Hola Todos!

Today’s topic talk is from Sean Montellese, Medical Account Representative at Statlinx Inc.  In his TT, Sean shares his story as the “The Accidental Salesperson.”  Sean wanted to reach out students and/or young professionals who find themselves interested in marketing but might accidently end up in sales.  This “accident” is probably for the better as salespeople are often the quickest to rise to upper management.

Sean, the floor is yours….

Hello everyone,

My name is Sean Montellese and I am a Salesman. They say the first step is admitting.

I never planned on being a salesman, but after feverously applying for Marketing jobs to no prevail I decided to take a job in Sales.

Sales is generally not a major academic focus at most institutions and can be very intimidating and even disappointing at first. I know I was not prepared, and with the “Accidental Salespeople” trend growing amongst my peers, I find it necessary to address. I would like to share my story with those students and/or young professionals who find themselves interested in marketing but might accidently end up in sales.

My first job was in New York under ex-Wall Street cold callers for a start-up medical communications company. They were sales sharks that were aggressive in every aspect of life. I studied them, I copied them, and trained with them. Before I knew it I sounded like them and I was selling like them…I instantly caught the bug.

After the Wall Street lifestyle caught up to the start-up budget the company collapsed…I had another Sales job in a week.

I am now working in a stable company with an excellent product line. I work with the marketing department to develop email campaigns and potential new customers depending on the constant changes occurring within the industry.

The marketing team looks at me to tell them what our customers’ needs are and what the competition is doing. With my favorite class in college being Marketing Research I am more than happy to oblige. I find that using my sales tactics in combination with marketing knowledge is a recognized asset to my company.

With technology increasing efficiencies in sales reporting tools- it has become substantially easier to pull market data from your sales team’s notes. With that data you have the ability to make executive decisions on how to position your company within any industry. I was taught that surveys are the way to gather marketing research in school. After a project where I was required to hand out surveys; I realized there had to be a better way. I am now apart of that better way.

Instead of handing out flyers or paying for expensive marketing research firms, have your sales team collect the data for you. Almost every call I’m on I know: What the potential client is doing today, why they chose to go that route, what they like, what they would change, and how much they are paying. I make 100 calls a day. That is a nice size data pool for my marketing team to swim in. I can guarantee it’s more time effective and more accurate than surveys and then there’s always the benefit of the extra revenue from the sales. Let’s not forget…that is my job.

I think everyone would agree that as you age your career path skews from what you originally imagined. (You don’t see too many Astronauts and Presidents.) However it is important to remember what it is that interested you in the first place. For those “accidental salespeople” it is important to remember how much value there is in your position. The Willy Loman days are over, salespeople are now the frontlines of any great business with the power to catapult a company in the right direction. I thought my marketing days were over when I took a cold calling job but I have to say…it has just begun.

Something to think about today…

Sean Montellese
Medical Account Representative at Statlinx Inc.

IVANS Inc.
Sean.Montellese@IVANS.com