From Sales to Leadership

Tim Walbert helped to launch two of the world ’s biggest-selling drugs, Humira and Celebrex, and is now in charge of a $3 billion company with big ambitions – plus he knows what it is like to be a patient at the sharp end.That is quite a track record. Walbert started his pharmaceutical career in sales and believes that has given him the best possible grounding for leadership: the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer ofHorizon Pharma recalls his early days on the road with some affection.“When you come through pharma sales, you deal with rejection,” he laughs. “You spend most of your time in your car, by yourself. When people say: ‘Hey! I’m a people person – I want to be in sales,’ they don’t realize you’re not spending that much time with people. It’s a very bri ef period of time you get with the customer.”If you start with the patient and then the physician who is treating them, you can understand each of their motivations and needs and pressures, then you ’ve got a pathway to success.It follows that this experience – assuming you have a tough enough skin to thrive in the sales environment – crystallizes such vital abilities as relationship building. “The skills you hone are learning to deal with rejection, overcoming that, understanding what patients want and how the health system works,” Walbert conti nues. “If you haven’t got that, how can you be in a leadership role where you create solutions and drive them through? That...
Source: EyeForPharma - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news