Career spotlight: senior lead development representative
Through our series of blogs highlighting people who have found careers at Takara Bio, we hope to show you what it's like to be a team member contributing to the advancement of "good science." We perform and enable good science, and this mission to provide top-quality products and services informs everything we do.
Here, we've interviewed Erin Bailey, a Senior Lead Development Representative for inside sales, about her career path and how she eventually ended up at Takara Bio. Inside sales reps typically work alongside a team of other inside sales colleagues in a shared office environment—making their job different from the face-to-face sales model pursued by outside sales reps at their clients’ business locations or in the field. Our inside sales team works with customers from all over the US and Canada to provide solutions for their scientific needs.
How long have you been with Takara Bio and what drew you to work here?
I’ve been with Takara Bio for almost 4 years now, and I’d say I was drawn to work here from both my time at the bench and from my initial encounters with the inside sales team. I used several Takara Bio products for my research and was familiar with many of the product areas offered. In coming to interview for this position I recognized right away that this was a close team that worked well together and supported each other. It felt like a good fit for me and for where I was at with my career.
Erin Bailey, Senior Lead Development Representative at Takara Bio USA
Can you tell us about your career journey?
I started grad school not really knowing where I wanted my journey to end up. I loved my time at the bench, earning my graduate degree in neurobiology, and thought maybe I wanted to stay in academic research and take on my own lab someday. So, I continued to a post-doc, but as time went on and I watched many of my friends make the transition to industry, I realized staying in academic research was not the path for me. I joined the sales team at Takara Bio because it gave me the opportunity to continue working and collaborating with scientists, but without some of the pressures and frustrations that come with being at the bench.
So, you were a scientist before you made the transition…why do scientists makes good salespeople?
Scientists make great salespeople to other scientists because we’ve been there. We’ve put in the long hours at the lab, we’ve had experiments fail, we’ve felt the frustration of a project that just isn’t working the way we hoped it would, and we’ve felt the pressures of grant deadlines and appeasing reviewer comments. We know what it’s like, and we got into sales so that we could help others. We want to help researchers get the best products and support for their projects so that maybe they don’t have to face the same frustrations we did.
What does a day in your life look like at Takara Bio?
The best part of my role is that no two days are ever exactly alike. Some days are very meeting heavy, some are spent mostly working with customers or distributors, and others I’m focused on internal projects and collaborating with Takara Bio team members.
It sounds like communication is a key part of your job. Can you comment on how your team interacts internally and externally?
In inside sales we truly are a tight-knit team. We work together—collaborating on projects, bouncing ideas off each other, consulting on product recommendations and learning new skills. While working from home for the past year, we continue to be in regular communication with each other, even if it’s just to check in and see how things are going.
The rest of the team and I also work extensively with other teams at Takara Bio. In order to best serve our customers, we regularly work with technical support, customer service, marketing, R&D, and shipping to make sure that all questions are answered and that the ordering process runs smoothly.
Interacting with customers is how we spend most of our time. We’re following up on customer inquiries, answering technical or order-related questions, checking in to see how our products are working, and reaching out to let them know about new products they might be interested in or to see if there’s anything we can do to assist with their current or planned projects.
Finally, what do you like to do when you are not working?
I love flowers and gardening. We bought our first home a few years ago and updating/maintaining the beds has kept me very busy when the weather’s nice.
I’ve also taken up cake baking and decorating as a quarantine hobby. I’ve found just about every excuse to celebrate so that I can try another recipe or technique I’ve found online!
That sounds like a delicious hobby! Thank you for telling us about being a Senior Lead Development Representative at Takara Bio USA, Erin!
Stay tuned for more career spotlights.
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