So what does make a good rep?
Wednesday, August 24th, 2005I’m thinking particularly of K, who worked for BioRad when I was in Oxford. K was one of those rare (at the time) creatures who had a doctorate to go with their company car. Naturally she used to try to sell us BioRad gear, but she’d never lie to us if she thought another company did something better.
She understood the need to keep customers happy, and allowed us to trial a low pressure chromatography set up before the Department let me buy one, and naturally when I left that place I told all my friends (what’s that? Both of them? Yeah, hah bloody hah) about BioRad kit and tried to get them to buy it. K also didn’t wear strategic grade perfume and was very good at building rapport with the punters. I seem to remember going out to lunch down the Botley Road and – on K’s instigation – putting condoms over the end of the boss’s car exhaust. She went into the gents to get them, so I couldn’t really refuse.
I don’t remember why she left BioRad, probably getting ticked off at the way they treated her (and her customers). She went into business with some friends, selling stuff as a small, independent distributor. Got some nice things from them, including my favourite Nichimate stepper pipette and some very good low retention pipette tips (not coated; the beauty of these was that they were made from low retention plastic). She’s since moved on again, and I’m not sure where to. I should drop her an email and find out.
What companies seem to fail to grok is that reps are how people see the company. You get a good rep, one the punters like and get along with and can trust, and you get a good reputation. Reps like these, companies need to do all they can to keep them. And they don’t. Unfortunately the company and the punter lose out as a result.
Mood: green
Random musical fact: the opening chord of two riffs then an interval of a flattened fifth in Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze was a musical device condemned by the Spanish Inquisition.
