  “I was playing a lot of tennis, friends of mine were working, and by the fall, my father indicated that it might be a good idea to start looking for a job,” says Henderson, who completed her degree in 1982. “Everyone asked me at a family dinner what I planned to do with my life.” Henderson’s uncle, a physician, proposed the idea of pursuing sales in the pharmaceutical industry as an attractive career, because it would mean an opportunity to put her science knowledge to use and to interact socially. She wrote her first resumé and applied for a sales position. Within a week, she put down her tennis racquet and was travelling to the Sunshine State on official business. “I dropped off a resume on Wednesday, interviewed for a position on Thursday, was interviewed again on Friday, then I was offered the position. On Sunday, I was off to a national sales meeting in Florida,” reminisces Henderson. “It all happened really quickly.” After her initial sales job at Allen & Hanburys, a division of Glaxo, and then a stint in sales at Pfizer Canada Inc., Henderson joined Lederle Laboratories in Toronto, where she started in sales training, and then moved up the Marketing and Sales ladder to national management positions. She was responsible for ethical therapeutic categories with a focus in dermatology, including Minocin. “I had a strong interest in staying in dermatology,” she remembers. That interest sparked a move to Stiefel on a consultancy basis in 1995. Henderson later joined the Stiefel family on a full-time basis in 1996. Henderson’s focus has been on the marketing of dermatology products at Stiefel, such as Clindoxyl, the juggernaut of topical acne therapies. “As much as things change, they stay the same,” observes Henderson. “I don’t think that the industry has changed so much from the point of view of relationship building and selling.” The huge wealth of data from clinical studies, the availability of market information and analysis, and the advances in technology have rendered marketing and selling to the dermatologist a more sophisticated, as well as a dynamic endeavor. “There are many more clinical studies being done,” explains Henderson. “Time is more precious nowadays, and there is a greater expectation of professionalism and information.” There is a greater need for sales representatives to be trained to bring to light the most up-to-date, evidence-based clinical information to general physicians, adds Henderson. A career highlight that Henderson underlines is the achievement of extraordinary Clindoxyl sales that Stiefel has enjoyed nationally and internationally, as well as the awards that the marketing and advertising campaigns for the product have earned, which she sees as a recognition of excellence. “It is the most prescribed topical acne product in Canada,” notes Henderson, adding that Canada was the first country to launch the product and many other countries emulated Stiefel Canada’s marketing and advertising strategies. “Many of the programs and efforts behind it were groundbreaking in Canada.” She attributes the marketing success to strong leadership and teamwork at Stiefel. |