FieldTraining
You just did it. You made the decision, full of risk and unknowns, to leave your award-winning, very comfortable big pharma sales job at a leading large company, to go to a relatively unknown company. You’ll sell a product you’d never heard of before, in a market you’ve never been in during your 30+ year career in the industry.
Some might call that risky. They would be correct.
What came out of the experience, however, was something intended to help others to enhance their rare disease training programs and individual selling skills, so that more patients might find an opportunity for a better life with the addition of medication like my new company markets.
Here’s my story:
With Harmony Biosciences, I chose to join forces with a former sales leader I had worked with before, as well as a former co-worker of mine in the same region. I remember clearly their full disclosures about what I would be getting into in this high-risk, high-reward environment. Honestly their comments gave me pause, but in the end I wanted to see and prove to myself that I could also achieve the same high level of success in rare disease sales as I had to date.
The training I was exposed to with Harmony likely has been some of the best I’ve experienced in my career. Jeff Taylor, Harmony’s senior director of training & development, was clearly expertly versed on the disease state. I knew I was well prepared to sell the product competently and confidently.
After a half-day onboarding session led by my close friend and former co-worker, who was one of several certified field trainers (CFT) at Harmony, I was released to go into the territory. I felt doubly prepared to take on the task and started out knowing that someone had my back and was there to help me when I needed it.
As things can happen in life, shortly after this meeting, my CFT abruptly was forced to go on medical leave. Suddenly I was without the support mechanism needed to help me attain my intended success in my new role.
With no CFT to lean on going forward, much of the learning I needed to create my intended success was consistently vital, sometimes challenging and, honestly, sometimes defeating.
After three arduous months of long days in the field, I found my success. I settled upon an approach that resonated with customers, leading them to start to prescribe Harmony’s medication. My field reimbursement manager (FRM) and I were able to prove that our medication was also accessible, and so many patients started receiving their monthly medication shipments.
My success in 2023 carried on throughout the year, ultimately creating a high level of consistent business growth, ranking highest consistently within my region, and in the nation. Some peers in the company started reaching out to learn about my approach.
I created an informal playbook of sorts, designed to help other new specialty territory managers (STMs) achieve faster and more productive success at Harmony. I offered my “onboarding learnings” informally to new members in the region. I continued to revise and adjust the information I’d put together, in case it might be needed in the future.
Between July and November of 2024, I onboarded five new STMs. These five new hires learned about the following as part of their experience:
Real-world messaging, objection handling and ideal follow-up steps.
A thorough understanding of the prescription referral process, one that if properly understood and promoted, could lead to more streamlined and successful conversions to approvals and shipments.
A thorough review of available promotional material for use in the field, based on customer scenarios.
Regular check-ins set up by the CFT and then group best practices discovery with the new hires together as a group every two weeks.
To date, all the STMs are creating impact at paces faster than what they likely would have. They are avoiding mistakes made by others in the process and are actively achieving the steps to faster performance. All acknowledge that without the onboarding experience, they would have encountered more challenges, delays in business and, ultimately, frustration in the job.
In rare disease sales, notably where the environment can be high risk and high reward, the role of the in-field onboarding experience is paramount to achieving the intended success of initial product training. Through my experience as a new STM and now as a certified field trainer, I can offer three takeaways:
Capture the elements of effective messaging, market access knowledge and real-world objection handling. Through my own experience, we’ve been able to create steps for newly hired specialty territory managers to find paths to faster, greater success. When the pressure is on, no one that is new wants to be “in the dark.”
Recognize the need to have a contingency plan available for those scenarios when a CFT might not be available, for whatever reason.
Regularly audit the in-field onboarding experience. Take time to survey the company’s front-line sales leaders to affirm and or adjust the program, so that the best attributes can be consistently emphasized to generate the greatest impact in the field each year.
We here at Harmony Biosciences will continue to elevate the in-field onboarding experience so that the majority of new territory managers can achieve their initial successes beyond expectations and continue that growth moving forward in their roles at the company. The end result will be that many more patients might just be able to find a path to better days and lives.
John Lundy is a senior territory manager for Harmony Biosciences and a certified field trainer. Email him at jlundy@harmonybiosciences.com or connect through linkedin.com/in/johnclundy.
