Advice You - Business

For some executive hiring authorities who do not have any background in Sales, it can be a challenge to really know if they are making a good hiring decision when interviewing prospective Executive Sales Leaders, Managers, or quota carrying individual contributors. Why? Because any halfway

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

accomplished sales professional is capable of putting forward a sophisticated smoke & mirrors presentation in an attempt to close a deal.

The sales process and strategic complex selling can be somewhat mystifying for some executive hiring authorities. The whole interview/screening proces

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

Examples of combination products may in

gets even worse if an executive recruiter is in the mix who lacks any direct background in sales and is incapable of properly screening/interviewing candidates in depth as a result. This can lead to disastrous hiring decisions given most businesses will suffer dramatically if the individu

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

ls who own producing a company’s revenue fail to meet their objectives.

A number of executive hiring authorities have asked me for example questions/areas of focus that I concentrate on when interviewing Sales Executives with respect to a candidate’s “battlefield” acumen. The actual flow

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

of interview information is what really dictates how and in what order the questions are asked.

1.0 Tell me about the politically complex sales you've directly executed/contributed on as a Sales Rep, a Manager/Executive, a coaching Manager/Executive.

1.1 Describe your approach to sales st

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

ategy, planning and execution (including any "solution selling" methodologies you've consistently employed) within the targeted accounts described in 1.0.

1.2 Describe how you "mapped" out the various "players" in the accounts and your specific approach/strategy with each member you called

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

on within the targeted accounts described in 1.0.

1.3 Describe your approach to building/creating an opportunity within the targeted accounts described in 1.0.

1.4 Describe your method of approaching/building business relationships up/down/across the targeted account's organizations descr

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

ibed in 1.0.

1.5 Describe your approach to building and positioning a customer specific compelling value proposition at each of the levels you target within the accounts described in 1.0.

2.0 Describe an opportunity where there was no specific funding/budget originally identified/earmarke

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

for acquiring your products/solutions. Specifically describe 1.1 - 1.5, including how you dealt with competitive product solutions or competitive projects competing for the same funding pool.

3.0 Describe your approach to coaching sales reps specifically in the context of how you've coac

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

ed/influenced a sales rep's behavior within the applicable accounts described in 1.0 while specifically focusing on the coaching areas described in 1.1 - 2.0 above.

4.0 How many of your reps have been over quota? This is an important area. A sales manager can ride the success of a couple

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

of people that "blow out" their sales quota while others consistently under perform and waste precious resources. You want a sales manager that can get a large majority of his/her people exceeding quota. The object of this question is to drill down (with the questions above) on how the ma

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

Following aspects would a

nager worked with and developed the "under-performers", and if they knew when to draw the line and coach someone out of their company.

Most people directly involved in politically complex selling, versus simply flying a desk and coaching from the sidelines, can answer these questions with

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

lot of detail. The nature of the detail exposes if someone is just a gunslinger flying by the seat of their pants and/or lucky enough to be selling a product "that sells itself", or if they are deliberate in their approach to a sales process associated with consultative solutions selling

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

ethodologies in politically complex, multi-functional, hierarchical client situations (e.g., selling into matrix organizational structures within the Mil/Aero industry, or large international corporations). Drilling down on all the above in the context of someone being a coaching Manager/E

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

xecutive will tell you how well they are able to influence the results their sales team delivers versus simply being a choke point for information and data consolidation (i.e., manage sales funnel data).

A Manager/Executive that is a good sales coach can add an unbelievable amount of value

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

in the context of ensuring that the "right" deals are ultimately won (i.e., not all deals are good deals). A Manager/Executive that is a good sales coach can build a fantastic sales team that is welded together and that will walk through fire for their Manager/Executive/Company.

All of th

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

above questions should also be put into context with the size of the candidate’s prior employers and the market/brand recognition associated with what they were selling. Someone whose successful selling experience only consists of selling name brand industry leading products/services for

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

an acknowledged category leader could fall on their face walking into a never heard of them before start-up coming out of stealth mode attempting to close the company’s first sales.

Most of the above questions attempt to draw out a candidate’s method for producing a result/outcome. It is c

.

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

itical to make sure to drill into specifically - how - a candidate drove the results they are claiming. Focusing more one how someone produced a given result or outcome versus simply focusing on what results they produced will blow away a lot of the sophisticated smoke & mirrors any halfwa

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

accomplished sales professional is capable of putting forward.

Obtaining solid clear answers to the above questions/areas of focus will take an executive hiring authority unfamiliar with sales process and strategic complex selling a long way down the road to making a solid hiring decision

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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