RECENT PUBLICATIONS Authored by Jim McLean Resource Management International, Inc.

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1 RECENT PUBLICATIONS Authored Resource Management International, Inc. 1. Improving the Success Rate of New Hires - Two Logical Assumptions and How to Challenge Them 2. The Profit Pocket 3. Sales Execution Schizophrenia - Juggling a Diverse Product Mix Effectively Resource Management International, Inc. is a training and development firm dedicated to maximizing the sales and marketing productivity of healthcare companies worldwide. Since 1988, RMI has served its clients by creating custom training and development solutions for Sales, Marketing, Inside Sales and Customer Service. RMI is best known for providing focused and relevant training that immediately transfers to on-the-job application. Jim supports RMI's clients with practical experience gained in sales, marketing, and training positions within the healthcare industry. He also brings a unique cross-industry background in supporting clients in industries such as group health insurance, healthcare information systems, analytical instrumentation, manufacturing capital equipment and technology. He has worked with sales and marketing teams in over twenty countries. His extensive experience enhances his ability to transfer the concepts that apply to skill development in the following disciplines: Capital Equipment and Technology Sales Marketing Management Sales Management Training Management Sales Force Training and Development International Sales and Marketing Sales Training for the Technical Professional Negotiation for the Medical Products Industry Customer Education Jim McLean Consultant, Resource Management International - is a world renowned authority on Healthcare Sales Force Effectiveness and may be contacted via at jmcldal@aol.com or through his USA office at Further articles will be available in International Medical Marketplace, published by Sibaya Healthcare Consultants (Paris, France) and can be accessed at Copyright Resource Management International, Inc. 2005

2 Improving the Success Rate of New Hires - Two Logical Assumptions and How to Challenge Them All of those involved in the hiring and management of new sales representatives have seen unexpected failures among those expected to succeed. There are many causes, and this brief article does not intend to address all of them. It does address two issues that we at Resource Management International, Inc. have seen frequently in our experience both as corporate managers and consultants. The rate of success in onboarding new representation can be improved by challenging two logical assumptions and adapting the onboarding process accordingly. Assumption #1: Reality: The new person has been successful in the past, therefore, he or she will be successful in the future. Past achievement is indeed an excellent indicator of future performance. At the same time, it is likely that the new salesperson will repeat those patterns of analysis and behavior that have made them successful in the past. The problem is that some of those behaviors may not be as appropriate or effective in the new environment as they were in the old. Critical elements in the new situation may not have been encountered in the past. Questions to Improve Success: Have we clearly defined a detailed sales process specifically for our company and products that the new salesperson can understand and follow? Have our mangers established the skill to identify changes in process that each of them may need to make in order to succeed in their new environment? Do we ask our new sales professionals to proactively examine the environmental difference between their old and new selling situations? Assumption #2: Reality: We won t have to train the experienced salesperson they are already trained. A lot of other companies, including the ones whose former employees you may be hiring are thinking the same way. Further, they may be training in different competencies than those required for success in your business. Lastly, the new sales representative may be acting based on the expectations of their old organization rather than the new. Questions to Improve Success: Have we identified core competencies for success in our business? Have we designed vehicles to test these competencies among our sales team? Have we designed training and coaching models to provide skill and knowledge training once gaps have been identified? Have we communicated our expectations clearly to the new sales representative along with the methods of achieving them and the standards by which performance will be measures? As companies seek to identify and integrate new people into their organizations, it is important to recognize that while logical assumptions can be useful, they must be challenged within the light of each company s unique environment, situation and objectives. Improving the Success Rate of New Hires - Two Logical Assumptions and How to Challenge Them

3 The Profit Pocket The next time you see an English barrister on a TV newscast or fictional program look carefully at the back of the robe. You may see a pocket. The purpose of this pocket in days gone by was to receive payment from clients. It was located on the back of the robe so that the barrister would not debase his professional ethic by seeing or touching money. An assistant would remove the cash for him. The reality of legal payment has changed, but the anachronistic pocket still remains. As sales and marketing professionals in the healthcare industry we are living in too competitive a world to carry anachronisms on our back or in the way we interact with prospects and customers. Yet, much like today s barristers in yesterday s robes, if we look objectively at the way we do business, we may be doing just that. Our industry grew with the honorable ethic of providing the physician with clinically safe and efficacious products. Money was an ugly topic which was avoided as our selling conversations focused on the physician as key decision maker and clinical results as the sole judgment criteria. It is obvious that there is no corner of the global healthcare market where cost considerations and outcome justification has left the decision process unchanged. The healthcare provision system is still driven by the commitment to the welfare of the patient, but that welfare is factored against prudent use of economic resources. Physician input is only a part of the process in purchasing decisions. Government agencies, private insurers, buying groups, hospital financial, risk management and marketing functions are now holding a wielding significant power that can dramatically affect our own organizations level of success. There are two questions each of us should ask as we face the physician and explain the clinical advantages of our products. Are we turning our backs on the people whose realities we must address if we are to meet our commercial objectives? If we are, can we expect them to place their organizations limited resources in our cash pocket without understanding the economic outcomes of the use of our technologies? If the answers are yes, there are other questions to ask: 1. Have we identified those organizations and hospital functions which can effect the decision to buy our products? 2. Do we understand their priorities, objectives and benchmarks for success? 3. Are we going out and listening to them? 4. Can we define our product in relation to their priorities and objectives? 5. Have we created a coherent message to each organization and function and trained our sales team to deliver it? 6. Are we allocating marketing and sales resources to non-clinical players in the decision process? 7. Are we avoiding non-traditional call points out of the fear of the unknown and lack of confidence in our ability to hold discussions within strategic and financial contexts? 8. Can we quantify the costs to the customer that they incur should they not buy our product? 9. Do we allow the customer to base their determination of our value on the pricing of our competitors or upon the economic utility of the solutions we provide them? It is OK to touch money. If you don t believe me, just ask your boss. He or she may even add that more is better. Turn and address the financial decision makers. We need to become proficient in discussing financial realities. If we don t, we may just find that we need a smaller pocket on the back of our comfortable but outdated robes. The Profit Pocket

4 Sales Execution Schizophrenia - Juggling a Diverse Product Mix Effectively Healthcare sales and marketing executives and managers are increasingly finding themselves carrying a wider and deeper bag. Within the bag may be a mix of disposable, lower-priced reusable, capital purchases, and service contracts. More and more of us are finding ourselves responsible for the success of a product line where the individual components of the line have different decision makers, decision influencers, and are purchased within the context of very different customer decision making strategies. This results in a nightmare for all those from the newest salesperson to the most seasoned senior manager. As a result, the following concerns are commonly heard: I have some reps that are good in capital sales, some who are good at disposable sales, but very few who are achieving sales targets in both categories. My sales team is shying away from selling our new product because they break out in hives at the thought of explaining the software, or carrying on a conversation with IT. I am struggling with the relative coverage emphasis to put on hospitals, clinics and physician practices. Our service contract business is not meeting expectations. Our reps seem to have trouble selling an intangible item. Morale is suffering because our reps find it difficult to make their number in all categories. When a company is faced with juggling diverse selling circumstances due to product line diversity, here are some questions to ask: Have we really examined how the nature of each of our products impacts on the best way to promote them? Have we identified the specific sales processes and behaviors that are required of the sales force to achieve success in each of the categories in which we participate? Have we effectively communicated to the sales team the processes they must follow, by product category, in order to succeed with each? Have we educated our sales team about new call points so that they will feel comfortable in approaching and engaging them? Are our people flexible enough to utilize two or more selling approaches in order to succeed in all categories? If not, do we need to create specialist sales functions to handle different product categories within our line? Have we considered that the beliefs and behaviors our sales force has learned in selling successfully within one category may actually get in their way within another? Have our hiring criteria and job descriptions been updated to take into account the changes in our selling environment and product offering? Do we need to divest ourselves of certain product lines in order to avoid diffusing our efforts? There are no easy answers to these questions. The answers will be different for every organization. However, failure to ask the questions and inaction in acting on the answers is a recipe for continued failure in those categories which are not performing and a hindrance to optimizing success in those which are. Once the answers appropriate for a company s business situation and resources are determined, the following actions are necessary to achieve in all product categories: Revise the hiring profile for new representation. Revise the job descriptions of each function on the sales team. Develop specific objectives, methods and measurements of success for each product category to drive sales activity and promote accountability. Develop customized training that identifies the selling system and behaviors most appropriate for each product category. Establish line sales manager competency in coaching each selling system. Create an incentive system that rewards for sales achievement across the product line. Succeeding in multiple product categories is difficult, but not impossible. It requires in-depth situational analysis, precise planning and a flexible sales team to implement the plans. Sales Execution Schizophrenia - Juggling a Diverse Product Mix Effectively

5 Client Comments on Jim McLean As a Trainer, Consultant and Partner Jim McLean (as usual) has listed the important priorities for getting the new sales employee educated and prepared for success. I ve watched Jim complete several programs with reps and we have gotten great ROI. - President and CEO, Capital Equipment Excellent information! Learned a lot and feel well equipped for the marketplace!! Thank you so much!! Great seminar!! - Sales Representative, Capital Equipment I have attended numerous courses in the following industries over 15 years, pharma, capital equipment, devices. This is the most relevant and successful course I have completed. I look forward to implementing new skills in a new territory in Sales Representative, Orthopedic Implants and Devices As stated before, the most practical course I have ever been involved in - would have liked an extra ½ day - Area Sales Director, Capital Equipment Best speaker yet! I feel more confident and have a much better grasp on selling in the O.R. Sales Representative, medical disposables Very applicable to capital sales and our company. Jim had a good sense of product, marketability, and internal / external factors. - National Accounts Director, Capital Equipment Based upon the feedback from the attendees, your presentation was excellent. - Product Manager, Medical Disposables Quite a few road to Damascus revelations! - Regional Manager, Orthopedic Implants and Devices The most challenging and useful seminar I have ever attended. - Sales Representative, Orthopedic Implants and Devices Best selling course I have attended (10 years). - Sales Representative, Orthopedic Implants and Devices I had the opportunity to share this article ( Improving the Success Rate of New Hires ) when I was providing advice to the CEO of a young European startup company. This to the point article helps diagnose the problem, and is also 90% of the cure. - CEO, Healthcare Start-Up Consulting Firm Client Comments on Jim McLean as a Trainer, Consultant and Partner