Learning To Love Remote Selling: Alan’s Story
Since the pandemic hit, pharmaceutical sales professionals across the world have had to adapt. The sales process has been turned upside down with practices closed to external visitors and health care professionals unable to meet face-to-face.
Remote selling has always been a very particular skill. Some in our industry love it and feel very comfortable selling remotely, whilst others can't stand it! In July, we ran a beta version of our brand new Remote Sales Engagement Training (ReSET) for Pharma Sales Professionals. Amongst our participants was Alan, a sales professional from Scotland - it’s fair to say that our course took him on a bit of a journey so we asked to speak to him about it.
“To be honest, before all of this, remote selling was something I’d never really looked at. As a sales rep, I was used to doing face-to-face calls and I didn’t like to spend time on the phone.” Alan told us. Like many industry sales professionals, Alan felt that “Access to practices was hard enough and I always found getting in front of HCPs was the best way to get our messages across.”
The pandemic has changed everything. Alan admits that “The way the job is working now, I found that I wasn’t able to be face to face with my customers. When the course came up, I thought that this was a good way of learning and more importantly, learning from people who have actually done it.”
Balancing the course alongside his work commitments was something Alan felt was important and he wanted to be able to learn at his own pace. “It was very well set out. I went through all the modules and then re-visited them. If I went through the modules and wanted a refresher, I could just go back and re-visit them again.”
“Module 3 was really good! It focused on defining my customers’ needs and actually, my customers’ needs have changed as well.” The pandemic has changed all aspects of the industry and Alan has found that the course’s variety of different propositions and opening statements have allowed him to become more comfortable whilst selling over the phone.
Reflecting on the experience of the past few months, Alan explains his "Lightbulb moment” when he realised that “This is the way things are going to go from now on. I had to make a decision to focus on remote selling. Since the course, I've created an office in my house and everything is there for me; if a customer needs to know about any product, it's there and I’ve got all my customers’ phone numbers at my fingertips.”
Since the course, Alan has seen some great successes! “Last week I had two ‘woo-hoo’ moments and I’m enjoying sharing my sales success with my colleagues.” Alan knows that others like him can find similar success; “I wouldn't even think about it, I’d just register. Things change, our industry has to adapt and carry on. The course is easy, manageable, and gives you something to build on. I’d definitely recommend it!”
Our Cheemia ReSET course launches in early October and there’s still time to take advantage of our Founding Member price - just £547. Register today to adapt and find success just like Alan! Head to www.succeedpharma.com to sign up.