Sales Representatives or Clinical Educators

A lot has changed in terms of the way we work as a result of the Covid pandemic.?Some of these changes have been beneficial and others less so.?

Many sales people within our industry were furloughed for a long time, which then developed into extended periods of isolation working from home.?For some this has become the norm, with much rarer outings into the field.?Although necessary at times, I am not convinced this is good in the long run, as we are social creatures by nature and need that real life contact with others.?Especially when this critical role is all about building a close network.?

For a company like Brace Orthopaedic that specialises in distributing more innovative and technical orthopaedic braces, we also found that the medium of sales presentation through webinar just didn’t suit our products.?In my opinion there is no substitute for a face-to-face meeting, with clinicians getting ‘hands on’ the product and going through its intricacies, whilst also having the opportunity to ask spontaneous questions.

Developing this theme, I think there has been a real evolution over the last few years in the role of what has historically been termed a ‘sales representative’.?I have never liked this title, as I believe for those that carry out this role to its full potential, they are just so much more than ‘order prompters and takers’.?

Sales people have come under the spotlight during the pandemic, as all businesses have had time to truly asses the value and role of these people.?The result of that multi layered analysis has been that some individuals have looked for a career change, whilst some companies have come to the conclusion that product presentations through online platforms mean that this traditional role has become a luxury and so can reduce their head count and costs as a result.

Personally, I see high quality people in these roles as absolutely invaluable to a business like mine. I have ensured that my external team have stayed as involved as possible throughout the pandemic and been instrumental in strategizing our plans as the market opened up again.

More importantly, I have never considered my external team as sales representatives, but more as clinical educators. Our portfolio of unique products is deliberately smaller, as I would prefer to offer clinicians products that offer something innovative and different to consider as part of their clinical practice.?We will always seek to add value to the Orthotics proposition.?It is therefore vital that both my internal and external teams know every detail regarding features & function and should be equally comfortable presenting this information in person or over the phone - a real skill.

I have seen this trend growing over recent times and as a tight knit industry I am delighted to see so many high-quality individuals delivering this role for their respective companies. I would go as far to say that many of our orthotic product distributor friends in the industry have moved their sales teams far more towards clinical education.

I think the days of the bracing ‘catalogue companies’, with vast product ranges promoted by sales representatives who only truly know the inner details of a fraction of these products are over.?Long live the clinical educator……????

If you would like to learn more about Brace Orthopaedic’s range of innovative orthoses or indeed arrange a product demonstration, then please contact Customer Services on 0191 258 8944 where Cathryn or Iain would be delighted to help. Alternatively, please visit our website at www.braceorthopaedic.co.uk