The funniest part of the story, however, was when he spoke about winning an award for being a top entrepreneur of the year.  A reporter came up to him and asked, “So, how does it feel to be an overnight success?”   My friend was dumbfounded, and didn’t know what to say or even how to respond.

The business that he sold was twenty years in the making.  Several of those years were very difficult, including the “rice and bean” years where he and his family sacrificed his income so that he could make payroll for his employees.  Or the year when the government nearly changed the rules on his business model which would have meant a total loss of everything he had worked for.

The moral of the story is that there is no such thing as an overnight success in business.  The path to winning is long and requires lots of sacrifice and hard work, as well as risk.  Continuous learning is required to stay ahead of the trends.   That’s the ”secret sauce” that so many look for.  Unfortunately for them, it’s not an overnight recipe!

I am not talking about the kind students bring home from school and fail to get done.  I am talking about the kind sales people fail to do for meetings with customers.  Or, the kind sales candidates fail to do for interviews.

I am with a rapidly-growing company, trying to double in size in a very short time.  We are on track to meet this goal, but it requires a lot of interviewing to hire enough people to generate growth.  I am always surprised when a candidate gets through my screening process and then demonstrates a lack of knowledge about me and our company and our industry.

Doing research these days with the internet is so quick and easy that it’s hardly the only thing folks should be doing to prepare for a new job or a new account.  Checking out a website should only be the start.  What about checking out a company’s selling process, or listening to one of their investor calls?  So much can be done to get better acquainted with a potential employer or a new account that if you really want to stand out, it’s not that hard.  How much does the new account or opportunity mean to you?  Hopefully enough to show that you geniunely want the business or the job!

I asked a candidate yesterday what he knew about our company, and he actually admitted that he knew very little.  Yes, he was impressed with our website, and yes, he had heard good things about us, but that was all he knew!  Game over.  In my mind, the interview was over.  Don’t let that happen to you.  Think about the opportunity and write down on a sheet of paper the things you need to know before your meeting, and then go find out.  You will be glad you did!

Best of luck, Bill

Dearest family,

I write to you on the night of the German invasion.  I do not know if I will live through my eighteenth year, or even tomorrow.  But I pray I will be remembered by you, and all of America, should I make the ultimate sacrifice.

In 1921, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was developed to honor soldiers like these.  It is the resting place for the unidentified remains from the wars of the twentieth century. This tomb has become a part of our history, and allows us to remember the wars, especially the soldiers who fought in them.  Science has advanced, resulting in the DNA identification and closure of the tomb.  However, the significance of the soldiers lost and unknown from earlier wars remains the same. The courageous soldiers who sacrificed their futures to benefit ours will never become obsolete, and neither will their tomb.

Thump, thump, the shined shoes of the guard make the twenty-one steps across the monument.  The guard is perfectly assembled, resembling a toy soldier more than a person.  He will never stray out of place, and will stand guard precisely until his shiftis over.  Twenty-four hours a day, three-hundred-sixty-five days a year The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded in this manner, to honor and protect the unidentified remains of the brave people who gave their lives for our nation.  For nearly a century, we have had military bearers present, and have held wreath laying ceremonies at this monument. The ceremonies have become a tradition of respect and honor that continues to move the crowds that are drawn to the tomb.  The soldiers deserve all of this honor, for they have laid down their lives for America. The tomb and these rituals are small deeds compared to what the soldiers have done for us, and they should be continued as a symbol of our immense gratitude toward them.

History is the story of how our nation came to be, and it is very valuable.  The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in the Arlington Cemetery, has become a significant part of our history.  This monument isn’t only a piece of history itself, but it also encourages us to remember the historical events it represents. It is a memorial to the dead of both World Wars, The Korean War, and The Vietnam War.  Over four million people visit this beautiful tomb every year, to watch the changing of the guard,  the laying of the wreath, and to view a part of our history.

Our lives are radically different from a few centuries ago, and this is because of the rapid advancement in science.  In the 1920’s, when the tomb was built, we were unable to identify the remains from the soldiers, due to the fact that DNA testing was unavailable.  To be able to honor these important people, it was decided that a single tomb would be made, and the Unknown Soldier inside would represent all the soldiers with unidentified remains.  “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” is the sentence that is inscribed on the tomb.  Today, we have developed a way to test DNA to determine and identify remains.  But knowing names of the soldiers does not change what they have done for our country.  The monument may not hold the Unknown Soldier anymore, but it does hold a Medal of Honor, to honor all of the unknown heroes who have defended the ideals of the flag, and sacrificed their lives in the process.

We continue to hold wreath laying ceremonies and have military bearers present at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to honor the brave men and women who fought for our nation, and to recognize the historical significance of the tomb.  Knowing who the Unknown Soldier is doesn’t change what they have done for our country, and it does not make The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier obsolete.  Our history must be remembered and valued forever.

Dear Unknown Soldier, 

Thank you for sacrificing your future, and your life for the better of mine, and for the entire country.  You will be remembered by all of America for what you have done.

Thanks for writing such a great essay.  May it be said that the apple does not fall far from the tree!

Footnote: She won the essay contest and will be placing a wreath at the tomb!

Bill Cook

It’s really this simple:

1. Take your sales goals for the quarter and decide which accounts you need to focus on to meet and exceed your goals. That’s easy.
2. Develop strategies and tactics for each of those accounts. Strategy is what you are going to do; the tactics are how you’ll do it.
3. Make sure that your strategies and tactics are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevent, and Time-defined). You know this!
4. Take enough time to make a plan that you would be proud to show a potential investor in your business. It IS your business.
5. Get it to your manager on time and ask for feedback. Your boss wants you to succeed so that she will too.
6. Review the plan weekly and make sure you are performing the tactics. If the strategy is not working, try changing tactics first.

That is all it takes. So what’s your excuse for not writing a great plan?

I love the art and the science of selling, and have always been a student of the sales process, finding new and better ways to reach and serve customers. But I have spent most of my time over the last fifteen years building and leading sales teams and administering strategic plans and incentive compensation programs– all great and fun things. However, the adrenaline rush that comes from pulling off great sales calls is a lot more exciting!

So, if you are a VP of Sales, or even a Regional VP or Director of Sales, and haven’t made calls on your own in awhile, I highly encourage you to do so, for five reasons:

1. You will remember why you got into sales in the first place.
2. You will gain a better understanding of what your sales reps are up against and how you can help them.
3. You will experience the thrill of performing well under pressure– it’s such a kick!
4. You will help your company grow by making some sales of your own.
5. Most importantly, you will inspire your team to sell more as they see that you’ve got what it takes.

I wish you much success in 2012. Go make some sales calls– you will be so glad that you did!

Bill Cook
VP Sales
BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy

For the first time ever, gene therapy successfully treated hemophilia B and even allowed some patients to give up their regular injections of clotting factor altogether. This landmark study spearheaded by researchers from the University College London and the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis injected six hemophilia B patients with a virus that expressed the blood clotting factor missing in hemophilia B.

Why does this study have so many doctors and their hemophilia patients excited? Because it’s the first to show (in actual people, not just lab animals) that gene therapy can bring about long-term expression of a blood protein in a large enough amount that treatment is no longer needed. Gene therapy uses a virus to replace a person’s defective copies of genes with an intact version. If additional research confirms the safety and efficacy of this gene therapy for hemophilia B, then prophylactic injections of clotting factor – which are incredibly expensive and burdensome to the patient – could be a thing of the past.

Hemophilia B, which is also known as Christmas disease, is the second most common type of hemophilia. In hemophilia B, there is a deficiency in clotting factor IX, which results in longer bleeding time, spontaneous bleeding, and joint damage from internal bleeding. One in 20,000 to 34,500 males worldwide have hemophilia B.

In this current study, just one injection of an adenovirus-associated virus vector that expresses clotting factor IX was able to treat patients for more than a year. Each of the patients in this study expressed clotting factor for more than six months and every patient’s prophylactic need for clotting factor was totally eliminated or at least reduced.

Imagine: our patients at BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy with severe hemophilia B may get three injections a week (that’s 156 needle sticks per year!) of clotting factor and if this gene therapy gets FDA approval, those patients could get the same level of treatment from a single injection each year. Who wouldn’t want to trade in 156 jabs for just one shot?

Patient quality of life could certainly improve, but how about we sweeten the pot with some cost savings to the health care system?

In the U.S., just one hemophilia B patient can incur a lifetime treatment cost of more than $20 million, since each year of on-demand therapy with clotting factor injection rings in at about $150,000 and it’s twice that per year for people who require regular prophylactic injections. Meanwhile, this gene therapy injection runs just $30,000 per patient, which obviously represents significant cost savings for payers and patients alike.

It can’t all be good news, though, can it? Unfortunately, the hazards of this gene therapy are not completely clear. One patient in this trial experienced rising liver enzyme levels (about five times the upper limit of normal) two months after getting the gene therapy. Prednisolone therapy normalized this person’s liver enzymes.

Certainly we need more studies about gene therapy and hemophilia under our belt, especially studies showing long-term outcome results. With this necessary scientific process, it will be years before hemophilia B patients can remove infusion from their to-do list.

In the meantime, there are many questions that remain unanswered in regards to gene therapy and hemophilia, including whether it can work with other types of hemophilia which have different sized clotting proteins (gene therapy may not be feasible with larger molecules). Nonetheless, this current study – which was published last month, in December – certainly brought the hope of Christmas to thousands of hemophilia patients.

Stephen C Vogt, PharmD
President and CEO
BioPlus SP

www.bioplusrx.com

Yesterday, I confirmed this when I went to see a clinical director to drop off a friend’s resume’. The director commented on an email that I had copied all company managers on. The subject line of the email was, “News from the Front Lines”, and highlighted last week’s sales and business development activities and gave specific direction to our outside sales team on what to do during this typically “slow” week in between the holidays. The clinical director commented that he liked the email and the direction I gave, and that he had “no idea” what it was like for the sales team and that the email helped him to understand not only what they do, but what I do to push and encourage them to stay at when others are taking time off.

So, take the time to communicate what you are doing and why. Here are the benefits:

1. Disclosure will build understanding and trust. Your peers in other departments will have a better idea of what sales and sales management is all about. If you think about it, selling is really just a transfer of trust anyway, so why not build trust and respect with other managers? They will appreciate it.

2. Senior management will know what you and your team are doing. I cannot stress this enough. You know from your days as a sales representative that you must be proactive to build relationships, and it’s no different when you are a sales manager. One of your jobs is to make sure that those leading the company have the opportunity to see firsthand what you are up to, should they choose to. Reports are one thing, and they can get their hands on all kinds of reports, but it’s far better to show your stuff by citing actual occurrences and your specific direction to your team.

3. Organizational culture will bend towards being sales driven. The more every department head and senior leader knows what’s going on in sales the more likely the company will have a sales driven culture. Most health care companies are operationally driven, and sadly, the sales team takes a back seat to operations. Company cultures in these organizations tend to have what I call “operational inertia”, a tendency to avoid risk and to keep old processes in place because “that’s the way we do things”. Opening up a better understanding of the sales effort helps to break down processes that are not customer friendly.

4. Sales reps will pay more attention to what they are accomplishing. For competitive types like reps, there is nothing like seeing one of your calls in an email that company leaders are reading, or seeing another rep getting kudos for doing something well. This drives friendly competition and spurs reps on to find a big win for the next email that goes out.

So, share what’s going on and what you doing to direct your team. The benefits are worth the effort. Have a great New 2012!

Bill Cook
Vice President, Sales
BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy

The poem is called “Do it Anyway” and was written by Kent
M. Keith as “Paradoxical Commandments“.  It was promoted by Mother
Teresa and is known as Mother Teresa’s “Do it Anyway” poem.

Do it Anyway -
An Inspiring Poem by Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self
centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may
accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true
enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and
frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank
anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy
overnight;

           Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be
jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people
will often forget tomorrow;
 
Do good anyway.

Give
the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the
world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and your God;

It was never between you and them
anyway.

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more
impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.
~H.U. Westermayer

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that
would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence. ~Erma Bombeck

Bill Cook