Be a buffalo not a cow!

I recently read Colorado is one of the few states where buffalo and cattle roam together. Each lives and eats from the same fields; however, when storm fronts bring thunder, lightening, and forceful winds, cattle turn and run; while in contrast, buffalo charge directly into the storm. As cattle spend all their time and energy in agony and terror running from the storm they cannot outrun, buffalo face the storm to find themselves quickly passing through it.

In life many of us act like the frightened cattle by trying to avoid and ignore the “storm”, which can be conflict, a problem, etc. Unfortunately, as we all know from experience, problems tend to compound when we ignore them or go for the quick fix; we end up with larger or more problems than we started with. Like the buffalo that run into the storm, if we tackle life’s issues head on, we end up in a much better place. From a strategic perspective, charging at our most challenging circumstances requires a great deal of strength and is skill that needs to be learned, practiced, and maintained. So what does all this have to do with selling medical devices? Successful device reps don’t make decisions based on the short-term. For example, a rep starting an evaluation in the wrong account, with the wrong surgeon, for the wrong reasons will finally get “on the board” with a procedure, and get “off the list.” Those evaluations consistently only net minimal procedures a week and then become stagnant. This will not bring you or the company success in the long term. Creating long term results requires making tough choices like ending an evaluation, losing those procedures a week and redirecting those efforts to finding the right account/surgeon. Going back to the principles of the compound effect, every day we are faced with thousands of choices; making better choices, even though they are the difficult ones, ensure long term success.

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