Specific Talent for Specific Company Characteristics

Q: How does the Mexican health talent market compare to other industries?

A: The employee market in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry is still highly attractive, precisely because of preferential conditions compared to other industries in terms of compensation packages, benefits, training programs and career plans.

Bacher Zoppi has been a pioneer in offering specialized services for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry for more than 20 years. Due to our solid processes and compliance with the requirements of the industry as well as the authorities, a great number of companies prefer our talent pool and staffing services to hiring new sales talent. We recruit around 1,500 people per year, which makes us one of the main employers in our sector.

Q: To what extent has the rise of digital technology impacted recruiting for in-person visits?

A: Digital technology has not produced a significant variation in the number of people being recruited to perform in-person visits. However, we are fully aware that the industry is evaluating and implementing digital technology to increase the promotional impact and to continuously optimize marketing and sales expenses.

Q: Does the existing talent pool in the health industry meet your needs or must you turn to other sectors?

A: We have a vast variety of job profiles since our clients define or at least approve the characteristics for each vacancy. The importance of finding the specific talent for each position according to the characteristics of each company is a key success factor for Bacher Zoppi. We have our own experienced and specialized recruiting team across Mexico and maintain an updated database with more than 20,000 commercial and sales candidates, which allows us to recruit nationwide in a timely manner. We do turn to other sectors or young talent directly from university, not due to a lack of candidates with experience in our industry but mainly to meet our clients’ specific requirements.

Q: What new skills do companies expect from their future sales force?

A: Sales representatives should have the capacity to manage their territory just as an entrepreneur would do, negotiating at all levels with key opinion leaders and pharmacies to optimize demand and ensure the availability of a product at the points of sale.

Additionally, new candidates need digital skills to effectively administrate all future communication channels with their clients. As for district managers, companies are looking for coaching skills to accelerate the development of skills needed for the increasing responsibilities of today’s sales force.

Q: What were Bacher Zoppi’s growth drivers in 2016 and what are the company’s priorities for 2017?

A: It has been a challenge for Bacher Zoppi to compensate for the industry’s reduction of the overall sales force head count with new business opportunities. However, in 2016, we exceeded our growth expectations with aftersales services in hospitals, which represents the fastest growing area of our business.

We have also developed and improved several services, such as talent pools, training programs and other sales force services for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry.

We will continue to focus on developing and offering specialized services for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. Our added value is our expertise with more than 20 years offering tangible results in real-time. We are committed to exceeding client expectations. This has enabled us to become the leader of our industry, which has brought us much recognition and many recommendations.