3rd gear gets a RHB his dream job

Michael Yang is one of those people who makes you look good and so is the type of guy you like to help.

Mike and Chelsea Smyth helped organize a Knocking down Silos event at the University of Toronto/Mississauga in the Fall of 2006 (both were completing their Masters of Biotechnology degree.)About 250 people from the business and academic community showed up and we raised a significant amount of money for a local charity.

Mike found work at GlaxoSmithKline shortly thereafter. Then he and did something smart.

He kept in touch.

I'd get an email from him every once in awhile saying hello, or connecting me with an opportunity, or he'd leave note on my Facebook wall.

A few weeks ago, I got a call from Mike asking for advice about an upcoming sales position at GSK. Mike has no sales background and wanted to ask me a few questions while preparing for the interview.

I'll let his email finish the story:

Dear Dave,

I hope you are doing well.

Three weeks ago I was suprised to find out that I landed an interview for a pharmaceutical sales position. As you know, I am currently a Master of Biotechnology student with zero sales experience and have only been in the pharmaceutical industry for less than 1 year. From the outset, I thought I wouldn't stand a chance in getting this job, even my current manager did not believe I will land the job.

After talking to you three weeks ago, you taught me that "you can explain and predict human behaviour if you understand their incentive system" and how important it is for a pharma sales rep to be in the "3rd gear" mode.Taking your valuable advice, I went out and spoke to many doctors in order to understand what their incentive scheme is in Canada.

I learned that most doctors are paid by the number of patients they see per day. Have you ever wondered why your family doctor is always trying to get you out of their office as fast as possible? Well, thats because the less time they spend on you, the more patients they can see and therefore make more money. This means, docotors will spend very little time talking to pharmaceutical sales reps! Because they don't make money talking to sales reps.

By understanding their incentive scheme I was empowered to come up with strategies to overcome this obstacle and I was able to leverage this information during my interview. Even though I had zero experience in sales, I still ended up landing this dream job!

My current manager was shocked that I got the job because she didn't think that a person still in school, just completing his Masters, with less than 1 year of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, and have absolutely zero sales experience can land a pharma sales job especially in GSK. She was telling me that these jobs are usually filled with people who at least some business-to-business selling experience, and a couple of years in the pharma/medical device industry, all of which I lacked.

Thank you very much for all your advice Dave, you've helped me to see how this world works from a different perspective and helped me move up one step in my career!

Cheers,

Michael Yang

Congratulations Mike, I'll take 20% of the credit and your enthusiasm, personality and hard-work gets you 80%!