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How to become a successful pharma Line Manager

November 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I have seen many successful Medical representatives, after becoming  a Line Manager struggle to repeat the same success as a Manager.  However, it is possible to become a successful  Line Manager if one consciously understands, and appreciate the difference in the job responsibilities,  meticulously follow certain basics and acquire necessary managerial skills quickly, some of which are discussed below:

  • Having chosen to become a Line Manager, first of all please understand the reality that you are no more a Senior Medical Representative and your job responsibilities are different now.
  • Ensure work discipline strictly with all in the team.
  • Don’t compromise on punctuality for work with all members in the team.  If the MR has to meet the Manager at the Stockist point for joint work at 9.00 am he should be there by 8.55 am itself.
  • Ensure proper detailing for all products by all in the team.  Communication (i.e.detailing) is the most important tool to convert a Doctor, therefore it is the responsibility of a good Line Manager to ensure that every one in the team is 101% right on communication part.
  • Ensure promotion of right products to right doctors at all times by all in the team,  which is professionally prepared based on proper Market Survey which is recorded.
  • Ensure proper implementation of all Sales & Marketing strategies in the field.
  • Fill up vacancies if any with the right candidates quickly to ensure that you don’t lose sales on a/c of vacancies.
  • Ensure proper and complete induction of newly joining people in the team. The induction should be so complete to give a feeling to the newly joined MR that in the absence of the Line Manager also he can do a good job confidently
  • Ensure every one in the team maintain the right frequency of calls.  For example if a Doctor is to be  met on 10th and again on 20th every month ensure that it is done exactly on those dates.
  • Ensure everyone does his best, if you are supervising a pool,  ensure that everyone is on his toes,  doesn’t take things lightly, and doesn’t suck on others’ hard work.
  • Ensure sale comes from all range of products and do not rely on only a few products.  If sales are not good for some products, please find out if he has chosen the right customers,  and also if his detailing is correct and create necessary impact, for such products.
  • Ensure call norms of Doctors and Chemists are religiously met by everyone in the team day in and day out.
  • Ensure everyone in the team ensures availability of all products at all counters by doing adequate Personal Order Booking (POB) which is monitored regularly.
  • Ensure every one in the team sends daily work reports, stock and sales statement of stockists, and other reports on time without any need to remind
  • Conduct Sales Review Meets in a professional manner to identify reasons for shortfall in sales, action plan with deadlines to over come the same, ensure that it is implemented as planned so that every one in the team achieves sales objectives, month after month, thus taste success, feel confident, earn incentives, and aspire for better quality of life.
  • Always encourage them to do sales in an ethical manner.  Don’t encourage unethical practices, and nip them in the bud itself.
  • Ensure that the approved working plan is strictly adhered to by every one in the team. Deviations if any (which should be rare) should be discussed with the Line Manager in advance, and only after his concurrence should be carried out.
  • Ensure every one in the team charges only the approved fares, and allowances in his tour expense statements.
  • Spend a little more time with newly joined or weak MRs till they improve and come upto the expected  efficiency level.
  • Recommend talented and consistently performing MRs in the team for career growth to your superiors. and also recommend  good salary hike at the right time for the good and performing MRs in the team.
  • Reward their hard work and try to appreciate it as much as possible.
  • Encourage good MRs who are senior in the team to take up more important responsibilities, like induction of newly joining MRs, working in the vacant territory for some days every month, etc   under your overall supervision.
  • Successful line manager should have at his finger tips, in which town each of his team member has worked for the day, whether it is as per plan or not, number of calls made, value of POB booked, etc. i.e. close monitoring.
  • SMS success achieved by any one to all in the team,  spread positive energy all around,  and encourage healthy completion amongst all team members.
  • Show them the way, demonstrate to them also, but don’t do their work.
  • Inspite of repeated attempts to correct,  if some one is not willing to change and drag down the team’s  performance, don’t waste time to get rid of such bad elements quickly.

By implementing all the above, the Line Managers help their team members to succeed and thereby they also succeed in their job.  The  MRs under such a Line Manager always owe their success to him,  and don’t  leave ‘their guru/mentor’  that easily,   hence very less attrition level  in the team led by such an effective Line Manager.

Mr.V.Srinivasan is a well known writer on Pharma  Sales, Marketing and HR functions with over 250 articles to his credit in India and abroad.  He has headed Sales Administration and Field HR functions in reputed Pharma Companies.  He can be reached at shridhar1956@rediffmail.com, Mobile No:8056168585.

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Why EQ is more important for a Sales Rep?

September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

What is Emotional Quotient?

Emotional Intelligence, or EI, describes an ability or capacity to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one’s self, and of others.  Our EQ, or Emotional Quotient, is how one measures Emotional Intelligence.

Despite enough knowledge on the subject Emotional Quotient, it is often one of the most neglected areas. The main reason is we always tend to focus and appreciate the academic success of a student from childhood. This directly put pressure on the student to hone his or her intellectual skills which is sure to bring appreciation from peer group.

But the real shocker for the student is when he gets in to the first job, where even the most successful student tends to fail as he is left clueless on how to handle the fellow employees. The situation is even more complicated for a Pharma sales rep, as he has to meet different doctors each day.

EQ skills the rep should possess:

  • Patience: The sales rep has to wait outside the doctor’s room for long hours.
  • Presence of mind:  The doctor gives just 2 minutes for the call.  The sales rep has to pitch the correct message in the limited time.
  • Extroversive:  The rep has to maintain good relationship with doctors, chemists and stockists. Wish them on their birthdays and anniversaries.
  • Time management:  In order to achieve the target of meeting 10 to 12 doctors per day, the sale rep has to organize the activities properly.

Successful pharma sales person possesses higher EQ.  This is because of the fact that decisions doctors make on product choices are also dependent on the MRs capability to convince the doctor and to build lasting relationship.  This is an information era: with Google, access to information is at our finger tips. IQ has become a commodity and you can differentiate only with higher EQ.

Mahatma Gandhi can be described as a greatest sales person who with his very high EQ made the whole nation to follow him.  Dhoni, who is not technically superior had higher EQ to handle the pressure properly which resulted in world cup victory.

At the end of the day, sales person has to manage the egos of different customer.  IQ is mandatory, no escape from that. But if you need to stand out, EQ is going to decide.

Higher EQ is need of the hour for a Pharma sales rep….

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Things to do after you hire a Medical Rep

August 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Any good Organization which wants to do well and succeed, provides the best possible supports to the field force,  as follows:

a)      Do proper screening and select the best possible candidates only for the job

b)       After selection, ensure that the newly selected field force is properly briefed and inducted in the field by the Line Managers concerned.

c)       Provide class room training wherein product knowledge, competitors analysis, selling and marketing skills, dos and donts, etc. are imparted to the newly joined field force

d)       New detailing bag, visual aids, detailing stories, necessary physician samples, campaign material, leave behinds/literatures, gifts to customers once a while,  imprest amounts, all stationary items, reporting formats, etc. are provided to the field force.

e)       Attractive daily working allowances, boarding and lodging expenses for outstation stay, traveling/petrol expenses,  payment of telephone/mobile, postage/courier, Xerox/photocopy expenses, etc. for all official work, are provided to the field force.  These are also revised upwards from time to time to take care of increased cost of living.

f)        The Training Head, Product Managers, and the Line Managers concerned also come for joint working with the field force frequently to help them gain knowledge/training, so as to  perform better.

g)       Adequate/attractive salary, perks, PF, ESI, Gratuity, Accident Insurance, and also Incentives linked to performance are also offered to the field force.

h)       The names of people who do well in the field like highest sales volume, highest incentive amount earned, highest PCPM, etc. gets flashed all over the country through in-house news letters, besides appreciation letters/certificates sent to the individuals concerned, to motivate them to perform better, and also encourage others to get into high performance mode.

i)         Consistent performers are identified and given career growth within the organization as and when the opportunity arises.

When a person joins an organization, he sincerely feels that he should do well and grow fast in his career within the same organization.  Therefore with all the above supports being provided by organizations in all sincerity, what prevents a person from doing his job very well and grow in his career?  I know many people who have started their career as Medical Representatives to begin with, are now at the peak of their career as Vice President or Presidents in reputed Pharma Companies, heading the  Sales & Marketing function.  Mind you many of them are in their forties only!.

All you need to have is : Not millions of rupees investment, but only Sincerity, willingness to do hard work, learn from mistakes, willingness to learn things/skills quickly that you don’t know,  but necessary for your job.  If you have all these, you take it from me, nobody can stop you then.

(The author Mr.V.Srinivasan has headed Sales Administration and HR functions in reputed Pharma Companies, with over 250 published articles on Pharma management in India and abroad.  He can be reached at shridhar 1956@rediffmail.com.  His mobile no is:08056168585.)

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Attrition in pharma industry and its implications

August 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It is inevitable for anyone to prevent or control attrition in any industry. This problem is as high as 30% in the pharma industry where a sales person works in like 3 to 4 companies in one single year. Hence it becomes imperative for these companies to manage the implications of attrition most effectively. Implications of attrition can range from a meagre replacement to a major loss in secondary sales and hence a hit in the balance sheet of an organization.

Once a sales guy leaves an organization, he takes along with him the territory knowledge, which includes doctor data, doctor visit time, characteristics, chemist he can influence and also the route plan. To ensure all this information doesn’t leave with the sales person, companies needs to have this data with them to ensure that the knowledge gets transferred to the next guy effectively.

It is found that, a new person take a whopping 30 days to understand the territory. In this time, the frontline managers (ASM/RSM) have to work with him constantly, if not they would be spending their time in digging out newer territories and newer avenues to increase business. The other most worrying implication is during these 30 days, the region loses its sales as prescriptions won’t get generated. What companies are aiming at is reducing this learning phase from 30 to 15 days.

It is found through research that a person quits an organization not after a year, but he does within the first three months. He quits because, on the 10th day the manager asks him about his performance (like sales, prescription etc) rather than imparting him with the right skill sets and the territory knowledge. Also, companies need to take care of his needs like his expense reimbursements, give clarity on his leave balances and take care of his other field requirements effectively. This will ensure he is not worried about his claims, leaves etc and can focus on selling effectively.

Finally, a representative is a person who doesn’t have an office, so it is imperative for companies to make him feel like a part of them by sharing regular updates on what’s happening in the HO, sharing joyous/memorable moments etc.

To sum it up attrition is unavoidable but it is imperative for pharma companies to reduce the rate and manage the implications most effectively.

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Effective Communication : How to do better detailing?

August 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

During  the epic Mahabaratha battle, when Arjun put down his arms, and refused to fight his own relatives, Lord Krishna, through his effective  communication, had persuaded  Arjun   to fight the war and won it too!  Such is the power of effective communication.

In our profession, having an effective communication means,  50% of the  job is done.  Rest 50% depends upon promoting right products to the right Doctors, and regular visits to the customers as per desired frequency.  Through effective communication if one is able to convert atleast 5 customers  out of 11 Doctors met in a day, it is a far better accomplished  job,   than another Medical Representative who doesn’t strive to have an effective communication, thereby unable to convert even a single customer out of 11 Doctors met in a day.

Thus, communication is an important tool for Medical Representatives to create prescription demand.  Medical Representatives who can communicate effectively can excel  in  conversion of Doctors and Personal Order Bookings (from Retailers and consuming Doctors)  also.

In pharmaceutical selling conversion of a Doctor is done through formal and informal communication.  Formal communication is done through detailing of products meant for the Doctors with clarity, pause,  voice modulation, and punch.  During detailing, it is also imperative to effectively communicate the benefits of our brands to Doctors so as to convert them to our brands.  Therefore it is very important that every Medical Representative is thorough with the detailing for every product under promotion.

The Line  Managers have an important role to play in ensuring that all the Medical Representatives in their team are thorough with detailing of all products during meetings and also during joint work.  They should not take any Medical Representative for joint field work without ensuring that the Medical Representative is thorough with detailing of all products.  Managers also should encourage every Representative to communicate informally in regional language atleast one USP of the product at the time of sampling before seeking the prescription assurance. Managers should not be guilty of not knowing the detailing.

Effective communication is developed through practice, practice and more practice.  If you are an effective communicator, you can achieve target of every product and earn incentives.  Effective communication also helps you to become an effective manager one day.  Don’t you want to be successful in your career?

Mr.V.Srinivasan is a well known author on Pharma management with over 200 published articles in India and abroad.  He has headed Sales Administration and HR functions in many reputed Pharma Companies.  He can be reached at shridhar1956@rediffmail.com, Mobile No:8056168585.

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How does a doctor get influenced?

July 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“Pharma Selling is not a 1-0 Game with your competitor…..”

Imagine an individual making brand purchase decisions 300 times a day, every day, every year and growing…. And to make you more surprised, am not talking about an addictive shopper or a purchase head in a trading firm

Medical Speciality basket is standard, diseases follow the 80-20 rule, Doctor diagnosis becomes again standardized with more of science and less of art element with ever increasing laboratories around our environment: How do you then expect the pharmaceutical companies growing in number and sizes every year to exist, as differentiation of the products exist merely in the brand name. How does pharmaceutical company ensure that their brands are getting prescribed? In simple words, how does a prescriber write in the neuro muscular reflex when his hand takes the pen…. forget the patient, how does the doctor himself know this truth?

People catch you constantly and that is the norm in this world. A simple conversation in a plain green field can be tracked by advanced google technologies and they can track not to the level of latitude and longitude but also the tone and content of the conversation. Such is the Marketing strategies adopted to the level when you are engaged in relieving yourself to a natures call in a film interval, bill boards constantly change to catch your attention. A Doctor buys brands and he buys more than any person that you can imagine. Hypothetically let us assume that the doctor sees 60- 75 patients a day and he writes on an average 3-5 medicines, which implies he purchases more than 250-375 brands per day. All the more he has to improve his knowledge on the treatment areas which could be completely different from what he did in his academics as therapies are changing faster than the intel chip.

How does a doctor get influenced? Is it through the medical representative, or through continuing medical education seminars by pharmaceutical companies, peer networks, Social networks, Web sites, Journals. Visibility is a double edged sword in influence and Companies would have to anyway utilize this opportunity as the payoff in the game is high. For various reasons, am artificially constructing a boundary for this write-up, let me restrict the conversation to only one area of influence and the most potent area. That is the medical representative detailing the product and visiting the doctor with regular schedule.

There are decisions that people make every day which builds an enterprise and it is these daily decisions and correctness of these decisions that are crucial. Medical representative makes very many decisions on a daily basis before meeting a doctor. He decides on the brand that he wants to allocate to that doctor. Though it would be backed by ideas such as RCPA (Retail Chemist Prescription Audit) or even few actual prescription observations, all these merely exist in the representatives mind. The moment he gets his two minutes time from a doctor, he utters those detailing story in a speed and gives the samples before closing on a call. Here there are two things happening for the enterprise. Medical representative finalizes in his mind what to detail without recording it somewhere and also he prevents from other brands being detailed to the doctor. Sum total of these decisions affect the entire set of stakeholders across the board. As long as we know the parameters with which these decisions are made and also able to deconstruct in the form of rules to the lowest level of hierarchy in the company, execution of these decisions then can be a culture of the enterprise than culture of the medical representative.

After a decision is made, objectivity in human mind is so high, that it searches for all the parameters that are there in support of his decision rather than questioning that decision. Most of the retail questions would be to confirm whether the decision is working and would not be to change the course. Imagine a company with 500 Medical representatives having 200 doctors each and if their decisions go wrong one third of the time, 33000 revenue outlets of the company would give negative contribution. Are we in a position to review a daily decision by an area manager or daily decision by a medical sales representative. Though we can utilize sales force automation tools  or any CRM solution to analyse the decision through regular RCPA, etc, most of the decisions can be analysed only post execution or post decision. The issue is here as post finalizing a brand, there is a typical consistency trap that the medical rep might get into. What do we do to ensure pre decision lies the secret.

Continuously doing an RCPA along with throttle on categorizing a doctor would help company objectively evaluate a daily decision. Like diagnosis, medical representative also figures out the choice of drug for line of treatment for doctor. Once a doctor is assessed for his treatment type, there are couple of ways to get into his mind which are direct replacement, Change of superior course, Supplementary therapy, Co-prescription, etc. If these typical trees are prefixed again in the form of rules, persons judgement would be more sound. Here again he will assess the potential for the company rather than the potential of the doctor for the industry. Typically a doctor might be a high potential for the industry and not for your company.

If the doctor starts writing your brands, this does not mean anything. Lot of people take up something for the novelty of the idea and not pursue it inside his heart. Somehow Medical representative thinks that he is fighting a 1-0 game in which the competitor will win, if he loses. Little does he understand that any doctor he visits actually prescribes and issue is how much of share he has in the overall pie.  Number of prescriptions that your company gets engaged and in that average number of your brands that show up makes a huge difference. This concept is called analysing the density of the prescription. If the influence is strong, the average would be more and it would be growing.

Reviewing the daily decision objectively, continuously getting into prescription analysis details and categorizing the doctor for moving the doctor through multiple stages are foundations of defining, identifying, and maintaining key prescribers in the industry.

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Field Sales Work as a Coaching Tool

July 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Imagine the pleasant surprise of a Medical Rep (MR) when he receives the following note from his Front-line Manager after a field visit – “…working with you was a wonderful experience, as I learnt a lot about the challenges and opportunities in your territory. I believe that in the months ahead, your knowledge of the territory and my experience from working in other territories will give us the insight to address these challenges and turn the opportunities into outcomes that will meet your personal and professional goals.”

The Front-line Manager is a key link in the chain of pharma business. Yet, he rarely has clarity about his role and functions. Repeated use of words like ‘targets’, ‘reporting’ add to the strain of an already tenuous Manager – MR relationship. The Front-line Manager simply ‘transfers’ the ‘sales pressure’ from his ‘bosses’ to his ‘subordinates’. The use of archaic words like ‘reporting’ reflects on the lack of learning and development in important areas like emotional intelligence among the pharma field sales managers. The constant use of these emotionally toxic words creates an environment of pressure and stress that can never produce great MRs, who can deliver great results. Only Front-line Managers who can foster a supportive environment with emotionally soothing vocabulary and supportive behavior can create, lead and retain high-performance teams. Given the generic nature of pharma markets, people power is the only differentiator that gives competitive edge to companies.

In most companies, training is merely about product knowledge and speaking skills. But communication is not merely speaking skills in any language – it is the ability to listen and relate to people and address their needs and aspirations. Whether customers or team members, everyone has an innate need to be recognized and respected. In today’s context, coaching is the best approach to develop people as it seeks to understand, recognize and respect people before attempting to transform them into performers. Performance is an outcome of a series of steps taken by the coach to transform an amateur into an achiever. An amateur is raw talent; he must be groomed into an achiever by understanding his strengths and addressing his needs through a well planned learning and development plan. Just as children are not expected to progress from infancy to adulthood without the care and support of parents, Medical Reps need the active SUPPORT of their Front-line Managers to become achievers.

All learning and development should focus around the Front-line Managers and his development from an individual performer to a team leader and business manager. Too often this transition is not carefully planned and all that the Front-line Manager is asked to do is to focus on ‘targets’ and ‘reporting’; this is what makes his bosses happy, never mind if it makes the MR miserable.

As a result MRs join a ‘good’ company and leave a ‘bad’ manager. This eventually become a circle of frustration for both the manager and the MR and they keep going through the grind because there are no better options.

Careful career planning and systematic learning and development of Front-line Managers is the key to great teamwork and outstanding results. The HR along with senior sales managers must become the drivers of Front-line Manager’s development. The Indian cricket team’s debacle under Greg Chappell and subsequent world beating performance under Gary Kirsten is instructive in learning the importance of the Coach, Captain and team members being in alignment. A team does not begin to perform as soon as it is put together. It goes through a process of forming, storming, norming and finally performing. It is the role of the coach to see that the team progresses to the performing stage with minimum hiccups.

In an ideal situation, the Front-line Manager should be empowered to play the role of a performance coach with the support of HR and senior sales managers. Field sales work is the ideal coaching occasion for the Front-line Manager to repeatedly demonstrate through his behavior and actions how the MR must perform his work. The skills needed for this are the ability to observe without judgment and provide feedback without criticism. Not an easy task, considering that most Front-line Managers rely only on the logic of their left brain. Without the magic of the right brain field sales work becomes a grinding stone instead of the stepping stone it is supposed to be.

If pharma companies want to attract talent, then it must begin with a clear focus on the learning and development needs of their Front-line Managers. With emotionally intelligent Front-line Managers, companies will be able to translate the boardroom strategies into action on the field. The role of a Front-line Manager can never be underestimated. Just like the parent, he must juggle between the multiple tasks that he has to perform and develop the team’s capabilities to produce breakthrough performance. For this the Front-line Manager must be empowered to progress from reporting to supporting through coaching skills.

Anup Soans is a Learning and Development facilitator with two books – HardKnocks for the GreenHorn and SuperVision for the SuperWiser Front-line Manager to his credit. They are first-of-its kind Learning and Development tools crafted to address the needs of Pharma Front-line Sales professionals.  He can be contacted at anupsoans@gmail.com.

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E-reporting vs. Sales Force Automation

June 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“Many a wrong steps were taken by standing still”.

Pharmaceutical Industry in India is one of the fastest growing verticals at 14% growth rate. Despite such buoyant growth as well as increased penetration of internet and wireless technologies in the country, the industry has shown resistance to embrace technology to enhance sales & marketing effectiveness. The inertia to technology persists for many reasons:

•  Resistance to change – Time tested ways are better than new order
•  Typical Medical Representative is not technology Savvy
•  No such budgets allocated for technology in the overall marketing & sales budgets
•  Large amount of data is organized at an MR level and not a company level

On the other hand competition is like never before given the fact that there is minimal difference between brands. The company with better relationship with doctors and better activity efficiency have a notional edge in the market place. In this scenario, Pharma businesses are looking at redefining their top priorities. This includes:

• Licensing next generation drugs
• Increasing top line to keep pace with market growth
• Improve bottom line through operational efficiency
• Dramatically increase sales effectiveness

With redefined business priorities, changing market scenario and pressure from competition, companies look for a quick fix solution. There is a widespread talk of Pharma SFA being the panacea for all business problems. Some companies jump into the bandwagon without proper understanding or research. The reasons to look at an SFA product are evident. Pressure from competiton, no proper IT unit within the company and no defined budgets. Choosing the SFA product then becomes a tactical initiative mostly driven by fear.

Enter e-reporting. A stripped down version of SFA provided as a cheap alternative. Low cost turns out to be the USP. The typical  e-reporting tool has a bunch of daily call entry screens, sample management and some reports. At best, the information from this system will help understand activity efficiency of MRs. But the one question that should loom in front of the Pharma companies is that “Do these features help us achieve business priorities”?

I am not for a moment going to spend time on the other effects of buying a cheap e reporting option (Implementation, launch, support issues and the list can go on)

I believe that business leaders look for comprehensive solutions to address business priorities. Given this, lets attempt to define what   an SFA should be..

Sales Force Automation: A tool that

• Records all events in the sales process
• Records Pertinent data driven by those events
• Automate the process of data collection
• Integrates with other relevant systems like Primary, Secondary sales data, HR systems
• Has Built in Control indicators
• Instantly propagates data into reports for meaningfully decision making
• Needs to align with Pharma sales process

In essence SFA needs dynamically link sales force strategy and operational actions. A typical output of an SFA should highlight the cause and effect variables i.e. which action of yours has yielded what kind of results. Using this information, the ability to forecast sales numbers is of paramount importance.

If your goal is to manage by objectives, Pharma SFA should be a perfect ally in automating all processes and data collection and deliver meaningful reports for decision making..

Do not fall for cheap me-too alternatives of e reporting tools sold under the garb of an SFA. The cost of undoing and redoing this work could be of monstrous proportions. Make a smart buy…

SFA should be Easy to buy, Easy to Use.

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