Dave and Michele worked hard to find a franchise they could believe in. The sales-oriented couple knew they wanted to own an affordable franchise with great products, but they also wanted one they could feel passionate about — and proud of. Their search ended when they found HART Health.
A Hart Health Salesperson
“After meeting the team at HART, it all fell into place. There was a wonderful comfort zone there,” Michele said. “They’ve been in business for a long time and really have good systems. Their industrial first aid supplies and medications are the best money can buy and yet they are some of the most affordable. It’s a really easy franchise to love.”
Here’s a peek into a typical day for Dave and Michele in their Portland area franchise:
6:30 am: Dave and Michele start the day together discussing the day’s goals over scrambled eggs and coffee. Yesterday Dave and Michele got their weekly inventory shipment from the Seattle warehouse which they checked in and then neatly stocked in their garage on industrial shelves. Because shipments come weekly, the supplies don’t take up much room. Now Dave restocks their white Astro HART Health van from his garage inventory. He makes sure it is fully stocked with products, including extra hand sanitizer and cough medications because customers are going through larger amounts during cold and flu season.
8:00 am: Dave and Michele are ready to start a day of sales calls from home and make outside appointments in the community. But first they meet with Jessica, their customer service rep, to make sure she’s set for the day.
Here’s a rundown of Jessica’s day, which is almost always 8:00 am to 4:30 pm with little or no weekend work.
Jessica arrives and warms the van up for her rounds for the day. Today she’s scheduled to make deliveries to six local companies.
- First stop is full-service restaurant with 150 employees and a full-blown catering division with 10 delivery vans. Jessica checks on the four wall mounted kits to see what supplies need replenishing. She’s already a familiar face and enjoys joking with the staff about the latest drama with the Portland Trailblazers.
- Second stop is a large book distribution warehouse about a mile from the restaurant. The floor manager is glad to see Jessica because he knows they need a new supply of Backprin (he’s a regular user). HART Health’s popular non-prescription back pain medication. The warehouse has five large wall mounted kits and one office kit.
- Jessica meets her fiance for a brown bag lunch at a local municipal park.
- First stop after lunch is a small manufacturer of doors and windows. The shop has about 60 employees, many of whom regularly need bandages and eye wash because of their carpentry and woodcutting duties. Jessica replenishes two wall kits with Eye Clean, refills several boxes of Tufflex heavy duty adhesive bandages and refills the splinter removers. She takes a minute to clean out the cabinet, which often gets sawdust on top. The customer loves that she makes this extra effort.
- It’s 1:30 p.m. Jessica heads out to a semi-rural part of the county that’s home to a 400-acre industrial park with several clients. First stop is at a large offset printer that services several newspapers and community magazines. The company uses three wall mounts and two office kits. It is a rare day when the printer doesn’t need a new supply of HART’s Liteflex bandages, especially the ones that help with paper cuts.
- Jessica stops at a saw mill with about 50 employees about half a mile down the road. She’s a much-loved face at the mill, and the crew calls her ‘Bandage Queen’. She’s making good time on the route today, which allows a 10-minute break with the mill’s office manager to talk about their kids.
- It’s a little after 3 p.m., and Jessica is ready for her last delivery of the day, a big chemical refinery on the edge of the industrial park. The plant has a growing workforce of more than 200 and a work environment that demands extreme attention to safety. The refinery already has three wall mounted kits, and Jessica adds a fourth because the company added 20 new employees.
Meanwhile, Dave and Michele have spent the day working on direct sales and networking in the community. Here’s what their day looks like:
9 a.m. Dave and Michele start off a round of sales calls using HART Health’s CRM sales data base. The extensive program gives them access to hundreds of small businesses in their region with 50 or more employees. Dave and Michele usually make direct sales phone calls the first 3 – 4 hours of the morning logging all their call contacts into the CRM computer database. They have a goal of completing 20 to 25 calls but sometimes exceed that mark. Dave and Michele love selling HART Health products because they almost sell themselves.
10 a.m. Dave hops in his car for an on-site appointment with a potential customer, the operations manager of a large community college with about 10,000 students. He gets the account and it will be his largest yet.
11 a.m. Michele meets with Bill, owner of a specialty food processing plant that bottles jellies and jams. Bill likes HART’s special line of FoamTec blue food service bandages designed for his type of workplace. They have two wall-mounted kits in the plant and employ 152 people.
12 p.m. Dave has an appointment with the CEO of a manufacturing plant that’s recently moved its headquarters from Denver to Portland. He feels hopeful about the sales call because the executive called him first after hearing him speak at a local Rotary Club event. As he sells throughout the day, Dave logs the results of all his appointments into the CRM database.
1:30 p.m. Dave’s next face-to-face appointment is with Robert, the general manager of a large sign company that specializes in corporate trade show booths. The company has been displeased with the quality of its first aid kits and is eager to upgrade. Dave makes the sale practically before he starts talking because Robert had already made up his mind.
2:30 p.m. Dave has some time to return five calls, two of which result in appointments.
3 p.m. Michele gets a phone call from Janet, who wants four wall mount kits for her fitness centers.
3:30 p.m. Michele returns four calls from prospects: a computer manufacturer, a Catholic University, a family-owned chain of five tire stores and a karate school. She confirms face-to-face appointments with two of them and logs the results of all her sales calls.
5:00 p.m. Everyone is done for the day. Dave has time for a Thursday night hockey game with the kids and Michele is looking forward to a night class in Italian cooking.