Sales Job Interview Questions & Sales Interview Tips » Pharmaceutical Sales

Is Your Sales Manager Younger Than You?

Sales Recruiter — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:51:07 +0000

Back in the day, seniority counted. For a lot. It was an orderly progression up the career ladder, many times within a single company, and if you were good at your job, you’d likely get your turn in management. Not anymore. For one thing, career paths are not what they once were–it’s more common to not only job-hop, but to career-hop. In addition, technology is advancing exponentially, and the one with the latest knowledge is going to have the jump on promotions. None of this is big news. However, because of all this flux, many older workers are finding themselves working for a manager/supervisor/boss who is younger than they are, and not all of them deal with that very well, and it can be a major stumbling block for older job candidates–something to keep in mind when you’re interviewing.

Here’s a great article (Help! Save My Career! My New Boss is Just a Kid!) that offers some really good advice for someone in that situation, including ways to position yourself for a promotion. Of course, the main point is “Get over yourself!”, which I whole-heartedly agree with. Don’t think some young whippersnapper can’t teach you a thing or two just because you have a lot of experience. There’s a reason that young person got the job. Find out what it is and see what you can learn from it, so that you can advance your career, too.

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Negotiating Commission Packages for Sales Jobs: What to Know

Sales Recruiter — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:45:46 +0000

Here’s an interesting article from The Ladders on Negotiating a Bigger Sales Package. It includes definitions of eight types of sales and/or commission packages, discussions of the pros and cons of each, and negotiating tips for improving your deal:

Straight commission – just like it sounds…you get paid for what you sell

Variable commission – commission varies according to size of sale, new accounts, or other circumstances

Draw against commission – sort of a loan that you might utilize in the beginning of your position or sales cycle

Advance against commission – like a draw, but more of an occasional event

Base plus commission – base salary that doesn’t change, plus commissions off your sales

Salary – straight pay, no matter how much you sell

Salary plus bonus - salary plus one-time bonuses, as you meet certain requirements or at the company’s discretion

Residual commission – keeps paying even after you move on

Sales jobs include as wide a variety of pay structures as there are things to sell, and knowing how to navigate and negotiate your way through will benefit you in the long run. Generally, base plus commission is standard, and desirable. Straight commission is not as good (I think) because that means that the company isn’t investing in you–it’s more of a sink-or-swim situation. Straight salary isn’t as good because you don’t get rewarded for your success, so where’s your motivation?. Base pay plus bonuses are more often found in marketing arenas.

If you’re in an area where you can’t negotiate commissions, you might find room to maneuver in company cars, trips, and other extras, sometimes in one-off deals. Your recruiter can help smooth those kinds of discussions with the hiring company, giving you advice, feedback, and a realistic idea of what you can expect.

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How to Prepare for a Sales Job Interview

Sales Recruiter — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:53:08 +0000

Job interviews are the most critical sales calls of your career. You would never go into a sales call or presentation without extensive preparation: a solid understanding of what they need and how you can provide that, why they should choose you (your product), and answers ready for any objections. The same is true for job interviews. You’re going to have to go the extra mile (especially in this economy!) to land a position in sales, but here are several great ways to set yourself apart from the competition. Doing all of them will definitely make you a standout candidate! Here’s how to prepare for a sales job interview:

1. Research the company. There is no substitute for doing your homework. Know what the company does, what its current issues are, and what the future plans include. Your job is to find out what you can do for them. Your research gives you material to talk about during the interview and a way to custom-fit your answers to their specific questions.

2. Build a brag book. Click the link for the video and more explanation, but basically it’s a collection of awards, sales rankings, successful projects, letters from happy customers or managers, and so on. When you present it during the interview, it showcases your presentation skills as well as your accomplishments. Here’s a link to a podcast if you need it.

3. Create a 30/60/90-day plan. This kind of plan is a written demonstration of what you will do for the company in your first 3 months on the job–how you will get your training, how you will transition into being a contributing member of the sales team, and so on. Here’s a link to a video and a blog post that explains them in more detail, but if you need more help, you can download samples and a template with audio coaching from the Sales Recruiter. This kind of plan will definitely get the attention of the hiring manager.

4. Read my Tips on How to Ace Your Medical Sales Interview. The same principles are true for all kinds of sales jobs. Also, here’s an article on Sales Interview Questions for you. Think of your interview as a sales call, and act accordingly.

5. Consider custom coaching. Most people need no more than an hour. Ask the questions you need in a private, one-on-one conversation to improve your personal situation. I’ve been a medical sales recruiter for over 10 years now, and I was in the medical sales area before that as a sales rep, regional manager, and national accounts manager. The sales process, skills, and hiring issues are the same across the board. I can go over your resume with you, critique your answers to interview questions and prepare you for the interview, give you insider tips, teach you how to negotiate and recognize a fair offer, build your personal brand, or even decide between job offers. Career coaching works.

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How to Prepare for a Behavioral Job Interview in Sales

Sales Recruiter — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:26:29 +0000

A behavioral job interview is a popular interview tactic for sales jobs. It focuses on finding out how the candidate handled (behaved in) specific job-realted situations. In sales, customer interaction is key—so how you handle people in a wide variety of situations, under pressure, in different circumstances, becomes a critical factor to hiring managers.

To help you, here’s a link to a video that I made about how to handle behavioral interviews. Some of the main things to keep in mind are to have lots of stories ready that highlight how skilled you are, and it’s important that you are able to quantify your examples whenever possible. (What happened when you had an unhappy customer? How did you increase sales and by how much? How did you save the company X amount of dollars?) I’ve also provided a link to How to Survive a Behavioral Interview for more tips, and a lengthy list of possible behavioral interview questions for you to think about.

Important tip: make sure you have a brag book and a 30/60/90-day plan ready to go. A brag book will demonstrate how you handled particular situations, since you’ll hopefully include letters or e-mails from satisfied customers or happy managers, successfully completed projects, and lists/charts of how much money you’ve saved or made for the company. A brag book covers what you’ve done in the past…a 30/60/90-day plan covers what you’ll do in the (immediate) future. It’s a list, segmented in 30-day time spans, of what you’ll do to get trained and up-to-speed in your new company so that you can be a successful hire for them as fast as possible. For more information, click here. For a template of exactly how to do one, click here.

Good luck.

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Podcast: Brag Books Increase Your Job Interview Success!

Sales Recruiter — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:20:14 +0000

Do you have a very important interview? Make sure you have a brag book. Brag books can be an absolutely critical way to tip the scales in your favor in an interview. Not only do they highlight all your wonderful qualities, they allow you to demonstrate those intangible skills that make a great impression. In this economy, you’re going to need all the help you can get for just about any job in medical sales, laboratory sales, medical device sales, imaging sales, biotech sales, or especially pharmaceutical sales. So, for your job interview emergency– BREAK THE GLASS!

What do you get for your $17.00?

What a brag book is
Why it definitely helps you shine in the interview and stand out over other candidates
How to make one–with specific examples, in great detail
When to introduce it in the interview–what to say, and how to say it, even if you’re not directly asked to show it

How important is your job interview? BREAK THE GLASS!

PODCASTS

Polish Up Your Brag Book

Once you purchase the podcast, a link to it will be sent to your email.

See you at the top.

Peggy

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Should you e-mail your 30/60/90-day sales plan to the hiring manager?

Sales Recruiter — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:12:11 +0000

As a Sales Recruiter, I recommend to all my candidates that they create a 30-60-90-day sales plan to present to hiring managers or hiring teams during job interviews. Simply put, a 30-60-90-day sales plan is a document that spells out how you will spend your time in the first 30 days, the first 60 days, and the first 90 days on your new job. To do one correctly, you have to research the position and the company, and you have to analyze the job so that you can lay out the steps to success. It takes some effort, but the results are almost always worth it in terms of great job offers.

In an ideal situation, you bring your 30-60-90-day plan to the interview and “wow” the hiring manager when you bring it out and present it during your conversation. You ask the hiring manager for input during the interview, and in your follow-up thank you note, you should attach your sales plan with the changes that the hiring manager suggested.

Less than ideal, but better than nothing: you don’t get a chance to present your 30-60-90-day plan during the interview, but you realize that thank you notes can be second chances. Either you attach your sales plan to your thank you note (which points out how the information you gained during the interview is included), or you put a shortened version of a 30-60-90-day plan in the body of the note if you think he might not open the attachment.

What if you can’t even get the interview?

If you can’t even secure an interview, this might be a good time to e-mail your 30-60-90-day sales plan to the hiring manager with the subject heading of:

“This is how I can help your company”

“Here’s my plan for increasing your sales”

You get the drift…

This is an attention-grabber. It’s a way to entice the hiring manager into meeting with you. You’ve probably already sent your resume, which hasn’t helped, so it’s another opportunity for contact with out seeming annoying. Showing what you can do for the manager and the company from the first few days of employment is powerful, and has a decent chance of securing a meeting.

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How to Use Your 30/60/90-Day Plan After You Get the Job!

Sales Recruiter — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:42:18 +0000

If you’ve created a good 30/60/90-day sales plan before you start your job, you have a road map to success already. Don’t assume that because you got the job, you can just toss it and go with the company flow. That’s a little like “bait-and-switch.” Most likely, your manager hired you in part because of your sales plan. So, the first thing you should do after you start your job is to follow your plan!

You’ve already researched the specific company training, product training, or sales training that you need, so start setting that up. Get to know your co-workers, support staff, and customers. Learn the company culture and corporate systems.

The most important thing you can do is to get feedback from your manager. No later than one month into the job, meet with your manager to assess how you’re doing. Having been on the job for that long, you will be able to rework the 60-day and the 90-day part of your plan if necessary, and you can take that re-written plan to your meeting for input on how to adjust it further.

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Key Words on Medical Sales Resumes

Sales Recruiter — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:48:03 +0000

How do you get the attention of a recruiter?

Follow up phone calls can only get you so far. What you need are the right keywords on your resume.

The right keywords on your resume will flag you in a search. So, if you are looking for a management position in a diagnostics sales force (and you aren’t currently in that position or your company has some wacky title system), you need to consider putting a list of keywords across the bottom of your resume that would show up when a recruiter runs a keyword search on their ATS (Applicant Tracking System). For example: “regional sales manager,” “clinical diagnostics”, “sales”, “management”, etc. would be a good place to start.

If you’re interested in going into Surgical Sales (and aren’t there now), you may want to add “OR”, “operating room”, “surgical”, “surgeon”, “physician”, and so on. Get the idea? You might ask how a recruiter would view this addition to your resume…I can tell you that I appreciate innovative ways that candidates separate themselves from the pack!

For more extensive resume help, as well as an experienced recruiter’s advice on cover letters, references, brag books, technology sheets, and 30/60/90-day sales plans, click here.

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A virtual ride-along: interviews with medical sales reps

Sales Recruiter — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:27:54 +0000

I’ve said that if you are interested in a job as a medical sales rep (in pharmaceutical sales, medical device sales, laboratory and clinical diagnostics sales, or pathology sales) you should do certain things: study sales, have some sales experience, and especially do a ride-along with someone who works in the specific field you’re interested in. Well, have I got something great for you: a virtual ride-along (it doesn’t replace the real thing, but it’s a perfect starting point).

Aaron Stahl e-mailed me recently to bring my attention to his website (www.e-shadow.com) that prints interviews with people who work in particular fields. He’s got one with a medical device sales rep and one with a pharmaceutical sales rep. There’s some very candid, what’s-a-typical-day-like information, as well as advice on what steps you can take to enter this field…like taking a few classes in anatomy and physiology or medical terminology if your background is not in science. They also point out how hard it is to get your foot in the door…the pharmaceutical sales rep says that it took him over a year to get hired because of the heavy competition. All the more reason to have The Medical Sales Recruiter on your side! (if I could do Superman music here, I would)

Want more help from the Medical Sales Recruiter? Try audio coaching–this product covers every aspect of your bid to get a great job in medical sales, from how to build your resume with the proper keywords, to which documents to bring to the interview (like a brag book, a technology sheet, and a 30/60/90-day sales plan).

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Podcast: Why healthcare, medical, or laboratory sales?

Sales Recruiter — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:16:55 +0000

Good sales skills transfer easily from one industry to another, so why should you consider healthcare sales? Besides the fact that this area is continually evolving and changing with leaps in medical technology that will keep your job interesting and rewarding, healthcare sales are recession-proof. A bad economy doesn’t affect the healthcare industry with nearly the impact it has on other industries.

(Want to find out more about how to successfully transfer to medical sales? See How to Get Into Medical Sales – Volume I: The Documents. Audio coaching from Peggy McKee will help you understand why medical sales is a great place to be, and how to use the samples and templates provided for resumes and cover letters, technology sheets, brag books, and 30/60/90-day plans. These are the things that will help you “wow” interviewers.)

And why do I think that almost any area of medical sales (imaging sales, pathology sales, clinical diagnostics sales, research lab sales, medical device sales) is better than pharma sales? The one area of medical sales that does tend to be tied to the economy is pharmaceutical sales. Fortune magazine had an article recently on layoffs in pharma sales. Also, there are perception issues with pharma reps that don’t affect, say, research or clinical sales reps (which I also discuss in the podcast). Medical schools even have a few issues with pharma reps.

Gabcast! Peggy McKee – the medical sales recruiter… #2 – Why Healthcare, medical or laboratory sales? Why not pharma?

Hear more on these issues in today’s podcast and other nuggets of medical sales wisdom in podcasts with Peggy!

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