“This coming Sunday Mel and I will be leaving Sudbury at around 2:00 in the afternoon and we will be making our way to Ottawa. For the past couple of weeks I have been working on arranging meetings with long-term care homes in the Ottawa area because the meetings that I arrange will be MINE. By ‘mine’, I mean that these are the first meetings that, not only will I have arranged, but I will also be leading. Mel will be by my side to answer any questions that I may not be able to answer, but these are the first meetings that I can truly say are ‘mine’.”

That part (^) I wrote last week… Fast forward one week, and here we are. I’m sitting in my hotel room in Ottawa writing the rest of this blog. I’m three in-person meetings / demos in and I’m feeling more excited than ever!

Don’t get me wrong, I love giving remote demos from the office. I love that I’m able to do my job from my desk effectively without having to always be on the road. I love having the ability to share my computer screen with the attendees and show them exactly how the system works. While I’m still able to hear their excitement through the phone when they see their phones light up as the shifts are posted and filled in seconds, there always seems to be something missing during those meetings. After the first in-person demo that I completed on Monday morning, I knew what it was that was missing from the remote demos. I noticed such a difference when I was able to see the excitement in their faces when the phones lit up rather than just hearing it. I was able to read their body language and clarify their confusion when I sensed it, rather than hoping they understood what I was talking about or waiting for them to ask a question.

I’ll give you a quick example. The third meeting that I arranged was on Tuesday in Kingston. Sitting in on the meeting was the Director of Care (DOC), the head scheduler and the Administrator. I started with my usual spiel… I first explained how we would initially create their site if they were to come on board, I explained how their staff would respond to shift requests, I illustrated how they would add a new staff member to the system, and then it came time to post a shift. When I posted the shift and the calls started to come through to our demo phones, the DOC’s face lit up. It was like we had just told her she bought the winning lottery ticket. She couldn’t believe how easy it was to fill shifts using StaffStat. Seeing her reaction not only made me realize the difference it makes when completing demos in-person, but it also reconfirmed for me how amazing the product is that I’m selling!

I think that it all comes back to the strong focus that I place on customer service. As I discussed in my blog last week, customer service is huge for me, and being able to create that relationship with the potential customer face-to-face makes a world of difference when it comes to providing the best customer service possible. Although I’m able to provide good customer service over the phone, it’s much easier to do in-person because that’s what I’m used to. Adding the personal touch, for me, has made a world of difference since starting down my new career path in sales.