Today’s guest is Nelson Leitao and he’s going to share important lessons learned about perseverance during a 10-year climb up the customer ladder. In this episode we’ll discuss what that means.  The art of selling Nelson loves his job for two particular reasons: Interacting with people and getting the chance to improve patient experience.  For Nelson, being in the medical sales field, he isn’t only dealing with devices, he is helping people through his products.  Their company’s vision is A day without passion in healthcare is a lost day.  Nelson worked for his company for 25 years already but he’s only been working in sales for 10 of those years.  One hard lesson came from offering the same solution to three different companies. He focused on the sale more than unique customer needs and it cost him two of the three prospects. What Nelson didn’t acknowledge was that there were three different customers, three different processes, and three different needs. Instead of customizing the offer to each company, he mistakenly thought giving them the same solution would solve everything.  Nelson is now quicker to subscribe to his company’s vision to listen more than he talks. Nelson had to reframe his mindset and though it was a huge challenge, he was able to pull through. Climbing the customer ladder  It’s similar to marriage in that it has its ups and downs and there may be challenges you have to overcome everyday. Climbing the customer ladder is about how you improve your relationship with your customer. It’s dynamic because your customers all have different needs. Climbing the customer ladder means climbing their trust.   First, you need to be present and customers need to feel that focus everyday. They want to know they can ask for your help and you’re there even when you don’t have all the answers.  Be committed to helping people and opening doors for the customers.  The motivation is knowing you will win with them, you will gain more experience and learn the process, and you will understand their needs.  Looking outside the box Being in the healthcare sector, most people focus on technology and clinical solutions but there’s more to it.  The technology and the devices are good but they also need to implement a good workflow.  With Nelson managing accounts for financially depressed countries, he is prompted to think of the financial implications for his customers.  It is important to be creative and to show something different to separate you from other companies.   Help the customers bring out the solutions the best they can. “Motivation: Important Lessons I Learned About Perseverance During My 10-Year Climb Up the Customer Ladder” episode resources  Connect with Nelson Leitao on LinkedIn. You can also send him an email at nelson.leitao@siemenshealthineers.com. Speak with Donald directly for more sales talks. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.  Try Pipedrive today for FREE! As a TSE listener, PipeDrive is offering you an EXTEND trial beyond the typical 30 days + 25% off your first three months after trial. Try it today at  → https://pipedrive.live/tse use your code: pipedrivetse.  This episode is also partly brought to you by Wingman. Wingman uses AI-software to empower remote sales teams with conversation intelligence, actionable insights on successful playbooks, and delivers real-time coaching. This course is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077. "We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our 2 mins survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey We’d love for you to join us for our next episode