Should You Teach Your Kids to Cut in Line?

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Bill Cook

The answer to that question should be fairly obvious– of course not!  But that’s exactly what one couple did in San Francisco the other day.  And, it’s the same thing another couple admitted to doing with their kids!

Here’s what happened: my wife and I walked from Union Station to Washington Square to grab breakfast at Mama’s, a fantastic restaurant by the way, with a line of people down the sidewalk each day waiting to get in.  As we walked toward the end of the line, a young boy, about ten years old, raced by us and took a spot in line right in front of us.  At first we were a bit surprised, and then annoyed when his four other family members, mom and dad included, sauntered up next to him.  To top it off, this young boy’s father leaned down and said, “good job, son!”

My wife and I really did not know what to say.  We looked at each other and shook our heads.  We would never dream of teaching our children manners like this.  But, perhaps we are just old-fashioned.  Once we got into the restaurant and were eating our food, we met a nice couple with two young children.  We relayed the story to them, and they actually admitted to doing the same thing!

So, please comment about this.   What do you think?  Should parents teach their children to cut in line?  Should they congratulate them for doing a “good job” when they do?  Do manners matter at all anymore, and aren’t they learned from mom and dad?

Bill Cook

Posted in Parenting | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Death of All Sales Reps?

Posted on November 2, 2011 by todd

Today’s post is a guest blog from my friend, Todd Youngblood.  If you are a sales representative, you simply MUST read this blog!  Thanks to Todd for writing this piece and please check out his sales process engineering blog at: http://ypsgroup.com/blog/.

Arthur Miller’s Death Of A Salesman has been one of my personal favorite plays for years.  The tragic figure of Willy Loman has always been inspiring to me in an “anti-hero” sort of way.  Someone as sharp as me can easily spot Willy’s weaknesses and flaws of course, and avoid them!

Then I read Have We Been Witnessing The Death Of Professional Selling? on Jonathan Farrington’s blog.  He and I exchanged perspectives, and now I’ve got this “Death Of All Sales Reps” theme banging around in my head.  The more I think about it, the more I become certain that sales as we know it is about disappear – evaporate – go the way of the dodo bird.  And it’s going to happen in the not too distant future.  Like over the next three to five years.

While the examples in Jonathan’s post refer to items toward the commodity end of the scale and are B2C, it doesn’t take much imagination to see the trend.  (…and trends tend to pick up a lot of speed quickly!)  Ten years ago not one of the transactions described would have been possible.  More and more stuff can purchased online every day.  You could easily add 10 or 20 examples of your own.  The B2B examples are pretty easy to dream up aren’t they?  (Assuming of course you’re willing to take your head out of the sand!)

Want to scare yourself?  Take thirty minutes.  Think about your biggest, best customer and begin to list all the products and services they buy.  Put a check-mark next to each item that could potentially be intelligently purchased with nothing more than information made available on the internet.  It’s not the least bit outlandish to check virtually every item.  Especially if you consider the use of not only text, but also images, audio and video.

Right now, I see only two intelligent paths for sales professionals who intend to survive and thrive to pursue.  (The best and brightest will pursue both!)

  • Become a trusted, respected (albeit honorary) member of the customer’s senior management team
  • Create, maintain and continuously improve an electronic version of yourself, an “e-Rep” (i.e., Get out in front of the inevitable trend.)

To achieve the first, executive-class strategic planning, leadership, financial, communications, political and analytical skills are required.  Most times a lot of practical business experience will also be a prerequisite.  It’s one heck of a tall order; and one that to a significant extent leaves younger folks out in the cold.  Ouch!  I won’t go so far as to say that a formal MBA will needed, but MBA-level knowledge and a commitment to ravenous, continuous learning are different stories.

Achieving the second is easier, but entails development of a whole range of non-traditional talents.  Writing heads the list.  (Writing skills, at least in the US, are generally abysmal.)  “King Writing” is followed closely by the ability to very succinctly articulate extremely highly customized value propositions not only in written form, but also in recorded audio and video.  Obviously, audio and video production skills (including talk radio style interviewing skills)  will be essential, along with the information systems savvy to publish it all.  That in turn implies a deep understanding of blogs and the growing range of social media tools.

Too extreme a view?  I don’t think so.  What do you think?

Thanks again, Todd.  Don’t forget to check out his blog, and please feel free to comment!

Bill Cook


Posted in Sales | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

What You Don’t Know Can Cost You

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Bill Cook

Today’s post is a guest blog by our BioPlus President and CEO, Dr. Stephen Vogt.  He does a great job of explaining the tremendous value of specialty pharmacy and how it differs from a mail order pharmacy:

Posted by ⋅ October 17, 2011 ⋅

The majority of employers simply don’t understand the ins and outs of specialty pharmacy benefits, according to a new survey recently released by Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH), a non-profit business group of private and public employers. The MBGH survey found that:

  • 53 percent of employers have only a moderate understanding of specialty pharmacy.
  • 25 percent of employers have little or no understanding of specialty pharmacy.
  • 70 percent do not know how much their company spends on specialty pharmacy medications through their medical or pharmacy plans.

Whether employers stick their heads in the sand or not, it doesn’t change the fact that specialty pharmacy is emerging as one of the fastest growing areas of health care spending. The medications and biologic products supplied by specialty pharmacies are used in the treatment of complex conditions, such as hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. These medications come at a steep cost and generally require detailed instructions for correct dosing, assistance with serious side effects, specialized storage and distribution, and special approval for use.

Only 13 percent of employers are currently using a specialty pharmacy provider, with the rest relying on a traditional benefit design, including tiered formularies, copayments, and coinsurance for specialty drugs. Increasingly, specialty pharmacy is recognized as more appropriate for specialty medications since this model is value-based and can come with innovative benefit designs.

Every company’s human resources department and insurance purchaser simply must put specialty pharmacy on their radar screens; not doing so will cost you money. Consider the treatment of hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C treatment tallies up a bill of $60,000 to $80,000 per treatment. The treatment can cure up to 70 percent of patients with genotype 1 hepatitis C virus. However, this cure rate only applies to employees who take their medication correctly and complete the entire therapy protocol. I recently met with two state commercial payers. One stated they only had a 40 percent completion rate, while the other saw a dismal 4 percent completion of hepatitis C treatment! This leaves most of their hepatitis C patients untreated and at risk of very costly future interventions (including liver transplants and treatment for cirrhosis and liver cancer).

What accounts for these low compliance rates? I think the explanation lies with the fact that these payers had turned over what should have been a specialty pharmacy treatment to a PBM that treated the hepatitis C therapy like any other pill. The PBM simply got the script and shipped it out to the patients. This method is simply not appropriate for hepatitis C treatment’s potential side effects, adverse effects, lifestyle changes, drug interactions from other therapies, and pill volume. Hepatitis C treatment requires a different path. Without proper pharmacy management, the aforementioned method is doomed to fail.

At BioPlus, we do so much more than ask if the patient is ready for their next shipment. This is not in the mail-order pharmacy model. Here, each patient undergoes a pharmaceutical care consultation with a specialty Pharm.D., weekly evaluation to a plan of care, and has a team of encouragers to stay with the plan. Our results speak for themselves: over the past seven years we have recorded an 83-88 percent compliance rate for hepatitis C treatment. The evidence is clear; relying on expert care from BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy for hepatitis C treatment will cure more of patients and save employers money in the long run.

Stephen C Vogt, PharmD
President and CEO
BioPlus SP

www.bioplusrx.com

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Sales Manager: 20 Questions to ask Your Reps!

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Bill Cook

Prior to my last sales training meeting, I gave the following self-assessment to each of the reps.  I wanted to know what their training needs were so that I could focus our time on the most important areas.  So, I asked them to rate themselves in each area below.  The pooled results were illuminating and very helpful in pinpointing our weakest areas.  If you are a sales manager or trainer I encourage you to try this:

Sales Training Self Assessment

Rate yourself on the following questions by writing a number between 1 and 10 after each one. A 10 is the highest score, indicating that you are really strong in that area, or that you strongly agree with the question.

Sales Planning and Organization

1.  I am comfortable creating a territory business plan
2.  I currently work my plan and revise it periodically
3.  I know how to organize my time and resources to maximize selling time
4.  I am able to make the required number of calls to be successful

Sales Skills

1.  I understand our company’s sales process
2.  I know how to move a customer through our process
3.  I have a methodology that I use to be successful in sales
4.  I know how to handle objections and have a process for handling them
5.  I know how to listen well and to ask good questions
6.  I know when to close, and never forget to do so

Sales Knowledge

1.  I know our products and services, and can speak fluently about them
2.  I know the customers we serve and the needs they have that we meet
3.  I know the marketplace in my territory and generally
4.  I know our company well and our unique value proposition
5.  I know the competition in my area as well as related partners

Sales Attitude

1.  I really enjoy what I do and am generally very enthusiastic
2.  I get along with my peers and coworkers
3.  I like my company and strongly believe in what we do
4.  I enjoy the challenge of growing the business in my territory
5.  I handle the inevitable service issues in a positive manner

Bonus Question

My sales results are consistent with the scores I gave myself above

Let me know how this helps your team!  Bill

Bill Cook

Vice President, Sales

BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy

407-697-2709

http://www.bioplusrx.com

 

Posted in Sales, Sales Management, Sales Training | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Six Reasons Why Your Reps Need to Meet!

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Bill Cook

I have been putting together a national sales meeting for the last couple of months. The planning and preparation are coming to a boil now as our meeting starts next week. Last minute details such as presentation tweaks, dinners, agenda changes, AV equipment needs, and schedules are all getting ironed out.

The trick in all this is to not get bogged down in these details, but to focus mostly on how to make this a great meeting that ramps up growth significantly! Fifteen speakers and twenty different topics over three days will ensure that the sales team will be sufficiently loaded up with enough to keep them going for quite some time.

The real value of the sales meeting is not all this content, and the necessary preparation to make it happen. The best part of the meeting for the reps will be the time they spend together. The benefits are many:

  1. Reps learn, or relearn, that they are not alone, and that the other reps are going through similar challenges and struggles to grow their business.
  2. They gain a sense of camaraderie.
  3. They get to vent some of their frustrations and complain to each other about the boss.  Hey wait, I am the boss!  Oh well, I KNOW they will come up with something about me to complain about.  I am okay with that.  Really.
  4. They get a break from the routine to have some fun, and to share some moments that build culture.
  5. They will learn a lot from each other and the answers and ideas that are shared peer-to-peer during the meeting– far more than from the speakers!
  6. They will put a few of the things they learn into practice– and their business will grow as a result.

So, if you are a sales manager or a company leader, bring your reps together periodically.  It’s always worth the time and energy to prepare for the meeting, as the benefits above are real and the sales growth can certainly be measured!

Good luck and let me know if I can assist you!

Bill Cook

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It’s a Privilege

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Bill Cook

Check out this video of a recent speech at the 2011 BIG TEN Kick Off Lunchenon, by Kirk Cousins, starting quarterback for the Michigan State University football team. He represents collegiate athletes with class and dignity.

Thanks for watching, Bill

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The Miracle of Targeted Therapies

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Bill Cook

Today’s post is from Dr. Stephen Vogt, President and CEO of BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy in Altamonte Srings, FL.  Dr. Vogt highlights one of the newest and most promising types of cancer therapies and explains how Pfizer is offering an assistance program to go along with the new treatment.

The Miracle of Targeted Therapies

A deadly form of lung cancer occurs in young people – the demographic just hitting their stride in life who least expect a cancer diagnosis. To add insult to injury, the young people struck with this form of lung cancer aren’t even smokers. What is happening is a rare genetic abnormality in which the gene called ALK expresses itself as lung cancer cells. If you can stop this cursed gene, then this form of lung cancer is stopped in its tracks.

That’s exactly what a new molecularly targeted therapy from Pfizer, Inc does. This therapy, called Xalkori (crizotinib), won rapid approval from the FDA. It’s a pill that is taken twice a day. Although it stops cancer cells, this therapy is not a form of chemotherapy; which means that it has a relatively mild side effect profile. But compliance with the regimen is of paramount importance.

Before Xalkori became available, patients with this form of lung cancer were treated with chemotherapy, with only limited success to show for their often difficult side effects. Xalkori, in the pivotal study that resulted in FDA approval, showed an impressive 90 percent response rate. Two-thirds of the people in the study had significant tumor shrinkage and one-third had their disease stabilized. Study doctors report rapid response in reducing symptoms of shortness of breath, fatigue, and chronic cough. As with most molecular targeted gene therapy, tumors resumed growth after a median of 10 months.

However, this medication is not cheap. Xalkori costs $9,600 per month. Pfizer has a generous co-pay assistance that will keep the out of pocket cost for qualified patients to no more than $100 per month with an annual maximum assistance of $24,000. For about 10,000 citizens each year, Xalkori qualifies as nothing short of a miracle pill. Look for more “targeted therapies” that have precise, dramatic life changing outcomes.

Stephen C Vogt, PharmD
President and CEO
BioPlus SP

www.bioplusrx.com

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Blitzing Creates Momentum!

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Bill Cook

We did a state-wide blitz of North Carolina last week.  As a new specialty pharmacy provider for North Carolina Blue Cross Blue Shield, we felt that it was important to let key current and potential referral sources know that we were now contracted.

The effort to put a half-dozen teams together with itineraries, maps, accounts, scripts, details and contact names was enormous, not to mention the 350 or so binders that had to be put together in advance and shipped.   Creating contests for most miles driven, most referrals, most follow up appointments made, and funniest story was the easy part, but essential to create a fun and competitive blitz.

Making all the calls and traveling all the miles in between was a lot of work, and fun, as well.  Lastly, and most importantly, will be all the follow up activities, appointments, lunches, meetings and calls to build on the blitz itself to establish the referral patterns that will grow our volume.

We generated a lot of referrals and most importantly, a lot of momentum– both externally and internally.

And, the stories alone were worth it!  My funny story came after the blitz was over and several of us were stuck in Charlotte trying to get home.  After five hours of delays, and at about midnight, I decided to change out of my business attire and into some casual clothing.  I informed my colleagues, and went into the airport men’s room to change.  Only then did I remember that I had had to check my carry-on bag on the flight from Raleigh because there was not enough room in the overhead compartments– I had no clothes to change into!  Needless to say, I was pretty embarrassed, and my colleagues and I had a good laugh about it.  Exhaustion and endless airport delays can play tricks on the mind!

Seriously, if you are a sales person or sales manager,  I strongly encourage you to set up and execute a targeted blitz for your area.  The time and effort and momentum are worth it.

The greater the challenge the greater the reward!

Bill

 

 

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Are You Listening?

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Bill Cook

The ability to listen is still the most sought-after trait that customers want from their sales people.  Why is this so important, and yet so rare?

We all want to be heard– but it’s the sales person’s job to hear the customer, not the other way around.  Customers don’t really care what we have to say until they know that we care about them, and the best way to show that care is to simply listen to them!

So, ironically, many sales people do the exact opposite of what they should be doing– talking too much about their products and services and not listening to what the customer thinks is important.   You must ask good questions, and then really listen.

True listening is rare becuase most sales people are taught to sell features and benefits instead of finding out what the customer wants or needs help with.  And, it’s easier to talk than to listen for understanding.  Lastly, sales people are uncomfortable letting the customer speak, lest they “lose control” of the interaction.

So, take a minute or two during your pre-call plan and jot down a few good questions for your customer.  What do you need to learn about their business or situation?  Who are they using and why?  What do they like or dislike about working with you or your competitors?  The list is endless.  Be sure to listen carefully to what they are saying and look for body language clues as well to determine the meaning behind their words.

You won’t regret it.

Have a great week!

Bill

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Extended Ride Alongs Work for All

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Bill Cook

Having just spent the better part of the last three days in the field with one of our business development directors, I am reflecting today on the value of spending a large chunk of time in the field.  Most managers and representatives in pharma, biotech, home health, home infusion and specialty pharmacy do not spend so much time together making calls on current and potential customers.

My question is, why not?  We all know that a rep can make any one day look really good.  Every rep has accounts that will make them shine– honey holes, if you will.  And every manager has been on what we call a “milk run” where the rep takes the manager along for a day to accounts that will listen, commit and even send a referral.

But have a rep put three days together.  Where each day you start early, work late, and go to all account types, including the ones that the rep doesn’t know and ones where the rep isn’t necessarily even liked!

That’s what we did the last three days.  And, guess what?  We learned a lot.  We created a great working relationship.  The rep earned my respect and trust and praise.  I was impressed with her work ethic, her knowledge and sales skills, her tenacity, and her planning and territory managment skills.  I also learned where she needs help and what her weaknesses really are, and how to help her with those.

I suspect that she gained some things from me along the way as well.  Hopefully, I inspired her and provided leadership, direction and support.  I clarified, re-directed, and challenged her to do even better.  I learned a tremendous amount about her selling style, background, and concerns that I can build upon to provide more and better support.

So, what about you?  Whether you are a manager, director, vice president or CEO, you could benefit by spending a few days in the field with one of your representatives.  And, the same goes for all the reps out there– try inviting one of your superiors out for a three day marathon of call-making.  You might be surprised how much it helps you and your career!

Have a great weekend,

Bill

Posted in Performance, Persistence, Planning, Sales, Sales Management | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment