The other day I had an doctor’s appointment, and just a moment after I signed in, a sales rep walked in behind me. She approached the desk and began to talk, but ultimately just sat down. She was there the whole time I was in the waiting room and was still sitting there when I came out from seeing the doctor. Total elapsed time? Over an hour. This made me wonder if this is the typical plight of outside salespeople? She had made, what appeared to be, zero ground with the woman at the front desk, and it appeared she wouldn’t be receiving much attention anytime soon.
So how much of this waiting around does it take to make a sale in one of these doctor’s offices? What is the bust to success ratio per individual in these types of scenarios? We have talked about similar situations in class, but it was very interesting to me to see it in action.
I agree, talking about these situations in class is one thing but seeing it in action is very interesting. I think that it is very difficult to take what we learn and actually incorporate it in our real-life sales situations even though it may seem easy talking about it in class. I wonder how long it actually took the woman to get a moment with one of the doctor’s, or if she even was able to set up a meeting. Just as we’ve talked about in class I think this scenario is one where it is very important to have connections to get through to the Doctor as well as have information that the Doctor wants so that he/she wants to take time out of their busy day to see you because they know you have valuable information.