Putting others ahead of herself – both at work and in her personal life – has made one LABSCO sales rep a leader.
By Laura Thill
A career change was the last thing on Marie Mabie’s mind. She was more than busy working as a medical technologist and lab consultant in her home state of Iowa for nearly a quarter of a century, raising two daughters, working as a volunteer and maintaining close ties with her large extended family. But, four years ago, when a sales rep customer mentioned he was retiring from LABSCO and suggested she take over his territory, the offer caught her interest.
“I wasn’t looking for a new job,” Mabie recalls, noting she truly enjoyed her work as a technical consultant in the lab at Des Moines, Iowa-based Catholic Health Initiatives. But, her years of lab experience and familiarity with LABSCO’s products made her an ideal candidate for a sales rep. And, today, she is “truly comfortable” in her new skin. Plus, she gets to stay in touch with her former lab colleagues, she adds.
That’s not to say the transition from lab consultant to sales rep hasn’t come with its share of challenges. “Distribution sales reps carry the whole bag,” she says. “There are so many products for reps to keep track of.” Nor has it been easy to adjust to working at home, she adds. And if it weren’t for her close ties to her customers and her associates at LABSCO, it would have been that much harder to get used to it, she says.
The value of teamwork
Much has changed since Mabie joined the healthcare industry. Of course, computers and automated systems have digitized lab testing, she notes. But, equally noteworthy has been the change in infection control protocols, she says. “When I started out, there were no rules about wearing gloves!” she says. Few, if any, people worried about latex allergies. “And, we would take our lab coats home to wash them,” she adds.
Today is quite another story, Mabie continues. “Whereas years back lab consultants knew which patients had been diagnosed with infectious diseases, today they treat everyone in the hospital as if they potentially have an infectious disease,” she says. “It’s great that we can diagnose patients so much better today.”
One thing that has not changed in the last 28 years, however, has been the importance of teamwork. For Mabie, who grew up on a farm with 15 siblings, teamwork is the only approach that makes sense. “Growing up, we didn’t know any different,” she recalls. “We grew up on a big farm with a huge vegetable garden. We would wake up and milk 60 cows every morning before school – and then again each night before we went to bed.”
Not surprisingly, feeding a large, hungry brood required creativity on her mom’s part, says Mabie. “My mother was very frugal,” she recalls, noting she managed to provide four meals daily (breakfast, dinner at noon, lunch after school and a light supper before bed). That said, “there were never any leftovers,” she notes.
“My mom has apologized to us that we had to work so hard on the farm,” says Mabie. “But, it taught us to roll up our sleeves and get the job done, and to work as a team as well.” In spite of the farm chores, she and her siblings also had their share of fun. “We had two basketball teams and two football teams!” she laughs.
The fact that Mabie and her siblings have remained close all these years is testimony to the connectedness teamwork can foster. “Today, my daughters, Molli (23) and Paige (20) have 52 first cousins – 51 of whom are on my side,” she points out. Indeed, while her brothers and sisters have scattered across the state of Iowa and into Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, as well as Texas, they stay in touch, she adds.
At your service
For Mabie, providing her customers with top-notch service is essential. But, her call to serve others doesn’t end when she leaves work. Beginning when her daughters were young, each summer they would join extended family at her parents’ farm for a week, helping out with farm chores and taking part in a service project to benefit the community. “Some summers, we would visit the local nursing homes and dance and sing for the residents,” she says. “They loved it and it was a great way for my family to stay connected.”
More recently, Mabie has participated in fundraisers to support her church, as well as feed hungry bikers who participate in Iowa’s Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) – a non-competitive bicycle ride organized by The Des Moines Register. For over 40 years, the event – said to be the largest bike-touring event in the world – has attracted bikers from across the United States, as well as from many countries abroad. Participants follow a route across the state of Iowa. “Iowa has many small towns, connected by paved country roads,” she explains. “It’s so easy to ride your bike from one town to the next, and eat lunch or see [the sites].”
In fact, years back, she and her husband participated in RAGBRAI. “I had heard about it growing up and always wanted to try it,” she recalls. “The first time I rode, it was very hot, and very difficult to ride, and I thought, ‘Well, I can check this off my list of things to do!’” she jokes. That said, she participated in the weeklong ride the next three summers, averaging between 60-100 miles each day. In the years following, she continued to ride, but only part of the route and at a more enjoyable pace.
The event has evolved, says Mabie. “When I rode, we showered in our clothes, using the hoses in people’s backyards,” she says. “Today, companies bring in [portable] showers and charge riders $5-10 each.” Indeed, today the bicycle ride has led to fundraising opportunities, she points out. “When the bikers ride through small towns, they stop to eat, stay with a host family, or camp overnight. There may be thousands of them scattered throughout each town. Churches are a big draw, because they are air-conditioned. So, Mabie and others in the congregation pull together to prepare special dinners for the bikers. “Last summer, we raised about $10,000 selling steak dinners and pies,” she says. “We must have served about 1,500 dinners at our church.”
When she’s not volunteering her time and energy to help others, she is providing the resources to help others do their part. For instance, when an Iowa CLIA inspector was rounding up lab supplies for her mission trip to Haiti, Mabie was on it. “I asked the president of LABSCO, Dan Eckert, if we could get her the supplies she needed at cost – urine dipsticks, cups, glucose sticks and more,” she says. “LABSCO, as well as some manufacturers, rallied and donated the requested supplies. It was awesome.”
This state inspector worked with a village in Haiti, recalls Mabie, noting she shared some heart-wrenching stories. “She told us about one villager – a diabetic woman with an infected foot,” she says. “The villager was in her 30s or 40s, but looked to be in her 60s due to poor living conditions and a lack of adequate healthcare. She had the option to have her infected foot amputated, but chose not to, because she knew she couldn’t care for it or keep it sterile.” And, the loss of her foot would have made it difficult for her to continue to get along in her village, she points out.
“We were brought up that if you always do the right thing, it will come out right in the end,” Mabie continues. “We were taught to follow our heart and treat people as you would like to be treated.” Which brings her back to her new career as a sales rep: “This job is about relationships and team work.” It’s very important for reps to remember they have a team, she adds, both to support and to be supported by.