O CC U PAT I O N A L M E D I C I N E Hiring the Best Occupational Health Sales Professionals ■ FRANK H. LEONE, MBA, MPH D o you hire an experienced salesperson and train him or her in occupational health, or hire an occupational health profes- sional and train that person in sales? The former brings sales experience but needs to learn the “product;” the latter brings product knowledge but needs to learn fundamental sales skills. Given this choice, my answer is the former. It is easier to train an experienced salesperson in product knowledge than vice versa. However, there are numerous exceptions. For example, an insider with product knowledge may be a natural salesperson who could easily adapt to the occupational health sales role. Regardless of which approach you adopt, keep in mind that mediocre personnel beget mediocre results. The most important thing is to hire the right individual. When Openings Occur Having an open operational position may hinder efficiencies and increase burden on remaining staff, but at least the program is saving money (the salary for the open position) for this period. However, each day a sales position remains open means no sales calls and less revenue for your clinic. Hence, you must move quickly to initiate the recruiting/interviewing/hiring process when you have an open sales position. Often, programs minimize their outreach out of fear that the candidate pool will become too large. But the greater danger is missing out on the best candidates. The best strategy is to con- currently use multiple modalities to build an extensive candidate pool. The wider the net, the more likely you will catch the big fish. Such modalities might include: Ⅲ A professional recruiting firm—Utilize one or more firms that Frank Leone is president and CEO of RYAN Associates and executive director of the National Association of Occupational Health Professionals. Mr. Leone is the author of numerous sales and marketing texts and periodicals, and has considerable experience training medical profes- sionals on sales and marketing techniques. E-mail him at fleone@naohp.com. w w w. j u c m . c o m specialize in the recruitment of sales personnel. This pro- vides the best chance to find a candidate who has “been there, done that.” A contingency fee and/or relocation cost may well be offset by the new hire’s ability to bring in more dollars more quickly. Ⅲ Advertising—Depending on the size and nature of your mar- ket, newspaper advertising may be valuable. Ⅲ Internet recruiting—Internet recruiting tools such as www.monster.com are increasingly viable methods for en- larging your prospect base. Narrow the Field The tactics described above may produce a candidate pool the size of Jupiter. Now what? The ideal candidate would be someone who has experience in your market. Such a candidate is likely to bring clients and con- tacts, market knowledge, and potentially valuable competitive in- telligence to your program. Assuming this dream candidate does not surface, however, you will need an effective approach to narrow down the pool: Ⅲ Require that both objective and subjective criteria be in- cluded in a candidate’s first response. Request a letter of interest, including why the candidate is considering your position at this time, their compensation requirements, and their current responsibilities. Many candidates can be elim- inated after a brief glance. Ⅲ Send remaining candidates materials describing the posi- tion and your organization. Dissemination of such informa- tion at this juncture eliminates candidates that may not be interested in the position, saves time during the interview (providing more time to get to know the applicants), and measures an applicant’s diligence. Ⅲ Ask the candidate to call your office during a specific time period to schedule a telephone interview. Many would-be candidates don’t get around to it, or fail to call during the specified time period. Rule them out now and save time later. JUCM T h e J o u r n a l o f U r g e n t C a r e M e d i c i n e | A p r i l 2 0 0 8 39