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Highlights

• Transitioning into sales from working in finance for a Fortune 100 company (01:38)
• How working with the best in sales helped to propel his career (04:48)
• Taking over a failing territory and reviving it (07:25)
• Sustainable sales success through continuous cultivation of relationships and having a process that you stick to (13:22)
• Getting up to speed with a new role when you move from sales in one industry to a completely different industry (14:43)
• Why it’s more advisable to hire people who already have the sales skills and necessary determination (17:14)
• Individual Contributor to Manager to Leader: His inspirational sales journey (18:52)
• What it really takes to be a sales manager who builds a successful sales team (22:42)
• Overcoming challenges as a sales player-coach (25:07)
• The importance of requalifying your customers (28:42)
• Accomplishments he's most proud of in both his personal and professional life (32:28)

In this episode of the Science of Selling STEM, I will have a chat with Ted Echemann, the Key Account Director at GRAIL, a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured. GRAIL is focused on saving lives and improving health by pioneering new technologies for early cancer detection. The company is using the power of next-generation sequencing, population-scale clinical studies, and state-of-the-art computer science and data science to overcome one of medicine’s greatest challenges with Galleri™, GRAIL’s multi-cancer early detection blood test.

Ted is a sales leader in the biotech space and thrives in ensuring the commercialization of new innovative products. He has a passion for working with physicians and healthcare organizations to better patient care and improve outcomes. He has worked with many different companies throughout his career. He started out in finance until a personal experience drove him towards looking into Oncology and he eventually made a lateral move that saw him jump into an account management role. Ted did really well in that role when he successfully grew a territory that had been failing and the rest as they say is history. Tune in to tap into the wisdom Ted had to share with us and hopefully, he will inspire you to go out there and thrive in your sales career at whatever level you’re on and beyond.

Quotes

“In sales, patience is the hardest thing because salespeople want immediate gratification, but being patient is a salesperson’s biggest tool” - Ted Echemann

“You can get a contract all day but if you can’t support that contract and drive that customer forward to make them a long term customer, then you really haven’t sold them” - Ted Echemann

“Always have a certain time set out where you’re gonna requalify your customers and make sure they’re still on board” - Ted Echemann

Learn More About Ted in the Links Below:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedechemann/

Connect with Wesleyne Greer:

• Wesleyne’s Website - https://transformedsales.com/
• Wesleyne on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleynegreer/
• Wesleyne on Facebook - https://web.facebook.com/wesleynegreer
• Wesleyne on Twitter - https://twitter.com/wesleynegreer
• Email Her at wesleyne@transformedsales.com

As a sales manager, you are judged by the

performance of your team, and you're praised when they do

well. But one thing that you've not been able to figure out is

how to get everyone on your team consistently hitting quota every

single month. On the Snack size sales podcast, we discuss the

science of selling stem sales leadership in the science,

technology, engineering and manufacturing fields is

difficult. You will learn from sales managers just like you

that will give you actionable insights and tips on how to

develop as a leader and achieve your revenue targets every

single month. So pop your headphones in and get ready to

listen to my guests today. They will give you information and

inspiration to ensure that you have actionable insights that

you can put into place today. Thank you for tuning in to

another episode of the transform sales podcast where we talk all

about the science of selling today, I am so delighted to have

Ted Ashman with me. How are you, Ted? I'm good. Wesleyne How are

you? I'm doing awesome. Let me tell you a little bit more about

10. He's a sales leader in the biotech space leading the

commercialization of new innovative products. He has a

passion for working with physicians and healthcare

organization to better patient care and improve outcomes. And

he has been blessed to have the privilege to work with many

different companies throughout his career. So Ted, how did you

start your career? And how do you now have this great passion

for physicians and health care? Yeah, Wesleyan thanks, and great

question and glad and happy to be on here, I'm happy that you

reached out and that we were able to connect professionally

here and really, for all the listeners that you have thank

you to them for, you know, getting on and listening to you

today. I think, you know, folks like you that are innovators in

this space as well, in the podcast world here, it's very

important for those that are really trying to come up in this

space and learn and for you to bring, you know, folks that are

really unable to be accessed by most individuals is really

incredible. So thanks for the opportunity to be here. You

know, my my career originally started in finance. So I worked

for a fortune 100 company at a college I always wanted to be in

sales, I had interviewed for a bunch of companies to start, you

know, phone ACC and, and others, you know, to get my start in

sales and eventually move into medical. But I really loved

finance. And I got into a really big organization very

competitive, got into sales very quickly and under a year there

and had an opportunity to learn a ton. Unfortunately, this was

during the 2008 not so good finance time. And so I had to

really look at myself and say, Where do I want to be in my

career? Where do I want to be in five years? 10 years, when I

have a family? Where do I want to be? How do I want to, you

know, make an impact in this world. I knew I wanted to be in

sales, I knew I wanted to be in leadership, I knew I wanted to

inspire others. And you know, I won't tell the whole story here.

But I had a personal event in my family that really drove me

towards looking into oncology and out of everything. I never

thought that I would look at going into oncology diagnostics,

let alone did I even know what that was at that time. And so it

was something that drove me there, I knew a few folks that

had gotten into the medical space. And so I reached out and

made a connection with precision therapeutics, and I took a what

I would call probably not just a lateral move, but a little bit

of a step back to enter the space, I think it's incredibly

important for those to for folks looking to get in to really

understand that, you know, if you want to get in, you have to

make some sacrifices. So I went and I was an account manager for

eight different senior Oncology Specialists in the field. And so

I did that for a few months, I finally picked up my own

territory, it was a territory that was failing. So of course,

they're gonna give the new guy a failing territory. And we came

down to Texas, and we really exploded the territory. And we

did that through relationship building consistency of

processes, and all that sort of stuff. But I'm sure we'll talk

about some of that today. So you know, it was able to do that.

And then my career really propelled from there. I went

into key accounts. And then I took on some new initiatives to

you know, in that organization to take on the northeast, which

wasn't Texas, and I didn't know anybody, but it was a great

opportunity to expand my horizons. And then as I looked

at the future of being in this field, I knew that I needed to

understand where the technology was going some of the newer

things and so that's how I got into NGS. And I got into some of

the things I'm in today and and that's what led me to be here

and I'm in infectious disease now, but it's crazy. You have to

really just follow the path don't force anything. Wow. So

when you stepped into this

World, you kind of took what we might call like a little grunt

role. So 48 salespeople as a key accounts manager, so tell me how

did it help you by really supporting these more senior

salespeople? Being an account manager? How did that help

propel what you did in your career as a salesperson?

Yeah, Wesleyan Great question. So I was really

blessed with the opportunity to work with really some of the

best in the industry, and even the best in the industry today,

all over from Louisville to New Orleans to Texas, and in

between, and it really was a blessing to be able to step into

that role. I thought at first look, I'm really excited I'm in

all I want to do is get my own sales territory and run. And as

soon as I got into that role, I realized there's an opportunity

here, I've got a lot of career to go. And so don't rush

anything, you know, learn from the best really understand how

to make this work, I knew how to sell, but I didn't understand

how to apply my hustle, my approach and all of that to the

medical field. And, you know, some of the nuances to working

in surgery, working in a clinic and all of those sorts of

things. So I was able to learn that with some really incredible

individuals that are still in this field today, some of the

top performers in the country, and I was really blessed in that

sense. So you know, it was really incredible. And a couple

of those, the key takeaways were really how to handle yourself in

situations in front of physicians, how to handle

yourself in front of physicians, when there's patients present,

when there's other staff present are really, really important,

the way you handle yourself the way you know, sometimes when

you're sitting there, even in surgery, you want to sit there

and you want to wait for your product to be used, or you want

to wait until it comes time for you to be of value. And

sometimes that takes a while. And what I learned was, it's

really important to establish a relationship before surgery

before a procedure, and then be able to ask questions during

that procedure questions that apply to the product that you

have questions that apply to the individual surgery, and you have

to feel out the physician and the person you're working with.

But most are pretty accepting of those questions and want to

teach a lot of these physicians want to teach. And so knowing

that up front, you can start to build that rapport. And it's

just, you know, some of the small nuances that people don't

think about.

So when you transitioned into the sales

role, you said, you took over a feeling territory, we're in

Texas was that

so I moved down to Austin, Texas, one of my

favorite places. I'm in Houston now. So no disrespect to

Houston. I love Houston. But Austin is was a fantastic place

to go. And it was they had a ton of trouble really getting

traction with our products and just a lot of different health

systems and just a different environment down here.

So what are some of the things that you did to

revive that territory?

Sure. So, you know, right off the bat, I learned to

our original players were in the market, we had a few physicians

that we're already sending, establish relationships with

them was really important, got to know who the key figures

were, even in their offices, got to know who the folks were, you

know, all the way down to the runners in the hospital system

that would you know, bring material from a surgery to

another location in the hospital, really all the key

folks that were involved in the process, learned who they were

really respected them and what they did build rapport with

everybody throughout the process. And as I was able to

build that, and I knew that would take time. And it didn't

take as much time as I thought though, which was really good.

And I think most people will find that will be the case, I

also established a really good rapport with the physicians, I

think they saw how dedicated and supportive I was in working with

those other individuals. I wasn't just there for the

business, I knew that if I did it the right way the business

would come. And what that did was it led to referrals to other

physicians, you know, I was able to then ask for things and you

have to ask, don't be afraid, right? And I was able to ask for

those introductions ask for him to be personally made. And over

time, we just started to build it out. And I think what's

really important is some people want to go spitals and really

expanded from there. So I kept it small, and I grew it. And it

was important to that I didn't just do what I needed to do to

get the business at that given time. But also work with

organizations that were again, we're talking oncology

organizations that are really supportive of patients. And so I

got involved with organizations locally that supported, you

know, these cancer patients outside of just their

traditional care. And so I thought that was really

important to establish that rapport, be able to have a good

relationship with physicians, and I wanted to do it, you know,

Wesleyne I personally wanted to do it. I felt like I had a role

to play in this. And I wanted to make sure that if I did have a

role that I was, you know, doing everything I could to be

impactful in that role.

That's awesome. One of the things that I like to

tell brand new salespeople is exactly what you did. Go talk to

your raving fans, who are the people who bought from you

before, understand why they bought from you, and really try

to figure out how you can replicate that success. And then

ask like, so many salespeople Just don't ask sometimes they

don't even ask for the sale. Definitely, they don't ask for

referrals. And the worst they can say is no. And if they say

no, you go try the next person. If they say no, you just keep

going until you find the person who's going to say yes. And so I

think that really the way that you organically grew failing

territory is exactly what salespeople need to be focused

on. If they're in a rut, if they're in a brand new industry,

if they're in a brand new territory, like, Where have we

found success? And what can I do with this success?

Yeah, you make a great point to you know, as your

you know, sometimes we get away from our basics, right? We get

away from that, and we begin to see regression, right? And we

begin to see, you know, stagnation. And you know, what

happens over time is we just continue to do what we're doing.

And that's not what you need to do sometimes take a step back,

like you say, right, go back to your roots, and really

understand, you know, how did you get to where you're at

today? How did you have that initial success? If you're not

finding success, reach out to someone who's having success in

your organization, talk to them, figure out what processes are

being put in place? What are they doing, maybe they're

putting binders together for their customers, and nobody else

is doing that. Or maybe they're going to see them at a time of

the day that everybody else wants to be done with work,

right, take advantage of those opportunities, you know, a case

that goes till 10pm At night, you know, take advantage of

being there and just being present and taking a part in

that in that process, as I said before, and but yeah, I think

really taking a step back and really zeroing in on what your

your goals are. And I can tell you that right off the bat,

you're not going to see immediate success. So if you're

trying to flip it over, you're not going to see that, but you

have to be patient. And I think in sales patients is the hardest

thing because salespeople want immediate gratification a lot of

times, and I think that that's the hardest part. But being

patient is your biggest tool,

my patients patients they say is a virtue,

it definitely is. Because especially if you're going from

having a territory that maybe it's done 60 or 70% of the quota

and you're trying to get it to 100% as a leader, you have to

understand that that's not going to happen overnight. As a

salesperson, you have to set your expectations of right to

know that I might have to do three or six months of work. But

I know that things are going to turn a corner eventually, I

always used to say that in the first half of the year, I plan

all those seeds. And in the third and fourth quarter, they

will come out to grow. Right? And so it's that relationship

rapport building, really understanding what the physician

needs, what that client needs, and you being a resource. And

sometimes I think the hardest part is you understand what

their challenges are. And your solution isn't what they need

today. But you help them get to that solution. And since you're

the one will help them get to that solution. They're like, Oh,

yeah, you're my raving fan.

That's right. That's right. And I think you

mentioned here, I think the next up is super important. You have

to have someone you know that you're cultivating, you have to

have that next up. And you know, someone told me really early in

my career in this cert on the surgical side, and I don't use

it as much today, but I still I apply some of the principles of

it. But I can see where in surgery, it really does apply

and surgical sales really and all sales Wesleyan. But you

know, is the five and five, right is you would work, you

know, five cases with five doctors and establish that

relationship. And as long as and I don't think it has to be five

and five, it can be whatever you want it to be. But it's about

having a process if you stick to the process and hold yourself

accountable. And again, patients don't get too far ahead of

yourself. And you can evolve that process over time. But five

and five was really important. I think it was really important

for me to be able to establish relationships, understand the

process. And that is what I used as my kind of go to when I was

you know at precision therapeutics,

wow, five and five. So you moved from oncology

to infectious disease, and many people are like, oh, yeah,

you're so calling on physicians. It's the same thing. But I know

when I moved from capital equipment to specialty

chemicals, it was like a whole different world. Right. So when

you made that transition, what are some of the things that you

use to get you up to speed quickly?

Yeah, great question. So you know, talking

about that transition just a little bit. It was different.

You know, there's much of it was the same as far as the

principles of sales and going after clients and all of that

out, but the technology was different. And, you know, the

company that I'm with today is really where I started out in

infectious disease. When I joined, I joined as business

development. And now I'm the VP of US sales here. And but when I

started, we used to do a different model as well. So we'd

send out and so there were tests that we were going out and

selling to physicians that would then you know, make an order,

and we would send them back results. So very similar to what

we were doing early on in my oncology days, whether it be NGS

or, you know, fresh tissue testing. And so, a lot of the

again, a lot of the principles were the same. But what I did

was I network through my oncology folks. So what I would

say is the one thing that I learned in taking this leap, it

was an incredible leap, but I knew it was going to be a

challenge. I also joined a lot of folks that I really respected

that came from oncology, which was really important. And I knew

that it would give me an advantage in the field, I knew I

needed to have confidence when I came over here and not be afraid

to learn something new. And, you know, I realized that I think a

lot of the skills are transferable. Wesleyne, right. I

mean, as you say, it's a different technology, you need

to learn it. But we're all pretty educated. I think we can

learn these different technologies, we can learn the

science, stick to your processes, right? Ask your

clients, the same mentality, ask your customers today, if you're

oncology and you're going to infectious disease, do you know

any infectious disease doctors, do you know, the folks in the

ICU, that most likely they're going to know them? Right? So

you bring up a really good point, and it's a good topic to

talk about is when you transition out of one type of

industry into another one, even though you're really

maintaining, it's still in medical, you know, do it with

confidence, there's still those relationships, everything links

up. And you know, in the end, it's a small world, everybody

knows each other. And so that's what I did. That's how I had

immediate success, I learned the product very quickly, as much as

I needed to learn out in the field. And then I just, I just

asked for customers to make connections for me. And that's

how I made immediate success. And then I just started to build

upon that. And of course, our business model is different

today than it was then. But that's how I transition.

So you just made my whole day, because I often

talk about and I know you guys love hearing me say this, hiring

your competitors redex. But I like to call it and I say that

find someone with strong sales skills, and you can teach them

the product, you can teach them the technology. Because if your

product is as good as you say it is, then you should be able to

teach it to a new salesperson, right. But those solid sales

skills, the knowing what to do the knowing how to figure it

out, those are much harder to teach. So you can ramp a new

salesperson up that's a strong salesperson in three months,

versus one that has all this product knowledge that you have

to break all their bad habits, all of those things, you have to

undo and roll back. And really you said it's like, it's the

same thing. I asked for referrals. I talked to the

current customers, I really started the same way I did

before.

Yeah, you know, I would always rather hire someone

that has the hustle has the ability is going to spend the

extra hours you know, going after the business, but has less

knowledge, right? And because there's some things that you

just can't teach, right. And that's motivation. That's the

hustle. That's the ability to talk to other people the

hungriness and wake up on a Monday, and you're excited about

that Monday, right? You have to be, especially in sales. If

you're not excited about that Monday, I don't think you need

to be in sales, right? I mean, on Sunday, you should be

preparing for Monday, in my opinion, and always keeping that

up to date as far as your preparation. But yeah, I think I

would always rather hire someone that is, you know, extremely

motivated, and you can teach these folks are very educated,

you can teach them what you need to teach them. Yeah.

And so how long did it take you to transition

from individual contributor to manager to leader?

Yeah, now a great question. So when I was with

precision therapeutics, I transitioned briefly just under

a year into a manager role. And I had the privilege of managing

some really senior oncology folks in the northeastern United

States down to Texas, kind of an odd territory. And I got my

initial experience managing then the high level salespeople. And

then when I moved to some other organizations, I sort of

indirectly had some opportunity to to manage some folks as well.

And then I had some direct opportunity to manage and hire

out some folks that were mid level, you know, sales folks and

some operators as well, that would go in and work with

institutions to you know, get processes going and things like

that. So, you know, how I transition was really just, you

know, plain and simple. I knew what it took for me to get my

job done. I knew what it took for, you know, the successful

people in the organization to get the job done. I knew how to

get sales through, you know, with what we were selling. And

so I hired people that had contacts I hired people that I

know I've done it before, a bit different here and infectious

disease. Do you really want people that do actually

understand the product, because it is a high level sale, you

want people that know how to navigate some of the larger

health systems, contracting, things like that. But I just

transitioned by, you know, understanding the process. And

one thing I'll also add to that is, I didn't see it as much as a

huge transition, as much of it as it was an opportunity to

learn from some senior folks that I would bring in. And I

think you need to surround yourself with folks that could

have your job, right, folks that can do your job folks that you

could potentially report to, I think it's really important not

to look at, you know, folks that are, you know, in roles that

need to be reporting to you, but really looking at folks that are

going to get the job done, that can have your role, the idea

that I wanted to bring here was hire out a team, that everyone

within that team can be managing this organization. And it was

really important that we kept that high level of skill and

ability here. And so that's how I approached it, I knew that I'd

hire people that would be, you know, resources on different

levels and add to that dynamic, add something to the group to

the team.

So do I understand correctly that when

you went from oncology to infectious disease, you went

from being a manager to an individual contributor? Or was

it a lateral move?

Yeah, so. So when I was with the previous company,

before coming over here, I was in national sales. And so I

worked with a couple of specific indications. And I would educate

some of the folks in the field. So my job was to go out and not

necessarily manage them, per se, but I did work with them, to

help them understand the process, make some introductions

to KOLs, get some of that additional business started,

where they didn't really understand that area as much.

And so that was really my job. You know, indirectly. There was

some management there, and there was some involvement there. But

most of those individuals all reported to our our Vice

President of Sales, as well as myself. And then, you know, our

CEO was very involved as well. But so I did have some

experience there. And then in my previous job as well, in

managing, so I did have some experience.

Oh, no. So I was wondering, because I know at one

point, you said that you took like a step back, if you will.

And I didn't know if when you moved, because you know, you

transitioned industries, if you will, if that was when you kind

of had to take a step back to accelerate or propel?

I did. Yeah. So to finish your question I did, I

actually went to when I went to it by DNA, I went into a

business development role. So individual contributor, and I

wasn't managing anybody. And until I took on this role I'm in

today, I didn't manage anybody, but I really love the transition

back, you know, I, I struggle, quite honestly. And I know

there's a podcast that's going to be out there and everything.

But I do struggle with you know, do I want to be managing

individuals? Or do I really want to be selling because I

honestly, I love the sale, I love that approach. I love

managing my business, being the CEO of that business, and making

it successful and competing, right, and making an impact and

but I also love the management side of things. You know, I love

the coaching, I consider myself more of a player coach than

anything I love to get out there and do it myself. I think it's

important that you have to show people how to do it and prove

that you can do it in order to gain that respect as well.

Yeah, that is often things that top

salespeople say it's Ah, man, I really love selling. But I also

know that I can make a much bigger impact by teaching five

or 10 or 20 people how to be as excellent as I am. But I still

like the thrill of Oh, we got the PIO. Oh, we did it. Oh,

after six months, they finally let us in. Right. So there's

always that balance.

Exactly, exactly. I do i from my mentors as well,

you know, most of them say it's hit or miss, right? Some are

like, you know, I want to I just want to go out and do it, right,

because I know how to do it. I know how to get it done. But at

the same time, I don't know if I really want to do that daily

grind anymore. And I liked the management side of things and

some of that. So I think there are some differences out there.

But I think most you know, most that I've talked to really do

want to you know, get out there and sell and be you know, on the

ground making it happened, especially if you're seeing a

failing territory, right. I mean, that's one thing that

like, if you see that, and you know that there's things not

happening there, you know, get in intervene, you know, become a

coach, you know, it's not, you know, what are you doing? Are

you not doing this? It's really about, okay, what have I done as

a manager to not, you know, provide the resources for for

you and really uncovering that. So the folks that report up to

me, you know, they're my customers as well, right? And so

it's really important for me to remember that and, you know,

I've got two ears and one mouth as I always tell my kids and so

I try to adhere by that rule as well and listen as much as

possible and, you know, nobody's perfect. So it could be some

miscommunication or something. So I think it's super important

to go out there and intervene and be a listener and move the

ball forward. We're

so in your role as a self proclaimed player,

coach, I told you we're gonna get into sports. What are what's

one of the biggest challenges that you're having to overcome?

You know, when you're a young company, and

you're innovative, and I'm not even speaking about my company

today, I'm just speaking just in general terms, right? When

you're in more of the startup space, it is really about having

all the pieces together to really make your organization

successful. Right. And so, you know, I think the challenges are

really do we have all the pieces in place, and until you really

get out and talk to customers start to integrate, always make

sure that customer is in the chair, in the same room with you

with your organization, when you're trying to develop

products, when you're trying to move the ball forward, trying to

figure out how do we sell to this customer, let's make sure

the voice of customer is there. And you know, we pretend like

they're listening to us. And then we're also going in getting

that voice of customer as much as possible to, you know, to

make sure that we're putting all the right pieces in place. So I

would say the biggest challenge is just making sure that all the

pieces to the puzzle are in place, you know, to really make

sure that we're supporting the customer, because you can get a

contract all day. But if you can't support that contract, and

drive that customer forward and make them a long term customer,

then you really haven't sold them.

Yeah, I am absolutely with you really

thinking about all the pieces of the puzzle. Because being in

sales, being in sales leadership, they're like, Okay,

here's the process. And it's not just one process. This is the

prospecting process. And this is how we demo and then this is

this. And this is that and well, what do the customers actually

need once I actually sell the item I have to support them? Or

do I hand that off to customer success? And so really thinking

about how all of those pieces come together? And what is best?

Or how can you set your salespeople up for long term

success?

Exactly, exactly. Very important. And it varies,

you know, in different levels and different products that

you're selling. But I think what I've learned, really, lately

about more of the democratized testing approach that where a

lot of these products even for oncology, and, you know, other

products, infectious disease are getting democratized. And what I

mean by that is, they're getting put in more of a central

location where testing can be done. So versus everybody doing

a test send out to a laboratory in, you know, California or

wherever, right now we're bringing it closer to the

patient. And I think that's a great trend, right? Because then

we can expand that hopefully, and you know, we can get health

equity, and we can, you know, start to gain traction on some

of the things that we're really lacking in healthcare today. But

yeah, I think it's really important that, you know,

especially with this more democratized approach, that we

have the right pieces to the puzzle in place to support these

customers, so that they can then support their customers, which

are their internal physicians, their patients, so on and so

forth.

Yes, yes. And knowing that, you know, yes, the

physician is your customer, but they have a customer, if you

will, too. And so it's not just about the physician, you also

have to think about that end customer like, what is the

experience that the patient is going to get? How does this

translate into success for them? Like, what are the long term

ramifications all of those things? Right? So when we think

about our field of, you know, this very technical sale, as you

mentioned, it is a complex sale, it is a very complex sale,

because there's so many different buying influences that

are involved and most times, probably never get to talk to

the patients, but they're actually the one that gets to

say, yes, that was great. What you did, or yes, that we have

increased our patient outcomes, or their you know, their rate of

being readmitted is lower, like, so all of those things are so

important.

Yeah, I agree. And overtime, you always want to re

qualify your your customers, right, it's really important is,

you know, right, it's kind of the basics that and a lot of

people don't do it, which is really interesting, but always

have a certain time set out where you're going to re

qualify, you're going to get in touch with that customer, you're

generally you're making it about you know, you're bringing other

additional materials. So you're you're justifying that

conversation. But I think it's really important to re qualify,

make sure that customers are still on board, we know that,

you know, competitors are always hitting the market. And as much

as we think that we know, all the competitors in the

landscape, a lot of times, they come out of nowhere. And they'll

be talking to your customer for months and your customers not

saying anything to you, not because they don't trust you, or

that they don't you know, but they may not actually see that

it's a competitor right away, right? And over time, then that

starts to evolve. And if you're not doing the right

qualifications, you're not, you know, staying really relevant to

the conversation with new product development, you know,

things that you can add on to those products that might add

additional value to that entire sale. And what I mean by that is

we don't just sell products, we sell solutions, right? And you

really have to have that mindset. So what is the full

solution, right? It's not just the product It's everything that

supports it and everything around it. So you really have to

be careful, you know, the competitors are there. And so I

say recoil is one of the biggest things that people don't do that

should do.

Absolutely. And when I hear someone and they're

like, oh, yeah, we don't have any competitors, because our

product is so unique. And so cutting edge when like, okay,

that's fine. But you know, the biggest competition that most

people don't even think about or consider is the competition of

doing nothing. Right? Of not changing, right? And so you have

to realize that they can say, I don't want to do anything like

and that is a lost sale to they're like, Nope, it seems too

complex, it doesn't seem worth the risk. It's not this. It's

not that. Yeah,

that's a great point. It's a great point. And,

you know, I think it's really important to obviously in

negotiating to always get to that know, as quick as possible,

right. So you can move forward, I think those that don't make a

sale right away with a customer, right, make sure that you

establish that relationship, as well maintain that relationship,

make sure you walk away with an opportunity to come back at some

point and know why you lost that opportunity. Don't just walk

away with a lost opportunity, you know, ask the questions, you

know, what could I have done different? What was it about our

product that didn't entice you today to want to move forward,

you know, you may find that it's something you just didn't

address as well. Or maybe you tried to close too soon without

building up the need as much as you needed to. And which, again,

is very important, right? If you don't build that neat up enough,

you know, you can't come in for that close. And so closing too

early is, I think often what people do as well in this space,

and is not, you know, it's not something you want to do. And so

I think but very important, you know, as you get no said to you,

as customers decide to move forward with another product,

maintain that relationship, and make sure you can come back to

them later and ask the questions.

And I love to say that it's okay to lose, but

it's not okay to to lose the same way twice. And the way that

you prevent that is by doing a full post mortem on okay, why

did we lose? What missteps did I personally make, because if the

salesperson doesn't take responsibility for their part in

it, they'll blame the company, their plan their boss, and blame

the process. This didn't go out in time it was this, it was that

but they have to really peel back the layers of the onion and

figure out what they could have done better in order to move the

deal through the pipeline.

That's exactly right. That's exactly right.

Yeah, really important.

And so you've had such a diverse career

starting in financial services and oncology, and now infectious

disease, what is something that you are most proud of

accomplishing

beyond my kids? Career wise,

it can be personal or professional, it

could be Yeah, you know, I would say just being

able to really love what I'm doing, being able to, you know,

have a family that understands, there's a lot of work that goes

into that. And, you know, working for innovative companies

requires a lot of work, you know, and you really have to

love what you do to put that work in and, you know, having my

lovely wife, you know, who supports me tremendously. Let me

you know, do all of these things, the fact that I have a,

you know, a beautiful children I've got, I have three, two

girls, and a boy, you know, is really important to me, and

those are probably my biggest accomplishments, and being able

to provide for them, as well as a really big accomplishment in

my book and giving them opportunities that, you know,

maybe I didn't have growing up and things like that, as well.

And also, I would say, you know, not matching that. But another

thing is, I've been very blessed to have really good mentors. And

throughout my career, I've tried to humble myself and do want to

learn and want to, you know, really be invested in the

process. And so I've gained some really, really key, you know,

folks that I can lean on when I have questions, I would say, as

you grow in your career, really stay close to the people that

you want to follow the people that really motivate you. It may

not even be that obvious sometimes, but it will come to

you stay close to them be able to ask them questions and no

questions, a bad question. So I would say, you know, to backup

the family and to bring it more back to business Wesleyan, I

think the folks that I've been able to establish relationships

with and be able to lean on over the years is one of my biggest

accomplishments, I think, is on top of obviously, being able to

put products out that, you know, hopefully, you know, save lives

and, and increase survival. And all of those things, those are

more of the obvious ones, but for maybe some of your listeners

here, some of the less obvious ones would be really my mentors,

the ones I've been able to build, and

I really love that 360 degree view that you

gave because it's like my family and my mentors, right. And so

it's like, what's above what's below what's beside me and

thinking about your wife. And so those are some amazing, amazing

things to be proud of. As we wrap up, I am curious what is

the one best way that People can reach out to you if they want to

get in touch.

Yeah. So I always just tell folks, you know,

connect with me on LinkedIn, I do do some mentoring on the side

as well, with some younger sales folks that are looking to get

into the industry. My recommendation is generally

always to go the route of, you know, some key companies that

are out there that have some great training programs to get

into the market. You know, again, follow the process,

right? I think the process is very important, don't get

impatient things will come. But I would say LinkedIn, and then

you know, for those that I connect with on there, generally

just connect via phone or email and set up some time.

Thank you so much, Ted, for sharing your

time, your talent, your expertise, and all of your

knowledge with us today. It has been a pleasure, and I've

learned so much from you.

Thank you, Wesleyne. I really appreciate

the invitation and I look forward to listening to your

podcast to come as well.

Awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you

so much for tuning in. This has been a another episode of the

transform sales podcast and remember in everything that you

do, make sure that you are focusing on how you can sell

better and transform your sales. Until next time. Thank you for

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