This article first appeared in Pharmafield - read more of their articles here.
Today’s pharmaceutical and healthcare field teams are operating within increasingly challenging business environments, as companies relentlessly pursue new ways to optimise the commercialisation of their products. Alongside the deployment of a true multichannel approach, the ‘field-based representative’ needs to be a highly skilled operator, capable of interacting with and influencing a broad, diverse, evolving customer group involved in deciding which treatments are truly accessible to appropriate patients.
Internally at Carrot we have noticed that clients are typically looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate a solution-focused approach to dealing with local patient access and sales challenges. What does this mean? They will have high levels of business acumen, as well as possessing a strong clinical background, however, they also need to be innovative in sourcing ways to enhance the impact that they have for their customers in delivering consistent levels of commercial excellence. How do they do this? More than ever, sales and market access field professionals need to be resilient to change. They should expect and anticipate change and know how to deal with it in an expedient and effective manner.
“Embracing new ways of working and having an open mind make a sales representative more sought after”
With clinicians’ workloads continuing to increase, quality time invested in engaging with our industry can often be at a premium for them. Hence the commercially excellent sales representative needs to make an impact quickly and make sure their value proposition is economically viable for all parties as well as clinically sound. Embracing new ways of working and having an open mind make a sales representative more sought after. They will routinely co-create solutions with their customers to enhance patient outcomes.
From the company perspective, this is where taking an agile approach to sourcing talent, alongside having a deep understanding of what drives value amongst stakeholders, can differentiate and help maintain that competitive advantage. A flexible approach to recruitment adds an extra string to the bow. Traditionally, permanent hires have been valued over using flexible hires for sales forces. However, Carrot has access to a candidate-rich market of highly skilled sales and market access professionals available for shorter term hires across a plethora of different therapy areas. An increasing volume of senior and highly skilled candidates has shifted to working in more flexible roles, using the variety of contract roles to help broaden their skill sets further.
With long-term cost awareness on the board room agenda, flexible hires through vacancy management can provide quality and low risk talent solutions. Without compromising on quality, pharmaceutical companies can respond to the market speedily, adding a burst of energy to a growing or declining product, or acquiring a necessary skillset vital for the success of a particular project. At Carrot we have identified candidates that have developed the necessary skills to thrive in the current, more commercially focused environment, with high calibre skillsets and networks across a variety of therapy areas in sales, market access, marketing and field based medical teams.
Carrot Recruitment is a specialist recruitment agency covering jobs in Pharma, healthcare and biotech. With over 12 years of success in the Pharma, healthcare and biotech industries, we are growing year-on-year. Carrot Flex is a flexible resourcing service within Carrot that provides key talent sourcing, vacancy management solutions and team build partnerships across a wide range of disciplines.
To find out more, contact Martin Anderson on 01625 541 030
or email martin@carrotpharma.co.uk.
