Her Story
About Felisa
I started my career in customer relations on the inside level of the company, working alongside sales, which made me want to get into sales and be closer to customers. I originally wanted to be a pediatrician, but ended up going the business administration route. When I went into these healthcare companies, it felt like I was meeting both things - doing what I love on the business transactional side, while the healthcare industry met my passion of being able to save lives and reduce medication errors. For about 20 years, I worked in the healthcare industry selling medical devices and software, and also dabbled into the dental industry with implants for a couple of years. At OmniCell and Becton and Dickinson, I served as the system administrator and sales director, acting as the quarterback and lead in sales transactions. This entailed building relationships, going into hospitals, identifying their pain points and challenges, and putting together solutions involving software and hardware. I worked alongside all my teammates, triaging everyone needed on the technical, clinical, and operations sides to put proposals together. We would walk the entire hospital, put a solution together, and present it to the C-suite. I handled transactions ranging from a couple hundred thousand to over $25 million. After 20 years, I took a pause to challenge myself and learn something new. I currently manage a landscaping business, but I'm wanting to get back into the medical field and industry.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Felisa
01What do you attribute your success to?
I feel like, especially in sales, customers purchase from the person, not necessarily the actual item and the consumable that you are selling. For me, the key has always been just building the relationship, not trying to sell smoke and mirrors, but truly knowing what a customer needs and being able to provide that solution. The sales usually is just automatic from there, and you're working more towards the relationship building versus trying to sell something on a day-to-day basis.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
When I first came into my sales role, I was the only woman in a 10-member team. Looking back at that scenario, I would say just not feeling intimidated. We have to go in and not think that we're not good enough, or that we don't have the experience or the same skill sets that maybe some of these men have, and it's not at all like that. It's just going in and playing the role - fake it till you make it. Jump in, roll up your sleeves, and don't think of yourself as less or at a different level. At the end of the day, you go in and you learn. You're willing to learn. A lot of these folks are willing to mentor you and coach you, and that's what helped me as well - being able to receive that mentoring. They see you as part of the team, and they never see you as someone lower, someone that can't do the job as well as they can. We have to definitely be confident when you're walking into these roles.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say some of the challenges that you face as a woman, at least from my perspective in sales, is thinking that people buy only from you because you're a woman, or that you're only a pretty face walking in trying to sell something. I think a lot of the challenges were always of people just underestimating you, and underestimating what you know, and thinking that you're just a pretty face. You've got to really sit down and do your homework and present the facts, so people actually listen to you and will take your meetings and will actually pay attention to what you have to say, as long as you're coming across like you know your product in and out. You have to always make sure that you're coming and providing all the data, and you look like you know what you're doing, you look like you know what you're selling.
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