THE 6 SINS of PHARMA SALES MANAGEMENT
The road to hell is paved with good intentions… and that’s certainly true in Sales Management. There are many behaviors that seem smart, but which end up killing productivity.
SIN #1: When Managers preach the longstanding axiom to put the customer/patient first, they overlook their employees, who are responsible for creating and nurturing the customer relationship. A Sales Manager's job is to communicate regularly and comprehensively with their employees.
SIN #2: Managers often believe that increased utilization will result in higher morale. However, low morale makes it difficult, and even impossible, to increase TRXs. What results is a classic “chicken or egg” situation where everyone’s waiting for things to improve, with decreasing hope that they actually will. In order to avoid this sin, Sales Managers can’t afford to wait for sales to go up before addressing morale issues.
SIN #3: Hey, numbers are important. However, numbers only represent the history of what’s happened. Treating the numbers as the top priority leads to jiggling the revenue stream, pushing revenue into different quarters, and cooking the ranks to make the numbers look good. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Let’s get back to basics.
Sin #4: Using quota as a management tool. Let’s get real. Quota is a corporate measurement tool. That’s all. Quota is simply what the organization needs to achieve in order to fulfill its goals. Quota has nothing to do with what the employee wants from his or her employment with the organization.
Sin #5: Believing that the Sales Manager know all the answers. Each time a manager answers an employee’s question, he/she becomes a thief. The manager has robbed that person of the opportunity to think and the opportunity to grow. Contrary to popular belief, a Sales Manager’s job is to ask the right questions.
Sin #6: Taking credit for the top performers. The truth is that sales management ability is defined, not by the top performers, but by how the manager handles the whole team. Sales Managers frequently point to their top performers as an indicator of how successful they are as sales managers. The best Sales Manager treats their team equally by NOT picking favorites.