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February 1, 2006

8:47 am | 0 recommendations | 8 comments

Blowing Up Boring

| posted by Danielle Sacks

Medical and pharmaceutical sales recruiting. Not exactly my idea of a sexy industry bustling with personality. But I was impressed when I checked out the website of a friend of a friend who has a med & pharma sales recruiting firm, Tom Ruff Company. Sure, there were the typical site headers "About Us," Clients," "Contact Us," -- but then they threw in a section entitled "Cool." In it, blurbs on random stuff their team thinks is cool and interesting (i.e. the new wine opener) -- and then a litany of the recruiters' favorite books, films and restuarants of choice at the moment. You find out that Tom's are: David McCullough's 1776, The Squid and the Whale, and Greenwich Village's Spotted Pig, while Shari Lee prefers The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Family Stone, and Aimee’s Bistro in Redondo Beach, CA.

What was moments ago just another generic firm was suddenly transformed into a humanized personality with tastes and interests that has left an imprint on me. Have you come across a similar example of a subtle, simple idea that when executed well, turned something one-dimensional into someone with a little mind, body and soul?

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Recent Comments | 8 Total

February 1, 2006 at 12:42pm

Snake

Qualifications to be a pharma rep: female, young, and beautiful.

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February 1, 2006 at 4:34pm

tim

A great idea for personalizing any product or service you are offering online... architecture, web design, t-shirts, whatever. The internet's main weakness - a potential customer usually cannot meet the potential seller.

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February 1, 2006 at 10:02pm

Dan

Great Job Tom! You add tremendous value to your clients providing them the best service with the most prepared interviewees! Keep up the great work!

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February 2, 2006 at 11:15pm

Roger Fulton

My award goes to reality, honesty, telling it and cutting through the smaze of corporate-speak. Snake gets it. I interviewed with a John Wayne type at a huge drug firm who walked through the steps. At the end, he looks at me and says, " now, thanks for your time. I didn't say anything about your gray hair during the interview, did I?"
And....that was that.
http://spaces.msn.com/members/rogerroost/

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February 2, 2006 at 11:19pm

Roger Fulton

Snake gets the "tell-it-like-it-is" award. Cut through the corp speak. I interviewed with a large pill co. At the end I got the thanks for your time, "we didnt' mention your gray hair too much, did we" speach at the end. I kid you, not.
I think, those are your ultimate qualifications for selling the stuff, young, female, pretty, puffed up, so to speak.

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February 3, 2006 at 8:25am

Jaywalker

The idea of becoming more personal is good. Although if you label something cool, you'd better be cool.

Is your idea of cool copying yesterday's bestseller lists? How long has "blink" been in the news? Most of their selections are either already out in paperback or even in film. And they are mainly mainstream pickings.

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February 3, 2006 at 2:14pm

Perso

I remember that a few months ago, the New York Times ran an article about Pharma companies recruiting cheerleaders as sales rep

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May 12, 2006 at 4:03pm

Boston Recruiter

Regretfully I have to agree with Snake and Roger - the pharma industry is not interested in hiring top-notch talent for their field sales force.

This industry is notorious for hiring pretty young things to stroll into the docs' offices and dole out free lunches, event tickets, etc. A pathetic industry and one that I wouldn't recruit for at any price.

It would make for a great investigative piece on 60 Minutes!

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