Never Walk Into a Job Interview Unprepared

Imagine you are interviewing for a sales executive role at a medical technology company.

You already have 20+ years selling healthcare technology to hospitals and doctors and you are looking for new opportunities.

​Whether you currently have a job and looking to switch or you are between gigs, you can expect the process to take at least a few months ... and be incredibly competitive!

Assuming you have already gotten through the initial screening process with the recruiter and / or HR manager, you'll likely find yourself faced with a range of interviews with the hiring manager, other sales reps and members of the management team.

No doubt, you'll be looking for ways to stand-out from competition and really shine.

But exactly how much effort should you put into preparing for a job interview?

We are excited to share with you how a top sales executive used Carevoyance to expertly navigate the interview process and win more job offers!​

You would never walk into a sales meeting unprepared, so why on earth would you ever consider walking into a job interview without a full understanding of the company, their market and what it would take to sell their product?

A company’s website, LinkedIn page, and recent news stories are great places to start finding information about the companies on your wish list (as well as their products and their targeted market).

After you have dug through the company website and read the relevant results of your research, there's still more work to be done. You’ll want to synthesize that knowledge which will enable you to dig further into the market and product potential and start to act like you have already been hired for the sales role - during the interview process!

There are a number of important reasons for building out a market development or sales plan as part of interviewing for a sales executive role at medical technology company.
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​In fact, three clear benefits emerge, including:

1. You will create a unique opportunity to position your skills as a match to the company’s current challenges or needs, in a very specific way. You can show off a range of skills including your ability to  analyze, strategize and truly develop lasting client relationships. 
2. You will gain a clear competitive advantage over other candidates who aren’t as well prepared. You’ll stand out from other candidates while sending a very strong signal of your interest level in the position. Plus you will demonstrate your orientation around value-based selling, supporting the client throughout the sales lifecycle, and your comfort with charging into new markets.
3. You will be able to better decide if this is a product you want to sell. When you get the job, you'll be spending 40+ hours every week on this product. Is this an opportunity you want to invest your time and reputation on? The time spent developing your sales plan will help you find red flags earlier and help to validate the reasons for your initial excitement about the opportunity.

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Here at Carevoyance, we recently had the opportunity to work with a client who faced this exact situation.

At his previous job, he had been using Carevoyance for the past several years which had been instrumental in his ability to close million dollar sales of capital equipment to hospitals. He wanted to be as prepared as possible to put his best foot forward and ensure he became the company’s top candidate.

Below we have outlined a step-by-step summary of how you can use a data-drive approach to land your next job.

If you don’t have access to Carevoyance (and why is that? we should talk!), then you could piece together some of the information you'll want to access to about any given healthcare provider by  using public data sources including HCUP, Dartmouth Atlas, CMS , PubMed or Google Scholar.

Step One: Show you know the market ​

Key Question: Where would I focus my sales efforts in the first 30/60/90/180 days?

Go beyond the basics of naming hospitals or prominent physicians in your future territory.  Instead identify a list of highly targeted facilities and providers, based on current or potential utilization of the product. 

​​First, research the diagnosis and procedure codes that relate to the product and help define the ideal physician profile or ideal facility profile. You can translate the company's reimbursement guide into targeting criteria which is a trick we covered in more detail in a previous blog post.

Next, use these signals to find the physicians most likely to use your product at which facilities. From there, hone in on the geography you will be covering as the company's future sales rep to arrive at a list of the best potential, most relevant targets.

Things to keep in mind at this phase:

• Are there any red flags about the size or scope of your future territory?
• Are there ample targets that would be interested in the company's product?
• How competitive is your territory? Be sure to check out Open Payments to see what other companies may already have relationships with potential accounts in your territory.

Step 2: Show your skills for creating an account plan

Key Question:  How will I engage gatekeepers, build trust and create product champions in this new role?

At this point in the interview process, you should have a solid understanding of the company's messaging and product differentiation. Segment the targets you uncovered in Step 1 and create a game plan for one or two of the high priority targets.

Think through what aspects of the company's messaging or product profile will resonate most with each stakeholder at your targeted opportunity (such as Physician Leader, Hospital Administrator, Purchasing Manager or others involved in buying the technology).

What messaging or product benefit will resonate most with these stakeholders?  

​With Carevoyance, you can easily find  the facility's performance metrics and match your messages on a variety of topics your potential buyers will care about including:

• quality
• cost
• degree of competition in the market
• strength of the hospital's referral network​

Step 3: Show how you would support a client throughout the sales lifecycle

Key Question: How will I communicate the product's return on investment and drive utilization of the product?

Put yourself in the prospect's shoes; they will undoubtedly expect you to help them understand and quantify their return on investment on the product you are selling. 

In addition to the product delivering value directly within the physician's practice, look outside the hospital's four walls to see who else benefits from the investment.

• Perhaps the technology investment will allow them to solidify key relationships with their top surgeons or affiliated physicians.
• Perhaps the product you are selling is going to be the type of technology that allows the prospect to expand the depth or breadth of services they deliver in their market.
• Perhaps it will allow the buyer to increase their value to their community of referring physicians.   
• Perhaps their referral partners will have a new outlet to direct patients seeking care that your product can impact. 

​During the interview process,  as you discuss these phases of the sales lifecycle, it will be a great opportunity to really dig into the messaging and value proposition with the interviewing team. 

​In addition, use the opportunity to highlight how you could use data and other time-savers to calculate a initial estimate of the value derived from buying the company's product or technology, given all the things you uncovered about the the prospect.

Things to keep in mind at this phase:

• What product features or benefits does the company think are most important to winning market share?
• Can you credibly calculate an ROI for the product? 
• What objections will prospects have for the product?
• What do current customers like best about the product?

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While it’s a lot of work to build out a market development plan for every job opportunity you interview for, the payback is huge. 

​Not only will you impress the interviewing team, but it will present ample opportunities for you to go deeper into the technology or product you will be selling. Before you start the job is the perfect time to validate the role, the product and the company are all a good fit!

Perhaps time won't allow a full deep dive on every opportunity, but you should definitely consider these tactics for the most exciting or the most promising jobs that you are pursuing.

Our client who used these tactics during his job search, translated this investment of time and effort in more than one job offer. It left him a great position to assess which opportunity was the the best fit and which would allow him to maximize his success. 
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We'd love to help other job seekers!

​Reach out to Carevoyance to learn how you can access our sales acceleration platform as part of your job hunt!