Sales Manager Hours

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Anonymous

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So I have never been on this site as I am not involved with pharma sales but I have been arguing with a friend of mine and he told me to come here to see what response I get.

The argument is over the hours a pharma sales manager works per week. A guy he works with is a pharma manager in the Northeast and he always tells him he is working constantly; up until all hours of the night and needs to rise early to start again. I'm not discounting the job itself, but from my limited knowledge of the job responsibilities, it seems a stretch to say you need to work 60+ hours a week. Now he did say that the guy is very successful and has won awards before so I am sure that this is a very generalized question but thought I would ask.

Again, I'm not judging or anything like that but from the sound of this guy you would think he is senior vice president of Microsoft.

Just interested since we have been arguing abut this.
 












Anonymous said:
60 hours sounds very realistic ( actually low) for a really good manager.
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Possibly, but let's put it all in perspective. At least 30 of those hours are doing busy work for his boss, i.e., useless, unnecessary check the box reports, spreadsheets, that contribute nothing to the business results. Then add 10-15 hours of useless crap reports and misc. busy work he/she makes the reps do to make him look good( like he's working) to his boss. Then it's expense reports that take about a half hour, unless he's a dick and is worried about personal miles on your company car. The remaining time, usually on Friday, is to gossip with other managers, have Friday, 4:30 conference call with his district to, again, impress his boss.
Most managers I have known....and yes, I was a manager for 8 years until I went into Corporate HR, are simply inefficient time managers. My mentors taught me that if the activity is not going to directly produce sales, then either don't do it, and don't have your reps do it.

Alo, Managers don't win awards, the reps do it all, he's just along for the ride.
So, if a manager is putting in 60 hours a week, I think he's very inefficient and marginally productive.
 






Anonymous said:
So I have never been on this site as I am not involved with pharma sales but I have been arguing with a friend of mine and he told me to come here to see what response I get.

The argument is over the hours a pharma sales manager works per week. A guy he works with is a pharma manager in the Northeast and he always tells him he is working constantly; up until all hours of the night and needs to rise early to start again. I'm not discounting the job itself, but from my limited knowledge of the job responsibilities, it seems a stretch to say you need to work 60+ hours a week. Now he did say that the guy is very successful and has won awards before so I am sure that this is a very generalized question but thought I would ask.

Again, I'm not judging or anything like that but from the sound of this guy you would think he is senior vice president of Microsoft.

Just interested since we have been arguing abut this.
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Even the Microsoft VP doesn't actually work 60 hrs a week! If your friend is including the daily babysitting( ride-alongs)...maybe. But, there is no reason to spend 8 hrs a day with a rep. The busy work time can vary depending on his boss and the company boxes that need to be checked.
 
























Anonymous said:
Retail health business.
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He is a man of the world, a confused little boy. Leave him alone. Maybe he will wake up someday and realize how pathetic he is, and change.

Also, it is frightening to see what this industry now is, with people like that guy in a leadership position.

I guess it is all style over substance these days. And, it is not going to change. I would never recommend selling as a profession to anyone because of this alarming trend. This was definitely not the case in the past, when people where promoted for professionalism and entrepreneurship. The game has jumped the shark my friends.
 






Thanks to all who responded. As I assumed, there would be people for and against the argument regarding hours worked. So fo clarification, I asked my friend about the "ride days" and other things people mentioned to try and get a more detailed response and he said that ride days are standard and incorporated into the "60 hour" work weeks.

I guess I am just shocked that a pharma manager needs to work 60+ hours a week in order to succeed at his/her position. If a ride day is 8 hours a day and you do 4 a week it seems insane to have to do almost 30 hours a week of paperwork!!!
 






Anonymous said:
Thanks to all who responded. As I assumed, there would be people for and against the argument regarding hours worked. So fo clarification, I asked my friend about the "ride days" and other things people mentioned to try and get a more detailed response and he said that ride days are standard and incorporated into the "60 hour" work weeks.

I guess I am just shocked that a pharma manager needs to work 60+ hours a week in order to succeed at his/her position. If a ride day is 8 hours a day and you do 4 a week it seems insane to have to do almost 30 hours a week of paperwork!!!
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But, remember, the paperwork is just mindless, check the box busy work.
Successful people will tell you it's not just the hours you work, it's what got done in those hours, aka efficiency. If it takes two hours to complete a task, work two hours. But if it takes 12 hours, work 12 hrs. Too many managers, VP's, etc. stretch work to fill the hours.
 






Good ones work and their teams are (hopefully) inspired to work a little harder because someone is working with them and trying to help them, (tools, resources, advocacy, development, eliminating barriers, collaborating with other teams/departments, etc.). They, through their teams, typically perform in the top 1/3 AND they retain and promote great people. Bad ones work part-time and are self-serving. They are unavailable and do a minimum for their people. You can't be scenario #1 and work 30-40 hours a week. You can in scenario #2.
 






Anonymous said:
But, remember, the paperwork is just mindless, check the box busy work.
Successful people will tell you it's not just the hours you work, it's what got done in those hours, aka efficiency. If it takes two hours to complete a task, work two hours. But if it takes 12 hours, work 12 hrs. Too many managers, VP's, etc. stretch work to fill the hours.
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agree. reminds me of these sport coaches that spend hours and hours of watching film, and thinking that they work so hard.

Hard work is landscaping, painting, contracting, engineers that solve complex problems at the factory, stuff like that.

approving expense reports and making sure reps have good reach and frequency numbers while watching the View and cooking at home, is not a tough job.
 






They probably wouldn't have to look at your reach and frequency if you were hitting your numbers in the first place. So stop slacking enjoy the job for what it is n
Go out there and hit yout goal
 






Anonymous said:
They probably wouldn't have to look at your reach and frequency if you were hitting your numbers in the first place. So stop slacking enjoy the job for what it is n
Go out there and hit yout goal
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I've never missed a goal in 12 yrs, asshole. Shove the reach and frequency up your ass. Wonder why drs have shut down their offices? Because we have become useless...other than lunch....to them. And I'm sure you're one of the worst slackers of all.
 
























Anonymous said:
Never missed your goal in 12 years? You must have such favorable managed care..... Maybe you cover Texas or Florida.
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Don't forget Philly, that territory wins every year too for Specialty!! It's all a joke w/ goal setting I don't understand how nothing is done about the same territories winning every year!
 






If u paid attention to the incentive comp presentation. U would know how the goals r made up. They win coz they drive comp share down. Your goals r high coz u suck at selling and can't do the same even when u have some fav plans.
 






Does anyone actually believe the first post is true? So gullible. Look at what RBD Dummy Whos is doing to reps in the Northeast? The question comes from Dummy Who's level or higher so they can start squeezing DMs like they're now doing to the field.

Such a lazy way to drive accountability. But I hope Dummy Who's and his glad-handing managers realize how soft and non-corageous they are for rolling this out.
 






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