I received an interesting story from one of our agents that is very active in promoting our balances. This story has some insight about and clue to what selling is about. As a response to our request to cultivate the pharmaceutical market sector with our GX series balances, he has gone to all the trouble of getting the names and listed all the pharmaceutical companies in his territory. Then he suggested to his sales people that they together make visits to those companies to promote the GX. To his surprise they showed reservation as if to say it was a waste of time to his suggestion, which was quite contrary to the cooperative attitude his sales people always display to his requests.

He was so insistent on making visits to the pharmaceutical companies that some of the salesmen took time to explain in detail the bad experiences they had in the past. The conclusion was that this was not the market for A&D. One veteran salesman added that most of the pharmaceutical companies used analytical balances mostly and that they wouldn't have much interest in our balances. Besides, they were happy with what they had and would buy the same stuff when they need more.

He could not stop there because he knew he had to provide some feedback to A&D. He had promised me (Masa) that he would take action on the GX when I explained the GX to him during one of his visits to A&D Headquarters a few months ago. I sort of lectured about the GX technology and features and insisted that the agents are supposed to go after the pharmaceutical market with GX. I have to admit, I sometimes exhibit a lack of understanding of the sales environmental considerations of different territories and insisted on gathering intelligence about his prospective clients. However, A&D's GX is an important line to me and he agreed to take actions to accomplish my request; this time, to visit the pharmaceutical companies.

He felt momentarily helpless because of the rather convincing arguments from his veteran salesmen. He decided to make those visits himself with whoever available at the time so he went ahead and made a demo kit which consists of the GX, the company profile, literature for all the weighing products and a laptop with WinCT. He explained several times how to use WinCT and how powerful a weapon it would be against the competition. However, he was uncertain if they were really listening or if WinCT was being demonstrated properly by his people in front of customers, or if they even did demonstrate it, so he included WinCT in the demo kit.

He took one veteran salesman to a pharmaceutical company with the demo kit he had prepared for. He enjoyed watching this veteran salesman lay out the literature and explain who they are and what they do, and gain rapport with the laboratory manager, then went on to explain the GX. The SHS and its features certainly took his attention, but the climax came unexpectedly when he began showing WinCT. All of a sudden the laboratory manager left the room and disappeared, saying I'll be back. A few minutes elapsed and he began to get nervous. He was just starting to think, "My goodness. We are losing the audience," when, to his pleasant surprise, the laboratory manager came back with a dozen technicians following him. The laboratory manager explained what the A&D representatives were presenting. All of them began watching the laptop screen. They began to talk among themselves, commenting on what they could do with it while they were shown how to make charts or graphs. After they were exposed to the basics of WinCT, they were shown how great WinCT is when combined with the great features of the GX, like built-in calibration, fast response time, bright, clear display and so on.

He and his veteran salesman walked out of the laboratory with big smile, and a few days later they received an order for a set of GR analytical balances. The sales people were right about the analytical balance, but he learned they had a misperception about the pharmaceutical customers. The laboratory people have more freedom to buy what they want to buy and A&D has what they want now. He added that now he does not have to push his people and all the sales guys are so enthusiastic to walk into new customers offices with the GX and WinCT. Now it doesn't matter if they are long time customers of our competitors. Actually, they are more excited if they are NOT our customers because the salesmen can see how effective their demonstration is and that a reward is waiting around the corner.

"Avoid" arrogance was once a key phrase for us at International Sales. That is to remind us of the importance of being humble and paying attention to a customer's need. (One guy at International Division thought I said Avoid elegance,' because I used the English term arrogance to make it sound more impressive. He began acting sloppy so I had to spell it for him and asked him to look it up in the dictionary). At business school, you read cases where a successful company or people at a leading company have a tendency to become arrogant after a succession of successes. You learn that arrogance causes a company to become blind or less sensitive to what a customer truly wants and to changes in the competitive situation, which eventually leads the once successful company to failure.

A problem is one does not recognize one is becoming arrogant in most cases. A person simply thinks he knows better or knows what his customers want since he has experienced so much, and in most cases he is right. The above story may have been a small case, but as one is so experienced that he knows what brings a better return to his investment, which tends to lead to conclusions of no actions or prohibit him from doing or even trying something new. However, when one is facing a new environment, the truth is his past experience makes him only think he knows what he must do or must not do. This time nobody had enough experience with the GX or WinCT. To recognize ones experience is no longer valid is wisdom itself, and this wisdom tends to fade out as one gets more experience. However, it is becoming more important as customers and environments change faster than ever. And to intentionally avoid being arrogant in any possible way brings more chances for success, especially when you have something new to show around.

Remember - You are only limited by your imagination. Don't be afraid to take a chance and try something new.

So check and see if you are becoming arrogant or ignoring new facts or environments, while bigger opportunities are just around the corner!

You may address any comments concerning this editorial by email to Mr. Eto