Useful Advices - Business

A question I am often asked by my clients is should I hire someone who can sell but lacks industry experience; or should I search for someone who has been around the industry and has good product kno

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

wledge.

I advise them to hire a re who can sell, and teach them the specifics of the industry. Here is why.

I recently delivered am appointment setting program at a company in a vertical I do a lot

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

of work in. In the audience was a lady whom I trained at a competitor some six months ago. Before she came over to peak with I remembered her clearly. She was very outgoing, and I remember she spoke

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

o me at length when we first met, talking to me about her experience, and the challenges she faced in selling the products and services of the company.

It didn't strike me till this last encounter,

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

hat she had mentioned that she had deep experience in the industry. She knows a lot of people both on the customer side and the various providers. It was clear that she had a good understanding of th

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

e product, in fact her schooling was directly related to the industry, and she had kept her knowledge up by attending a number of continuous education programs offered by associations active in her i

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

dustry. She was a keep participant, open to learning, mostly due to the fact that despite her "industry experience", she had only made her target once over 12 years, with four different companies, th

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

current employer being her fifth in the industry.

What really got me to think about this more were tow prospect meetings I had the following day. One was with a VP of Sales in a "highly specialized

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

industry, who made a point of telling me that he only hired people who have product and industry experience. The other was with a Sales VP in the special chemicals field, who went out of his way to

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

tell me that he will hire anyone that can sell, and is not very concerned about the individual's product or industry knowledge. Key for this leader was that he hired "sales ability" as he called it,

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

I can always teach them about the product, I need someone who can find the right people to talk to and know how to talk to them". He went on describe his sales process, how he measured activities and

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

other sales related things that have helped him deliver year after year.

This reinforced a belief instilled in me by one of my first sales directors, who hired me despite the fact that at the time I

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

know little about the industry he brought me in to, but he felt I could sell and to him that was the key thing.

Many people I work with would rather spend money on "industry" knowledge or experience

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

rather than sales ability and attitude. But over and over I see successful companies focus on hiring those that can sell and have a winning attitude. They stay away from sales rep who may know peopl

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

in the industry (let's hire their book theory). Often these are the same industry experts who know all the reasons why things wont work, people wont buy, and how you - the employer - need to change

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

sometimes everything) to help them sell.

We recommend to our clients that they hire "sales people" to sell, and focus on teaching them the industry or company specifics. The alternative usually lead

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

to a lot of smart people who can tell you exactly why the numbers aren't there. They know everything about the product except how to sell. I often encounter people we train who tell us that "it is d

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

ifferent in this industry"; you can't sell if you don't know this or that, or him or her. The only accurate part of their statement is that they "can't sell" and their organization is not willing to

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

all them on it, especially since they hired them for the wrong reason.

Seems to me that if you need a CFO you're going to hire someone with a finance background, not industry expertise, why not appl

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

that logic to your sales force. Hire someone with ability and attitude, you can teach them about product, it does not work the other way around. If your goal is to increase sales, go for a sales rep

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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