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How can you identify the great salesperson in a job interview? Well, it’s not easy.

First of all, true sales virtuosos are scarce, even though there are many good salespeople and sales is one of the most common and necessa

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

ry types of jobs. Also, research shows that the job interview is notoriously unreliable as a predictor of job performance. And it’s even worse if you are interviewing salespeople. Because if there is one thing that all sale

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

Examples of combination products may in

speople – from the great ones to the average ones – have in common, it is the ability to interview exceptionally well.

So, how can you use an interview to increase your “hit rate” in hiring the best salespeople? Naturally,

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

you want to look at their history, references, performance on pre-employment tests, and the like. You want to ask the usual interview questions (Tell me about yourself. Why did you leave your last job? What are your streng

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

ths and weaknesses, successes and failures? Etc.).

But salespeople are experts at getting past a typical interviewer. So here’s your challenge: How can you turn the odds in your favor? How can you interview in a manner tha

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

Combination pro

t will reveal whether the person sitting across the desk from you will be first string on your sales team or will be a sales underachiever?

As a psychologist who has spent decades interviewing and counseling salespeople, I

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

have learned that there are certain patterns that keep coming up so frequently in interviews that they have become highly predictable. Using the power of communication, here are 3 powerful interview tools to add to your in

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

terview approach:

1. “How will our company be better off if we hire you?” This is the mother of all hiring questions. It speaks to whether the sales applicant is focusing on your bottom line. Most applicants are primar

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

ily worried about how to explain themselves and how they come across in an interview. But you want to see if their major focus is on helping your company become more successful. Especially in sales, you are looking for some

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

one whose has a laser-beam focus on bottom-line sales productivity – making money for the company, expanding the company’s customer base. You don’t want to hear about what this applicant did for Imbecile Machines in 2004; y

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

u want to know what he or she can do for you NOW. What they did in another job is only an example of what they can (presumably) do for you, not an answer to “Why should we hire you?”

2. Think about what is the most cha

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

Following aspects would a

llenging thing about the job you are offering. Then say, “This job requires a lot of cold calling [or whatever is hardest]. Looking at your background, I’m not sure you can do it. How do we know you can do it and can keep d

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

oing it?” What you are actually doing here is presenting an “objection.” How does the applicant handle this objection? How they handle your objection will tell you a great deal about how they handle objections when actually

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

selling your product or service.

3. Pick something from your desk (such as a pad of paper, a paperweight, or a pencil) and say, “OK, sell this to me.” This requires the applicant to do more than say the right things

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

about themselves and about sales. It requires more than their often well-prepared responses to your questions. It requires them to actually do what you are hiring them to do. And who better to evaluate how they do it than y

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

ou?

There are three areas to watch for in following up:

A. Look for specific examples. If an applicant makes a strong claim but cannot think of a specific instance in their history that illustrates it, watch out.

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

>B. Look for what is avoided or missing. For example, training can consist of reading, coaching, participating in workshops, being mentored, and of course experience. If any of those elements are missing when the applicant

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

discusses training, this is another potential red flag.

C. Look for evidence not only that the applicant can perform the sales task, but also that he or she can do so on an ongoing basis. For example, if the job requir

.

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

es cold calling, and the applicant says they are good at cold calling, ask how much they cold call (how many hours a day or week, how many months on a consistent basis).

Adding all of the above ideas will increase the dept

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

h of your interview and give you more specific and better information to help you make a good sales hiring decision. And if you find that some variation works better for you in your particular situation, by all means use it

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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