What medical sales reps can learn from a flash mob
I thought I would share something with you in this post that is a little bit different, but very relevant. It’s a youTube video of a flash mob at a train station in Copenhagen. Notice that it begins as something we have all seen in public…one or two people assembling to play music. There are no great expectations—nothing more than some amateur musicians trying to attract attention and a few kroner (dollars). Watch the embedded video and then read the rest of this post.
The music begins with the snare drum beat of Bolero…interesting, but hardly unique. Then the flute joins in. The young woman plays the flute well and the melody starts to attract more people. Then the bass is added, and violins, woodwinds, horns, etc. until it escalates to a full orchestra. The people in the train station were absolutely delighted (as was I). They expected just music. Instead, they received a world-class performance! And notice something else from the video…when the music ends and the orchestra walks off, many bystanders remain where they are—waiting for and wanting more.
Okay, pretty cool, but what does this have to do with medical sales? Everything!
The business of healthcare brings expectations. Your customers don’t expect you to be world-class, in fact, today’s healthcare is being driven more towards acceptable standards than world-class standards. If you’re just meeting your customer’s expectations, that’s okay, as long as you don’t mind leaving money on the table and leaving the door open for your competition.
Healthcare customers expect their suppliers to satisfy their needs. They don’t expect to be delighted. But when you delight your customers, you raise the bar for every other company and sales rep that competes in your space. And you leave the customer wanting more, that is, you leave them wanting you to delight them again with your next product or service.
How can you be like the musicians in the video who promised only music, and then over-delivered with a world-class performance?
Make the sale. Set the expectations for the customer. Then decide how you will exceed those expectations and delight the customer. You get to choose whether to play as an amateur or to be world-class.
