Committing the best mistakes in life

I have been proposed two alternatives with a comprehensive plan and allocation breakdown by the company I was working with. As I didn’t have sufficient time and money to experiment on both customers and the sales team, I took a crucial decision by depending only on the sales force. I knew the importance of salesforce feedback since it played a vital role in delivering the messages. Now I was ready with the team of 45 enthusiastic sales representatives for the drive with the target of USD 300, 000 to reach in three months. The product was launched and after a week I got the first email and that was not encouraging. It read “ Dr. A had lots of queries about the messages we communicated. He called me again as he didn’t get what exactly the real benefit of the product was.” The next email read “ Dr. B wants to maintain the same product for the time being. He wants me to come with more details about the product as he sees its possibilities in the market.” Our business unit director went crazy as even after ten days not a single box was sold.
Now I realized that I committed a mistake. I should have tested it both externally and internally – first with customers and then with our sales team without cost. In the beginning, I thought that I was probably going to fail but I didn’t give up. I went through all the negative feedback and tried to find out what went wrong about the campaign that the surgeons were left indecisive and confused though the product drew their attention. I worked the whole night studying how it could have been done better and I prepared a Product Monograph in one day. I got the approval in two days and at the beginning of the second week of the second month, my team started providing all the surgeons they met in the previous month with detailed information that they needed to make a favorable decision.
By the end of the second month, we achieved 50% of our target with one month left. We didn’t give up and by the end of the third month, we made it. Though I couldn’t sleep properly for one month, I learned to see through errors.