This quarter, one major customer success involved an intricate collaboration between the ODx and Surgical teams. A large private equity group was discussing its biometry and microscope set up with a few different companies. Dan Chavers, a ZEISS Senior Account Manager for ODx, worked tirelessly with a team of local ZEISS representatives to build relationships with key people at the private equity group. Technicians and doctors at the group tested biometry technology from different providers and the conclusion was that the IOLMaster’s ease-of-use and repeatability was the best choice. They also tested ZEISS microscopes with Zach Stone, Regional Sales Director for Surgical, and the ZEISS Surgical team who showed the doctors how ZEISS microscope solutions enhance the OR experience and are superior to other technologies being considered.
Both ZEISS teams, ODx and Surgical, worked together to show the customer how our solutions really do outperform the competition, creating a seamless workflow from the clinic to the OR - we’re the only company on the market that can do this. Through nurturing a partnership with the private equity group, the team made ZEISS the only feasible option for this clinic to meet all their internal goals. So far, eleven IOLMaster 700s have been ordered with three microscopes being ordered soon.
 

Could an upselling campaign for the ZEISS HFA3 win over existing customers in the United States? Christoph Hoffmann, Senior Digital Marketing Communications Specialist, was convinced it would. ZEISS possesses a very high share of the perimetry market in the United States and also has a very loyal customer base. Among sales representatives, the HFA is considered a cash cow. The problem was that, for the 21,780 older HFA models present in the field, there were only 1,135 contacts stored in the CRM1. The solution came in the form of a close collaboration with the SSC in the United States. "During a meeting with the regional sales directors, I was able to convince the sales team that the personalization options available in Marketo2 would take a lot of work off their hands and hence enable them to generate qualified leads and build up direct and personal relationships with customers," explains Christoph Hoffmann. The plan worked: The sales reps added their customer contacts to the system and laid the groundwork for a successful upselling campaign which generated significantly more perimetry revenue than the previous year. "Our collaboration with the SSC is a genuine, and above all efficient, partnership. I look forward to running many more campaigns with them," says Hoffmann.

Right at the beginning of the year, the Spanish MED team landed a big success by equipping a so-called "Light Hospital" (a clinical facility specializing in minor procedures) with a large number of MED products.
In doing so, ZEISS Team Iberia took a new, unconventional approach and accompanied the journey from hotel to hospital over a period of 1.5 years.
The team acted as consultants to the management of Amaveca Salud, the investor group responsible for the "Light Hospital," and was thus closely involved in the project for more than 18 months - from planning to realization.
Patxi Bastarrica, Head of Sales Region, acted as the central contact person on behalf of the entire MED Team Iberia. "With Patxi Bastarrica, we established a main person, a key account, through whom the complete customer contact took place. In this way, we were able to establish a high level of credibility and trust with Amaveca Salud and could greatly simplify communication for both parties," explains Fernando Garcia, Sales and Service Manager Iberia. Anita Sonnenfroh, Head of SSC Iberia, adds, "Through these months of close collaboration, a partnership relationship was established, characterized by the joint search for solutions, finding innovative and creative solutions, and cooperative collaboration."
Now that the conversion of the 'Hospital Centro de Andalucía' has been completed, Amaveca Salud is already planning the conversion of another former hotel into a "Light Hospital".
Team Iberia will also provide support for this project.

When COVID hit last year, Laetitia Fresnais who is heading the MED Team of the SSC France, decided it was the best time to invest in developing her sales management team and the sales reps. Therefore, she launched a sales performance training program back in April 2020. Until September 2020, the focus was on the sales managers and as a result, new sales management tools focused on driving the sales funnel and the development of the sales force (sales techniques), were created. “With the sales performance dashboard completed by a 3-dimensional cube and an individual development plan for each sales rep, we have a powerful tool to grow our business” explains Laetitia Fresnais and continues: “We now follow up every quarter on the progresses. And since October 2020, we started with sessions for sales reps.” Already completed sessions include “Understanding customer needs and finding pain points, measuring potential”, “Impactful argumentation”, “Demos which sell”, “Selling value”, “Situational sales”. From each of these session, the French sales and service team derives sales tools.

Being a customer-centric organization during the lockdown, Arun Shetty and his MED Team in India extended warranties and paid contracts by 4 months. They were the first company to do so which was highly appreciated by customers. They were shown as an example to the competition.
This step helped the MED Team in India to maintain good relationships and customers went out of the way to support them in buying consumables and solutions. The bond between the MED Team in India and customers grew stronger. A good example of walking the talk and not doing transactional or box sales but consultative account management instead.

We all found 2020 to be a challenging year. As businesses were forced to contend with the challenge of new rules and lockdowns, we needed to find dynamic solutions to keep our customers engaged.
Virtual meetings via Microsoft Teams became the new normal.
In my role as a BDR, I covered two territories. I found it problematic when booking virtual meetings for customers who I could no longer travel to. It was common that customers would either cancel, change the meeting to a quick phone appointment, and some were not willing to commit at all. I found this to be a setback in our business relationship, especially after spending time to create digital content for presentations
To overcome this, I decided to employ the use of Food Delivery Apps to source coffee and sandwiches direct to the practice. This could be pre-ordered the day earlier and strategically planned to arrive a few minutes before our meetings began.
I found that not only did customers appreciate the gesture, we had longer and more productive engagements as they were willing to “sit down and have lunch together”.
It still surprises me how far a small gesture, like a coffee, can go into building and maintaining relationships with our customers.
(from Eoin Herbert, business developer in the ZEISS Team Australia)