What training should the medical laboratory provide for sales reps?
In the clinical lab service/sales arena, what are the training needs? Should sales training be provided for laboratory sales reps, or are labs better off hiring sales reps with experience?
In this interview with Peter Francis, President and Senior Trainer of Clinical Laboratory Sales Training out of Baltimore, Peter discusses:
- factors and issues surrounding hiring and/or training lab sales reps
- the Law of First Knowledge
- what effect sales training has on long-term motivation and performance
Listen to the interview here:
In previous interviews, Peter discusses when clinical labs should hire sales reps, and when labs should consider hiring sales managers. I am so happy to have been able to interview Peter and share his insight on these issues with you.
Thanks, Peter!
80/20 Rule for Medical Sales Leaders
Does the “80/20 Rule” have you by the tail as a sales manager? Are you managing “top down” or “bottom up?” Through a quick exercise, learn how to identify if Pareto’s Principle is working for you…or you for it! In this short video, Ron Fox shares techniques to get more out of your team, get your top performers producing even more, develop your underperformers and position yourself to both retain and attract top sales talent.
Join Ron for the 3 Keys to Medical Sales Leadership Success. Learn how your sales reps can embrace and use negotiation to build relationships, techniques to build promote individual sales growth while building a stronger team dynamic and how to reverse the 80/20 rule in your favor so that you are managing top down versus bottom up.
You can register for this FREE webinar here!
When should you hire a Clinical Lab Sales Manager? How many reps? Or what revenue?
I was very lucky to connect with Peter Francis, President and Senior Trainer of Clinical Laboratory Sales Training Systems in Baltimore, at the last G2 LabCompete Conference. Peter’s focus is on the clinical laboratory sales force. In a previous discussion, we talked about when it’s appropriate for a lab to begin hiring sales reps, but today we’re talking about clinical lab sales management:
- when to hire a clinical lab sales manager
- how many sales reps are required to justify the need for a formal sales manager
- flexible options for a lab that’s not quite big enough to justify the position or if it’s in a transitional period.
I am very excited to offer you Peter’s expert advice on these issues.
Listen to my interview with Peter Francis here.
Check out these links to learn more about Peter Francis and Clinical Laboratory Sales Training.
Clinical Laboratory Sales Reps — When Should Your Lab Hire One?
Listen to this fantastic audio with Peter Francis, President and Senior Trainer of Clinical Laboratory Sales Training in Baltimore. I met Peter at the last G2 LabCompete Conference. (It’s also an opportunity for me to to underscore (1) what a terrific conference it was, and (2) what great networking opportunities conferences and trade shows are.) I’ve asked him some questions about when clinical labs should hire their first sales reps, in terms of what their goals are for growth and building business relationships. Here’s what he said:
Here are your links to learn more about Peter Francis and Clinical Laboratory Sales Training.
The Medical Sales Recruiter’s Report on The LabCompete Conference
The 3rd annual G2 Reports LabCompete Sales and Marketing Conference in Las Vegas was a success!
The Venetian is a very swanky facility with lots of amenities, and it was a great place for the conference. Having said that, though, being in it feels a bit like being a rat in a maze. It’s not set up so that you can get outside–it’s set up so that you can get to the slot machines and gambling tables. So I’d like to tell you that the weather was beautiful, but I can’t. I have no idea.
As promised, the lineup of speakers was really fantastic. There were some great sessions on integrating CRMs, the power of social media in marketing, specialized testing, and tons of other thought-provoking ideas. But I’ve got to say that the best presentation there was by Ron Andrews, the CEO of Clarient, which was just purchased by GE. He had a great message about focus, strategy, listening to your customer, and how important your sales reps are to your success.
I spoke about laboratory compensation and recruiting, really more about what compensation packages should include, and what kinds of benefits should go with them. The biggest pain point I heard from folks (and a general theme I noticed weaving its way throughout the conference), was a general frustration with the skill level and resulting success of laboratory sales reps, as well as the level of candidates hiring managers are seeing in the marketplace.
Those are really two different issues, even though they are related….but if what you’re doing isn’t working, then you should do something different. The first part of solving those issues is finding the right people. I think a lot of companies don’t know that they should (or are reluctant to) access a recruiter who specializes in their area and can provide great candidates rapidly–AND who can provide insight, based on past experience, into what will work best for individual companies.
For instance, we received a post-conference call from a pathologist who wanted to hire someone as soon as possible for a sales role. His takeaway from the conference (that his marketing reps attended) was that he needs to hire someone who’s already done that particular sales process. For a smaller company like his (between $5-$10 million), that’s a good bet. There’s not a lot of resources to spread around and someone who has absolutely already done that exact job can hit the ground running. A larger company with more resources, on the other hand, needs to put together a sales training program so that there’s consistency in the sales force. That set up allows for a wider pool of candidates to choose from who have the basic skill set needed but can be trained in the specifics for that company.
Speaking of sales force management: who is your sales rep reporting to? This is another area where a relatively small change can result in a huge positive impact for a company. If your sales rep reports to a lab manager, pathologist, or even the CEO, you’re missing a tremendous opportunity. Those folks just do not have the time, attention, and the love that a sales rep needs to maximize performance. That sales rep needs to speak to someone every day–to share issues, brainstorm, problem-solve, and keep a managerial (unbiased and critical) eye on their performance numbers.
I advise companies to take a hard look at how their sales force management is set up–who’s managing it and what that process looks like. What I’ve seen across the board is that if you have a strong leader in place, your sales reps as a whole become better. And if you have an under-performing sales rep, that leader can help you exit that person and replace him with someone who is a better fit.
What do you think? Did you attend the conference? What made the biggest impact on your thinking for the future?
Hiring Medical Sales Reps? 5 Tips on Preparing for the Interview
What’s the most important goal for a medical sales manager? Building a top-performing team. To do that, you need to hire top-performing sales reps.
But, because sales managers have (usually) not been taught how to conduct a good interview, and often rely on instinct to identify a new hire, they can make mistakes. The “hunter” they thought they were hiring turns out to be a mediocre sales rep who happened to be a great interviewer and rapport-builder.
How do you avoid hiring mistakes?
1. Identify what you need.
Your first step should always be to review your current team. What already works well for your team is very likely to work well in the future. You can use personality assessments (which are very effective), or look for similarities in experience and education.
Define your performance expectations for your sales reps, and use them to look for new hires. You have to know what you’re looking for in order to find it.
2. Make a list of questions to ask.
Once you have your goals in mind, it becomes easier to build a set of questions that will reveal if the candidate can fulfill them. Having a written list of questions to refer to helps you focus more on the candidate’s responses.
Behavioral interview questions are fantastic for drawing out what a candidate can really do. How do they handle the competition, look for opportunities, or deal with setbacks?
Are they continually sharpening the saw? Have they read any sales books lately?
Most important question: ask them directly how they will achieve the results you need in that position. (Hint: if they bring out their 30/60/90-day plan, you have likely discovered a winner.)
3. Tailor your interview to the candidate.
Just like candidates should target their resumes to highlight why they’d be a good fit for the job, you should read the resume closely in order to determine strengths and weaknesses that can help you create your interview questions.
3. Know what you’re willing to be flexible about.
Are you willing to take a candidate with less experience but the right background/personality?
Is your approach to hiring sales reps that you want someone “trainable” or very experienced?
Must that person have experience in medical sales, or are you willing to consider transferable skills?
4. Know what you can offer to reel them in.
You’re going to have to work a little harder to snag a true hunter.
What salary range can you offer? What about bonuses/percentages?
Do you have any room to negotiate benefits?
Where are your opportunities for advancement?
5. Pay attention.
This sounds basic, but it’s just as important that you listen to what a candidate doesn’t say, as to what he does.
Watch body language, and don’t be afraid to allow a little silence during the interview to see how the candidate fills it.
Take notes to refer to later, when you’re making the decision.
Always check references.
And don’t forget, you can always make your your interviews faster, easier, and much more effective by choosing candidates who have been pre-screened and pre-qualified by the medical sales experts at PHC Consulting.
Hiring Sales Reps? Honestly?
It usually feels risky to hire someone. You’re taking a chance that this particular sales rep can do the job that will help you keep your job. So what’s a smart medical sales manager to do? Eliminate as much of the risk as possible.
Michael Mercer’s article, 3 Ways to Catch Sales Applicants Who Lie to You (which I found on The Sales Hunter), offers some great tips to help you turn the hiring process from a gamble into a sure thing:
1. Administer personality tests.
2. Use specific techniques (“tricks”) that put less-than-honest candidates on notice…but won’t offend truth-tellers.
3. Use your application form to encourage truthfulness.
(Or, you could go the simple, cost-effective route and get your pre-screened, pre-qualified, fully-vouched-for, top-performing medical sales and marketing professionals straight from the Medical Sales Recruiter…)
Sales Managers – Candidate Safety Balanced Against Travel Costs?
Job interview scheduling is usually a straight-forward process for hiring managers, but occasionally there are snags like this one:
My client booked my female candidate on a 7am flight (planning to interview her that day) with a same-day return arriving back home at 1am. The candidate was not happy for a couple of reasons—(1) that meant she would have to be up around 4am to get ready, get to the airport, and get through security in time for her flight, only to have to freshen up in the airport bathroom before the interview (she felt that it wouldn’t allow her to make her best impression) and (2), finding her car at 1am in an airport parking garage to go home wasn’t her idea of a safe thing to do.
So why would a well-meaning company do that? Sometimes companies schedule same-day flights out of consideration for a candidate who has to take off work, to avoid making them take any more time off than necessary. Sometimes it’s a cost-cutting measure for them, and sometimes it’s even a strength test to see how well the candidate performs in difficult situations. And sometimes, it’s just a last-minute booking issue.
These can all be valid reasons, but when the schedule becomes extreme like this one, I think it sends the wrong message about the company to the candidate: that the company’s cheap and doesn’t care about its employees, which means it won’t take care of them in the long run. That kind of message could scare off a great candidate. What’s worse—it could cause safety liability issues for the company.
What’s most important to you when you schedule candidate interviews? Making a great impression? Saving money? What other factors do you consider?
Social Media Trends in Pathology
I’ve recently come across a great blog covering topics in pathology, healthcare IT, laboratory information systems, and more: Pathagility.
There’s a good article on Social Media in Pathology – Game Changer, that reinforces just how much social media is becoming a huge factor in such a wide variety of areas, in this case the pathology/laboratory field. It’s just one more example of how social media is transforming our careers, as it has with networking, medical sales job searches, healthcare data management, and even employee retention programs.
Check it out, and have a great day!
How to Hire Hunters for Medical Sales
Medical sales managers: Do you know the secrets to reeling in top-level talent?
When HR can’t find the hunters you need, do you know how to find them yourself?
Eliot Burdett from Peak Sales Recruiting has a fantastic post on How to Hire Hunters for your sales team:
- Where to find them (since they’re not looking for you–they’re selling)
- What to look for (top personality traits to look for)
- How to interview them (no one’s as good at interviews as sales reps–ask the questions that matter)
- How to reel them in (what they need to know to join your team)
It’s a sharp article and I highly recommend that you check it out.
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