“Oh, that metal tongue girl is here for the case?”

“Gangster girl is here Dr. T”

Welcome back to my next episode of the story. It was 2010, I think…

Crap… I can’t remember. Oh well, anyway, I don’t remember the exact month I started in that company but there I was, walking in with a smile and I had to walk straight into the Country Manager’s room for a second interview.

The funny part was, she said, so you’re Racheal huh…

I’ve heard great stuff about you from Francis and let’s hope you can help us save the territory that’s been assigned to you. I also heard that your employment contract is ready for you to sign.

Which means, today is your first of work.

I giggles and said yes mam.

At that point, a little voice in my head was like… F***! What the hell have I gotten myself into? Another crappy territory?

The smile I had on my face slowly dimmed down and she said, alright, let me hand you back to Francis so he could introduce you to the rest of the employees.

Cool… I was so excited to be there and learning to sell a new product that I’ve had no experience with… It’s a challenge I’ve always wanted.

Curious about what the product was?

Well, it was Sports Arthroscopy implants.

The first questions I had for Francis was, what the hell happened to that territory? How bad is it? He replied : – with a sad voice saying, “It’s pretty bad, that’s why I need your help”.

Hmm, Yep… Yeh… I’m always getting all the crappy territory with so much damage done and building rapport and trust again between the customer and the company is not a easy task.

In the first few weeks, of course, I had to study the different types of products, watch procedure videos before I could go out into the field.

One month past, time to do some field visit.

So, yeh, I had to take over the worse ever territory that was given to me. I took the challenge and built a good rapport with them.

Gain their trust again, especially the doctors.

We eventually became close friends.

I would never forget those who were nasty and also those that were wonderful to me. Some lost their trust completely and I can never blame them from what I hear the previous person had done.

It’s not ethical at all.

I’m not gonna go into details about it. These are some of the nicknames I’ve got from my doctors’ client in that territory.

I had so much fun assisting them in the operating room.

“Metal Tongue girl”

Hahaha, I had a tongue stud back then. The doctors and nurses were impressed with it.

Anyway, that’s just from one hospital that I had to recover.

Now, the next hospital was pretty bad. To be honest, it is so bad that I don’t remember much.

I have this selective memory issue… I don’t like keeping unnecessary and unhappy moments in my brain.

But…

There’s this one particular doctor that interest me. He’s very professional with his request and upfront to me about his lack of interest in continuing doing business with me and the company.

I respect his request and asked him one question.

What would it take for us to continue the business?

I am Racheal Tan and not the previous sales rep. I am “Me”.

He’s somehow shocked hearing that from me and replied, hmmm…

You lasted longer than I though. You’re not gonna quit next week and start selling noodles by the roadside are you? (I thought that was pretty offensive) But I understood his frustration.

So, with confidence I replied, If I’m still with the company and you see me next week, you owe me one case! ( a procedure to use my company’s implants)

I said that with a smile and I’ve got this voice in my head saying… “I’m gonna get you to use my implant!”

… till the nest episode of my story. 😊 Thanks for reading.

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When you realise nothing is lacking. The whole world belongs to you – Lao Tzu

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Episode 3