Hey, everyone, hey, we are in for a special treat today. I have with us, Mr Joey Robertson. And Joey is practicing sales professional, he works for the company called Amgen. And the reason I've asked Joey to be part of this Coursera course is because, I've asked him to be here to kind of provide a sales professional perspective on sales management. So we have been spending this entire course talking to you about, what sales managers do and how they do it? I think it would be very enlightening to kind of get the perspective of the recipient of all of those sales actions, the sales professional himself. So Joey, well welcome to the Coursera course. >> Thank you. >> Now, as I've said, you work for Amgen. You're a very proud graduate of West Virginia University, and you've been a huge help to our sales program over the years, and all. But tell us a bit about your career and what you've done since you've been in college? >> So, I graduated from West Virginia University with a Marketing Degree. And for the last 24 years, I've been a sales professional. During that time, I've worked for commercial office furniture early in my career. And then I moved into the pharmaceutical arena for the last 20 years, and that's really where my focus has been. I appreciate everything West Virginia University did for me. And it was actually in a course of personal selling where I decided, hey, I want to be a sales professional when I graduate from here. I presented the Crest Complete toothbrush during a course, and fell in love with it. And I said when I graduate from here, I'm going into sales, and that's where I've been ever since. >> And that is really cool. So let's talk a bit about the pharmaceutical sales industry, and the one that you've been involved with here for so many years and all. Tell us a bit about the industry and maybe what your company and what you do. >> Okay, so I've been in pharma for the last 20 years. The last 17 of it I've been in Biopharma, which is in injectables, biologics, proteins, monoclonal antibodies. And during that time, I've been calling on specialties such as rheumatology, cardiology, and dermatology, talking to them about our medicines. The thing about our company, Amgen, our job's to serve patients that have life threatening disease, major illness, and so I've been really speaking to them. And my day consists of going out and calling on these physicians, calling on these hospitals. And everyone that you encounter within a physicians practice and educating them about our medicines. The one thing that unique about my selling day is, I see these customers, I might see them 20 times 20 times a year. And it's repeat calling on these customers. It's not a transactional process, but it's actually a building of a relationship and maintaining that and educating them on our products too as well. >> And so I know early on you were talking, you were sort of whipping out a lot of terms, biologics and this type of thing. And I think one of the things that I've observed here within the whole sales industry is, how much product knowledge is important to the job of selling, right? I mean, you've got to be a real expert in what these drugs do and how they do them. >> Well, product knowledge in pharmaceutical is number one is paramount because, you're actually calling off, you're everything you're able to present is in a package insert. It's in the medicines you pick up at the pharmacy and you read about and stuff. And we need to know that as pharma reps, and you need to be able to take that information and translate it to the customer in a very ethical and compliant way. And the nice thing about the pharma industry, and working for Amgen is they teach you, and they train you on what you're allowed to say, where to navigate. And then also our physicians, and you're calling on customers that are very well-educated. Went to medical school, when they graduated, they went to residency, then a fellowship. So, you need to be able to articulate that in a professional manner, it's respectful of their education. But you're not only calling on the physicians, you're calling on the nurses, you're calling on the office managers, you're calling on the receptionists that schedules your appointments. So it's really not only navigating their customer and the doctor, but really being able to navigate that practice and educate them too as well. >> Wow, now just to around numbers here. In a given year, about how many people do you call on, when you say doctors and nurses, and all that, is it? >> Well, on a weekly basis, I'll probably have a touch point with between 40 and 50 customers. >> I see. >> That could be physicians, that could be nurses, that could be the office manager, and over the year, you're consistently seeing these people. Now, I have a set group of physicians, or hospitals, or accounts that I'm required to call on, and I make sure I go see those people. But I mean, you walk into a physician's practice and you might be talking to the doctor one minute, and the nurse one minute, and then the office major the next minute. You need to be very self-aware of yourself. You need to be obviously self-aware of their time and what's important to them too. So it's really a neat dynamic to understand all these different customers you have. >> Boy, I'll say, and take a moment and tell us what a typical day is like, or how do you usually spend your time? >> Well, a typical day, even a typical week in the pharma industry is you're analyzing yourselves to reports to see where you are. Because obviously, you have a goal that you want to hit. But you're also planning out that week as to which customers are most important you see for the week. Do I need to see this cardiologist this week, do I need to see this endocrinologist? And then the typical day, I'll get up, and you work out of your home. So, you'll check your email, look at your routine for the day. Mine is very geography base, where I'll go to a certain northern part of my territory one day, and I'll see about six day to counts up there and make sure that I try to get good quality time during that day. I might have appointments or lunch with all these providers where I'm trying to speak about my medicine or answer any questions I can have. And then, this pretty much takes the whole day, and then when the day's over, I'll enter my calls into my computer, I think we use Salesforce. And then I'll set objectives for what I'm going to do with them next time when I follow up with them again on the next call. And that's very important because, even though I'm going out and seeing all these people, you need to know what you're going to do the next time you interact with them. >> Right, so help us to understand, [COUGH] so this is an interesting thing. So obviously, the ultimate user of the products that you sell are the patients of the doctors, but why do you call on doctors? >> Well, Obviously, I serve a patient. What I provide might be something to help them with their lipid management, or their rheumatoid arthritis, or their skin psoriasis, or their osteoporosis. And being a sales rep, I'm not allowed to interact with patients. >> I see. >> It's very HIPPA guidlinned. Those kinds of conversations are not appropriate. So what is appropriate is for me to go out and educate my offices, talk to the physicians about the medicine. Let them know what the efficacy and the safety of the drug can and cannot do. And that way, they can make an informed decision. Because when you're presenting to a physician, or you're presenting to a PA or a nurse practitioner, which are other very important people in the practice, everybody's important, my goal is to get them to find the appropriate patient and give them a prescription. I'm not asking for a dollar sale or anything. But what I am asking them to do is to give a prescription for the patient that they can go and pick up the medicine and it will impact the patient's life positively. >> That's so interesting because you're trying to influence the influencers, right? The people who we turn to for our healthcare and that type of thing and all. >> We know how busy the physician is and the nurse practitioner and the PA, so itt's very important as a farmer rep that you have a plan, you go in with your plan, try to impact them as best as you can. If you don't know the answer, the nice thing we have is, we have medical teams that you can reach out to and talk to and follow up and help them out. >> Wow, that's- >> It's a very fun customer, it's very fun, it's enjoyable selling. >> Right, I was going to say, so [COUGH] with of all the different things that you do, what do you find most rewarding? What gets you going each day? >> Well, when you hear a positive story about how the medicine impacted the patient's life, that's great, that's great. Or, if you go out from the salesperson in me and the competitor in me, if you hear that you've got a new physician to start using the med, they're having great result, that's positive too. And then also too, I mean, I want to beat the competition but really in pharma, you're just trying to hit your goal. You're trying to provide medicines to patients, so there's a lot of things positive that motivate you and stuff too. >> Right, so one of the things I want to comment to our students about here is, when we talked about the motivations for sales' people and what gets them going, you notice that when we have these conversations that, it's not just money. And it isn't just the notion of the victory that is the, I got a sale, certainly it's a component of that. But you notice that, there's other things that motivate a salesperson, so what's the learning here? That you, as the sales manager, needs to be thinking about all of those needs. And not just thinking that the only thing you've gotta do is pay these people, and they'll take their cue from that. So Joey, we've covered a number of different topics in this course. And, I think it would be really useful to talk about some of these topics, not so much, that is, what a sales manager does, but rather, how does the salesperson react to that and all? Because you are the one that these things are often focused on. So, I'd like to kind of bring up some of these topics and kind of get your perspective on them and all. And I think in some cases, it might be probably it'll be helpful to explain like, how they might work in your firm and all? But then I'd like to kind of get your perspective on this. So one of the topics that we've covered here is the notion of sales forecasts and sales budgets. So let's begin with, how does Amgen do that? >> Okay, well, I can speak broadly about pharma. >> Right, okay, yes, that will be perfect, yes. >> Especially about forecasts, and what you'll find and if you choose a career in selling, in pharmaceutical selling, most of your forecasts are given to you from your organization. >> I see. >> They look at your territory, they look at the volume, they might look at a past history. And from that you're given, whether it be units, prescriptions, dollar sales, you're given a goal that they set for you, and then a certain time period that where you need to hit that goal. So forecasts, and things like that are more related to goal setting, and translate down to me. Now obviously, on a corporate level, they do forecasting for shareholders, and throughout the year as to what they expect the drugs to deliver. But for me, personally as a sales rep, I'm more concerned with what the goal is that they're asking me to hit and can I get there? And how am I going to get there? >> Right, so now, I want to make a point that we've had other sales folks that have been part of this course, and when we've had this kinds of discussions you've heard of other approaches to sales forecasting, right? So this, what Joey is describing here would be kind of term more of a top-down type of an approach. You noticed you heard him say, that there are formulated sort of ethic at the corporate offices, and then they're given to him to fulfill, right? So, as we've said before, there's no right or wrong way to do these. It's simply each company has their own approach to that and all. So, when you're given a sales forecast, how do you react to that? >> [LAUGH] >> And obviously, these are make or break things, right? I mean, this is how you're evaluated, right? >> Well, you talked about motivation, I think that's very important. Because for me, personally, it's not necessarily the dollar sales or the dollars I make, it's actually how good of a job I can do. Can I be successful, can I exceed? Obviously, as a sales rep, you're driven to do more than your goal. I mean, if you're in here just to hit your goal, then sales may or may not be for you. But you always wanted to do before than what they give you. And, sometimes when you get those number sent down to you, you have to pause for a minute and say, my goodness, I'm really being asked to do a lot. But, I've found that over the course of my career, I've either exceeded or been right on or shortly very close to hitting those forecasts and those numbers. And the nice thing about my business is, okay, I get that number, but then I'm pretty much the business owner of that business. I determine where I go, I determine where the dollars are spent in my territory, on programs, on lunches, and educational process. So you really need to approach it as a business owner to be successful in pharma. And, right now, I'm in a territory where it's just myself calling on certain specialties. But I've also worked in years past where it's partnered, where you actually have to formulate a plan with a partner, and then determine how you're going to attack your business. So it's very interesting, but to answer your question, I think any sales rep when they see their number they're like, [LAUGH] no, here we go. >> Right, so there's a kind of a natural tension that exists between sales managers and sales professionals, right? And the role of the sales manager is to incentivize, to provide leadership on that. And, in generally speaking that works, but that doesn't necessarily come with some degree of anxiety and all to do that. So have you ever had a situation where you've been given a goal that it's just off the scale as far as doability, how do you deal with something like that? >> Well, anytime you're given a goal, and it's more than you can do, you still need to do what you can do. And you need to formulate a plan, and you need to be able to present that to your sales manager as to what you're doing and what steps you're taking to get to that goal. If it's the nice thing about the managers I've had is they know my business, and they visit me, and they get to meet my customers. So they do have an understanding of the territory, but I mean, there's a lot of pressures that go into it. And you have to be able to handle those pressures, and you need to be articulate. And hopefully, you have a good manager that's receptive to some of your concerns that can process it, and translate that up the chain. So, and if you're having a bad sales year, you need to be good at the other things. Like working in teams, helping your other counterparts get better, picking out industry trends and sending those forward, working with your pharmacies or managed care. Just there's so much, I'm just not evaluated on the sales, obviously that's a big component of it, but it also has to do with what other roles I serve within the organization of Amgen. We just don't have one value, we have many values that we have. >> One of the other points I want to go back to, Joey, that you had mentioned was about budgets. And also, one of the things that I kind of heard you say is that, you've got some flexibility about how those moneys are spent and all. Can you tell us a little bit about that approach? >> So, during the course of my career, even when I was in commercial office furniture, we would have a budget. And then even more so when I got into pharma, you have budget on what you can spend within the geography, and it might be working a conference, it might be hosting a educational program. Or it might be educating nurses when the insurance services we provide, or injection services from one of our trained people at Amgens. So, I have the flexibility to decide where is that money spent within my territory. But the nice thing about our industry is I'm coordinating not only my territory, but if I have a partner territory very close, we might pool our resources together and use them wisely. So it's all on making the most impact we can and return on investment. >> Right, and do you have much input on the setting of the sales budgets? Are you consulted much? >> No, that's usually done at the management level and above. And appropriately so because I mean, we're a billions and billions of dollar company- >> Right. >> And, a lot of that money is divvied out. Now, being a sales manager and I can speak to it from the teams I've been on, the team I'm currently on, they might be able to allocate money to certain territories and take some away from other territories. So, and usually, they'll communicate with you, back and forth. Also, if you have a business need, and you need to make it to your manager then you can do so. >> Right.
