Posts from ‘July, 2009’

At AACC, I had the enjoyment of a long conversation with a national sales manager of a $30M company (10 sales reps and 10 technical support folks) where I discovered his opinion that “sales reps these days just aren’t as strong as they used to be.”  I told, “Really?  I’ve discovered that sales reps are [...]

AACC was in Chicago this year….I always like Chicago as a trade show location.  The AACC usually draws 20k + visitors, but I thought there were fewer attendees than ordinary.
I agree with Robert at the Dark Report – the mood was somber.  I saw unemployed candidates looking for jobs who told that they weren’t seeing the jobs they [...]

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, talks 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 [...]

Career opportunities in medical revenue, medical revenue, biotechnology sales, clinical diagnostics sales, pharma device sales, imaging sales, hospital equipment sales, clinical laboratory sales, and other healthcare sales are fairly competitive to get into (you’re going to have to put some effort into it), but worth it in terms of compensation, commissions, and extras.  Plus, it’s an exciting [...]

A behavioral job interview is a popular interview tactic in the pharma sales arena.  It focuses on finding out how the candidate handled (behaved in) specific job-realted situations.  In healthcare revenue, lab sales, clinical diagnostics revenue, laboratory device revenue, biotech sales, pathology sales, imaging sales, or medical revenue, customer interaction is key—so how you handle [...]

Are you hiring sales reps for clinical revenue, pharmaceutical revenue, clinical diagnostics, imaging sales, clinical device sales, biotech revenue, pathology sales, surgical supplies revenue, hospital equipment sales, pharmaceutical sales, or other healthcare sales?  Your first step should be to review your current team:  What works in your revenue reps and what doesn’t?  Then you can [...]

In 2008, these were the Big 20 medical companies: Top 20 Pharmaceutical Companies 01
Pfizer
$44,424 02
GlaxoSmithKline
$38,501 03
Sanofi-Aventis
$38,452 04
AstraZeneca
$28,713 05
Merck
$26,532 06
Novartis
$25,477 07
Johnson & Johnson
$24,866 08
Roche
$21,998 09
Eli Lilly & Co.
$17,638 10
Wyeth
$17,179 11
Bristol-Myers Squibb
$15,622 12
Abbott Laboratories
$14,632 13
Schering-Plough
$12,773 14
Bayer Schering
$12,294 15
Boehringer Ingelheim
$11,103 16
Takeda
$10,626 17
Astellas*
$8,530 18
Daiichi-Sankyo*
$7,382 19
Eisai*
$6,250 20
UCB Group*
$4,370  
The list looks a little different these days.  For instance, Pfizer purchased Wyeth in January 2009, Merck purchased Schering in March 2009, and Roche signed a top deal with Genentech…confirming for many a trend toward [...]

Used to be, seniority counted.  For a lot.  It was an orderly progression up the career ladder, many times within a single company, and if you were worthwhile at your job, you’d likely get your turn in management.  Not anymore.  For one thing, career paths aren’t what they once were–it’s more common to not only job-hop, [...]

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 worthy qualities, they allow you to demonstrate those intangible skills that make a great impression.  In this economy, [...]

As a pharmaceutical sales recruiter, I spend a lot of time on the phone fielding inquiries from career opportunity seekers.  Not only about specific career opportunities in medical sales, pharmaceutical sales, imaging sales, biotech revenue, medical diagnostics revenue, medical laboratory sales, medical device revenue, hospital equipment sales, medical sales, or other areas of healthcare sales, but also about career coaching:  [...]