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[[Commercial Leadership Program (CLP] [Krisit] [GE Healthcare]]
[You are listening Jobs in Pods.]
[Welcome to Jobs in Pods, the only podcast where you can hear real employers, ]
[leading recruiters, and staffing agencies talk about their jobs and how to get them.]
[I'm your host, Peter Clayton.]
[This jobcast will feature Kristi Wilson with GE Healthcare's Commercial Leadership]
[CLP is an 18-month Leadership Training Program ]
[created to accelerate the development of entry-level talent.]
[CLP is specifically designed to build the next generation of leaders within GE Healthcare.]
[Candidates can expect a great deal of exposure and job experience]
[from three challenging rotations in multiple locations within GE Healthcare.]
[It includes formal classroom training in GE's state of the art facilities,]
[mentoring from senior leadership, and career planning ]
[leading to a full-fledged commercial role within General Electric Healthcare.]
[Kristi, thank you for speaking with us today on Jobs in Pods.]
[To start off, can you describe a typical day for us as part of the ]
[Commercial Leadership Program, and tell us]
[about some of the projects you've been working on.]
[[Kristi Wilson] Well, I would say that every day is extremely different]
[from the next in every single phase of CLP.]
[So a typical day in your Phase I would be really getting out ]
[and riding with all of the different sales reps that are in the field]
[in order to just be a sponge and really soak up all the different ]
[personal sales styles that people have within your team.]
[Another thing that you would be doing during your Phase I on a regular basis]
[is riding with your Clinical Product Specialist in order to get a better understanding]
[of what the customer's needs are when it comes to the products]
[that you'll be working with the customers on.]
[You are going to be sitting in on customer presentations.]
[You get a chance to listen to the questions that they ask and really get]
[the opportunity to identify what customers are needing,]
[not from just your product stand point and what you're focusing on,]
[but from the entire healthcare perspective.]
[And from that stand point, I think you are really able to grasp what ]
[the healthcare industry is like, and how political it can be,]
[but also how intertwined all the healthcare facilities are.]
[So I think that your Phase I, you should really have the mindset of trying to ]
[learn and understand the healthcare industry,]
[learn and understand the team dynamic within your field,]
[and develop your own personal sales style.]
[And a part of your daily routine would be checking off your to do list]
[and sending out emails--responding to emails that you may have got]
[over the night or when you were out on the road the day before,]
[you could be waking up at 5-o'clock in the morning to meet your mentor at the airport]
[and flying down to another location in order to call on a customer in a rural area,]
[or you could be working with hospitals at a much larger level]
[like Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA]
[and getting the opportunity to see what the work flow in a radiology department]
[is like and view patients being scanned on the equipment that you're specializing in.]
[So that's just a little bit of a piece of Phase I.]
[I think for Phase II, a lot of it is project work.]
[So getting into the office at 8 a.m. or a little bit before, sending out emails,]
[working with your teammates in order to strategize on your projects.]
[And a couple of examples of the things that I worked on within my team]
[was something called the Americas Projects.]
[We're going through a huge transition where some reps]
[are going to be moving from calling on some hospitals to moving to a different territory.]
[And within this account transition, I had the opportunity to assist the teams ]
[collecting information--the soft information--in regards to the types of relationships]
[that GE reps have with their customers.]
[Also the types of relationships that our competitors have with the customers.]
[Learning more about the customer's hot spots; what their main concerns are--]
[the personal ones that they're trying to accomplish within their business]
[and then transfer that over to the new sales representative]
[that would be calling on that customer.]
[And that really gave me the opportunity to understand the variety ]
[of relationships and the importance of those that the sales reps have with customers]
[and how vital that is to GE's success as a business.]
[Another project that I had the opportunity to work on was developing]
[key studies for my business and providing a strong justification ]
[for the customers to purchase our applications within molecular imaging.]
[And then I would also say in the Phase III, this is where your day-to-day lifestyle]
[is really going to reflect the position that you will take on after you graduate]
[from the Commercial Leadership Program,]
[and here you really becoming the CEO of your business.]
[And you're going to be working with your region managers on a daily basis]
[to identify the opportunities that you're going to be working]
[for the last 6 months of the sales program.]
[On a regular basis you're going to be calling on customers, and it's going to get]
[extremely exciting because you're starting to work deals with them,]
[uncover their problems that they're having in their current radiology department ]
[or whatever department of the hospital you would be calling on,]
[and then trying to find the perfect solution in order to meet all of their needs.]
[So you're going to be working opportunities from beginning to end]
[and actually be given an operating plan that you're gonna have to]
[achieve a certain amount of sales before you graduate from the CLP Program.]
[So here you're really going to be--on a regular basis--you'll really be doing ]
[the job as the Product Sales Specialist which is what you were able]
[to shadow during your Phase I]
[and constantly working with your team, your field engineers, and your clinical specialists]
[in order to strategize with your customers.]
[[Peter Clayton] Well, that's a really great overview.]
[Can you tell us about some of the training that you received?]
[[Kristi Wilson] Oh, yes, absolutely.]
[The Commercial Leadership Program--that's really all it is.]
[It's a training program in order to set you up for success as a Product Sales Specialist ]
[once you roll into your permanent territory and being about the--all the training ]
[that you received during that year and a half--]
[GE invests so much money into you to make sure you truly will be successful.]
[And along with that, invest a ton of time and resources to ensure that success.]
[An example--some of the training that they provide us:]
[The first would be product training.]
[It's a very granular curriculum; you're going to be placed with a product team,]
[and within this, you are going to be meeting with your marketing managers, ]
[your clinical specialists, sales reps in the field,]
[and you'll be learning about the technology; how it works.]
[So even somebody like me that comes from a marketing background,]
[can feel confident in speaking the technology and understanding the physics of it,]
[because you really are given the tools to understand that]
[and talk about it with your customers and even to train other people ]
[on your team that may not be familiar with your technology.]
[They really give you a deep understanding of GE's products]
[and how it compares to our competition,]
[and how we differentiate ourselves in the marketplace.]
[And then on every single product and clinical study, ]
[you're given a customer scenario where you present back out to the people]
[who provided the training to you to ensure that you know all the fundamentals]
[to prepare you to be a true consultant to the customer within your specialty.]
[GE also, from a corporate stand point,]
[wants to ensure that you are given the proper leadership training]
[so you know exactly what you need to be doing on a regular basis]
[to develop yourself personally and professionally.]
[They have a unique center called Crotonville;]
[it's GE's Leadership Training Campus or GE University]
[is what some of us like to call it, and they send you to Foundations of Leadership,]
[in Crotonville, NY, and here you're given presentation skills,]
[you have exposure to executives, where you can hear them give keynote speeches,]
[and exposure to all the GE businesses from energy to transportation, the healthcare]
[and get a better understanding of how all of those things can come ]
[together in order to create the business that GE is today.]
[And you also have exposure to other leadership programs]
[like the Finance Program or our Engineering Programs and see]
[how it really comes together, and you have a high-level overview of the business.]
[And then it really provides you with the tools to develop your career within GE.]
[They also send you to a really exciting week called CLP Summit]
[where they put together all of the different GE business Commercial Leadership Programs]
[so you can get a better understanding of what CLP is across the business.]
[You attend a week-long seminar where you're working with a variety ]
[of different people from different backgrounds including people from]
[Brazil, or Europe, or China, and they put your through sales process training]
[and negotiation selling, among other things.]
[And other types of training that we do is]
[standardized training within the GE Healthcare CLPs]
[where you're gonna train in finance, customer focus selling.]
[Yesterday we had a class on Lean Six Sigma which was really great to see]
[to understand how GE is trying to lean out their processes]
[and how that can really resonate with the customer when you're working with them.]
[And then you also get training on our customer relationship management tools,]
[supply chain management, service, sales, and all of these tools are put in your tool bag]
[to ensure that you have success during your Phase III where you're really]
[taking over a mini territory which is an additional part of training,]
[and you're given the opportunity to be successful ]
[as a sales representative and consultant with your customers]
[but still have the support of your team and CLP while you're just getting your feet wet]
[within your miniature territory before you're placed permanently.]
[[Peter Clayton] Wow, what a fantastic experience, huh?]
[[Kristi Wilson] Absolutely incredible.]
[[Peter Clayton] So, Kristi, tell us about some of the people you]
[had an opportunity to meet and work with at GE Healthcare.]
[[Kristi Wilson] Yes, absolutely.]
[Well, I think that everyone's experience in the Commercial Leadership Program]
[is extremely unique, because we are all placed in different businesses,]
[so I think it just makes sense to first start off with the Commercial Leadership Team.]
[It usually consists of between 15 and 20 individuals ]
[that are right out of college or just a few years out of college with some work experinece;]
[usually in the healthcare field or within GE]
[And all of these people are extremely motivated and dedicated to help each other.]
[We train each other in our products,]
[they're extremely passionate about the work that they're doing,]
[and I think that that team camaraderie really helps]
[prepare you for your career within GE.]
[The managers that you have exposure to during the Commercial Leadership Program ]
[adds a huge amount of value to your training,]
[because they are extremely invested in our success.]
[They really want you to be working on projects that you're passionate about.]
[A huge theme within our class is identifying something within the business, ]
[in something personally that you are passionate about ]
[and creating a project around that and identifying the people ]
[within the business to help you execute on that project. ]
[They really give you free rein within that to have a true impact on the business.]
[The people that we're exposed to are marketing managers who have their MBAs.]
[We work with the key executives who are running the different regions across]
[the business and helping develop the operating mechanisms that will help]
[make their team run efficiently.]
[And I really think that they are not only preparing us to be sales reps]
[within the field, but their empowerment is helping to develop us ]
[as true professionals within the business.]
[[Peter Clayton] So on a personal level, how do you feel CLP has helped]
[in your career development, and has this program ]
[met up to your expectations of what you thought it would be?]
[[Kristi Wilson] Absolutely, and I think that with the changes that they've made]
[within--just in the short time that I've been with the CLP Program--]
[they have really been able to exceed my expectations from when I first started.]
[And from a personal level in my professional career,]
[I think one thing that really drew me to the program was that there is no]
[laid out path of where you are going to go within GE.]
[There's so many different opportunities that you can go into after you become ]
[the Product Sales Specialist and you are successful in your permanent territory.]
[There's so many different avenues that you can take within your career.]
[And I think that this program has really helped me develop what my passions are]
[and what I want to achieve within GE and within my career.]
[And this program helps lay that out, it helps give you the list of things that you need]
[to accomplish and the competencies that you need to develop]
[in order to achieve that career, and the support and training ]
[really enables you to identify those passions.]
[And I think that within GE in the CLP Program, it's really not just helping]
[you to get "a" job, but it's helping you to identify "the" job]
[and finding a career that fits with each individual's passion,]
[and that's what this company has enabled me to do.]
[And I think that just talking about a personal example I know that coming into healthcare,]
[I'm extremely passionate about the oncology segment and helping to touch]
[people's lives who are faced with cancer.]
[And they've helped me identify--uncover that passion.]
[They put me with product team where I will be working with oncologists on a daily basis,]
[and I am confident that that support will continue to be there]
[as I continually develop the area that I want to go after within my career.]
[The training program really is helping me to become a leader within my program,]
[and I know that that will enable me to become a leader within the company in the future.]
[So I'm excited to see where GE will take me, ]
[and I know that this CLP Training Program will put me on the fast track to get to that point.]
[[Peter Clayton] Well, Kristi, thank you so much for taking the time to ]
[speak with us today on Jobs in Pods and best of luck with your career.]
[It sounds like you really are on a fantastic trajectory here.]
[[Kristi Wilson] Well, thank you so much, it's been wonderful talking with you today.]
[[Peter Clayton] Thank you. That will do it for this edition of Jobs in Pods.]
[To be considered for the GE Commercial Leadership Program, ]
[and to learn about all the current career opportunities at GE,]
[We'll also place a link to these resources on Kristi's feature page on jobsinpods.com.]
[And remember you can find us anywhere podcasts are including ]
[iTunes, podcast.com, and even YouTube.]
[And to stay current with all the great jobs, employers, and recruiters]
[featured in our jobcasts, check out our growing Jobs in Pods Facebook Community]
[and join in the conversation. Thanks for listening.]
[[Commercial Leadership Program (CLP] [Kristi] [GE Healthcare]]
