Useful Advices - Business

Many recruiting ads and job descriptions include "knockout factors" that can actually screen out qualified sales candidates. One example is a requirement that candidates have an undergraduate degree, a graduate degree, or a degree in a specialized field of study suc

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

h as Engineering. Another example is a requirement that candidates have a minimum number of years of sales experience.

When my customers' recruiting ads and job descriptions include these types of knockout factors, I like to have a little fun with them. I say something li

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

Examples of combination products may in

"(Name), imagine that I have two candidates for your sales job opening. One of them has both the college degree and the five years of sales experience that are listed as minimum requirements in your recruiting ad. The other candidate doesn't have a colleg

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

degree, and she only has two years of sales experience. But, she has relationships with dozens of C-level executives that are good prospects for your company's products and services. She could easily book fifteen appointments during her first week on the job

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

Which candidate would you prefer?" As you might expect, my customers always choose the candidate with the relationships. That is when I have to deliver the bad news:

"(Name), unfortunately you will never see this candidate, because
d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro
she is being screened out by your knockout factors!"

If you want to improve the overall quality of your sales candidate pool, shift your focus away from education and experience and toward performance-based measures. How will you measure y

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

ur new salespeople's performance during their first thirty, sixty, ninety, and 180 days? What activities will you expect them to perform? What results will you expect these activities to produce, and in what time frame?

Here is an outline for a recrui

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

ing process that focuses on performance-based factors:

Write a Performance-Based Recruiting Ad: As you construct your ad, consider the following questions:

What kinds of companies or organizations are good prospects for your company's prod

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

cts and services? Your ad should state a preference for job candidates that have existing relationships with these kinds of companies and organizations.

Who are the most productive people (job titles) for your salespeople to call on? Your ad should state a prefer

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

nce for candidates that have existing relationships with people that have these titles, and/or a proven ability to prospect successfully to people at similar levels.

What specific sales production (such as pipeline dollar volume, sales dollar volume, etc.) do you

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

expect your new salespeople to produce during their first 90 days? Make this expectation crystal clear in your recruiting ad!

Scrutinize Resumes for Accomplishments: Smart salespeople know that results sell. When these salespeople prospect, the

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

Following aspects would a

talk to potential prospects about the results their companies have produced for customers. When they write resumes, they write about the results they have produced and their other accomplishments (awards, recognition, etc.).

Conduct Telep

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

one Screening Calls: For candidates that have interesting resumes, schedule a 20-30 minute telephone screening call. This will give you an opportunity to ask performance-based questions related to two critical performance factors: the candidate's relationships a

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

d their prospecting activities. Here are sample screening call questions:

Who do you know that might be a prospect for our company's products and services?

What relationships do you have that could be leveraged for appointments during your

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

irst few weeks on the job?

What activities do you typically include in your prospecting plan?

What percentage of your time do you spend on each activity?

What results have these activities produced for you in the past?

How long did i

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

take before you started making quota consistently in your current job?

Assess Qualified Candidates: For candidates that pass the telephone screen, gather objective information about their talents via specialized sales assessment tests.

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

he most effective sales assessment tests go beyond personality and behavioral traits and examine attributes such as Learning Rate and Reasoning Ability.

Conduct In-Person Interviews: Now you are prepared to conduct thorough, performance-based interviews.

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

Why? Look at the information you have collected! For each candidate that you are going to interview, you should have in your hands:

A resume that lists key accomplishments

Performance-based information collected during a telephone

.

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

creening call

Objective information about talents critical to sales success

If you ask performance-based questions and clearly outline your expectations for new hire sales performance, you will attract fewer poor candidates, as som

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

will de-select themselves. You will also attract more strong candidates, as they will no longer be screened out by invalid "knockout factors". The end result will be a steady improvement in the overall quality of your sales organization.

Copyright 2005 -- Alan Rig

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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