J. Scott Vandervoort learned much of what he needed to become Cardiovascular Rep of the Year growing up on a farm in Kansas -- not his sales skills or medical knowledge, but the necessity and rewards of hard work. "The challenges and the sense of urgency every day on a farm are without peer," says Vandervoort, an Overland Park, KS-based senior sales representative with Abbott Laboratories. "You don't start work at 8:00, and 5:00 is just another hour in the day, not quitting time."

That work ethic took on new importance when Vandervoort came to the industry from consumer sales 13 years ago, without a scientific background. He remembers feeling overwhelmed with the burden of new knowledge his job required. "I not only needed to learn the science behind my drugs, but my competitors' drugs, the actual disease state."

When he'd called on grocery store managers, the focus of the conversation had always been return-on-investment. Now he had to master an entirely new kind of salesmanship. Says Vandervoort, "With a doctor, you've got to know drug-to-drug interactions. Does it perform better than a competitor's drug? You know, price is part of it, but the overall value of the drug that you're talking about is really driven by its efficacy, safety and tolerability."

A bad call with a family practice physician became the turning point that transformed him from a fledgling rep into a respected consultant. "He had asked me a question about a product that I was detailing, and I didn't know the response," Vandervoort recalls. "And he was pretty upset with me, because he had been a former pharmaceutical rep, and he let me know in no uncertain terms that he expected better things out of his reps. Well, that was a pretty important lesson, so I started preparing a lot better for him. And guess what? It kind of rubbed off on the other calls that I made."

The payoff

What started as a difficult learning curve has become a passion for Vandervoort, who describes himself as a "voracious" reader of the medical literature. He has embraced the complexities of cardiovascular medicine as a fascinating challenge. "You're talking about so many different disease states that cardiovascular disease impacts, whether it's diabetes, whether it's other metabolic disorders," he says. "When you're talking to physicians about cardiovascular disease, it's a highly interesting, compelling and controversial topic. And what's true today in a year is no longer true, so you really have to work hard to stay current and really provide service to your physicians."

While he makes use of all the information available to him -- online journals, information on Abbott's training Web page, etc. -- he pays special attention to what his physicians read. Says Vandervoort, "I talk to physicians and find out, 'What are you seeing that's new? What's interesting? What are you reading?' "

Taking a physician's-eye view of the medical literature has shaped Vandervoort's consultative selling style. His technique is simple but effective -- he piques his doctors' interest with compelling conversation that focuses on their concerns. "It's not enough to talk about one of my drugs as far as its effect on blood pressure," he says. "How does it help the physician manage difficult-to-treat patients or disease states that he sees as comorbid factors in his hypertensive patients?"

The same strategy applies when he encounters physicians who aren't keen on spending time talking with a pharmaceutical rep. He uses everything at his disposal -- new scientific data, samples and more -- to engage the doctor's medical curiosity and raise some questions. "I think science sells," he says. "And if they're going to ask me a question, they've got to see me."

The genuine interest Vandervoort shows in cardiovascular medicine and the needs of his customers has won him the respect and interest of physicians, some of whom continue to send him medical literature years after he's stopped calling on them. A good example of this is a call he once made to a physician who challenged him on data he'd cited on one of his drugs. "I had the study there, and he knew something about one of the trials," Vandervoort says. "But when we dug into it, we found out that some of the thoughts he'd had were really based on myth instead of rooted in fact. And when we finished, he said, 'This information helps me do a better job for my patients.' And he thanked me. That was one of those feelings -- I call it 'the cool of the evening' -- where you really feel that you did your job."

The latest challenge

Vandervoort, who received Abbott's All Star award in 2002 for his sales performance, worked hard to become the rep he is today, and he certainly worked hard to become Rep of the Year -- about 50 to 70 hours, he estimates. Intent on living up to the confidence and trust his company put in him by sending him to the contest, he prepared himself to compete against the best reps in the nation. His first task was something like pre-call planning. "I first sketched out the call -- it's really not a lot different from what I do in my everyday job," he says. "I try to make a good opener, something that's relevant to the physician, and relate back to my product or disease state." Next, Vandervoort exercised a great deal of diligence. "I rehearsed. I rehearsed some more. I rehearsed more after that."

Even after the intense preparation he'd undergone, Vandervoort wasn't entirely satisfied when he reviewed his videotaped calls at the contest. "There were a couple of points that I missed. If the competition would have been lesser, then I still would have felt pretty good, but I knew some of these reps, and they're fantastic. When you compete against that quality of rep, there really isn't much margin for error."

So when he was announced as the Cardiovascular Rep of the Year, Vandervoort was surprised. But his manager, Neil O'Brien, wasn't. "I knew he had a really good chance," says O'Brien. "He works very hard to provide the best clinical information to his physicians. That's what really gives him an edge. He goes above and beyond to study the latest research and journals pertaining to the cardiovascular market. He typifies what a pharmaceutical representative should do, and that's give great clinical advice on behalf of the patient."

New expectations

Winning the Rep of the Year award has heightened Vandervoort's expectations for his performance and strengthened his determination to meet them. Even after 13 years in the industry, the sales veteran is still committed to learning his craft. "If this very day, this is the quality I'll be at my entire life as a pharmaceutical representative, I'll be disappointed," he says. "Because if I don't get better, whatever success I have today will not be effective tomorrow."

Next year, Vandervoort hopes to return to defend his title. His hard work could very well pay off again.