Hiring Pharmaceutical Sales Reps? First–Review Your Current Team

Are you hiring sales reps for clinical sales, clinical sales, medical diagnostics, imaging sales, medical laboratory device revenue, biotech sales, pathology sales, surgical supplies sales, hospital equipment sales, pharmaceutical sales, or other healthcare revenue?  Your first step should be to review your current team:  What works in your sales reps and what doesn’t?  Then you can make a results-based hiring decision and be more confident in your choice.

Let’s be honest:  Most sales managers are so busy that they hire on auto pilot.  (Not that it doesn’t sometimes work for you.)  But if you’re the kind of manager who makes decisions based on what has yielded the best results (and in this case, that means hiring candidates who are similar to your best-performing salespeople), then you got to review your team.  You can do this as an overview, or you can use formal assessments.  What do you look for?   Experience, tenure, degree, personality profile, sales productivity, or other qualities important to the success of your team. 

For example, one of my clients just had a rep leave in Philly, so he calls me:  “Please provide me candidates for the Philly career opportunity.” 

My next question:  “Based on your experience, what would you say your ‘best fit’ best performer background is?”

After some thought, he gives me this information:

1. 1.  Ex-pharma with strong b2b exp, bus degree
2. 2.  Ex-pharma with business degree
3. 3.  Medical supply distributor with psych degree
4. 4.  MS/Molecular Vinology/No sales experience/Sales personality

All four profiles have performed at or above plan for the client.

When I pressed the manager for further insights, he said “You know, in the past we haven’t been able to get much sales experience in a range of 50-60K base plus 30 comp.  And the technical person (#4) who wanted to make a transition did do very well, but the ones with sales experience ramped up faster by at least 3 months.” 

I have discovered similar patterns in other managers who ask for candidates like #4, but who always move forward with candidates who have sales experience.  (With new clients, I start out sending both.)  When I discover this pattern, I point it out to the manager and then stop sending these candidates–in this case, the technical sales rep wannabes who aren’t making the decrease. 

See?  I was practicing results-based recruiting.  Once you’ve narrowed your search criteria, the whole process becomes faster, more efficient, and more productive.

Just some food for thought…

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Headhunter at the nationally
recognized pharmaceutical and pharma sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
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Hiring Medical Sales Reps? First–Review Your Current Team