What the Heck Do I Do?

Do you recall that 70’s show “Mission Impossible”? I loved that show. It always started with an old fashioned tape recorder stating, “Good morning, Mr. Phelps…” Mr. Phelps would get an impossible mission.

I’ve recently interviewed people who succeeded in their own mission impossible: they transitioned from pharmaceutical sales into medical sales. I’ll be posting my interviews with these folks shortly. For now I want to share some interesting themes I’m seeing in how they were successful:

How to transition from pharmaceutical sales into medical sales.

1.)     Concentrate on your specialty call points. One candidate submitted his resume for a medical device role. He got a call within hours from the recruiter because of his respiratory call point experience. Over 300 people submitted their resumes for this job posting. Of these, 50 people got phone interviews. Of these 50 people, 5 got in person interviews.  List your call points: ortho, neuro, cardio, etc. And mention any major hospital accounts you’ve managed.

2.)     Recruiters are great, but in this case you want to go direct to employers. Start here: https://ssl.healthcarereps.com/Resources/Companies/CompanyList.aspx?CompanyTypeID=1 and here: http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/521.html You’ll want to go into the employer sites and look for jobs of appeal and submit your resume.

Your goal is to target about 30 employers. This is like farming: it’s hard work, and you have to be consistent, but it pays off. When you farm you plant seeds and the seeds come up a few weeks later. You don’t know where or when but they do come up. Then…

3.)     Go into Linkedin.com. There are 2 things you want to do next. A.) connect with people who work for that employer. Relationships are critical and Linkedin.com gives you those relationships. B.) Join a group. How to find a group? In “Search Groups” just put in key words, e.g. “Medical Sales” and your groups will come up.

In each group you’ll see these tabs: Overview, Discussions, News, Jobs, Subgroups, More. Make it a point to spend 20 minutes each day in discussions, news, and jobs.

This is a very effective form of “Social Media” and it appears a greater number of employers are using these forums to find talent. Makes sense to me.

Of course all of what I’m telling you is highly confidential. But since only 13 people read this blog, I think we’re OK. How did the opening scene to Mission Impossible end each week? Oh yes: “Should you, or any member of your I.M. force, be caught, or killed, the secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds.”

Good luck in your mission.

There is an old saying from Mark Twain: if you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you read the newspaper you are misinformed. Our problem today is we have too much information – and too little time. So where do we get fresh intelligence about the challenges of today’s job market? If you are a pharmaceutical or a medical sales professional you have unique challenges in this regard. Walk into an interview unprepared – or send out your resume without knowing the following – at your own peril.

I wanted to know the latest information candidates (pharmaceutical or medical) need to know to be competitive in their job search, so I went to recruiter and author, Tom Ruff. My question was: what are the 3 things you’d want every candidate to know in today’s job market?

A backdrop on Tom. He’s been in the recruiting business for 20 years. His book is “How to break into pharmaceutical sales. A headhunter’s strategy.”

In Tom’s summary of today’s economy, “I’ve seen the extremes in the job market. In the late 80’s it was the complete opposite of the economy now. We had a low supply of candidates and a high supply of openings. Candidates could be very picky. It was common to have 2-3 job offers without trying. Today there are many candidates and few job opportunities. Candidates are competing against their peers – many are actually over-qualified and find themselves competing against new colleges grads.

What it’s boiling down to: it’s all about profitability with clients (employers); is this person going to help my bottom line profitability? We hear this directly and indirectly from managers. So – personality was great 5-10 years ago but not the #1 criteria today.”

“What are the Top 3 Things candidates should know to be competitive?”

1.)     Results, recent results, and personality. This is the golden “package” employers seek to find. We have some classic issues – someone had a great track record 10 years ago, but not in the last 2-5 years. Managers typically want someone who is still “climbing” in their career and has not hit the apex. Your bragbook should be loaded with numbers.

2.)     The resume. No fluff. It’s all about results, numbers, accomplishments, and achievements. You can not have too many numbers. Quotes are nice (endorsements from employers and customers), but not vital. Sports or military background detail is consistently a reason you are hired. Both convey leadership.

You need to create word visuals of yourself in leadership roles. Leadership is desired, rare and you either have it or you don’t. Granted, there are seminars on improving leadership skills, but most leadership is innate. Show leadership in your resume; show leadership in your interview by being confident and matter of fact – not braggadocios.

3.)     Your ROI. Demonstrate results in the past where you contributed to your company’s bottom line. Someone somewhere is pulling out a calculator, looking at what you produced and how much you cost the employer in salary, benefits, etc. It sounds cold, but this is the new reality. The #1 reason you are being hired is the belief on the part of the employer that you – among all competing candidates – have the greatest potential ROI. Personality and chemistry are nice to have. But perceived ROI will win the day in today’s new job market.

My wife read item #3 and commented, “Honey, that sounds a lot like dating, people sizing each other up.” An interesting insight. I then was silly enough to ask her what her perceived ROI of me was. I’m still waiting on the answer. Looks like I need to work on my brag book.

Hello and welcome to a very innovative blog. We have one mission:  To make life a little easier for medical and pharmaceutical sales representatives.

We will be discussing “real world” ways around the challenges you face in your job search. We’ll be interviewing industry experts. We’ll be interviewing candidates as they move from pharmaceutical sales into medical sales (yes, contrary to popular belief, it can be done). We’ll talk about what employers “really” seek in candidates for medical and pharmaceutical sales roles – the answers may surprise you.

In a nutshell, we have a major challenge in this world: we have too much information and too little time. Which is the reason for this blog: to tell you the information you need to know to advance in your career.

Well, there is a second reason for this blog. To train you to say “This is how I did it” when someone says “You can’t do that!” Which is why we’ll have an ongoing series of candidate interviews called, “Yes you can” where we’ll discuss their strategies and tactics leading to job interviews and job offers. Fresh intelligence – straight from the field.

There is an old saying: “Follow the rules and be invisible. Be innovative and you’ll find success.” So, all you “out-of-the-box” rebels who don’t like to follow the old rules, stay tuned, you’re going to like where we’re going…