Clinical Revenue Managers: 7 Ways to Run a More Effective Meeting

Talks are one of those necessary evils of medical sales management.  Nobody likes ‘em, but everybody needs ‘em.  Whether you’re in medical sales, clinical diagnostics sales, clinical equipment sales, hospital equipment sales, imaging sales, medical laboratory sales, clinical device sales, surgical supply sales, biotechnology sales, cellular or molecular products sales, DNA products sales, or laboratory sales,  well-run meetings can improve the performance of your team, and consistently bad ones can make them dread seeing your face.  To make your pharma revenue negotiations as effective, successful, and pain-free as possible, here are 7 tips for you:

(1)     Have an agenda.  Don’t just have a meeting to have a meeting.  Write down a list of what you’re going to cover, and stick with it.  Fantastic meeting plans include things like brainstorming, action-planning, and decision-making. The more interactive the meeting, the better.  With revenue folks a competitive activity gets the blood flowing.

(2)    Don’t waste time with information that can be e-mailed, like product updates, information sharing…you get the idea.  The only exception:  If you’ve something that makes this information fresh – like a great guest speaker, the actual equipment, etc.

(THREE)    Limit the meeting time.  Except in bizarre circumstances, meetings should have breaks that are planned and that give the attendees time to check voicemail, return a few calls, stretch…

(4)    Limit the speaker time.  Don’t let the most long-winded person in the room have no cost rein.  That’s a sure-fire way to make every revenue rep hate coming to your meetings.  Manage your meeting so that it keeps moving at a pace that keeps everyone interested and engaged.

(5)    Keep things positive.  Insist on a supportive environment that doesn’t tear people and their ideas down.  Debate issues, don’t attack people.  We don’t all got to be cheerleaders, but we do have to show some respect.  Group meetings aren’t the time to give critical feedback to individuals.  Treat others as you would want to be treated.

(6)    Have someone take notes on your laptop as you go, and e-mail everyone the minutes immediately.  (This is one of several great tips from 14 Ways to Run a Terrible Meeting.)  And demand attention:   no one else should be cruising their computer or checking their Blackberry.  

(7)    Include some sales training in your meeting.  It doesn’t got to be a long movie presentation…it can be ten minutes for a new technique…a quick tip…a recommendation for a great book…you get the idea.  Enthusiasm for your negotiations will go way up if you can consistently provide some “value” for your sales reps.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized laboratory and clinical sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
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