There are 2 scenarios that assessments are normally used:

1. As a hiring tool in the hiring process.
2. As an employee development tool for revenue managers.

In the hiring process, you normally take an assessment at the very beginning of the interview process or towards the end.

An assessment that is used in the beginning is usually used to screen out people that wouldn’t fit in the career opportunity. When I say fit, maybe it’s a very technical scientific job and the candidate didn’t have a science degree. The employer may be using an assessment that focuses on abstract reasoning because that is seen as a valuable measure of intelligence and they’re trying to gauge if the candidate will be able to grasp their new technology quickly. If it is an accounting career opportunity, maybe the employer is focused more on the candidate’s ability to work by themselves with no direction.

A good manager believes “Where there is smoke, there is fire” and if the assessment comes back with more than TWO points of contention, they may think they are better off passing on you and moving on to the next candidate.  They don’t wanna gamble with their new hires.

It’s much less likely to keep you from getting the job if you are taking the assessment as a final step to receiving an offer—unless your assessment comes back with anti-social behavior patterns, the manager will probably move forward.

People who vociferously disagree with their results are almost always a personnel issue waiting to happen. They think they have all the skills needed for their career opportunity and they are great. The truth is that is they don’t have the needed skills and probably won’t change.

Personality assessments work similarly in terms of employee development.  As a manager, sometimes you’ve a really fine employee who wants to move to a different role. Maybe they’re in a technical staff position and they would like to transition to a line revenue position. You like the employee’s values and work ethic and you wanna help ‘em advance in their career, but you don’t wanna set Them up for failure by putting them in a position that doesn’t match their skill set.

So what happens when they take the test and it shows they don’t like to communicate with people and are introverted?

A valuable manager will handle it correctly by sitting down with the team member and having a conversation about the assessment and try and understand how the team member perceives and interprets the results.

The conversation should be warm and focused on the individual. As you go through the assessment with them and ask their feedback, you will start to get a picture of how that team member sees his or her self. When you start reviewing some of the needed skill sets for the new job and how their results compare to that, often the team member will see that where they want to go doesn’t utilize their strengths and it would be a really difficult transition.

What happens next?  Are they doomed to stay in that role forever?  No.

The manager and the team member work together to assemble a plan that will develop or supplement the areas they got to be successful.  If they are poor public speakers, maybe Toastmasters is a wonderful idea for ‘em.  If they have no clue what a day in the life of a sales rep is like, what about scheduled ride-along days in the field?

If the assessment and the review is done right, both parties leave with a better understanding of the team member and where they want to go in the organization and what skills they will need to be successful in a new role.

Your thoughts?  Comments?  Put Them in the comment section or e-mail me at:  kraig@phcconsulting.com

Kraig McKee

Snr Recruiter

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized clinical and laboratory sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Personality Assessments Help Hiring and Employee Development

What does a well-executed field travel plan look like?

Let’s talk about your Plan A for travel (the ideal situation you can have if you prepare properly), Plan B (the “duck plan”) and Plan C (if your day falls apart, do this).

Having your boss or someone from the corporate office field journey with you is a total positive and an territory for you to establish a relationship and also to distinguish yourself among your peers.

History says that people that hate, postpone, whine about, and dread field travel are losers that won’t last long.  Why so harsh?  Because it is the truth.  If you are doing a fine position, you want the recognition and attention.  Why are winners so jazzed to get to go up on stage at national talks for recognition/performance awards?  It’s recognition of a career opportunity well done!  If you aren’t proud of what you’re doing and your performance, you wanna be “on the down low”.  Successful revenue people are self-promoters.

The A Plan with A accounts.

What is it?

The A Plan is a well-thought-out voyage plan that hits your most important accounts and is a model of planning and execution.  Here’s how to do it:

1. You anticipated your guest’s hotel needs.
2. You have a Journey Summary (paper) in their hands when they walk off the plane.  I always wanted paper so I could put the summary in my portfolio and take notes on it in my lap while I was in the account.  They’re also handy to help if you space on a customer’s name.  At the end of the travel, you can make notes on the summary and pass it on to an assistant for a follow up note or maybe someone else in the organization for follow up on a customer’s issue.
3. You had already sent an email with a brief outline of the accounts to be visited and the objectives for each call.
4. You ask when they would like to be at the airport for their return and if you got to schedule any one on one time with them.  Your schedule for the following day’s travel should include some time on the morning for you to chat.  That time may come over a cup of coffee on the drive to your account or at a formal sit down meeting in the hotel.
5. The Tour Summaries are a contained in a presentation folder that contains the following:

• Cover Page (Prepared For, Prepared By, Date, Tour Guest with name and title spelled correctly–check it twice)
• Opportunity Summary-Brief, concise-2-3 paragraphs.
• Account Summaries
  • Name
  • Contact name and title
  • Role they play (Technical Buyer, Economic, User, Coach)
  • Fantastic account issues or red flags
  • Role you would like the visitor to play
• A screen shot from his/her hotel that shows directions and phone/fax numbers.
• Account info from your CRM program (Salesforce, Seibel etc.)
• Strategic Selling “green sheets” for the accounts you will be calling on if you use Strategic Selling.
• Maybe a page or two dedicated so some issue important to your territory, a product show, early release of a product to a thought leader in your opportunity, etc.

Preparing for well-executed field travel takes some time, but the rewards are worth it.  Poorly planned and executed field voyage is hard to escape and can haunt others’ perceptions of you in the organization and at review time with your boss.

The A Plan represents the best image or picture in your territory that you would like to present to your manager.  You have confirmed appointments for all customers on the schedule and specific objectives in each call (a single call objective).  If you’ve done all of the things outlined above, you have already projected the image of an organized, motivated individual.  Anyone that has traveled or managed at all knows that stuff happens and the mark of a winner is the ability to pivot on the new information/scenario and drive forward.

Remember, you aren’t trying to “fake out” your boss.  Sometimes even a poor rep can pull together fantastic field travel.  They know the right things to do; they just tend not to do them unless someone is around.  While they may fool some people some of the time, they won’t fool their competent manager much of the time.  How so? People are creatures of habit and if you’re a slacker, those slacker habits show up in other ways over time.  The moral of this part of the story is if you’re filled with dread about traveling with anyone, you may be in the wrong role.  I swear I don’t know a single high performing rep that doesn’t enjoy showing off by demonstrating their product knowledge and account control/management through field travel. 

Plan B

The specific person you’ve an appointment with in one of your largest accounts becomes unavailable—sick kid, called in to a meeting, sick themselves, emergency etc.  Hopefully they have left you a message or said you when you’re verbally confirming your appointment with them the day of the call.  If not, don’t freak.  If their assistant tells you that he/she is sorry and will got to reschedule, you may ask if he/she (the assistant) is available or if there is someone else that she had directed you to see.

No matter what the case, handle it with style and grace.  Visualize the duck….smoothly gliding through the water seemingly effortlessly until you look below the surface and see it paddling like eager.  Since you’re a sales professional, you have already anticipated this possibility, hence THE B PLAN Accounts.  There is no one else that can see you in the account and you have 90 minutes until your next call.  The B Plan in action.

The B plan is simply a backup plan for your original call plan and it can take many forms.  In this scenario there are 2 immediate things that come to mind.

• Tell whoever is traveling with you that there has been a cancellation and ask if they would like to go somewhere (maybe the lobby of your next call) and chat or he/she can make calls and check emails.  Now before you freak, competent managers know that a fair amount of success in sales comes from adaptability and driving forward.  Even Mr. Rigid Manager will be ok with this.  The fact that you don’t freak and reflex to Plan B will score points.  Drive forward.
• Tell your guest that your customer cancelled and you have a maintenance call that you’re going to squeeze into the schedule. 

Before offering the second option mentioned above, you have surreptitiously called the account and confirmed that it’s ok to stop by.  This is more of a “howdy doody” call, so you will have to formulate you single call objective on the fly.  Most reps have customers that like to see Them and will welcome the attention.  In the pathology world, many customers will take great pride in offering your boss a journey of the pathology.

In summary, The B Plan could be called the duck plan.  Your original plan/schedule blew up.  You remain calm and smooth (like the duck on top of the water) but immediately begin paddling to fill the time with productive sales calls.  The major thing to focus on here is that you’ve already thought about an alternate plan and how to execute it if your A Plan explodes.

Plan C

• My boss is in city, my schedule exploded and I was hoping we could come by and show you the new X.
• My boss is in town, my schedule exploded, you have a pulse and won’t throw things at us—will you see us?
• My boss is in town, my schedule exploded and I will buy pizza for your pathology if you can see us and show us X.

Get the picture?  Plan C accounts are accounts that will see you on short notice and generally like you.

The message here is planning.  By investing the thought and effort into well planned field voyage, there is no obstacle or circumstance that can make you look bad.  You just flex from A to C if needed.

–Kraig McKee, Senior Recruiter, PHC Consulting

PS – Are you trying to break into pharma sales?  Get a picture of what life will really be like on the career opportunity with the Ask a Pharma Revenue Manager posts.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized lab and clinical revenue recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Ask a Medical Sales Manager: ABC’s of Field Travel and Training (Part 3 of 3)

Hear about how to buy a dress, all the details about what’s appropriate in terms of attire, jewelry, hair, and more.  And get the inside scoop about what all those details tell the hiring manager about you in your job interview.

For additional information, check out this survey of what hiring managers expect you to wear in the job interview.

If you’ve a topic that you would like a manager’s perspective on, let us know in the comments below.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized clinical and medical sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Medical Sales Job Interviews: What Hiring Managers Really Think About What You Wear

Hear about how to buy a costume, all the details about what’s appropriate in terms of attire, jewelry, hair, and more.  And get the inside scoop about what all those details tell the hiring manager about you in your job interview.

For additional information, check out this survey of what hiring managers expect you to wear in the job interview.

If you’ve a topic that you would like a manager’s perspective on, let us know in the comments below.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized clinical and clinical revenue recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Medical Sales Job Interviews: What Hiring Managers Really Think About What You Wear

As a clinical sales rep, your boss will always be evaluating you, looking for how you handle issues and approach problems, and expecting constant improvement.  During the call is when you go into action.

First, ask him/her for the dates being considered.  If he/she only gives you one option, that means he/she wants to travel then, so make it happen.  The only possible valid reasons to inquire if you can schedule another date are scheduled surgery, a death in your family, vacation or you being out of your territory.  Their schedule is more complicated than yours most times, so they might not have much flexibility with the dates, even if they would like to.

Discover out if they would like hotel suggestions from you.  Before you give them a suggestion, call their assistant and ask what kind of hotels they like.  Keep in mind that your manager’s needs for a hotel are kind of specific, so suggesting the cheapest isn’t always a win.  They most likely aren’t going to have a car, so their hotel needs a restaurant in house or nearby and probably a decent workout room.  Sometimes they need a suite-type hotel because they are interviewing or need additional work space.  Choices are often determined by the company travel policy, but most are OK with mid-range hotels like Marriott Courtyards or Hampton Inns.

If you are offering hotel suggestions, do it within a couple of hours.  Your boss is probably in the process of laying out her schedule for the next few weeks, so getting the info to her sooner makes it easier to finalize and confirm her plans, which might even involve trying to coordinate travel with an event or show or field tour with another rep.  Respond with an email within 2 hours with the name and address of the hotel closest to you.  Pasting the info from the web site is a worthwhile touch—directions, numbers etc. at your boss’s fingertips.

Show that you pay attention to detail.  The hotel is probably near your house, so you stop by in the afternoon in business attire and ask to speak to the manager.  Be precious and explain that your boss is coming to tour with you and you wondered if the manager of the hotel could take some special care with your boss.  That can mean everything from a nicer room to a goodie basket in the room to just greeting ‘em by name.  A $10.00 Starbucks gift card and a pleasant demeanor can go a long way to enlisting the hotel manager’s help.  Maybe your boss is a runner.  Is there a wonderful health club nearby that you could get her a guest pass to?

Wait a minute, you say:  Did I sign on as a host or a sales rep?  Remember that you should always use the same skills internally as you externally.  And the difference between nice and great is only 10%.  Don’t both of those apply here?  Your boss is going to be helping you be successful, so why wouldn’t you wanna make her life as easy as possible as it pertains to traveling with you?  By doing those tiny things and having an awareness, doesn’t it position you as a winner?  History says yes.

Those same skills–asking the right queries, doing the research, going the extra mile, and making life easy for the manager who can make your life better are the same ones you got to help you get a position within pharma revenue.  All of these skills will help you stand out as a great candidate who gets the job and a sales rep who continues to make a outstanding impression on your boss.

–Kraig McKee, Senior Headhunter, PHC Consulting

PS – Don’t miss the ABC’s of Field Journey and Training Part 1

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized clinical and pharmaceutical sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Ask a Medical Sales Manager: ABC’s of Field Travel and Training (Part 2 of 3)

Sales goal planning needs more than a crystal ball.

The Rule of 78 is used in the diagnostic industry to calculate how much new business you need to close to hit your annual sales goal. It allows you to recalculate that increment or growth as the year unfolds.

You say, “Why do I have to recalculate, I have a sales budget that breaks down my goal by the month?”

I say “That’s great, tell me what new business you’ve to close for the remaining 9 months of the year if you missed your goal and didn’t sell enough in the first quarter.”

That’s why you need the Rule of 78.  It allows you to calculate how much new business you have to close to hit your growth budget based on where you’re at that time.

This tool is very worthwhile for reps formulating tactics to help Them achieve their goals. It is also very helpful for managers to help reps realize that there is a point of no return, i.e., a point in the year that they cannot “catch up”, even if they get a big order. The reason being, there aren’t enough selling opportunities in the year.

Before we work through an example, consider these facts:

1) The Rule of 78 (Ro78) assumes that you maintain your base business.

TWO) The “increment” is the amount of new business you got to sell to add to your base business to hit your sales goal.

Base business + New Business (growth or increment) = Your revenue goal for the year.

THREE) The Ro78 allows you to calculate in “real time”.

How much will you’ve to close to make up for an account that you lost in March?

Let’s look at some simple examples now:

Your sales goal for the year is $122,000 and your opportunity finished at $100,000 last year…so, $22,000 is your growth or increment.

The company wants you to grow your territory $22,000 larger than it was last year.

$100,000 + $22,000 = $122,000
Base Growth/increment Annual Sales Goal

$100,000-your total last year’s production.

It seems like you have to sell $10,166.67 (base +increment/growth) per month, starting in January (122,000 / 12 = $10,166.67)

That seems simple enough—but hold that thought.

This is where they get The Rule of 78.

January 12

February 11

March 10

April 9

May 8

June 7

July 6

August 5

September 4

October 3

November 2

December 1

The numbers to the right represent the number of selling opportunities in a year. You start in January with 12; February has 11, March 10 etc.

That equals 78 selling opportunities.

Now to the fun part.

It is the end of March and you’ve only sold $2,000 and you should have sold $30,499.98. ($122,000/12=$10,166.67 per month. $10,166.67x 3 = $30,499.98)

Tell me how much new business you have to close every month for the rest of the year to achieve your sales goal?

First, I need to calculate how many selling opportunities I have left in the year.

78 Total Selling Opportunities in a full year

-33 (Selling opportunities lost-Jan-12, Feb-11, March-10=33)

45 Remaining selling opportunities

Your annual growth budget divided by the remaining selling opportunities equals the new increment or growth that you have to sell each month for the remainder of the year.

$22,000(annual sales growth goal)-$2,000(your actual revenue for that period) / 45 = $444.44

Since you sold only $2,000 in January, February and March, your increment/growth went from $282.05 per month (total growth goal for the year / 78) to $444.44. That means that you can still hit your annual sales goal if you maintain your base business and add $444.44 of new business each month for the remainder of the year.

Try one yourself:

Use the same annual sales growth goal of $22,000.

You sold $8,000 worth of new business by June.

How much new business (while maintaining your base) do you need each month to hit your annual sales growth goal of $22,000?

1) Calculate the selling opportunities left in the year after June.

78-57(12-11-10-9-8-7) =21

TWO) Subtract the new business that you have done through June from your annual sales growth goal ($22,000-$8,000=$14,000) to derive the amount of new business you got to add each month for the last six months of the year ($14,000).

3) Divide $14,000 by the remaining selling opportunities (Twenty one) to get your new growth/increment-$666.66.

What does the $666.66 represent in this example?

That represents the amount of new business you have to add each month, beginning in July to hit your annual revenue goal of $122,000 while maintaining your base business.

It assumes that you sold $8,000 through June, when you needed to sell $11,000 to be on track to hit your annual growth budget of $22,000.

So, if you maintain your base business and add $666.66 of new business per month beginning in July, you will hit your annual sales goal. Did you notice that your increment more than doubled because you missed you goal for the first six months of the year?

This example is a little misleading, because technically, the rep could close a big order in December and hit his growth goal—but that’s a major gamble. I kept the numbers small to make the math easier. Realistic growth goals in today’s diagnostic market are somewhere between 8-30% and make the “Point of No Return” in June or July.

This model only applies to reoccurring consumables and doesn’t apply to capital revenue.

Here is a visual representation of The Rule of 78 based on needing to generate $22,000 growth for the year:  Click here to view the Rule of 78 Chart

Your thoughts? Musings?  Put Them in the comments or email me at: kraig@phcconsulting.com

Kraig McKee
Snr Headhunter

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Headhunter at the nationally
recognized clinical and clinical revenue recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Sales Forecasting: Use the Rule of 78

When managers journey with new medical laboratory sales reps, their focus is not just on what they know.  They’re trying to help identify what you need to be successful and point you in that direction, and evaluating how you take charge on your own of pursuing the information and the resources you need to be successful.

In other words, they wanna know if you are you a seeker.  Do you’ve the info I need? Do you know who might be able to help?  How do you take steps to resolve issues or needs?  Sometimes it’s a complex customer problem, but sometimes it’s as simple as:  How do I get my car fixed?  How often can I get it washed?  Am I allowed to take customer to lunch?  How do I sign up for direct deposit?  How do I buy a plane ticket for a customer?

Being a “seeker” is one of the key attributes that’s always present in winners.

If you’re not a seeker, it shows up like this:  When you’re questioned about your actions, it’s someone else’s fault:  “Why is your car so dirty?”  You answer:  “No one said me how often we could get it washed.”  A seeker would have asked.

One of my favorite dirty car stories:

Our organization had just gone through the J.M.O. (Junior Military Officer) phase and hired a training class full of JMO’s.  The new hires went through Ninety days of in-house training and were sent to their territories.  The sales trainer then field traveled with Them in their opportunity.  One new hire was an ex-Army helicopter pilot and a really pleasant guy.

He shows up at the airport to pick up the trainer (who flew from Boston to the Northwest to tour with this man) and sees him at the curb.  We’ll call the trainer Bob.  Bob sees the newbie, waves and heads for the car.  He opens the door, sticks his head in the guy’s car and says:  “Take this car and have it washed and the interior cleaned and then come pick me up.  I’ll stay here and make calls.”

Ninety minutes later the newbie is back at the airport and picks up Bob.  Bob gets in the car and tells the newbie, “If you ever have your car that filthy again when someone from the organization comes to journey with you, it could mean losing your job.  It goes without saying that you should never have a customer in a car that filthy.”

The newbie was rattled, but tried to pull it together for the rest of field tour.

What is the end of the story?  The trainer reported that the newbie would struggle and was ill-suited to a selling role.  The manager told she didn’t sense that the newbie was pursuing (doesn’t that mean the same as seeking?) the info and resources he needed.  He seemed to be in a bit of paralysis.

Well, this newbie resigned about 60 days later.  When he resigned, he told his manager, “Everyday out there is like a war”. “Out there” was defined as selling in his territory for an internationally known diagnostic company! Really admirable chap that had been very successful in the Army, but just wasn’t right for sales.  He was not a seeker!

A seeker understands that the end responsibility to acquire/identify information, resources or services he/she needs to be successful is theirs.  They understand that if they’re unsuccessful in the efforts to acquire that information or resource, they’re ultimately responsible for the outcome.  They apply that same logic to revenue success in the field and they’re focused on eliminating barriers to success.  Not just identifying ‘em and whining about them.  Eliminating them.  When the task/what needs to occur are beyond their career opportunity, they sell their manager on the concept and then solicit support from management.  They actively seek the resources they need.

The “seeker” attitude that’s going to help you be successful as a medical sales rep is also what’s going to help you land a position in pharma sales in the first place:  You got to be aggressive and go after the things that you need to succeed.  You solicit support, you tap resources, and you focus on identifying and eliminating the barriers in the way of your goal.

–Kraig McKee, Senior Recruiter, PHC Consulting

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Headhunter at the nationally
recognized pharmaceutical and pharma sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

Related posts:

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Ask a Medical Sales Manager: ABC’s of Field Travel and Training (Part 1 of 3)

But if I boil it down to the 3 essential things you have to know, it would be these:

1. Be there.  You must utilize social media.  The safest thing would be to say the more sites the merrier, but for those in a time crunch or just wanting the most bang for their buck, concentrate on the big 3:  LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter (although Google+ is coming on strong).  Not only does it help you actively search, it also helps you shape what potential hiring managers will see when they Google you.  You have tremendous power here to control their perception of you as a candidate.  Use it.
2. Post a professional photo–preferably, the same photo for all your profiles.  Many job seekers shy away from this one, but it will hurt you if you don’t have a photo.  If you want more details than that, check out this post on LinkedIn photos.
3. Use your social media resources to skip HR and contact hiring managers.  Take advantage of the networking you’ve got here.  Going straight to hiring managers will get you way more interviews than going through HR applications ever will.

Want more in depth info on this subject?  Click to go to this clip post on The Secret to Standing Out in Your Clinical Sales Position Search.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Top 3 Social Media Tips for the Medical Sales Job Search

Here’s the truth:  I’ve worked with hundreds of medical sales hiring managers and been one myself.  They like candidates who (1) have some sort of clinical or scientific background (not necessarily a complete degree); and (2) someone who’s proven they can SELL.  (I’ve placed many candidates with only one of those 2.)  I’ve never had one ask for a training certificate.

Prove your sales skills through your results at other positions (see backgrounds that can lead to pharmaceutical sales jobs).  If you’re a science geek with little sales background, you can turn yourself into an handsome candidate by career opportunity shadowing, reading sales books, watching YouTube, writing a great resume and polishing your interview skills (the interview is a sales call–you’re selling yourself).

Right here on this blog are over 700 articles FULL of awesome tips from a very experienced medical revenue recruiter.  If you feel that you must have training (don’t get me wrong, I can see why you would), I have 4 options for you:

1. Right on my PHC Consulting home page, you can get a no charge 2-hour audio conference full of tips and insights on getting a medical revenue job.
2. Sign up for a FREE training webinar that will give you lots of insight into How to Land a Pharmaceutical Sales Career opportunity.
3. Get my How to Get Into Pharma Sales Kit.  You do got to pay for this one, but it’s hundreds (and maybe thousands) of dollars less than a typical training program–and it’s got a full one-year money back GUARANTEE.  How many certification programs offer that?
4. Set up an appointment with me.  I’ve been placing candidates for over 12 years.  You can hire me as a career coach, and I will waste no time telling you exactly what you got to do to appeal to clinical sales hiring managers.

Get more tips for landing a medical revenue position.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Headhunter at the nationally
recognized pharmaceutical and clinical revenue recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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