Diary of a Salesperson - VII

The Role of an 'Area Business Manager' - V

“The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.” – Ray Kroc

A leader is the sailor of the ship. No matter what the circumstance is, it is only he who can sail the ship to the shore or let it drown, likewise an ABM is solely responsible for the outcome his team gives. Let me now tell you how an ABM can enhance his own understanding of the team and their performance too.

Brand wise performance of field colleagues.

An ABM should be vigilant towards customer conversion as per Brand Plan Guidelines. During joint working, audit should be done by the ABM to understand conversion, detailed discussion with salesperson on the same would help in better understanding.

For current month business planning and mitigation of brand budget Gaps, the plans should be defined, immediate visit should be planned to customers where productive work has been done for conversion but the result is yet to come so as to convert them for brand budget value gap management.

Utilization of resources and implementation of strategies as per Brand Plan.

Utilization of inputs should be modified when needed as per month business priority not on the cost of long term brand strategy plan. If there is any specific demand by any customer, ABM should take up the responsibility to fulfill it at the earliest as per company policy and law of land. An ABM should play a critical role in getting additional outcomes from core customers for specific brands to mitigate value gap.

Distribution Plan and execution 

By distribution plan we mean stockiest wise business planning as per coverage of field colleagues. Business planning should be reviewed keeping in mind the percentage contribution of every stockiest in total business. Gap as per stockist’s sales boy plan should be mapped and its detailed analysis should be done to arrive at an action plan. If the gap is identified then there is a need to drill down to find out the actual reason behind the gap like whether the gap is due to reduction of prescription or if the customer moved towards competition or non-payment issue etc. After identifying the reason, immediate action should be designed in coordination with the stockiest to mitigate value gap. If stockiest is not willing to cooperate, the next action should be meeting the customer for shifting supply to other stockiest. In case of loss of prescription, an ABM should plan an urgent visit to be with proper pre work and analysis as to why the prescription shift is taking place. Call should be designed to bring back the customer; delay in visit will add to the loss and lead to difficulty in bringing the customer back on prescription.

Continuous Monitoring (Execution of strategies & Return on Investment)

Brand or overall budget achievement strategies execution is vital to achieve value month on month or year on year. Brand managers define strategies keeping in mind the long term goals for the brand, indication and accordingly prioritize the customer coverage etc. Most of the inputs are designed keeping in mind the additional value from current prescribers or expansion of prescribers as per brand life cycle. Role of an ABM is to ensure the execution of strategies by repeatedly communicating the importance of following strategies. Return on investment doesn’t mean prescription outcome post services (as per company policy), visit frequency is also an investment. It is an ABM’s responsibility to ensure right outcome from each customer. Over and above he should identify the gaps or over achievement of budget as per budget defined for all the colleagues, after detailed analysis of each colleague’s performance. It is very important to modify strategy for 100% achievement of ABM budget. For instance, if a salesperson HQ A is not able to achieve budget then in that case salesperson HQ B should be motivated for over achievement, extra efforts and time should be extended for same. Delay in identifying nonperformance of each colleague will not only impact the overall budget achievement of ABM but also the future career growth.

To summarize it all in a brief manner –

An ABM should monitor the team’s performance, identify gaps, help team achieve budget by giving timely guidance and assistance which would help him in achieving his 100% budget for year. With this, I conclude my tips about an ABM’s role and his relationship with reporting authorities. In my next blog, I would talk about ‘Role of an ABM as an Executor.’

Diary of a Salesperson - VI

The Role of an 'Area Business Manager' - IV

“The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.”

Over the last few blogs we have discussed how an Area Business Manager plays a crucial role in team bonding and motivates the team to perform phenomenally. In this blog I would discuss about how an ABM should identify gaps in budget projection, how to analyze the plans and how to chalk a plan to help the team achieve 100% outcome.

It very important for an ABM to first find the gap and design a customized plan for his team mates. Although the budget gets defined differently for each field colleague in the beginning of financial year but is it important for an ABM to be well accustomed with the strengths and team’s concerns.

·         Personalized Approach - An ABM must distribute the budget among the team mates as per their profiles.

An ABM must take into consideration every team mate’s profile and then work upon what proactive plans to put in place as to mitigate the deficit if there is any. He must carefully plan month wise action plans for each team mate in a way that each of them not only achieves 100% planned budget but may also at times overachieve the pre-planned goal. He should strategize in a manner that there is scope for every team mate to achieve incentives.

·         Organizational Approach - He should always lay his focus on high priority brands to derive the maximum outcome.

It is an ABM’s most important responsibility to identify a few essential key aspects –

Ø  Whether the gap in the budget is from high focused brands or low focused brands.

Ø  By what extent (%) is the gap going to impact the team mate’s career growth.

It is believed that wherever the gap is cropping either from high focus brands or low focused brands, it is going to lead to low overall annual performance which would further delay the team mate’s career growth. 

Any ABM who wants to achieve success and become an inspiration for others must keep a few things in mind while planning business for the month or quarter.

·         Time management of field colleagues.                                          

·         Daily work hygiene.

·         Customer specific brand positioning.

·         Brand wise performance of field colleagues.

·         Utilization of resources and implementation of strategies as per the Brand Plan.

·         Distribution Plan and Execution (Stockiest wise business planning as per the coverage of field colleagues)

·         Continuous Monitoring (Execution of strategies & Return On Investment)

Time management of field colleagues –

Even though the time allocation for everyone is defined by the company as per the Sales Force Effectiveness (SFE) Guidelines, I still highly recommend the ABM to check weekly and monthly time allocation for each team mate. Changes should be suggested to the salesperson keeping in mind the segment, area, and their core strength which would bring out extra productivity with additional time. If needed an ABM should plan joint working in the same area to maximize productivity. He must take prior permission from seniors before suggesting any changes in coverage of salesperson with a justifiable reason.

Customer specific brand positioning - 

An ABM should always review the gap in budget in the salesperson’s area on various aspects. For instance, Brand X is a low value brand but very high sales unit are required to cover the overall budget gap then planning should be modified towards generation of additional prescriptions of high value brand to cover all budget gap. Brand budget achievements are very important but it is highly recommended that an ABM covers overall budget for the next level of promotion. He should help the salesperson to identify right customer who can help him in getting extra value. An ABM should plan his visit along with salesperson in order to get assurance for getting additional prescriptions; this will help boosting confidence of salesman towards achieving the overall budget.

In my next blog I will talk about brand wise performance of colleagues, utilization of resources, distribution plan and execution and continuous monitoring.

Diary of a salesman - V

                  The Role of an 'Area Business Manager' - III

“Some people dream of success, while others wake up and work hard at it.”  - Napolean Hill

The most important and the most challenging task for an ABM is to keep his team motivated to work hard and derive incredible results. ABM plays a vital role in keeping the team motivated and focused towards their goals. An Area Business Manager is that strength that binds the team together; he is solely responsible for the team’s actions and the outcomes.  The most important habit an ABM must bring into practice is -

Motivate the team to learn and earn-

Learning and sharing with each other is an apt way to motivate team and inspire them to perform better. Subordinates talk to each other almost every day to find out what is new at work, new work trends, working habits. It is always advisable to discuss about everybody’s strengths and achievements with each other, this helps to motivate the team and bring them closer to each other.

I believe an ABM should spend time with their colleagues during joint working; it helps them learn about their mistakes and enhances the actions and outcomes. It is difficult to make someone understand and accept their mistakes, so I recommend we begin talking about their strengths and then achievements gradually moving on to their mistakes and how they can learn from it.

Spending ample time in strategizing and planning about the campaigns and inputs for the month helps in better execution thus increasing the probability of acquiring desired outcomes.

Few Don’ts for ABMs-

·         Never make any false commitments.

·         Never indulge in short cuts for growing business or making money.

·         Never break professional lines between you and your subordinates.

·         Never miss out informing or taking guidance from seniors in some critical situations.

·         Never use unprofessional language with anyone.

 With all the tips I gave you about being a successful ABM, we conclude that an ABM must be self-motivated, well-informed, disciplined, must have a habit of pre-planning every action, should focus on growth and must always strive to figure out how to enhance the team’s performance even more, should have an urge to learn more all the time and must be very humble in his approach towards the team.

Lastly, I would always advice everyone to leave their work back at office before going home, this practice would always help you maintain a balance between your professional and personal life.

We should always give importance to and respect everybody’s personal time be it our subordinate, our senior our client. One should always avoid making calls to them outside the office hours.

I hope my tips and experiences help you to bring out the best in you and enhance your performance in the industry. In my next blog, I would talk about “The responsibilities of an ABM towards the reporting authorities.”

Diary of a Salesperson - IV

The Role of an 'Area Business Manager' - II

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” – John Maxwell

With the designation of a Manager not just comes power but many responsibilities too. It becomes a manager’s responsibility to make sure that their team follows the process, consistently strives towards producing phenomenal outcomes and sets a new bench mark every time. He becomes solely responsible for every action of the team.

Here are a few tips to make sure that the team performs efficiently all the time and maintains the code of conduct.

Make them follow the process –

It is a manager’s responsibility to make sure that the team follows the process. He must guide and correct the team members when they are losing focus or doing anything in an incorrect manner. Not guiding the team with regards to the process because of the fear of losing them is not just causing harm to the team member’s growth but would also affect the entire team’s performance. 

Know your Company & Industry –

As a manager it is very vital for you to know about the policies, rules & regulations of your organization and your industry. It is important for you to always stay updated about any changes, any amendments and any modification that takes place in the policies and regulations. I’ve seen many leaders suffering due to lack of knowledge about their organization and the industry regulations.

When you have in-depth working knowledge about customer relationship policy of the organization and industry regulations like Universal Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices, it helps you in handling customer needs better. Establishing better relations with customer helps you build and retain a vast clientele. We must always seek help from the concerned departments if we ever have any doubts and confusion regarding the policies and regulations of the organization. 

Act as a role model- 

It is very important for a successful manager to visit flashback and draw lessons from the past. He must act as a role model for other salesmen and highly inspire them. It is very important to train people by setting examples in front of them and the best way to train them is by acting as their role model. A sales manager will only excel when he keeps a track of each of his team member’s requirements and strategizes accordingly. Disciplined and planned actions are equally important to make the strategies work and deliver remarkable results.

Planning everything in advance is a major habit that an ABM should bring in every day practice. He should constantly stay updated about the team members and the on-goings in his company and the industry. He should continually keep upgrading his plans, strategies and experiment with new patterns of working to find out a method to derive maximum results. To be a successful ABM one must exhibit great importance to their work. He should adhere to the rules and norms and always keep his deadlines in mind, to stay in the safe zone he should always buy extra time instead of missing the timelines.

If, for instance an ABM has committed any distributor, customer or retailer that he would revert within a particular number of days, it is very important for him to keep the timeline in mind and revert before time. If anything is causing delay in his work he must inform them about the situation in an honest manner. One must always keep in mind that “It takes a lot of time in earning respect but it just takes a few seconds to lose it.” Time is something we should be very cautious about all our lives.

Well planned managers always earn respect from all their subordinates as well as superiors who help them in their career growth. It is very essential to follow certain things throughout your life in order to achieve pinnacles and reach great heights. My next blog would be the last section of tips for becoming a successful ABM, it would talk about a few measures to be taken to motivate the team and a few don’ts an ABM should keep in mind.

Diary of a Salesperson - III

                             The Role of an 'Area Business Manager'

“If you are persistent, you will get it. If you are consistent, you will keep it.”

              

In my last blog, I shared with you all the teachings and lessons that I got in life which helped me excel as a salesman. In this blog I would give you a few tips about becoming a successful ‘Area Business Manager’ or an ABM as we say. In these years of my experience in Pharma Industry I’ve learnt that an ABM is a people’s manager. He plays the vital character of being a ‘Role Model’ in a salesman’s life. He is someone who consistently motivates the salesmen; they seek inspiration from him every single day of their work life.

A successful ABM should keep some major key points in mind -

Know your Team–

It is of utmost importance for a successful manager to know his subordinates personally. When a manager has a personal bond with his team it becomes easier for him to judge their performance, know their strengths and weaknesses. When you know your team members personally you become aware of what role they play in a team’s performance and how can we use their strength to achieve more as a team.

A very important thing that I learnt after becoming a manager was how to profile your team and this experience is still helping me in my career today. When I was delegated the responsibilities of a manager I was very keen about getting to know my team well. So the first thing I did was spent time with my team to know them better. I found out about their assigned jobs, responsibilities, their core strength and how could all of us come together and enhance our performance as a team. This helped me discovering my team mates’ qualities; I found out that someone is strong in distributor management while someone is a master of competition networking and retail management.  As a team manager, it is very essential to gel up well with the team and work with them for the betterment of the team.

Earn respect as a leader –

When you treat your team members as your family and look after their needs and requirements you tend to earn a lot of respect from them, it is important to use your knowledge about the team members efficiently.  The first trait of a successful leader is being a “Good Human Being.” I learnt that small gestures like greeting team members, asking them about their health, their family’s well-being, wishing them on their birthdays, anniversaries and other occasions help you in becoming a better leader. It establishes a personal connection with the team and makes the team members feel like they are an important part of the organization. It is very easy to take part in somebody’s celebrations but it is very essential to be with them and comfort them during their tough times.

Apart from establishing personal relationships it is important to guide team members towards achieving professional goals as well. Being a manager it is important to alert the team and guide them if they are missing out on professional goals.

I firmly believe that one can never be content with the knowledge and experiences he gains in life, there is always an urge to learn more. There is so much more that I learnt as an ABM about handling my team and company. I would share with you how to make your team follow the designed process and a few other tips on becoming a successful ‘Area Business Manager.’

Diary of a Salesperson - II

                        Making of a Proficient Salesman - II

As Julius Caesar said “Experience is the teacher of all things”, I believe to attain great knowledge and achieve highest summits one must learn something from every good and bad experiences in life. Some of the most important lessons that we learn in our lives usually come from the most unexpected places.  I learnt one such lesson from a distributor sales boy I came across in my journey towards success.

This sales boy taught me that “You will not achieve more if you don’t demand for extra, always look for what else you can get, what else you can achieve.” I took this lesson into serious practice, I decided I would demand more from every customer and gradually it became a habit.

Once during Diwali holidays I spent 3 days handling my father’s business, he owned a cycle shop. One day while I was looking after the shop, a sales boy visited the shop and he taught me one of the most important lessons in life, he said “you should know your customer well if you really want to win his mind and if you win his mind; you will certainly get business.” It was then when I understood the need of becoming accustomed to my customer’s habits and their needs. I started profiling them, asking them about their family, talking to them about their daily schedule, their hobbies, their likes and dislikes; this helped me understand them even better.

When I was in Jodhpur, I once got a chance to visit rural market with one of my leading distributors in Jodhpur. The 14 hours that I spent with him changed my perception about my own self. A few lessons in life that I learnt from him are – 

·         "Be confident and think of yourself equal to your customer.” It is true that you need them but they need you equally to run their business.

·         “Be a sharp observer.”  I learnt from him that one should spend few minutes in observing the patient sitting area, clinic walls and other details to find different things like any new poster, any new achievement certificate or any competition material etc.

·         “Try to know about 24 hours happening in the clinic, shop and hospital” He taught me that it is important to know about any complicated case handling, number of patients treated every day, any severe case etc. This helps you to prepare on how to start your conversation inside the chamber. When you know what has happened in the last 24 hours it will become easy for you to begin your conversation discussing about it.

·         “Be true to yourself.” Self-confidence and self-acceptance plays a vital role in a salesman’s life. It is very important to be our true selves and not fake anything in front of the doctor. If there is something that we do not know, we should not shy away from confessing it. You can tell the doctor that you don’t know it right now but you can find out and learn about it and get back to him in a particular period of time.

·          “Know your competitor.” This was one of the most important teaching I’ve received in life. I learnt that it is very essential to study our competitors, what they do, their field colleagues, their strengths and weakness, their plans and strategies, cost of products, product packaging and all other details one can acquire.  I developed a habit of meeting my competitors, their distributors, studying their brands and this habit helped me strategize my marketing even better, it helped building my brand.

All these lessons that I’ve acquired from different experiences and some phenomenal people in my life have helped me achieve whatever I have in life today. I have learnt that identifying a right customer; knowing their prescription habits, right product focus and subject knowledge are essentials of a successful salesman. Learning from experiences and implementing those lessons in life is the ultimate key towards becoming “A SMART SALESMAN.” I hope my teaching and lessons inspire you every day to perform better than yesterday and bring you a step closer to your desired goals.

Diary of a Salesperson: I

Making of a proficient salesman

 “Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it.”  - Marva Collins

I believe one attains success in true terms when they help others to succeed in life as well. With my blogs I would try to bring together all the knowledge and experience I’ve gained in this industry over the years. I hope these experiences serve as a handbook for my fellows in the Pharma Industry and assist them to excel as a salesman and reach the pinnacle.

Though it is slightly difficult to bring together all that I’ve learnt and the vast knowledge I’ve attained in this blog, I would try to highlight a few experiences and lessons that played an imperative role in my career growth.

I began my journey in the year 1999 as a management trainee in a leading company at, Jodhpur. Initially it took me a little time to adjust and adapt the working manner, but once I got accustomed to my work I kept pacing ahead and never stopped. In these 18 years of my journey one thing I have certainly learnt is that everyone we come across in our life teaches us something; something different, something special. And in this blog I am going to share with you few of such essential teachings given to me by some absolutely wonderful people in my life.               

They say parents are every child’s first teachers; the most essential lessons that I’ve learnt in life unquestionably come from them. My grandmother used to tell me “If you really want to grow in life, you should never say no to your work.” This is one work ethic that I practice even today, no matter what the situation is I always strive to deliver maximum outcome from my side. I always think of my work to be my own business and always carry an entrepreneur attitude.

Another most important lesson in my life was given to me by my father. He taught me to “Help others without expecting anything from them and that is how you will win in life.” Inspired by my father’s lessons I started spending time with my colleagues and helping them out with planning, strategizing, understanding customer needs, chemist management and other essential work practices. It took me no time to win everybody’s heart and believe me no reward in my entire life can ever match the amount of respect and blessings I gained from helping others.

My boss gave me a lot of knowledge about customer behavior and how to conduct myself in order to succeed in life. Some of the important practices I mention below -

·        Never start your day late, always reach on time.

·        Become familiar with your customer list.

·        Plan and prepare the schedules  for your day in advance,

·        Strategize your inputs according to customer needs while keeping brand focus in mind.

·        “Be different, think different"

His lessons played an inevitable role in achieving my goals in life and to mention the most important thing- it changed my approach towards my customers. I began understanding their needs and their comfort zones, I started meeting them as per their convenience, sometimes early in the morning, sometimes late evenings, sometimes at Joggers Park, sometimes over lunch or breakfast at canteens and at times in parking lots too! When you make your customer’s convenience your priority they automatically start liking you and thinking of you to be someone different. This is how I learnt my second lesson to win people’s heart in life.

These teachings are just a glimpse of my incredible journey in the world of Pharma. But just a moment, the lessons are not over yet, becoming a proficient salesman isn’t a cakewalk, there are a few more remarkable lessons I learnt from some amazing personalities in my life. My next blog would be the second edition of making of a proficient salesman. The second edition would talk about what happened when a sales boy in a cycle shop changed my approach towards my customers and how I began studying my competitors and their habits.