Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #947 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com foreditr publishing your contributions here.
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The SPM decided that he would make every effort to get the real, not official information.
Next day, the SPM talked to the six zonal managers. They were mostly senior people who had been associated with the company for several years. In fact, they had joined as medical representatives and grown with the company. They had seen the company business grow over time and they rightly felt they had directly contributed to it. They carried a sense of pride and sense of ownership both. Due to their specific deficiencies, they were not able to grow beyond present positions. However, their sales acumen was strong, and their performance was consistent and reliable. They did not do fireworks, but they kept the team together and sales growing, albeit slowly. It may also be mentioned that this team had almost zero turnover, and it displayed good teamwork and spirit.
The SPM was polite and precise in asking his questions and was able to extract concrete information from the exchanges. He then compiled it to make it into a report on the basis of which important decisions could be taken. Here are the highlights of the SPM’s findings.
- All zonal managers had been handling these products for over five years as managers, through various levels of managership. It gave them good command over the subject, and they spoke with authority, though with less clarity at times.
- The country was divided into six zones, not merely on geography, but on the business, and all zones contributed more or less in a similar manner. The number of salespersons promoting these products was almost similar in each zone. Each team of five salespersons was headed by an Area Manager, who reported to the zonal manager.
- As per policy given by the head office, each salesperson (Med. Rep.) had enlisted 140 doctors on his calling list (It was an all-male team). The list comprised mostly of GPs – General Practitioners – who had clinics on the streets where patients reported, got medicines/got prescriptions and went home. Being older products, the doctors knew these well, but refused to discuss these in greater detail. They held that they knew the products very well and that no new information had been added. However, the doctors prescribed these products wherever they considered fit.
- As per policy, most doctors were called on three times a month; few were visited four times a month. Frequency of visits was determined through the assessment of the business potential of the doctor and the pressure of competitors on them.
- The zonal managers admitted that the number of prescriptions seen in the market was regular but low.
- The zonal managers also admitted that a fair portion of business came from over-the-counter sales, though they could not quantify precisely.
- Most prescribers were older, more senior GPs who had the advantage of having large practice size. Newer, younger doctors preferred to prescribe newer products, not because these were more effective, but because the doctors wanted to be different.
- Similar products from competing companies were doing fairly well, but they appeared to have less business. The competitors were working the same way, but their promotional effort was less consistent.
- For suggestions, the ZMs wanted to add more salespersons to team, and asked for some giveaways which could have longer stay in front of the doctors, on their tables or on the walls on their front and sides.
The SPM was happy and excited; the responses were more than his expectation, and quite revealing.
The SPM put together a report highlighting the major facts as outlined above and concluded with the following suggestions.
- The team, its working, and the business are stable and well-entrenched. It is better to let them work in the same way.
- Aggressive promotion shall not help much, but small things done consistently over a longer period shall create significant impact.
- For generating more business of older products, the headcount may be increased to cover more geography and add more doctors.
- Since a major portion of business comes from OTC sales, a separate trade team may be established which would work on the market only and reinforce OTC sales.
- Team managers and member should be offered training programs to increase and polish their skills. It will also give them great motivation to work with greater zeal and dedication.
Next morning, the SPM requested KK for time to discuss few important points; KK asked him to come at 4.00PM.
The SPM started by saying that he wanted to gather more information, and therefore, he called every zonal manager and had a long talk based on a prepared questionnaire. He put the questionnaire in front of KK. “This is the questionnaire” he said. KK glanced through the questionnaire quickly; a color passed over his face. He only said, “Hmmm”.
The SPM then said, “Sir! I have compiled this report from the gathered information” and put the report in front of KK. KK took a few minutes to go over the report, completed it, and then looked at the SPM with a fixed gaze. He did not look excited or happy.
KK started “First of all, you exceeded your scope by having these discussions without my consent. You should have first discussed with me that you wanted to do this. You should also have taken my input in developing the questionnaire. I believe it should have more pointed questions. The replies from ZMs are standard, they have not taken any responsibility and suggested to maintain status quo. The status quo is exactly what I want to hit and break. Every one of them will have to get out of their comfort zone and do real work. The ZMs will have to justify their presence by leading their teams”
KK continued “I had already diagnosed the problems. The first issue is that the salespeople do not understand the power of marketing and its impact, so they feel secure in their age-old routine of working. We must make them change their work habits. The second problem is their managers who have risen from the ranks. While their status has changed, their mindset is still at the level of a salesperson.”
KK concluded “What you have done is just a waste of time and should not be done again. Let us push the marketing team to generate new ideas and push the sales team hard to produce better results.”
The SPM left KK’s office in deep thinking mode. He was not dejected; he did not even feel depressed that his work had been dismissed; he felt the foreboding that they were on the edge of impending disaster. He wanted to do something to avert it but knew he might not be able to do so.
We shall see what happens next in the next blogpost.
To be Concluded……
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