The Everything Dental Rep

“Dream no small dreams, for dreams have the power to move the hearts of men”

Another rant about opening our new bakery – check out the beautiful sign by Wolfecraft – my design from a napkin put into life by a great sign company!

Ever meet someone who should probably
quit their job or definitely be fired? 

It wouldn’t be a bad thing. It’s a
good thing, because so many people go to work and hate what they do all day and
it shows.

Last week I was blogging about the
top 10 ways to suck as a salesman (get your head out of the gutter).

I
wrote this from a customer perspective. 

While setting up our Bakery – we had
these crappy salespeople more often that not. If you are now pissed off
because you just identified yourself  - I make no apologies.  Maybe I just helped you.  Perhaps you need to thank me for pointing out why you are having trouble ‘closing’ and take some notes or quit and find something that you love to do instead! 

The whole process made me realize there
is plenty of opportunity! It could be just the Saskatchewan thing, but then again we did travel to Alberta.  The best part of the whole process was Teretech who was very good at what he does – its’ just unfortunate we couldn’t find that service level here at home.  Either way, there is still opportunity and I think even Mark from Teretech would agree!

-Bakery equipment and supplies 

-Sign and graphics companies

-Packaging vendors

-Bakery sundries vendors

-Telephone and Internet providers

-Point of Sale system salesmen

The good points along the way….our
flooring guy Steve at Beehive Flooring was excellent, I finally found a great
sign company Wolfecraft (Sheldon)that listened and gave us options with different
budgets.  But it was sure frustrating trying to find the right people!  

Our contractor Roger from Beuna Vista
was a guy I knew for many years and we had a great experience – on budget and
on time (sorry to my friends who may not have had that same experience with
him, but I don’t really know all the details!)

Sasktel really sucked – and I really
don’t like the big company syndrome they are suffering. Like phoning and
getting a message that just tells you to call back because they are too busy to
talk to you.  They finally came through
thanks to Lena – but they will likely be dumped unless I see better service
soon. 

(update – I dumped them. I called a
competitor who immediately got us a great new number 974-RACK, and booked our
install for the NEXT DAY instead of a month down the road long after I needed
to open! Not only that, they had a rep come by the same afternoon and a
technician! Very impressed, and cheaper!)

A few more good things I took out of
the experience, and why I write it all down. 
It helps educate me on my own chosen profession.  It inspires me to be better,  and I can identify with myself in almost
every one of those bad customer experiences. 
It’s just that instead of blaming the customer – I took another look at
myself and realized a few things….

First – I am about
relationships.  If you are a scammer or
want to treat me bad and you are only after a quick ‘bang and run’  - that’s not me.  I’m not that slutty salesman that can be used
and tossed aside like a wet napkin….

Second, I am sincere.  If I don’t think we are on the same page, or
if there is someone who can do a better job I am very willing to help you go
there. I will even hold your hand and help you cross the street and make sure
the other guy is ‘right’ before I leave.

Last, I frigging LOVE what I do.  Which is to help people reach their own
goals, inspire them to go to new places, and educate with the knowledge from my
27 plus years of ups and downs. 

At some point in my life I was every
one of those crappy salesmen….but one conviction I have is continuous improvement. As slow as I am to learn, it seems to be working and I now run a top 5% dental sales territory in my industry.

What will be next? What big fails am
I going to learn from still – the future is exciting!!  

Next week – the secrets of a $6 Million dollar man… 

Smile!

Warren Bobinski

Success in Dentistry and Life

Sometimes when people ask me what I do….I think the real way to define what I am is to say first, my goal in life is to share love and spread my way of thinking. I am a writer, of songs of thoughts – a philosopher if you will. I think about how I can change the world, and maybe inspire others to use their god given talents to do the same. I am inspired by music, by reading and educating and by you my friends…

What do I do? You tell me….

This song was inspired by thoughts of how people always seem to think there is something better that the person they already fell in love with.

I have always felt that its’ a selfish thing to start cheating.  Instead of taking the harder route of falling in love all over and over again with the person who originally made you happy – many people go for the ‘new and exciting thing’.  Only to find in time that they are in the same un happy situatiion.

Love takes work, not greed or selfishness.  You have to be in it for the other person if you are in it for yourself…..

Selfish is their heart

Capo on 3rd, (chords relative to Capo) C then Em followed
by G, D, C, Em for chorus

Stranger in the room
Is what I see
When did we lose touch
With our reality

Two strangers
Fall in love
(but) work on it everyday – and they become…
MORE in love, YA! Almost everyday!
Till the end of time, my baby
Not selfishly, not selfishly…..

Songs and thoughts by Warren.

Some people tell me my songs are downers! LOL! I never intend them to be that way, but you write what you feel inside, from your own experiences.  I have been hurt deeply at many times in my life by people I thought were friends. I give all of myself to most everyone I meet and its’ so worth it – but once in a while you find a Selfish heart….

If you have integrity, nothing else matters.  If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.

 In no particular order, I am starting to
remember all the reasons why some people don’t enjoy being sales people.  And there are still way too many that think
they are actually good at it – just because people get stuck (like we have
recently) and HAVE to deal with these people.

These are the guys that give all the
rest a bad name – now I know why some people HATE and AVOID dealing with
salespeople! I am fast becoming one of them, and this is my profession!

No particular order, because
everything here is just annoying.

#10 – Fake nice.  That annoying and pretend to care attitude
when you know all they want is to sell you something.  You can hear it the moment they cackle out a
fake ass ‘….and how are you todayyyyy….’ ugh.

#9 – Super Salesman.  Without even asking start to
show you what you need.    They may have
enough experience or ice selling skills to at least ask you what kind of frozen
water you usually use on your igloo – but then take you straight to the high
priced bottled ice when out of the tap would have worked just fine.

#8 – Know it all. They know more than you.  They pretend to listen, lots of “uh-huh,
oh ya, yes….”.  Then the ya, buts
start…..tons of ‘in my experience’ crap. 
If they sincerely care, and they really listened – they already know
that the bet way to sell someone something is to educate them.  Help them get what they really want by
understanding all the alternatives, and why there is no exact solution for
every customer.

#7 – Slimy Spiff suckers.They care more about the spiff
than in selling the right thing.

#6 – Loudmouths.They interrupt the customer
every time they speak.

#5 – Don’t know what they are doing.  They are stuck and focused only
on price, when the price never really mattered. 
Most of the time, this is a sure sign of a ‘newbie’ because they really
don’t know any other way to help a customer – so price becomes the crutch. 

#4 – The Always Closing thing.  They are so pushy you can’t wait
to get rid of them, and what really sucks is that some people will buy just to
do that.

#3 – Short Term Thinkers.  They think, and will have you
believe -it’s only business.  Because that
way if everything is messed up and they screw you they can sleep better at
night.

#2 – Hate their job.  You are just annoying to
them.  After all the fake, and all the
work of telling you what you need and they still haven’t closed a sale they are
ready to move on.  They make it obvious
by not returning your phone calls, pretending not to see you and generally have
an attitude change if you even mention the competition.

#1 – Huge Ego.  They are gods gift to human
kind.  They are company first driven
instead of customer first.  They don’t
realize that sometimes they don’t have the answer, and will never ever point
you to another store that would serve you better or be the real answer to your
needs.  Instead they use every skill they
have learned to be a snake oil politician and convince you they have the right
answer.  And when you are dis satisfied,
they blame you for the problem!

Tomorrow – the inspiration for this
rather negative point of view…I hope there is some good that comes from this!

Smile!

Warren Bobinski

Success in Dentistry and Life

The supplies you order make you money.