Medical Sales Summit 2001 Coming October 25th!
Click here to get all the details about the Medical Sales Summit 2011
The Medical Sales Summit 2011 is a go!
It’s been a dream of mine for several years now to bring together the best of the best in medical sales–and it’s happening in October!
I’m putting together a top-notch education and training event for medical sales reps, medical sales managers, and even for those who are trying to break into medical sales–3 separate tracks so that each group gets targeted information. And the networking opportunities will be tremendous.
There’s a sizeable discount for registering early, so find out all the details about the Medical Sales Summit (and how to register) by clicking here.
I can’t wait to see you there!
Clinical Lab Sales Strategy: Personalized Sales
Peter Francis, President of Clinical Laboratory Sales Training, has an outstanding article for laboratory sales reps in the Medical Laboratory Observer’s August magazine: Personalize your lab’s outreach selling strategy, inside and out.
Personalizing your sales process will shoot you past the barrier between "good" and "great."
He offers some great insights into the sales process, and leads you through the how’s and the why’s of personalizing your customer relationships to boost your sales and gain new accounts (even those who aren’t having issues with their current suppliers).
You’ll learn the process of creating a strong business rapport through what are actually very simple ways to make your customer feel important on a personal level and not just like another account.
What is BioSpace?
BioSpace is a website that should be on the top of your “go to” list if you are in any kind of sales position in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, or clinical-related field. The education you’ll get there is phenomenal.
It is a fantastic “catch-all” site for life science professionals. You can get the latest biotech headlines (you can even search by region or by disease), search for jobs within biotech or pharmaceutical, post your resume, check out companies, participate in forums, research company profiles, find out about biotech industry events, and more (like articles for life science professionals who want to get off the bench).
BioSpace also offers related websites for medical device and diagnostics, as well as clinical research. All in all, it’s a very well-run site worth checking out if you’re trying to transition in or grow your career in the medical sales field.
Medical Sales Summit Coming This Fall
Medical Sales Training and Networking Opportunity this Fall…
If you are a medical sales rep, a medical sales manager, or want to be employed in the medical sales industry, then you need to know about the Medical Sales Summit I am putting together in a few months. It’s been my dream to have a gathering like this for the medical sales community, and I’m making it happen: a one-day conference in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area to get the freshest ideas for building your sales, your business, and your career that incorporates some truly amazing networking opportunities.
And here’s the really exciting thing: you have the very unique chance to actually shape the content of this conference.
Right now, there is a LOT of room for YOU to customize this summit so that it EXACTLY fits your needs. What would help you advance your medical sales career the farthest and the fastest?
Click on this 2-minute information video about the Medical Sales Summit I’ve made for you…see what I have in mind for the Summit, and then there’s a survey right on the page for you to give me your input about what you’d like to see happen there–location, topics, speakers (maybe you’d like to be one?) and more.
Your answers will have a direct impact on the shape, the content, and even the location of the Medical Sales Summit. Find out more and tell me what you’d like to see, learn, and do at the Medical Sales Summit this Fall.
Want a Medical Sales Job? Get B2B Experience
If you’ve seen any postings at all for medical sales jobs (including some job postings on PHC Consulting), you’ve seen more than a few that say “B2B sales experience required” or “preferred” or whatever. It may be frustrating to you if you don’t have that, and you don’t see why it should make a difference.
In the video below, I’m going to talk to you about why B2B sales experience is so valuable in medical sales, and how that experience can give you a serious leg up when it comes to landing a medical sales job:
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!
Sales Training Video: Are You Making This Medical Sales Mistake?
Here’s an interesting story from Mace Horoff about a mistake he made as a surgical sales rep that cost him the sale. It’s a common mistake in sales technique among reps in medical device sales, surgical equipment sales, and laboratory sales. Have you made this error?
YouTube (where I found this video) is a great resource. Don’t forget to check out the Medical Sales Recruiter’s YouTube Channel for insider tips specifically for medical sales reps!
The National Sales Meeting: Will You Boost Your Career or Trash It?
Don't be this guy at the National Sales Meeting
When you go to National Sales Meetings, don’t forget about your family at home.
Don’t do anything stupid. Don’t put your job in jeopardy for any reason, especially in this economy…it’s a difficult time to be without a job looking for one, and you don’t want to be having that discussion in your next medical sales job interview. Just a warning: Don’t drink too much, don’t talk too much, and don’t do anything your mother would be ashamed of. There are lots of ways to raise your profile at work and impress the higher-ups, but misbehaving at a national sales meeting isn’t one of them.
Of course, you can drink a glass of wine here or a beer there, or whatever, but you should not be inebriated at the meetings. You should always have your head about you, pay attention to what’s going on around you, and look for the big guys in the company to have conversations with them….it’s a great opportunity to boost your career. You’ll learn more about the health care products you sell, your company, and what’s going on in it. They will notice you one way or another, and it’s up to you to determine how they see you. Make sure you impress them.
LinkedIn Group for Medical Sales Reps
What LinkedIn Sales Group should you join?
Ours!!!
Sales Café: Sales Rep Careers
This group is all about the sales representative. We will provide cutting edge tips, tools and information about the sales rep and how they can take their career to the next level. Our topics will include training, tools, jobs, interviews, career management, and more.
Here’s the link:
http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2416658/
I look forward to connecting with you there!
Use the 80/20 Rule to Boost Your Sales Performance
80% of you won’t agree with this. 20% will:
100% – 20% = Failure for a medical sales rep
How can that be?
If you are a field-based medical sales, laboratory sales, medical device sales, or pharmaceutical sales rep, don’t you always have more tasks to accomplish than time to do them?
Hello 80/20 rule!
Simply stated, the 80/20 rule says:
- 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your accounts.
- 80% of your problems will come from 20% of your accounts.
- 80% of your peers will try, 20% will succeed.
- 80% don’t understand your technology. 20% do.
- If you make 10 prospecting calls, 2 or 3 are usually decent prospects. Which means 80% are “not worthy”, 20% are.
- If you attend a “cross silo” meeting within your company, 80% of the people will be players, 20% will be losers less than winners.
- If your organization notices a small problem with a lot of reagents they manufacture (not a deal breaker–the reagent still works, it just doesn’t work as well as it should), 80% of your customers won’t notice or require help, but 20% will.
As a rep, you may not even question the rule. After all, in most territories, the top 20% of accounts produce 80% of the revenue. From the first day on the job, you are trained and driven to make you sure you exceeded the needs and expectations of those top 20% accounts because they controlled the success of your territory. Focusing on the other 80% of your accounts while neglecting the top 20% will ensure you don’t meet your sales plan. Even if the other 80% love you and your offerings, they normally aren’t big enough to be able to buy more to make up for the loss in your largest (the 20%) accounts.
Here’s the management application of the 80/20 Rule: “Feed the eagles and starve the turkeys.” A manager should spend the most time feeding the eagles: traveling, training and working with the reps who are doing the best–the “high flyers”, the eagles, the top 20%. Starving the turkeys refers to the other 80%. They either have to move up with the eagles through positive actions and better performance, or they probably will perish.
So now that you understand the power of the 80/20 rule, how can you use it to your advantage as a field-based sales rep?
- Any marketing or sales promotion you design or implement should be geared/designed to appeal to your top 20% of accounts. They usually have the financial ability to buy what you are offering–if they want it. Many of the smaller accounts may like what you are offering and the special “deal”, but they don’t have the financial wherewithal to buy, even if they want to. Marketing departments normally look for feedback from the field prior to designing and launching new marketing programs. Have the marketing gurus come out and travel with you in your 20% accounts so they will understand the needs of your largest customers.
- When you are setting your scheduled calls for the week, make sure you spend at least 80% of your time in the field. Back in the day, we used to call it “belly to belly” selling (I think that actually may be a Tom Hopkins saying). Out of 5 business days, you should spend at least 4 (80%) in front of customers. There aren’t too many sales you can make if you aren’t in front of the customer. Don’t even think about going off on the “Well-what-about-telesales,-they-aren’t-in-front-of-the-customer tangent”. You get my point. 80% of their time should be spent on the phone, which, for them, is in front of the customer. That is their “belly to belly selling”.
- If you make 5 presentations in a week, only one is likely to be a real possibility. Now you could argue that a 20% closing ratio is pretty poor. That may be true in some applications, but in others, closing 1 out of 5 would be a great closing ratio–what if you were selling airplanes or some other really high-priced item? Maybe 2 or 3 out of the five proposals you met will close. That would be the exception, but still, with the 80/20 rule in mind, it will make you “prove” to yourself that they are a real prospect, even if you have a dose of skepticism (because of what you know about the 80/20 rule). This mindset can really help you when you are forecasting and trying to assess the probability of closure in a certain time period.
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