what you need to first do is ask, “What does greatness look like for this company, organization, family or for myself?” From there you can develop values and a mission statement etc. But if you don’t first identify it, you’ll never reach it.

Maximize targeted end results. As Covey says, “begin with the end in mind.” What end results do you want. Be specific. Come up with all of them. Maximize them. Leave no stone uncovered. Set out for yourself all of the goals or end results you must hit in order to reach greatness. Write them down, memorize them and distribute them broadly (if doing this for a group). Maximize your targeted end results!

Make distinction your endeavor. What is the endeavor of the great? Usually it is to distinguish themselves from the average. They seek to rise above the rest by the quality of their product or service. Everything goes toward the goal of making themselves distinct from the run of the mill. That is their mission. And in doing so, they make themselves great!

Map your effort thoroughly. The three most important words in real estate are “location, location, location.” In reaching a goal, the three most important words are “plan, plan, plan.” Okay, “execute” and “persevere” work too, but go with me here! Too many people wish they would achieve something but never write down a plan for getting there. When I want to go on a long trip I don’t just wish to get there. I plan on how to get there. I get a map, I figure out distances, times etc. Map out your goal thoroughly. This will help you achieve greatness.

Regularly take time for regeneration. Achieving greatness is hard! You will care more, work harder, and take more lumps and setbacks than the rest. So you will need to take time to regenerate so you can fight again another day. Your body needs rest. Your mind needs rest. Your emotions need rest. Your spirit needs rest. I firmly believe that a person who rests well can do more in less time than the one works without setting aside time for regeneration. You may be able to reach goals without rest, but somewhere along the line, you will fall harder and longer if you aren’t regularly regenerating yourself. So take your vacation time this year!

Have a strict evaluation process. Every plan and goal needs an evaluation tool. And it should be a strict evaluation process. This is how you objectively decide whether or not you are proceeding toward your goal. If you have the right evaluation tool and you look six months into it and you aren’t hitting the goals, perhaps you need to change the goal or the way you are going after it. The evaluation process is not to be underestimated in its importance!

Take somebody else with you. True greatness is not individual. The one who becomes great spreads the reward of greatness around. Incorporate many people into the plan and let them eat of the fruit of success. I live in an area that has literally thousands of millionaires created by a company that had a vision of greatness. And while yes, they experience the reward, the rewards then go out many levels through the whole community, from businesses that support our community to non-profit groups, churches, and schools. True greatness blesses those many levels away.

Learn to party! Party? Yes! What good is greatness if you can’t enjoy it? And not just the final destination but also the entire journey. Be sure to stop along the way and relish in your movement. Celebrate small and large victories. This keeps the sprit high and the big mo rolling! Spend the money, buy the food and blow up the balloons – it’s time to celebrate!

Managing Information Overload: Is it Possible?

We are observing increasing hype about the wonders delivered by newest information technologies in an era characterized by knowledge as the critical resource for business activity. With the advent of new technologies, such as datamining, intranets, videoconferencing, and webcasting, several technologists are offering such solutions as a panacea for meeting the business challenges of the knowledge era. Trade press coverage of the 'productivity paradox' has further added to the speed of the information technology (IT) treadmill by suggesting that increasing investments in new information technologies should somehow result in improved business performance. For instance, some recent stories published in the trade press have asserted that certain technologies, such as intranets, have some inherent capability for facilitating organizational transformation initiatives, such as knowledge management.

Interestingly, some technology experts and academic scholars have observed that there is no direct correlation between IT investments and business performance or knowledge management. For instance, Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor at MIT Sloan School, notes that: "The same dollar spent on the same system may give a competitive advantage to one company but only expensive paperweights to another." Hence a key factor for the higher return on the IT dollar is the effective utilization of technology. How industry executives should go about deciphering the mantra of 'effective utilization,' however, remains an illusive issue. This conclusion is supported by the industrywide analyses of IT investments by the technology economist Paul Strassmann. There is no relationship between computer expenditures and company performance whatsoever. On a similar note, John Seely Brown, director of the Xerox Parc research center in Palo Alto, California, underscores that in the last 20 years, US industry has invested more than $1 trillion in technology, but has realized little improvement in the efficiency or effectiveness of its knowledge workers. He has attributed this failure to organizations' ignorance of ways in which knowledge workers communicate and operate through the social processes of collaborating, sharing knowledge and building on each others ideas.

Toward A New World Order of Business

The contrast highlighted above may be attributed to a transition of the economy from an era of competitive advantage based on information to one based on knowledge creation. The earlier era was characterized by relatively slow and predictable change that could be deciphered by most formal information systems. During this period, information systems based on programmable recipes for success were able to deliver their promises of efficiency based on optimization for given business contexts. Success stories of IT miracles of this era, such as Mrs. Fields' Cookies, have been chronicled by the Harvard Business School case writers and many others in the academic and trade press. However, as argued by Brian Arthur, Dean of Economics and Population Studies at Stanford and author of Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy, the new world of knowledge-based industries is distinguished by its emphasis on precognition and adaptation in contrast to the traditional emphasis on optimization based on prediction. He suggests that the new world of knowledge-based business is characterized by "re-everything" involving continuous redefinition of organizational goals, purposes, and its "way of doing things." This new business environment is characterized by radical and discontinuous change which overwhelms the traditional organizational response of predicting and reacting based on pre-programmed heuristics. Instead, it demands anticipatory response from organization members who need to carry out the mandate of a faster cycle of knowledge-creation and action based on the new knowledge.

Knowledge Management in the 'Old' Information Era

In the information era characterized by relatively predictable change, technology gurus, as well as hardware and software providers, have been offering out-of-box solutions that are expected to enable knowledge management. Such off-the-shelf solutions are expected to offer means for storing best practices devised by human experts in information databases which may be later used for crunching out the pre-determined solutions based on pre-defined parameters. For example, a Software Magazine article defined knowledge management in terms of understanding the relationships of data; Identifying and documenting rules for managing data; and assuring that data are accurate and maintain integrity. Similarly a Computerworld article defined knowledge management in terms of mapping knowledge and information resources both on-line and off-line. The convergent and consensus building emphasis of such systems is suited for stable and predictable organizational environments. However such interpretations of knowledge management -- based primarily on rules and procedures embedded in technology -- seem misaligned with the dynamically changing business environment.

Such programmed solutions may be good enough for devising strategies for a game of business that is based on pre-defined rules, conventions and assumptions. However such mechanistic solutions based on the traditional information-processing emphasis of knowledge management are increasingly inadequate in a business world that demands increasing flexibility and resurfacing of existing assumptions. This is the world which requires not playing by the pre-defined rules, but understanding and adapting as the rules of the game, as well as the game itself, keep changing. Examples of such changing rules, conventions and assumptions of business are suggested by the changing paradigms of organizations with the emergence of virtual corporations and business ecosystems.

A Definition of Knowledge Management for the New World

We propose a definition of Knowledge Management that attempts to go beyond the quickfix solutions or unidimensional views offered by many others. This definition is intended to move the thinking of corporate executives towards the strategic, non-linear and systemic view of Knowledge Management reviewed in this article.

"Knowledge Management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaption, survival and competence in face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings."

Knowledge Management in the New World of Business

The traditional paradigm of information systems is based on seeking a consensual interpretation of information based on socially dictated norms or the mandate of the company bosses. This has resulted in the confusion between 'knowledge' and 'information'. However, knowledge and information are distinct entities!! While information generated by the computer systems is not a very rich carrier of human interpretation for potential action, 'knowledge' resides in the user's subjective context of action based on that information. Hence, it may not be incorrect to state that knowledge resides in the user and not in the collection of information, a point made two decades ago by West Churchman, the leading thinker on information systems.

The confusion between `knowledge' and `information' has caused managers to sink billions of dollars in technology ventures that have yielded marginal results. He asserts that the business managers need to realize that unlike information, knowledge is embedded in people... and knowledge creation occurs in the process of social interaction. On a similar note, Ikujiro Nonaka, the renowned Professor of Knowledge, has emphasized that only human beings can take the central role in knowledge creation. He argues that computers are merely tools, however great their information-processing capabilities may be. A very recent Harvard Business Review special issue on Knowledge Management seems to lend credence to this point of view. This issue highlighted the need for constructive conflict in organizations that aspire to be leaders in innovation and creation of new knowledge.

The 'wicked environment' of the new world of business imposes the need for variety and complexity of interpretations of information outputs generated by computer systems. Such variety is necessary for deciphering the multiple world views of the uncertain and unpredictable future. As underscored by the strategy guru Gary Hamel at the recent Academy of Management meeting address, non-linear change imposes upon organizations the need for devising non-linear strategies. Such strategies cannot be 'predicted' based on a static picture of information residing in the company's databases. Rather, such strategies will depend upon developing interpretive flexibility by understanding multiple views of the future. In this perspective, the objective of business strategy is not to indulge in long-term planning of the future. Rather, the emphasis is on understanding the various world views of future using techniques such as scenario-planning.  

Lessons for Business & Technology Executives

So what can executives do to realign their focus from the old world of 'information management' to the new paradigm of 'knowledge management' discussed here? A condensed checklist of implementation measures for business and technology managers is given in the following table.

Table 1. Implementation Measures for Facilitating Knowledge Management

Instead of the traditional emphasis on controlling the people and their behaviors by setting up pre-defined goals and procedures, they would need to view the organization as a human community capable of providing diverse meanings to information outputs generated by the technological systems.

De-emphasize the adherence to the company view of 'how things are done here' and 'best practices' so that such ways and practices are continuously assessed from multiple perspectives for their alignment with the dynamically changing external environment.

Invest in multiple and diverse interpretations to enable constructive conflict mode of inquiry and, thus, lessen oversimplification of issues or premature decision closure.

Encourage greater proactive involvement of human imagination and creativity to facilitate greater internal diversity to match the variety and complexity of the wicked environment.

Give more explicit recognition to tacit knowledge and related human aspects, such as ideals, values, or emotions, for developing a richer conceptualization of knowledge management

Implement new, flexible technologies and systems that support and enable communities of practice, informal and semi-informal networks of internal employees and external individuals based on shared concerns and interests.

Make the organizational information base accessible to organization members who are closer to the action while simultaneously ensuring that they have the skills and authority to execute decisive responses to changing conditions.

In the final analysis, managers need to develop a greater appreciation for their intangible human assets captive in the minds and experiences of their knowledge workers, because without these assets, the companies are simply not equipped with a vision to foresee or to imagine the future while being faced with a fog of unknowingness. As noted by Strassmann, elevating computerization to the level of a magic bullet may lead to the diminishing of what matters the most in any enterprise: educated, committed, and imaginative individuals working for organizations that place greater emphasis on people than on technologies.

A Career in Medical Device Sales: Strategies and Pitfalls

While securing a pharmaceutical sales job, or a medical device sales job is indeed a huge carrot to seek, and can be a very lucrative and professionally rewarding career move, these jobs are extremely competitive to land, and prospective candidates for medical sales jobs need to spend a significant amount of time preparing to seek these medical sales jobs. Simply possessing a college degree, and thinking that a career in medical device sales seems interesting, is certainly not enough!

Medical Device Sales by Job Boards

gorillamedicalsales.com is the leading online job board specializing in medical device sales jobs, medical sales jobs, medical sales representative jobs and pharmaceutical sales jobs. Find jobs from leading companies like Eli Lilly, Johnston & Johnson, etc.

In general, most medical equipment sales jobs, and their more lucrative cousins, medical device sales jobs and medical implant sales positions, require previous experience selling medical equipment, selling medical devices, or selling medical implants. So, how does an individual gain the needed experience to secure a medical sales job when the companies seem to want only experienced medical sales representatives?

The good news for those seeking to enter the medical sales representative field is that many companies look to hire entry level sales people, thus giving those without previous medical sales experience an entry point to this exciting industry. In particular, many pharmaceutical sales representative jobs require no previous medical sales experience. In addition, there are dozens of medical companies who will consider individuals who possess no previous medical sales representative experience.

There are many web sites dedicated to listing medical device sales, medical equipment sales, and pharmaceutical sales jobs. These sites, commonly referred to as “medical sales job boards”, allow medical products companies, as well as medical sales recruiters to post their current medical sales jobs, by location, on these job boards. Some boards are free for job seekers to register and view the medical sales jobs posted. One such board, Gorilla Medical Sales lists medical sales jobs, including entry level medical sales jobs, as well as pharmaceutical sales representative positions, posted exclusively by the leading medical sales recruiters in the nation. Since this board is currently free for candidates to register, Gorilla Medical Sales is an excellent place for entry level medical sales positions to be accessed by interested individuals.

Other medical sales job boards charge a fee for job seekers to register and view job postings. These fees vary greatly, and can range from $15 - $30 a month, to simply a one-time annual fee of $40 - $50 for one year of unlimited access. Regardless, these fees are very modest when one compares them to the fees charged by the large generalist job boards, none of which specialize in medical product sales. It is much more practical and targeted to spend your money accessing one of the medical sales job boards such as Gorilla Medical Sales rather than wasting your time on the large job boards.

But, these job boards are very specific in their recommended work background for candidates without previous medical device sales, or pharmaceutical sales experience. The candidates who will stand the greatest chance to secure an entry level medical sales position all share a common work history. Here are some of the desired work experiences needed to break into medical device sales, or pharmaceutical sales:

• At least two years of sales experience selling a tangible product

• A four-year college degree

• A documented record of achieving quota in your sales job(s)

You may ask, what is an example of a “tangible product”? Medical products companies love to hire individuals who have demonstrated in their previous sales jobs that they can “close the sale”. Therefore, your ability to sell tangible product, to obtain a signed purchase order from your customer to buy that product, and to close the deal in a competitive selling environment is essential to most hiring medical products companies. Some examples of tangible products that medical products companies love in your previous sales experience are items such as office equipment, office forms, printing, credit-card processing, communications, and copiers.

But, it is not always enough that you have sold a tangible product before. For many medical products companies, you must show them documentation that you were highly successful in your selling efforts. Remember, medical equipment sales jobs are among the most coveted sales jobs in the world. So, these companies want to hire only the best-of-the-best! And, they have the luxury of doing so!

Another key term which is important in discussing the qualifications and experiences necessary to secure an entry level medical sales position is the phrase “business-to-business sales experience” (sometimes referred to as B2B sales experience). This is a general term used to describe an individual who sells a product produced by his company to an individual at another company. B2B sales does not always involve selling a tangible product, but can also involve selling a service. The critical factor which makes a B2B experienced sales representative an attractive hire for a medical products company is the fact that the sales is closed by the representative, an order is taken, and the selling environment is competitive. Thus, a B2B experience level, even without selling a tangible product, is an attractive background for hiring medical products companies, and pharmaceutical sales companies.

Other factors can be very important when seeking a medical device sales position. Many medical products companies prefer to hire a candidate who has been an officer in the military. Military officers are very disciplined by training, and some medical companies believe that this discipline will help them manage their medical sales territory. In addition, former military officers are experienced at leading, managing, training, and delegating to subordinates. For this reason, they often make excellent sales mangers following their successful selling career, and are deemed very promotable by these companies.

Another factor which many medical equipment sales companies value when filling their medical sales jobs is previous job stability. In our fast-paced world of today, where frequent job changes are commonplace, many medical products companies place a high value on job stability. Candidates who previous job history is stable, with only one or two different jobs following college, demonstrate the desired commitment and loyalty relished by many of the medical products companies. Contrarily, a resume showing frequent “job-hopping” is a turn-off to many hiring managers.

In addition, candidates who have been promoted by their employer in a previous job are viewed very highly by hiring managers. Companies understand that only the best workers get promoted, and having a job history showing promotions is a valuable asset on a candidates’ resume.

Finally, in an age where liability plays an important factor for all companies, all candidates seeking an entry level medical devices sales job, medical equipment sales job, or pharmaceutical sales job, must be able to pass a background check and have a clean driving record before most medical products companies will hire them. Since sales involves many miles driven calling on customers, often in an automobile provided by the company, things like DUI’s, excessive traffic tickets, and accidents all provide an obstacle to becoming hired. Likewise, previous drug arrests are usually a knock-out factor to being hired.

Securing an entry level medical sales job is much sought-after commodity. And, the qualifications and prior job experiences are narrow. However, the rewarding career of selling medical products makes the search worthwhile for many.

Special Thanks to Dillarius for hitting the nail on the head!