Like so many of us, I am in major lurk mode these days, but just had
to second Virginia's cogent and very accurate observation that:

>The = other part of this is that reps are very highly trained to be "nice"
>= people and listen and focus in on individual staff members' concerns, =
>and they are highly skilled at creating goodwill.  This you could do =
>without, I'm sure.

I spent over 11 years, pre-children, working for one of THE biggest Fortune
500 co. in marketing, selling high-tech communications and data 'stuff' to
businesses. Marketing to corporate accounts is HUGE $$--the 80/20 saying is
that 80% of a company's business comes from 20% of its customer base. 

My former co. spent thousands of dollars training reps in highly
sophisticated sales techniques, for weeks at a time (I would go to training
courses for as long as six weeks) including understanding the specific
industry, very technical training, corporate structure, 
"positioning," reaching the highest decision maker, overcoming objections
and discrediting 'gatekeepers,' volunteering in community venues where we
would work with our customers as individuals, etc.  There was profound
unwritten pressure to live in the same neighborhoods of the customer
"decision makers" and frequent the same country clubs, private clubs,
schools, associations, etc. The co. would analyze us up one side &
down--DISC, Myers-Briggs, Berkman, Wilson's Social Styles, you name it, so
that we could go into a company, identify each contact's personality, and
give that person what they wanted (and would respond positively to) in terms
of what we said, how we said it, how we acted, spoke, dressed and presented
the products.  For example, if the contact was a CFO or a purchasing mgr,
very analytical and fact oriented, we would NOT glad-hand or try to be their
'buddy.'  We would be prompt, professional, low-animation, no smiling, no
small-talk, boringly dressed, and give them facts and bottom-line benefits
to them.  If the decision maker or initial contact was gregarious (think
your typical Human Resources or Media Relations person): warm, fuzzy,
empathetic, we would be amiable, personal, outgoing and humorous--connect
about our dogs, children or other personal level (whatever you saw in their
picture frames or walls).  

Lots of this training can have beneficial results in one's personal life,
much like the HRE and other reflective listening courses LLL and other
non-profits offer.  But the corporate use of it is essentially sanitized
prostitution, and not beneficent.  It's ALL about $$ for the company
(preferably this quarter), never, never, never, never, about what is truly
in the customer's best interests, or good for society or our world.

Now in the health care arena, I am encountering quite a bit of naïveté,
maybe because LCs, nursing, physicians, etc. are helping professions, and
HCPs are giving, caring, and believe in others. Feedback I've received
recently is that the marketing rep for the formula company "is a very nice
person," to which I acidly reply, "Of course she is, she is highly paid to
be nice."  And, since I'm on the soapbox, I would affirm that the formula
rep is NOT a nice person, just as a tobacco salesman is not a nice person:-)
Nice people do not sell products proven to harm other human beings.

Okay, I'm calming down, now.  Back to my corner. No flames, please.

Warmly,

Anna Swisher, MBA, IBCLC
Abundant Blessings
Austin, TX
www.abundantblessings.info

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