One of the aspects of office life that employees see as a perk is the ever present possibility of recieving treats and snacks from salesmen and women who drop by to detail us on their products. Usually in a medical office the representatives are from pharmaceutical companies and these experienced people have a myriad of ways to buttonhole a doctor or nurse practitioner to deliver their bullet presentation about their product. Occasionally, we will be treated to lunch and the rep will have approximately 15 minutes of time to pitch their product line and answer questions before we have to rush off back to work.I often wonder what the perfect attention-getting strategy would be for a doctors office. For a medication that will only be prescribed by a practitioner then the old stand by's seem to be the best. For products that the whole office might get excited about then lunch and free pens will not really work.
If I was trying to sell something and wanted to spark the imagination of the whole office staff I would choose to drop off a package that looked....different. Offices have a buzz and a culture and this culture is dictated by the employees. If a package came to the office that was filled with measley donuts but had a balloon attached, a couple of scratch tickets at the bottom of the box and a well done ad campaign with a web address and call back information on it then that would get some attention and respect.
A donut is just a donut but launching a box of donuts at a well entrenched target like a medical office that is very used to being bombarded by donuts and bagels all day and deflecting these from the doctor is difficult. Sales people need a nuclear option and in my opinion, balloons, scratch tickets and a good pitch will engage the office staff and allow the message to penetrate deep into the heart of the office to have a chance at becoming part of the daily buzz.
So to all you sales people out there dress those donuts up and give 'em a chance to get your message out there!
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