Reps, let Cook apps make your life easier

A message especially for our field sales representatives:

Back in the early days of this company, Bill Cook was the sole sales rep. To cover his territory — the whole United States — he flew his own small airplane. Customers thought the company had a dozen reps, but it was just Bill, seemingly everywhere at once. Eventually a few reps were hired, and Bill told them that, if they got their pilot’s licenses, he would make sure they had a plane to fly. They could cover more ground flying a Cook plane than by flying commercial or driving.

That reliance on technology to work efficiently set a precedent. Today, the important technology we are using is digital. We have our stock product catalog on the website. We have smartphones, iPads, and laptops to stay connected. Many of our global regions have smartphone apps — like Concur, CookScan, IRIS, Portfolio, and others — that are specifically designed to share and capture information you need in your job every day. We are working toward making these tools available to all regions. 

Making the most of your time

You no longer have to wait until you get home to your computer and an internet connection to send messages or take notes about a meeting with a customer. The mobile Concur app lets you avoid the nightmare of sorting and scanning piles of receipts, racking your brain to remember who attended the dinner last Tuesday night (especially important now that Open Payments requires us to track and report all transfers of value with covered recipients). Portfolio means that there’s no more waiting for printed marketing materials to be shipped to you. Marketing materials can now be uploaded as soon as they are ready, and you can show them to customers on your iPad right away.

Best of all, now you can use your home time for family instead of working.

Better support for your customers

These apps also make you look great in front of your customers. Take a look at what the IRIS app has to offer. What customer won’t be impressed when you remember information that you talked about a couple months ago? Something as simple as remembering to ask how that difficult below-the-knee case went can help you build a partnership. And knowing which products a physician prefers for each procedure makes it possible for you to bring them exactly what they want.

Avoid the embarrassment of not knowing that a rep from another SBU has just been to see one of your customers. With IRIS you know exactly what conversations are taking place when you’re not around.

With CookScan, you can check your customer’s consignment inventory and keep track of your rep stock without resorting to a tedious manual process that leaves a lot of room for error. Simply download the audit file that you receive from Sales Ops and scan your products. CookScan will let you know what’s missing and needs to be reordered, as well as what’s expiring and needs to be used quickly.

The information you share and document with these apps also helps those of us in-house stay connected to what is going on out in the field. Seeing the needs and challenges our customers are facing helps us plan the future of products. Seeing the needs and challenges you are facing helps us plan ways to support you better.

Creatures of habit

Yes, it takes a while to get used to using these tools, but soon they become a habit. If you are not used to using the iPad or iPhone to use these tools, just ask your manager or one of your colleagues. They will be happy to help. There is no crime in being new to doing something. There are no dumb questions. You can practice using the apps on your own until you feel confident using them with customers.

Our training teams are also putting together online sessions and training courses for each app. Reps in the United States and Europe can expect an invite soon if you haven’t received one yet. Other global regions will receive training as we roll out the apps there.

Once bitten, twice shy

If you tried out these apps when we first released them, you probably had a few bad experiences — lost data, the app crashing, or missing features. With each new version that we have released, we have been able to work out a lot these bugs. We have also added many new features, based on your input. Unfortunately, any time you add new features, you are bound to run into a few snags. But you can rest assured that we are working quickly to work out these snags and to improve the apps and your experience. They will continue to evolve and improve, as all software does.

Embrace technology

So log on to those apps and get started. Spend a little time learning and practicing up front. We promise that, in the long run, your work will be easier and your customers will be happier. And it’s not like we’re asking you to learn to fly an airplane. Who knows, maybe with all the time you save by using our apps, you’ll have extra time to take flying lessons.