Frontlines of Connection: A Look at Field Sales

Welcome to Ears to the Ground, an internal podcast series celebrating the people behind Cochlear North America's mission to transform lives through hearing. 

In this episode, we're joined by Megan Butcher and Namita Gehani, who each bring years of hands-on experience supporting clinics, recipients, and families at Cochlear. Megan and Namita work directly with clinic partners and providers, helping to connect Cochlear's innovations to the people who need them most. 

Throughout the conversation, they share stories and insights from the field that highlight the relationships, trust, and collaboration at the heart of their work. These connections with our clinic partners don't just strengthen professional relationships, they directly impact the journey of recipients and families, supporting better outcomes and reinforcing our commitment to reaching 1.5 million people with hearing loss by 2033. Their experiences offer a powerful perspective on the impact our field teams make every single day. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

In today's episode of Ears to the Ground, we're shifting our focus from the first line of impact to the front lines of connection. Before activation, before follow-up care, before a recipient hears their first sound. There's a group of teammates out in the field who help make those moments possible. They're the ones supporting surgeons and audiologists, navigating challenges, solving problems, and making sure our partners have what they need to give recipients the best possible experience. They are the bridge between Cochlear's mission and the clinics and communities we serve. So in this episode, we are spotlighting the teammates who bring our technology, expertise, and heart directly to the field each day. I'm excited to be joined by Namita Gahani and Megan Butcher, who each bring years of hands-on experience supporting clinics, recipients, and families across their regions. Welcome to you both, and thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Namita and Megan, to kick things off, can you just tell us a little bit about your title, Cochlear, and how long you have been with the company?

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Absolutely. Hello, my name is Namita, and I have been with Cochlear on the sales team for about seven years now. And my current role here is senior territory manager.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

I'm Megan Butcher. I am a clinical territory manager. I am what is considered a boomerang with Cochlear. I began with Cochlear back in 2016 for approximately two years and then rejoined the sales team approximately two years ago. So I have a total of four years of experience with Cochlear.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

So kicking things off with you, Namita, when people think of field support, they might picture clinic visits or training, but there's a lot more to the work that you do. Can you just give us an overview of the scope of your role of your role and just talk about some of those few distinct responsibilities that take up your time and how they directly support the clinics you serve?

SPEAKER_02 2:10

That's right. As a senior territory manager, a big part of my time is spent on clinical and surgical support and providing training to physicians, audiologists, residents, sometimes even hospital staff. And that hands-on education is very critical because it directly impacts their confidence, but also patient outcomes with our technology. The scope of my role, however, is much broader than that. I'm responsible for growing the business in my territory. And that includes building as well as maintaining referral channels, proactively identifying new revenue sources, and supporting new product launches. There is a lot of preparation that goes into customer meetings, and it often involves collaborating with many internal teams within Cochlear. We really need to understand our clinics' goals and use competitive messaging to maintain but also ideally grow that market share. Relationship management with hospital staff is a huge part of my role. I act as a day-to-day clinical point of contact, but I'm also helping with things like order management, just making sure that clinics have exactly what they need for upcoming surgeries. Compliance is another critical piece that often happens behind the scenes. We need to make sure we're following FDA, HIPAA, as well as Cochlear's compliance standards. And we're also tracking and reporting any product-related issues that are brought to us. And that's really important. And for all of these things to happen, I work closely with many internal teams within Cochlear, such as marketing, reimbursement, legal, medical affairs, customer service. We just need to make sure that our clinics are supported from every angle. And at the end of the day, my role is really about being a trusted partner for my clinics. And lastly, I also have some internal responsibilities towards my territory as well as the sales team. So documenting what we're doing in the field, sales metrics, identifying trends, forecasting, as well as territory planning. And all of these insights are shared with our sales leadership to help them guide their strategy too.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Thanks so much, Namita. Really appreciate that background. And Megan, picking up on that, since you're often out in the field, I'm curious about the rhythm of your work. Can you walk us through what a typical week looks like for you? And how do you balance the travel and the unexpected challenges of the role?

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Well, typical is probably going to be defined differently for our role than maybe some other roles in the organization, because things vary quite a bit from one week to the next. However, surgical support, clinical support, sales initiatives, and administrative tasks are things that things that we do during any given week. An example week might involve being in the OR for surgical support, followed by an appointment where we're supporting an audiologist with a complex case. And then we might have a virtual or in-person meeting where we're training our customers on our products. We spend time catching up on emails, responding to questions, and planning events like partnership dinners or larger team meetings with our professionals. And then, of course, in between all of this, we're balancing calls and meetings with our internal teams. I think what stands out about our role is that it can be very unpredictable and things change minute by minute. Surgeries might start early or run late or shift at the last minute, or a dedicated office day may not be in the cards because we need to rush an implant to the OR, or we're generally just handling another urgent situation. We do our best to plan our travel and schedule carefully to cover the territory effectively and make the most of our time, but we have to stay flexible and prioritize what is needed that week. So in the end, no two weeks look the same, but I think that's what keeps it really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Yeah, absolutely, Megan. And definitely sounds like flexibility and being able to be adaptive within the role is really key. If you had to break it down, what would you say the percentages of travel, being out in the field versus more of that kind of like desk work, going through emails and such?

SPEAKER_00 6:35

I would say a big portion of our week is traveling. I would say about 70% of the time we strive to be in front of our professional partners. And then perhaps about 30% of the time is spent on follow-ups and other administrative tasks based on those meetings or support appointments that we have with our professionals.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

And Namita, kind of thinking about the meaningful interactions that make up a large part of this role and your work out in the field with audiologists and partners. You you both spend time in spaces where decisions, emotions, and outcomes can really matter deeply to an audiologist or a partner. Can you share a story, Namita, about a specific interaction or a case that resonated with you and really reminded you of the profound impact art technology and support can have on a person's life?

SPEAKER_02 7:32

I can speak to an instance from just a couple of months ago. I've been working closely with an audiologist who supports a patient that has unfortunately a rare but progressive neurological condition. It's called ciderosis. And some estimates have put the prevalence of siderosis at about one in three million. So it's extremely rare. And this condition, among many other challenges, also impacts the patient's hearing. And while in general, we can expect cochlear implants to deliver excellent outcomes for most of our patients, there are unfortunately cases where the benefit can be limited, or as a condition progresses, the benefit can even decline over time. And that's unfortunately the reality for this patient. So even though there were limits to what we could do for him from a technology standpoint, a meaningful moment did come in a different way. At a hearing loss community event that I supported not too long ago, I actually happened to meet another individual with the same diagnosis experiencing similar channel challenges with his cochlear implant, too. And he also happened to be actively involved in a national support group for this condition. I was able to connect these two patients with each other, as well as Lupin, the audiologist, therefore creating a small network of support. And this experience was a reminder that while we can't always solve problems clinically, as field representatives, we do have the opportunity to often serve as connectors. Sometimes the most impactful support we provide is by bringing people together and helping them feel less lonely. And that can be incredibly meaningful.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

How often would you say that that occurs where you're able to kind of work with similar recipients who have those similar experiences and you're able to kind of, like you said, sort of bridge that gap and be the connector in that situation?

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Hearing loss is interesting, right? Because it can be associated with so many other secondary conditions. So really depending on a patient's diagnosis and etiology and what's what's causing that hearing loss, it could depend. But we often use our learnings from patients that we see on a regular basis, and we often try to use them for other similar types of clinical situations. Not just learnings that we ourselves have experienced, but we're also communicating with each other on a regular basis within the uh the sales team too.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

A lot of what you do is about building that trust and credibility with our clinical partners over time. Can you describe a moment when you you felt that trust was truly established and maybe kind of walk us through a situation where a partner turned to you and they had run out of answers and just kind of what that felt like?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

I I think when we talk about building trust and credibility, a lot, a lot of our job is doing that through small, consistent moments where we show we're invested in our customers' success. I'm always excited to be a part of a case where our professionals turn to us because they don't know what to do, or you know, they're we're able to provide or deliver those answers that help a patient achieve a better outcome or help a program reach their goals. But a very recent example that comes to mind was a team that was struggling recently to obtain certain measurements in the OR for cochlear implant cases. And they tried different approaches in the OR, but they just weren't getting any responses. And it was becoming a big frustration for them. So I offered some suggestions, but ultimately reached out to our medical affairs team to better understand the various factors that can impact this measurement. And I'm certainly not an expert on anesthesia, but our medical affairs team shared some specific information about anesthesia's effect on this measurement and offered some recommendations. And so then I went back and was able to have a collaborative discussion with the surgeon and the anesthesia team about possible adjustments to their protocol. And then at the next case, they were really quickly and easily able to measure these responses successfully. And so the surgeon was just so appreciative of the support and the insight. And I really do believe that that furthered her trust in me and our organization in general. So I think that this particular example highlights how you know we're always working together behind the scenes at Cochlear to find a solution that helps our professionals. And moments like this remind me how much our professionals value when we're willing to just jump in and kind of work through challenges, even when they're not strictly product related or specific to Cochlear, just in general.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Yeah. And Megan, just kind of thinking about, you know, all of the things that both of you within this role have to have to know and truly understand and grasp. What is that like sort of going through that process and thinking about the different questions that audiologists or partners have? Have there been moments where you've been just kind of stumped in that situation and don't necessarily have the answer? What is that process like when you have to kind of dig and reach out to other teammates to find that answer or find that solution that a partner's looking for?

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yeah, it happens quite frequently, honestly. It is a a part of our a big part of our job is just like learning on the go. We definitely don't have all the answers as much as we would like to think that we do. And so it really does take a lot of collaboration and reaching out to all of our talented colleagues across the organization to try to get an answer or find a solution for our professional partners. I would say a lot of the times it's a it's a joint effort to get a solution to our customers.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

As we move toward our aspiration of one reaching 1.5 million recipients, every part of the organization plays a significant role within that. You mentioned previously that you think of individuals rather than the number as you think about that aspiration. How does that personal why for you translate into your day-to-day work?

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Yeah. So whenever we have an overall goal with a large number, it's really easy to lose sight of the individual people that make that up. So for me, every time I provide clinical support, surgical support, or just collaborate with teammates and professional partners, I think about my family friend, Sean, who has a cochlear implant. So he's grown up now, but I used to spend a lot of time with him when he was a kid and just talking to him and helping him with his schoolwork and so on. And so his face pops up into my head often in this role. And he motivates me to put 100% into everything I do because of the impact our role has on one person's life. So I don't feel so removed, and it really does make me feel very connected to the work that I do day to day. And I think this can be a really powerful and humbling thing when we take something that seems so grand and just remind ourselves that there's a face behind it all. So he is definitely my why. And he's the reason why this job is so rewarding. Because when I think about the 1.5 million recipients that you refer to, I think of it as 1.5 million shans.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

I love that, Megan. Namita, when you zoom out and think about the impact of your work, how does your approach to educating and guiding audiologists toward optimal patient outcomes? How does that directly contribute to achieving that 1.5 million reasons aspiration?

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Yeah, so I would say every with every interaction with a customer, my approach is very education focused. I spend time making sure that partners understand the clinical evidence, but also candidacy criteria and what realistic outcomes look like, depending on the patient. So they can really have well-informed conversations with their patients. And that's where the connection to the 1.5 million reasons really comes in. Every appropriate recommendation means another patient is being given access to technology that could potentially have a significant impact on their quality of life. And my role in all of this is to remove those barriers, whether that's knowledge gaps or logistical concerns, so that clinicians can really focus on patient care. For me, it really comes down to confidence and trust.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

So as that trust builds over time, what does that feel like when you're working with a partner and that partner reaches a point where they can confidently and freely make that recommendation to someone for a cochlear implant?

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Yeah. When audiologists or surgeons feel genuinely comfortable recommending cochlear implants, I know that it's because they feel well supported in the process and not pressured, and that they truly understand who the right patients are for this technology. And that's what feels truly rewarding to me.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

And Namita, coming back to you for our next question. So there's a lot of preparation and coordination that that happens behind the scenes within your roles. For you, Ramita, what is one thing you wish other teams at Cochlear understood about the reality of being up against time and when there's a need for a quick turnaround, especially as you you work within your role, considering you're kind of the face of Cochlear out in the field?

SPEAKER_02 16:57

The one thing that I wish was better understood is just how real and immediate the time pressure can be in the field. When a clinic reaches out, it's often tied to a surgery that's already scheduled, or a patient who's in front of them, or a decision that needs to be made quickly. And in those moments, even small delays can have a big ripple effect on that patient's care plan. So from the field perspective, there's often no buffer, right? Like clinics are looking to us for immediate solutions. And what really makes a difference is when internal teams recognize that urgency and when they treat those requests with the same priority that we see in the field. And this really empowers us to show up more confidently and it allows us to deliver on our promises to our partners, and that's what strengthens our trust with them. So with every interaction with a customer, I'm not just representing myself, and like you said, truly I'm the face of Cochlear, and that response time really does reflect directly on all of us. Another reality of the field is that we're constantly multitasking. As field representatives, we're constantly on the moon juggling multiple priorities at once. So internally, for example, when we send that quick email with typos and missing punctuation, it's not a lack of diligence. It's often a reflection of us trying to respond quickly before moving on to the next urgent need.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Yeah, thanks so much, Samita. That's a really good, really good breakdown and really kind of simplifies what kind of all the background and kind of those processes look like. Megan, on a more personal note, you you mentioned that before a lot of the role is learning on the go. So just kind of thinking about that and and the vulnerability of not always knowing the answer to something and just kind of thinking about your experience with Cochlear as a boomerang teammate. How did you overcome that initial discomfort? And what steps did you take to just kind of help build that confidence to be able to gather the right resources and answers for partners?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Oh boy, okay. Well, when I first started this role, I certainly felt a lot of pressure to know everything and be the person who could immediately solve a problem or provide an answer. And what I quickly realized was how unrealistic and ultimately unhelpful that was, especially in this role, which is centered on building strong relationships. What I've learned so far in my time with Cochlear is that being vulnerable enough to admit when I don't have the answer, and importantly committing to finding it, that has actually strengthened my relationships far more than pretending to know everything. As I mentioned before, we really can't possibly know it all in this role. There's just so much that goes into it, and every situation is different, and we are constantly learning on the go. And so I've shifted my mindset to the fact that this role and the constant search for answers is a exciting challenge and one that keeps me learning continuously and helps me grow into a better colleague, a partner to our customers, and just generally, you know, overall professionally. And I'll expand on this a little bit in terms of talking about vulnerability. For me, confidence in the workplace has historically been a challenge for me, especially in an organization that's filled with so many talented people. Coachlear is just filled with talented people. But really, what I found is that reaching out and collaborating with my teammates within the field and across the organization and staying curious and taking it upon myself to stay educated in this role, that really does improve my confidence. And of course, I still have many moments where I feel very vulnerable. And that will probably always be a work in progress.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

It takes a village. So having those colleagues to lean on and having those folks around us who can help and help us kind of walk through those different problems and things like that, it's so helpful. So, how do you two specifically lean on each other or other teammates to share your knowledge and navigate those really complex cases and in order to kind of provide that sense of consistency for our clinics?

SPEAKER_02 21:20

So, one of the strengths of our sales team at CoClear is that we're not working in isolation. When a complex case comes up, we're relying on each other's expertise, whether that's discussing clinical experiences or just sharing best practices. And we have a lot of ways to collaborate. Sometimes it's as simple as picking up the phone on the way to an appointment. Other times we're tapping into our team's channels, which a lot of the channels are dedicated to different specific topics clinical, surgical, sales related, or even contracting. So by working together, we're ensuring a consistent and reliable experience for the clinics we're supporting.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

Namita and Megan. And thank you both so much for joining us today. I've I've really appreciated being able to hear and learn more about your perspective as field teammates, what that looks like at CoClear. And I'm really excited for our employees to learn more. So thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

Yeah, feel. Yeah, thank you for having us. And as sales members, we're always willing to collaborate with anyone internally within CoClear. So reach out if we can do anything.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

A few things stood out about my conversation with Namita and Megan. Field teammates are often the first face of CoClear, and those in-person interactions help shape trust in powerful ways. The work is equal parts relationship building, problem solving, and partnership, all centered around improving the recipient experience. And behind every clinic visit or case support moment is a team that leans on one another, shares knowledge, and keeps us moving toward our 1.5 million reasons aspiration. If you have suggestions for future episodes or want to recommend a colleague or team, please feel free to reach out to us at cna-interncoms at coClear.com. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Ears to the Ground, and we look forward to bringing you more stories from across Cochlear, North America. Until next time.