Multiple Key Account Managers in France for biopharma drug launch
Case study
The overview
Our partner, an international biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercialises humanised monoclonal antibody-based therapies, was looking to build out a team of Key Account Managers in France ahead of their new drug launch. Having already supported them with a similar project in Germany, our team were tasked with helping them source multiple Key Account Managers (KAMs) for each of the key regions in France.
The challenge
Our partner needed to be proactive to have KAMs in place ready for launch, however they did not yet have market authorization from the regulatory authorities so were unsure if all 5 hires would go ahead. They also wanted very specific questions to be asked to determine the sales mindset of the candidates, meaning a lot of time needed to be invested with each applicant. Once we had candidates who had made it to the offer stage, the challenge was keeping them engaged in the process until our partner had the necessary approvals to make the hires.
The solution
Our team, which includes native French speakers, set up weekly calls with the stakeholders where strict deadlines and service level agreements were put in place. We presented our partner with a shortlist of candidates to meet their requirements, and several were taken through to the assessment stage.
Our partner set up defined assessment days for when the interviews would take place so we had to ensure the shortlisted candidates would all be available on the same day. Due to the delay between the last interview and final approval by our partner, one candidate was lost to another company. However, due to continually being in touch with the market, we were quickly able to identify another candidate who accepted the offer, meaning there were no delays with the agreed timelines.
The outcome
• With our help, our partner hired 4 strong Key Account Managers with a good understanding of the French network and a sales mindset that was fitting with their company culture
• Our partner was impressed with the calibre of professionals we were able to find for them and awarded us an EU-wide project to grow their team of Medical Writers