When Is the Best Time To Present the 30/60/90-Day Plan?
The best time to present your 30/60/90-day plan is in your first face-to-face interview. In this difficult economy, many well-qualified people are applying for the same medical sales jobs that you are, so you’re going to want to come out of the gate strong. Don’t bother trying to bring it up during your phone interview—I don’t think you can present it well over the phone. I do think that you can email it to the hiring manager if you are trying to get the hiring manager’s attention and you’ve exhausted your other methods.
So, the optimum time to present your 30/60/90 is during your interview, when the hiring manager asks you something like:
“What will you do during X amount of time?”
“How do you think you will tackle this problem?”
“How do you think you will be strategic in this job?”
“Why do you think you’re a good fit for this job?”
“How can you overcome this challenge?”
“What will you do to educate yourself on this particular problem?”
“How will you attack this particular problem?”
“How will you decide which accounts to go see first?” (if you’re in sales)
“How will you decide which problems to prioritize?” (if you’re in a management or operations role)
“How will you work to make sure you provide the creative pieces that will make you successful in this role?” (if you’re in a creative position)
Basically, you’re presenting the plan when the hiring manager gives you an opportunity to talk about how you’ll go about this job—because the 30/60/90-day plan is a forward-looking document that outlines what you will do in the first 90 days after you’re hired. Why is this so great? Because it allows you to highlight your experience and understanding of the job in a much greater way than you will be able to by just answering interview questions. It helps the hiring manager to “see” you in the job by giving him a clear picture of what life will look like after you’re hired. It works for experienced candidates, it works for rookies, and it will work for you.
Can You Over-Prepare for Your Medical Sales Job Interview?
I don’t think it’s even possible to be “over-prepared” for your job interview. The better prepared you are, the more confident you will be–and that shows. Medical sales, laboratory sales, medical software sales, pharmaceutical sales, and medical device sales are all competitive areas, and you have to be ready. And especially in this job market, you’ve got to show up with your “A” game right off the bat to avoid getting eliminated from consideration. That means putting everything you’ve got into getting ready for your interview. When you think about your interview strategy, think about your goals. What do you want to accomplish in the interview?
- You want your potential boss to see how successful you are going to be in the job.
- You want to convince him that your product (you as a candidate) is the one he needs to solve his problem.
So, you’ve got to be able to address, with as much knowledge as you can, what the company’s issues are and how you are the best person to tackle them. That takes research and preparation. You’ve got to know what the company’s mission, goals, and biggest problems are.
The best way to showcase your interview preparation is with a 30/60/90-day plan. It’s a written outline of your tasks and goals for your first 3 months on the job. You have to do some pretty extensive background research to get one completed, but it’s worth it because it is the tool you need to accomplish your interview goals. Most people think about it in relation to sales jobs, but it’s completely adaptable to just about every job.
A 30/60/90-day plan shows the hiring manager that you’re going to be able to step right into the job without missing a beat. It helps him to see you in the job, because as you discuss your plan, you’ll be talking about you on the job. You’ll be able to demonstrate your communication and strategic thinking skills. You will be demonstrating your dedication and commitment to the company before you even have the offer.
That’s a significant amount of work, and a lot more than most candidates will do. But that’s exactly why this kind of “over-preparation” makes you stand out as a candidate who’s prepared for success.
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Why You Need a 30/60/90-Day Plan to Shine In a Medical Sales Interview
The best-prepared candidate for medical sales jobs is often the one who gets the offer.
And the hands-down, very best way to ensure that YOU are the best-prepared candidate is to construct a 30/60/90-day plan. It works for medical device sales, laboratory sales, pharmaceutical sales, medical software sales, or any kind of health care sales job.
A 30/60/90-day plan is a written outline of what you will be doing in your first 3 months on the job. It’s divided up into segments–your first 30 days, which are usually focused on training and the getting-to-know-everyone part; the next 30 days (the 60-day part), which is usually the getting-up-to-speed portion; and the last 30 days (the 90-day part), which is where you set goals for accomplishing on your own (like bringing in new accounts, going after new business, or otherwise contributing to the growth of the company).
These plans can be as detailed as you wish, or you can keep it simple. The important thing is to make it specific to the company you’re interviewing with. Not only does that allow you to demonstrate that you’ve done your homework on the company, it helps you talk to the hiring manager about specific things you’ll be doing, which helps him to see you in the job (which is half your battle).
Want more? They also help you have more control over your conversation with the hiring manager. It facilitates finding out what the hiring manger is really interested in, so that you can talk about what’s going to sell you as a candidate for the job.
The 30/60/90-day plan takes some effort to put together. The research on the company is the most extensive and time-consuming part (but you need to know that stuff anyway, right?) and then it takes some strategic thinking to actually write out the plan. But just the effort alone makes you shine in the interview because most candidates won’t go that far in thinking about their role at the company before they’ve even got the job. It makes the hiring manager look at you and think, “If this candidate will work this hard and show this much commitment to the company before we’ve even hired him, what will he do as an employee?” And THAT’S what you want him to think.
To really shine in the interview, you want to blow the hiring manager away with your focus, energy, initiative and dedication right from the start. The 30/60/90-day plan is the way to do that.
There are tools available to help you, complete with samples and actual fill-in-the-blank templates:
30/60/90-Day Sales Plan With Audio Coaching
30/60/90-Day Action Plan (for non-sales jobs)
If you’d like more information on how to land the job you want, check out our FREE, one-hour webinar:
A 30/60/90-Day Plan Can Help You Get the Promotion!
Usually, when you think of using a 30/60/90-Day plan, you associate it with landing a job at a new company–and it’s a fantastic tool for that because you’re demonstrating your skill, your understanding, and your strategic thought processes, among other great qualities. It’s even more impressive when you use it while transitioning to a new position, because it demonstrates that you understand the job and can do the job, even though you don’t necessarily have that much (if any) experience.
But, a 30/60/90-day plan is also a powerful tool when you’re going after a promotion within your own company. Watch to see me explain how you can use the plan at increasingly higher levels in the company, and what you have to keep in mind in that situation.
If Employers Could Be Sure Every Hire Would Add to the Bottom Line, They’d Be Hiring Machines
Of course, wouldn’t we all be hiring machines if every added employee increased profitability? I know I sure would. So, if YOU are the prospective hire, the closer you can come to this magical being–”the profit machine”, the closer you are to being hired.
The problem is most employees don’t turn out to be profit machines. Even when they are, their contribution may not be quite as clear as the owner or manager would like to see. Herein lies opportunity for your job search and your interview.
What am I implying? What am I saying?
Very simply, the smart job hunter should be thinking about more than simply finding a job. Suppose you land a job where your contribution to the success of the company (and for medical and health care sales, this means profits) is not so very clear. Maybe its worse than that. Maybe the hiring manager or owner has concluded that your role is a loser for the business. Your job security just went out the window. You can expect soon, and perhaps very soon, that you will be searching for a new position yet again.
The cure for this condition is to get ahead of the curve on the process. Place yourself in the role of the “magic profit machine”. You have to come to the party with a plan that says:
- I am going to hit the ground running.
- I am not going to waste any effort.
- This is what your business does.
- This is what I can contribute.
- This is how my contribution is going to make money for you each and every day.
Coming with this plan is not such a simple task.
You have to really understand your own skills. You need to clearly dissect how those skills can be applied to increase revenue, decrease cost, increase the client base, improve client retention, incrementally increase client revenue, improve the company’s capacity to grow, and so on.
You have to then get inside the hiring manager’s specific company and change the application of your skills into a real deliverable action plan that is compelling, simple, clear and enticing. Cause the hiring manager to feel urgency about making you a part of his team. Place yourself in a position that leads to increasing value and satisfaction from the hiring manager, owner, or company. As a result, earn support for more compensation in the future and growing job security from before you even take a seat on the first day at your new role.
What’s the best way to do this? Create a 30/60/90-day plan for your interview that’s detailed, focused, and as comprehensive as you can make it. It will show the hiring manager that you’ve carefully considered the needs of his company and how you can use your skills within the first 3 months on the job to make money. This kind of written outline will make a fantastic impression in the interview. Once you land the job, work your plan to be a magic profit machine.
Use a 30/60/90-Day Action Plan for Non-Sales Job Interviews
If you’ve read this blog at all, you’ll know how important a 30/60/90-day plan is to your job interview success. In most cases, we’re talking about sales jobs in the medical sales arena. But I often get questions from people who aren’t in sales jobs and they want to know if that kind of plan can help them, too.
The answer is absolutely YES.
A 90-day plan is critical to bring to every job interview. It works for any marketing or technical support role in medical or health care companies–not just for the sales jobs.
Why?
Watch the video and I’ll tell you:
- How the 30/60/90-day plan demonstrates that you understand the job and can do it
- Why the 30/60/90-day plan makes you stand out from the pack and showcases your drive and initiative
- A hiring manager’s secret fear and why a 30/60/90-day plan makes him much more comfortable hiring you
I would never go into any job interview without a written plan outlining for the hiring manager how I would attack the job and be successful at it. It’s that important. I’ve worked with hiring managers for over 10 years now (and been one myself), and they never fail to be impressed with a candidate who can create a good, well-thought-out plan.
Want a shortcut to success? Check out the brand new 30/60/90-Day Action Plan for Non-Sales Jobs kit at Career Confidential.
If a 30/60/90-day plan is good, would a 1-year plan be better?
I was recently asked this question by a laboratory sales candidate: “If bringing a 30/60/90-day plan to the interview is so impressive, would a 1-year plan be even better?“
Now that’s a go-getter!
But, my answer is: Maybe, but probably not.
I can see where there’s a possibility that someone with tremendous amounts of experience who’s going for a very high-level executive position might want to extend the plan out for a year, in the same way that someone who’s starting their own business would do–it’s a big deal.
A well-written 30/60/90-day plan is very impressive to hiring managers for a lot of reasons, and one of them is that not many people take the time to create one. So you’re already ahead of the game if you do. When you add in the advantages of your careful and thoughtful analysis for exactly how you’re going to be successful at this job (and make your new boss look great!) and the way it helps you turn the interview into a professional conversation rather than a question-and-answer session, you become a job-winning candidate.
I think the answer is that for most people in medical or health care sales jobs, a 90-day plan is going to be as far out as you need to go. You’re showing the manager how you’re going to transition into being a contributing, productive member of the team, and by 3 months in, you should be sailing along pretty well. And you’ll have additional goals given to you from your boss and your boss’s boss that you can’t predict right now–so there’s no point.
What do you think?
Listen to this audio of how to incorporate a 30/60/90-day plan into your interview.
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