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Thought leadership and innovation for the Pharmaceutical Industry

I was speaking to a rep yesterday who was fed up with their manager.

I was speaking to a rep yesterday who was fed up with their manager. They were fed up not because their own performance was under question (they were on target) but because the manager was not particularly inspirational when on field visits. It was as if they came on field visits to find someone to have a moan with. They complained about their work pressure, company policy and as for their senior manager,,,,,

The rep actually dreaded the field visit with this particular manager as they found them demotivational and actually not particularly skillful at performance coaching and supporting the rep's development.

I am passionate about field visits and I firmly believe that everything possible should be done to ensure managers are trained to an exceedingly high level in terms of not only structuring field visits but also having the skill to ensure that each and every field visit is motivational and productive for both manager and representative. Field visits are a huge resource. The average UK sales manager or coach will do between 80 and 120 field visits a year - that's between 40% and 60% of their time - a huge investment. Can you imagine the total number of days spent worldwide by pharma managers alone on field visits?  And yet we still have too many situations where representatives see field visits as demotivational and a 'feared assessment' and too many managers see the field visit as a chore when perhaps they would be more comfortable at a head office meeting or sat in front of a computer glued to spreadsheets.

Pharma has to ensure that managers and coaches are properly trained to structure and run field visits and that this training is continual with regular feedback from the representatives on the manager's or coaches skill levels against the key skills required. I recently asked a group of managers how many of them asked their reps for feedback on their field visit skills and out of three courses of a total of thirty five managers, only one had ever asked. I do believe that some companies do put in the initial training effort but as regards continual follow up and getting feedback from reps, I think we have some way to go.

I have written an e-book , entitled "Where Do You Want To Go Today, Boss?" and it aims to offer support and lerning about how best to make the field visit motivational and productive for both manager or coach and representative.

If  anyone would like a free copy they can leave a message here along with their e-mail address or they can send an e-mail to allan@allanmackintosh.com and I'll e-mail them out a copy.