Noob School - Episode 6: Susan Frisch

Episode Date: July 16, 2021

Susan's sales story will probably sound extremely familiar for most Noobs: she didn't have much of a plan and was ready to work for anyone who would hire her. She got that first job wrong, but guess what? She still ended up as one of John's most successful colleagues. She's in medical device sales now, and she's ready to drop some knowledge for the Noobs! Follow John on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/johnsterling_ Facebook: facebook.com/johnsterlingsales Twitter: twitter.com/johnsterling_ TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnsterling_

All right, today we have Susan Frisch with us today, one of my all-time favorite sales folks I've worked with. I'll tell a quick story on Susan. Couple years into working together, there's a few of us that wanted to go to the Clemson Duke basketball game, including Susan. And she said, yeah, let's go on over there. So we were getting ready to go. She goes, we got to go a little early.

I thought, what for us? She was just, we got to get there a little early to the first. there a little early to the game. I said, all right. So we piled in my suburban and went over to the Clemson game, basketball game. And we're all just messing around our seats, you know, talking, and then Susan kind of disappears. And then next thing I know, she's on the middle of Little John Coliseum singing the National Anthem. So Susan is capable of great things. and she's done many great things in sales and raised a great family and accomplished much, but she's not scared.

So welcome, Susan. Thank you. Hey, John. Hey, how are you? Great. Thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here. Thanks for being here.

Well, let's talk about how you ended up. I mean, you went to Clemson. How did you end up in sales from Clemson? So sales sort of found me. Yeah. You know, I was one of these college students who had average grades. You know, I wasn't a rock star when it came to books or studying. Had a good time, but, you know, didn't necessarily just focus on studying.

And so I was just desperate to find anyone who would hire me, to be honest. So I did some online, on-campus interviewing and finally found a company that would just take a chance on me. So I really just took the first job that's where someone would hire me. Okay. Okay. And what was that? So it was with a company called Norwest Financial. Wasn't exactly a sales job. I think I turned it into a sales job because I had numbers that I was responsible for. But the job was approving people for loans and anybody that you approved for a loan, you are also responsible for collecting on those loans. So half of my job, I was responsible for lending money.

and half of my job I was responsible for collecting bad debts. So that entailed repossessing cars, boats back 25 years ago, you know, I would go knock on doors looking for payments, things you wouldn't hear of now. That was my first job out of college. That's a tough start. Yeah, it's not fun. How did we get you? So, you know, I put in my head that regardless of what position I took as my first job, I was going to do for two years. I felt like that was important to, you know, figure out what I wanted to do, also figure out

why I didn't like the current position I was in. So after about a year, year and eight months, I started the look again and came across a couple of friends who had just recently gone to work for Datastream and reached out to them. And that's when they put me in touch with you. So we connected. Interesting. Did you consider anything besides sales? I didn't.

I don't know that I was, I didn't feel like at the time that I was qualified for much else. So I really just stayed in the sales, whether it was selling software or I also interviewed with a company that was selling lumber. I just was out there looking for something in the sales. And so how long were you with DataStream in the sales role? I was in the sales role four years, four and a half years. And then I did some marketing, working with the sales team to get back when internet and web-based technology was just sort of new, figuring out how we could use those avenues to help the sales organization. Cool. Very cool.

And then when you left kind of the software business, you went into pharmaceuticals and the medical side of things, right? That's correct. And tell me about that and where you ended up, where you are now. So I decided that I definitely wanted to try my hand in getting a pharmaceutical job. You know, I had been told it was impossible to get in. You needed to know someone. And so I just put my mind to it and went out. And my first job I did in pharmaceuticals was for 10 years with Pfizer pharmaceuticals.

And then I was able to get a promotion by leaving Pfizer. and I went to a company called Daiichi Sanquio as a specialty sales representative. You started with like one of the top companies in the business. I did. It's strong. I did. Very strong. And then from there you switched over or called to devices, right?

What do you call that? Med device sales. I am currently with Boston Scientific. I've been with them for the last five years. Strong. Heart stuff, right? Heart stuff. Can't get much more important than that.

I feel important. Well, it's just so interesting. If you think about your career, you started with the first job you could get doing, you know, lower-end loans kind of stuff. And now you're doing heart stuff for Boston Scientific. It's amazing. Amazing how you worked your way through that. I would ask you, you know, what you could have done differently at the beginning to get to some, let's say, a better place faster. Yeah.

That's a good question because I feel like I definitely. almost hitting 50 have taken a little bit of a slower route to where I am today. But it was a comfortable route for me and where my life was at the time. And then also now adding in a family to that. What could I have done differently to be faster? I don't know the answer to that, John, because honestly, I feel like with me and where I have always been in my career, it's been at the pace in which. I have wanted it to me.

You know, I was fine with primary care sales and kind of starting at the bottom level with Pfizer. And about every two or three years is when my promotions would start happening. I wasn't necessarily in it for a fast track. What I wanted to do was be as successful as I could in the positions I had. So I would do it for two or three years and then start that progression towards the next thing. So I think for me it's been a good... Yeah, and I think where you are is just phenomenal. I'm not questioning that.

I mean, it's phenomenal. Boston Scientific and Pfizer for these long runs is incredible. I guess what I'm trying to get at for the noobs out there, you know, watching this thing is the only thing I think you could have done different is the very beginning. Yeah. You know, because it doesn't sound like you did a whole lot of homework into how you're going to get that first sales shop. Yeah, that's true.

And I think, I think to your question, it's a good point to bring out that, you know, just because pharmaceuticals, for some people, seems to be hard to get into or med device, you know, they're never going to hire a pharmaceutical rep or they're not going to hire someone right out of college or without sales experience. It's actually not true. If I had thought to go into med device sales, you just have to put your mind to it, go do your research, and don't take no for an answer. That's how I actually got the job with Pfizer, which was one of the biggest and best pharmaceutical companies out there. When I was at Datastream, I went to, this was back in the day where companies would set up, they would have tables at a hotel

where all the different companies would have tables and you could go walk around and leave your resume and your business card. And I took a day off from Datastream to go and do that at one of these hotels. And by the time I got there at about 10 a.m., all of the pharmaceutical companies' agendas were full for the day. So I got there. It was too late for me to even. leave my resume. And I didn't take no for an answer. I stayed all day until five o'clock. And I waited for the people in business suits that had Pfizer name tags or other companies name tags to walk out

the door. So I still got my 10 minutes with them. I had to wait all day. But I was able to do that at the end of the day. And it provided interviews where I was just able to work hard and end up with the job. I'm not surprised. You did that. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. tell tell us particularly our nobs that are watching what are some of the things that you did along the way that you'd want to pass along to them you know maybe a story or an example of something that they should do and then a story of something that they shouldn't do yeah so I think that's that's a good question and I have two different ways to answer that John that I think are both important I think number one and most important is you need to figure out what you're really good at doing.

You know, what are your strengths? Because you're not going to be good at everything. Most people are not good at everything. You may be good at relationships or you may be good at listening. You may be very good at analytics. And I think it's very important to figure out what you're good at and really hone in on those strengths, but work to improve what you're not so. good at. I don't really like to call them weaknesses. I like to call them just opportunities to be

better. I think that's number one. I think number two, I have always found success in being very open, honest, and communicative with people that I report to. That may be team members. It may be your manager. It may be a VP level. But asking for 30 minutes, 45 minutes to sit down and really have a good dialogue, to ask them what's important to them about being an employee, and to be able to provide your story to them, where you feel like your strengths are. Because I feel like when you're able to go out and really focus on the things that you're good at is when you can be even more successful than if you're trying to be all things. You can't be good at all things. I agree. That's good. That's good. How about headstrong?

Do you have an example of head trash you could pass on? I do. You and I were talking about this a little bit earlier, and I think it's interesting. So, you know, my first job out, I mentioned, you know, I was actually collecting bad debt. And there weren't many females that did that, right? So I knew that going into this job. I was one of a few females. In fact, my second job at Datastream, I was the first female hired in the sales role

because I was going to be selling to gentlemen and men in maintenance divisions. So I don't think it's necessarily you should ever think gender-specific for a role. If you're willing to do it and you're willing to figure out how to be with these people that are maybe different than you, I think that's something that's very important for anyone trying to get into sales to realize. Great. That's a great story. You certainly proved that. Yeah.

You certainly proved it. All right. What's your favorite word? My favorite word is winner. Winner. Winner. Love it. Winter, winter, winner, chicken, dinner. That's right. That's right. Love it. Well, that's a perfect word for you. Oh, thank you. Thank you, John. Any final words or questions or anything to close out? I don't think so. I'm really grateful for this opportunity. I think that anyone that's new

or trying to get into an industry where they haven't been before, I think it's extremely important to network. I think the more you network with people, you know, they may have the opportunity or know someone that has the opportunity available. But I also think they have a tremendous amount of knowledge that they could pass on to you. And so I feel like the more you can network,

the more you can spend 10 or 15 minutes having a conversation with what their successes have looked like, what their failures have looked like, the more you'll learn that when you're in, interviewing or you're starting out in that first-time sales job, you can really take from what you've learned and utilize that to give you the best experience possible. Great. Great. Well, thank you very much for coming. I appreciate you. You're welcome. Thanks, John. Thank you. Okay. Thanks.