A one-on-one conversation with an industry veteran and CMR Board Member on coping with change.
Terrell “Terry” Herring leads a variety of teams in his role as Chief Commercial Officer for Synergistix, a technology and compliance company in the life sciences. Beyond understanding what it takes to be a leader, Mr. Herring also has a deep knowledge of the biopharmaceutical space, gained through more than 30 years in the industry.
In this Q&A, Mr. Herring, who is also a CMR Board Member, offers guidance for training leaders and sales representatives on the power of humility in the face of change.
Please tell us about your career path and how you became involved with CMR.
Mr. Herring: CMR was a core, foundational part of who I was when I started out as a sales rep at Ciba-Geigy, where I eventually became Manager of Representative Training. I was also involved with operations and training at Solvay Pharmaceuticals, where I stayed connected with CMR. I later became Senior National Sales Director at Noven Pharmaceuticals and then President and COO of inVentiv Health, which is now Syneos Health, where I led their U.S. business.
In 2019, Jeff Thomas, a former CMR Board Member and former mentor of mine at Ciba-Geigy, recommended me for CMR’s Board while I was consulting.
And what you do now at Synergistix?
Mr. Herring: In my current role at Synergistix, I oversee account management, product development, client engagement, and sales and marketing. What I enjoy most is coaching, leading, and developing teams. In fact, I’m sometimes accused of being a little like Ted Lasso but with a goatee.
Like Ted Lasso, you have no doubt coached your teams at various companies through multiple challenges. For our industry, those challenges include the rise of managed care, value-based care, policy shifts, omnichannel marketing, and so on. What advice do you have for commercial teams to weather the changes in the year ahead?
Mr. Herring: The first thing representatives should do is to not panic or overreact. The aim of the job hasn’t changed — that is, to get a good outcome for the patient.
Yet the reality for today’s rep is that the way they engage with customers is very different from when I was a rep. We should look at technology not as devaluing a rep, but rather making a rep more powerful. They can send customers to web portals, use direct-to-practitioner sampling, bring in a medical science liaison, or deliver education and resources themselves. But they still need to know the business and healthcare systems.
Can you elaborate on how you see technology and omnichannel marketing changing the role of the sales representative?
Mr. Herring: Today, technology allows representatives to be almost like point guards or quarterbacks. It allows them to be more empowered and have more tools around them to be successful. For years, we have talked about having reps run their territories more like businesses, but we’ve never really done that. But by using the tools around them, representatives can create more impressions and help prescribers understand the patients who will benefit most from their products.
What can sales and training leaders do to empower their teams in the year ahead?
Mr. Herring: Understanding the difference between management versus leadership can be a tired and worn-out topic, but isn’t it truer now more than ever? For example, being a leader means admitting you don’t have all the answers and asking for help. It also means giving your people resources and ways to seek out help without feeling like they are failing. That’s where CMR can help. They have the tools that can help you if you are a rep, a manager, or a training leader.
Any lessons learned from your career that you wanted to share with sales representatives?
Mr. Herring: Sales representatives — and leaders in general — should be intentional in everything they do, be open to collaboration, and encourage others around them. A good way to remember this is with the acronym, ICE.
It’s also important for people to have mentors and heroes. My father, who was a hero of mine, gave me this piece of advice: “If you think you know it all, it’s just indigestion… it will go away.” And the longer I’ve been in my career, the more I realize my dad was right.
