Whether he’s making a sale, remodeling a house, or hiking the mountains of Phoenix with his three Shiba inus, Bryan O’Conor lives for the thrill of a challenge. And that’s a good thing, because as he has discovered, no two physical therapy clinics are the same—which means that when it comes to helping practice owners identify the solutions that meet their business needs, Bryan must constantly flex his creative muscle.
“It’s my job to listen to the clients and help them interpret their needs,” said Bryan, who has spent the last three years as a member of WebPT’s sales team. “Basically, I listen to their story and try to dissect what is going on [in their practice], rather than just jump into a demo. In fact, I try to spend as much time as I can not doing the demo.”
Using the details he gathers, Bryan then assembles a totally customized package of WebPT services—thus delivering a solution that is truly tailored to each individual clinic. “It’s nice because we have lots of different options,” he said. “If a clinic wants to start with one module and then grow into others as needed, they can do that. There’s flexibility there.”
And speaking of flexibility, that is—in Bryan’s eyes—one of the best parts of working with the rest of the WebPT Sales Team. “What’s great is that we’re all doing the same thing as a team and working toward the same goals, but we have the flexibility to do our own thing as long as we deliver.”
Bryan’s results-driven work style made the sales field a particularly attractive career option. But it wasn’t the professional path he originally intended to pursue. After growing up and graduating high school in Westminster, Colorado, Bryan ditched the snow and ice for the sunny skies of Phoenix, where he earned a degree in business information systems from DeVry University. “My plan was to go into software development, but I ended up getting more into the business side of things,” he said.
After he finished his program at DeVry, Bryan jumped on board at an Australia-based software startup with a location in Phoenix. There, he worked as an implementation specialist, which, in addition to allowing him to get his feet wet in the tech startup sector, afforded him the opportunity to travel all around the country as he helped customers adopt the system. “It was kind of interesting, because I was just a 20-year-old kid traveling the country, so I’d spend all day working with these clients, and if they wanted to grab a drink afterwards, I couldn’t even do that because I was too young,” he said.
With two years of jet-setting under his belt, Bryan started to look for a position where he wouldn’t rack up quite so many frequent flyer miles. That’s when he made the jump to sales, taking a gig with another tech startup in the Valley of the Sun. In the six years he spent with that company, he saw it go from operating out of the owner’s house to employing 50 people in a 10,000 square-foot office. It was at some point during that time period that he first heard about the up-and-coming industry of electronic medical records. “It’s kind of random, I know,” he said. “One of my friends had a friend who was a recruiter, and they were talking about different software industries, and EMR came up as one of the new hotspots.”
So, once he caught wind of WebPT, Bryan kept his eyes peeled for job opportunities; the rest, of course, is history. And while he may have traded his developer roots in favor of a more customer-facing role, Bryan still gets a chance to tap into his inner architect with his hobby—which is really more like a second career: remodeling houses. “Basically, my buddy and I buy old, beat-up houses and remodel them,” he said. Each project involves a lengthy process, from finding the right properties and negotiating deals to designing floor plans and bidding out the construction. “It’s really cool to see the transformation. And it’s neat to have that influence on the community—to create jobs and help increase home values in the area,” he said.
And as if two jobs weren’t enough, Bryan spends a good chunk of whatever free time he has left dabbling in his third gig: helping his fiancée, Brynne, plan their upcoming wedding celebration. Luckily, he doesn’t mind being busy—as long as he’s having fun. “Nothing feels like too much of a chore when you enjoy it,” he said.
Article by: Brooke Andrus
Source:http://www.webpt.com/blog/post/webpt-staff-spotlight-bryan-oconor