Leading Change in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Dan Smith is the VP of sales of a leading pharmaceutical company. He has been a sales leader in the Pharmaceutical Industry for the last 10 years. He has spent most of his pharmaceutical career engaged in various sales and marketing roles. He remembers the days when “we would be adding a new sales force every year or two”. He reminisces about the good old days when he went to extravagant sales meetings in exotic locations, and had fun.

In 2009, Dan recognizes the need to move to a smaller sales force. His company is facing patent expiration issues, having difficulty gaining formulary coverage for new drugs and experiencing decreased access to physicians. Over the past 6 months Dan has worked behind closed doors examining countless sales force alignments, permutations and configurations. He has made 3 presentations to his boss and corporate VP’s. Dan has convinced the executive team that his plan makes sense.

Dan has carefully crafted a new approach to the market place, an approach that involves creating “Moments of Magic” for his customers. He has listened to their needs and is restructuring his organization to be lean and focused. The days of detailing are gone. He knows that sales reps need to move the needle on each and every call. They need to bring value to their customers and drive business forward.

In the days ahead, Dan will implement his restructuring plan. This is when the rubber will hit the road. He knows the subsequent weeks will be painful and challenging. He has a critical leadership role to play. As his executive sales coach I have been privy to his plans for the last 6 months. We have had long discussion about the stress and burdens of his responsibilities. I have been a sounding board and have helped him develop the change management skills necessary to lead the organization’s restructuring.

Dan has hopefully set the table for success. Prior to roll out, Dan has a 4-part plan, which I have detailed here.

1. Have all your ducks in a row:  HR and legal have put all documentation in place. There are packages prepared for each sales rep that is being laid off (severance letters and outplacement service offerings etc.). The people who are going to contact the sales reps have been trained and know how to effectively communicate what is happening. 

2. Act quickly: Even though Dan has tried to keep things quiet, rumours of layoffs will inevitably circulate, creating stress for all. Unfortunately the rumour mill is running wild with fear and negatively impacting morale, focus and productivity. All the more reason to set deadlines and make sure you meet them effectively and efficiently.

3. New vision for the sales organization is in place and ready to roll out: Dan is ready to clearly and concisely communicate his new vision. He is going to explain what the organization will be doing differently. What the new sales structure looks like, and what the new roles and responsibilities for team members are going to be. He has carefully crafted the rationale for the downsizing to share at large.

4. Set up individual meetings: Dan believes that it is critical to meet face to face with each employee. Keep meetings brief and factual. Treating those who are being laid off with respect by thanking them for their efforts and offering fair severance packages were important to him. He knew that word travels quickly and the way people are treated on the way out sends a message to the remaining sales people. He did his best to ensure that sales people were being treated fairly in terms of transition packages and with dignity.

Now that word is out Dan has outlined three goals for his sales management team:
 
1. To retain all top performers
2. To regain productivity and positivity as quickly as possible
3. To transition to the new way of doing business

Dan knows that the success of his new vision is dependent on the buy-in of his front line sales managers. For any change management program to work it needs to be led from the front lines. This is a critical time for Dan, as he needs to effectively communicate to the entire organization. His front line managers will look to him for leadership. He will be the role model, his attitude and behaviors through the initial phase will send an important message to the entire team.

Dan has been working on the changes for the last six months. He has had time to deal with his own guilt, anxiety and fears about the impact his vision will have on the organization. His managers on the other hand, are just starting to deal with their own emotions. They have lost colleagues, sales reps and friends. They will have to deal with their emotions, anxieties and grief. Dan and I have developed an approach that will help him transition his organization to the new vision.

1. Win their Hearts: You need to win their hearts before you win their minds. The managers need to believe in the changes and their future with the organization. The real work starts after all the announcements have been made and the layoffs completed. Senior sales management must now focus on the remaining sales managers and sales people. 

2. Be an Empathetic Leader: The key is to be open. Listen. Help your staff deal with their emotions and be empathetic. By showing concern and interest, you will be working towards getting everyone back on board. Set up weekly group meetings to provide feedback on how the transition is progressing. Put out the small fires and try to address them before they become infernos.

3. Offer Support: Your efforts need to be focused on coaching and encouraging people to be successful in transitioning to the new vision. Be available, be present, and be there for your people. You may want to offer your sales manager’s access to an executive sales coach to help them deal with any issues. An executive sales coach can help accelerate the transition by offering an unbiased sounding board and be an outlet for managers to discuss issues that they may not be comfortable raising with you.

4. Promote and Communicate Positivity: You need to exude optimism and a “can do” attitude regarding the transition. Promote optimism and positive thinking in all your communications. Be sure to highlight positive movements and all success stories, no matter how minor. Reward each success and allow the people who adjust quicker to become role models for the team.

As you may have figured out Dan is a fictitious Executive.  He represents any and all VP’s of Sales in the industry who have in the last few months announced downsizing in their organization. I encourage sales managers who have recently experienced a downsizing to share their challenges and successes. Please feel free to provide your first hand experience, I welcome all comments, concerns and issues.

(See next months article, “The Sales Managers Guide to Leading Change).

When I saw this title I was intrigued. As many of you know I frequently write about coaching being the No. 1 management activity that drives sales performance. Gwen Teatro discusses what a good coach looks like. Find out whether you are a good coach. Feel free to share your thoughts on this article.

Coaching is one of those words that tends to lace everyday language at work but I wonder how many people who are supposed to be doing it actually know what it means or what it takes to be a good coach?

I don’t know about you, but there was a time when, on hearing the word coach, my mind automatically dredged up visions of cheerleaders and marching bands and all those sports analogies that we all love to hate but for which we have yet to find decent replacements.

And yet I have come to know coaching as a very powerful tool.  That makes it worth talking about and worth doing.

There is no magic formula for becoming a good coach.  Like most things worthwhile, it takes work. Period.

But, in the interests of starting somewhere, here’s what a good coach looks like to me:

•  A good coach will be genuinely interested in knowing me

This does not mean that I expect you to be my best friend.  What it does mean is that you will make an effort to understand my capabilities, my ambitions and my development needs.  If you don’t take the time to know these things, you will be hard-pressed to know if you are getting my best performance

• A good coach will look past my excuses and challenge me to do my best

Sometimes, I won’t be able to see myself as you see me. Sometimes I will not want to stretch myself for fear that I might fail.  As my coach, you will challenge me to go beyond the unspoken boundaries I have set for myself.  You will not accept my excuses.  You will show your faith in my abilities and my potential to do more by demanding more.  And, should I fail, you will help me to extract the learning from it and move on.

• A good coach will hold me accountable for the commitments I make

When a new idea captures my imagination, it is easy for me to envision bringing it into reality.   And yet, while I will understand the importance of it, there will be times when I need your help to stay the course.  Starting is usually easy.  Finishing is harder.  As my coach I will rely on you to remind me of the importance of completing what I set out to do.  And, if I shift my focus, you will help me ensure that my reasons are valid.

• A good coach will encourage me, support my efforts and celebrate with me when the time is right

There will be times when I question my own abilities; when I need guidance and resources to help me do my work and: when I need acknowledgement for the work I have already done.  As my coach, I will count on you to deliver these things at the times when they are most appropriate.  That will require you to talk with me regularly. Our talks do not have to be long but they must be truthful.  The success of our relationship will depend on it.

So, that’s what a good coach looks like to me.  But, what must a person have in his or her own “kit bag” of characteristics before s/he can hope to successfully fill the role of “good coach”?  Well, I expect there are many but the four that come quickly to my mind are these:

• Self Assurance – If you are to be successful in your coaching efforts, you will often have to suspend your own desire for acknowledgement and work in service of helping someone else shine.  This can be hard on the ego and as such, a healthy sense of self, both in terms of assurance and awareness, will be important.
• Self Discipline - As much as it is important for those you coach to follow through on their commitments, it is as, if not more, important for you, as coach to hold yourself accountable for the commitments you make to them.
• Courage – Coaching often requires difficult conversations.  Courage is a cornerstone of good coaching and of good leadership.  For a good coach or leader there is usually no place to hide.
• A sense of humour – Most good coaches know the value of humour, particularly the self-deprecating kind.  It is an essential tool at work and in life. Enough said.

If this is all sounding just a tad onerous, you may be wondering what’s in it for you to be a good coach.  Where’s the payoff?  This is where I think it is:

• When those whom you coach do well, you do well
• When you coach others to do their best work, you get optimal results
• Good coaches are often recognized as having valuable leadership capability.  And that opens doors for you.

If you have an appetite for more coaching observations, you must go to Mary Jo Asmus’ excellent blog post here.  You won’t be sorry. http://www.aspire-cs.com/coaching-if-its-too-hard-do-you-give-up

So, what does good coaching mean to you?  What would you add?  What challenges do you face as a coach?

Gwyn Teatro is a Certified Professional Coach with a Masters of Science degree in Management and 15 years experience as a Human Resources Consultant to Executive and Senior Management in the Financial Services Industry.

Sales coaching is the No. 1 management activity that drives sales performance. The only problem is that managers have not been taught how to effectively coach. Coaching is a skill that takes time to perfect and unless effectively coached or trained managers make all types of mistakes. This is the 3rd in a series of coaching pitfalls that mangers should avoid.

Personal growth and change is a challenge for all of us. We all have strengths and areas for development. Mangers who decide who create a laundry list of areas for development, will have little success. It is too difficult for sales rep to make wholesale changes in how they sell. Development is about working on improving 1 or 2 things and once the sales person has demonstrated that they have acquired the skill or behaviour then you can move on to the next area.

From a sales reps perspective imagine getting a field report listing all of the things you do wrong? Some reps would not even read the report. Many will read and wonder where I start. Others may read it and be completely overwhelmed.

Great coaching is about focus focus and focus. Helping a sales rep improve in one area of their job can have a major impact on their performance.

Last week I explored the mistake that many managers make of being in tell mode. Today I want to explore where coaching sits amongst a sales managers many priorities.

Time management is a challenge we all face. With emails, meetings and administrative work what is a sales manager to do? If sales results are what you desire then the easy answer is to do the activities that will drive the greatest revenue. Generally we do the busy work first as they are the easiest to. It feels good when we are up to date on our emails. The stress is reduced when we have all our reports in on time and we have followed up on all our messages.

But all those activities don’t contribute to the bottom line. If great sales coaching can have a direct impact of up to 19% more sales, why is coaching not the #1 priority?

Stop making excuses and get out of the office. Get out in the field and make coaching your #1 priority. Your boss will thank you and your reps will make lots of money.

Do you want to drive sales performance? Transforming your sales managers from good to great coaches can have a dramatic impact on sales. In fact, sales coaching is the management No. 1 activity that drives sales performance. The only problem is that managers have not been taught how to effectively coach. Coaching is a skill that takes time to perfect and unless effectively coached or trained managers make all types of mistakes.

As the head of sales or as a frontline sales manager you can greatly enhance the performance of your sales team if you can develop great coaches.

Over the next week I will explore daily coaching mistakes to avoid on your way to becoming a great sales coach.

Coaching Mistake #1 – “Telling vs. Asking Coaching”

As a sales manager you probably were a top sales rep. You may still see yourself as a problem-solver, like “If I solve this rep’s issue then she/he can make the sale.” As a result of your action orientation you are likely to tell the salesperson how to solve the issue. “Telling” does not create self-managing salespeople. In fact, there are numerous downsides to the tell-first approach.

First, you are not empowering your sales reps, who may perceive you as being a micro manager. Second, you are also creating a dependency on you to be their problem-solver. This creates endless emails, phone calls and resulting in needy reps. And third, you are not developing them. One of the critical areas for development is the ability to be a self manager.

Be aware of when you are in “tell” mode and remind yourself, when you have fallen into a bad habit.

In my last post I told you about my lunch with a VP of sales who was frustrated because the members of his sales management team were focused so exclusively on results that they neglected the care and feeding of their salespeople.

That executive sees the role of the sales manager as developing his or her people to the best of their potential. I agree with his a longer-term view that by developing your people, you get improved performance and better retention and you essentially develop a pool of succession candidates.

So how exactly do you know if your managers are effective coaches?

Here are five ways of Determining if you have Great Sales Coaches: 

1.      Asking vs. Telling

You can tell much about a manager’s coaching ability by observing the interactions with his or her salespeople. If a majority of the interaction includes the words “do this” or “why are you not doing that,” your manager is in “tell mode.” This highly directive and subservient communication makes salespeople feel like robots and produces mediocre performers. Frankly, it strains their relationship with their manager.

Coaching is about asking thoughtful questions. It is based on the belief that individuals have the answers to their own sales challenges. The manager’s role is to help individuals develop their ability to self-direct and solve their own problems. A coach would spend a majority of the time asking “how do you think you can best accomplish this goal?” or “how would you like to address this opportunity?”

Spend 15 minutes in one of your manager’s sales meeting and you’ll quickly determine if the manager operates in “coach” or “tell” mode.

2.      Time Spent in the Field

Like many of us, managers tend to spend their time on the activities they are the best at and most enjoy.  A manager who focuses extensively on administrative tasks like submitting reports on time probably is less comfortable coaching. The manager who finds creative ways to get into the field and spend more time with sales reps probably sees the value of this time. Remember that administration doesn’t generate revenue or help develop your salespeople and that time spent in the field improves your reps’ ability to be the best they can be.

Do you track the number of days each manager spends in the field?   The best coach likely is the one who does so most often.

3.      Accountability

Coaching is about accelerating a sales rep’s growth and ability to achieve personal goals and reach full potential. It’s a four-step process that: (1) identifies opportunities for improvement, (2) gains commitment, (3) develops a plan and (4) sets an accountability meeting to discuss progress. Set aside one hour a month to review your manager’s field visit reports. Why not go farther and follow three or four field visits with the same rep to see if the accountability for the reps to carry out their self-improvement plan is being reviewed by the sales manager? You are looking for progress toward improving one or two areas of the rep’s development.

4.      Sales Rep Engagement and Turnover

Many companies track two metrics: One, they perform an annual engagement survey in which the key is to drill down to the level of the sales manager. This provides insight into the differences between managers as well as the managers’ effectiveness in coaching their reps. Effective coaches will score much higher in sales rep engagement. Second, turnover is also a sign of reps’ relationships with their managers. In fact, 70% of top performers who leave will do so based on their relationship with their manager.

5.      Get out in the Field

Spend a couple of days in the field each month and get to know your reps.   Ask them about the level and quality of coaching they are getting.  Another approach, the dreaded “co-work with,” involves sitting in with the sales manager and his rep for a day. You observe the coach at work and get a firsthand perspective on the coaching effectiveness. I have never personally done this but I do know a sales director who has utilized this approach and I applaud his resolve.

Here’s to good coaching!

I recently had lunch with a highly successful VP of Sales. He explained that he was frustrated with the members of his sales management team, who he felt were focused only on results. He worried that they were not spending any time developing their salespeople.

At first blush, most of you might easily say you don’t see a problem with that. You wish your sales managers were more focused on delivering the sales numbers. That’s easily understood and probably true in many cases.

So why was my lunchmate so frustrated? Simply put, he believes sales managers should be developing his or her people to the best of their potential. He has an admirable longer-term view that is based on the belief that by developing your people, you get improved performance and better retention and you essentially develop a pool of succession candidates.

Most sales leaders would agree that a sales manager really can jumpstart a sales rep’s performance through coaching.  Studies reinforce this by showing that above-average coaches deliver 20% more sales. However, it also is true – and a major challenge – that managers generally have the greatest difficulty trying to coach their people.

So as the head of sales, you typically don’t oversee the coaching effectiveness of your team. How do you know how good your sales managers are at coaching? How do you know who are your best and worst coaches?

These are valid concerns, and deserve close attention. Read my next post for five ways to determine if you have great sales coaches.

It’s Q1 2009 and your sales are down, what can you do?

I faced a similar situation in Q1 2003. As VP of Sales of a Canadian pharmaceutical organization we faced the SARS crisis. Access to our customers became limited. Hospitals and physicians were also limiting sales rep visits.

Marketing started calling the sales numbers down for the year, blaming the SARS crisis. As head of sales I had few options. What I did know was that I had to utilize my resources where they were going to generate the greatest revenue.

Back to basics:

In sales your biggest resource is your sales force. The best place to deploy your sales force is in the field. The field is where they generate revenue. So we went back to basics. Activities such as administration, training and meetings are all important, but are non revenue generating. We initiated a simple 3 point plan:

1. All training was cancelled. Trainers were redeployed into the field to help coach sales reps.
2. Sales managers focused on field visits and were in the field four to five days a week.
3. Sales reps found creative ways to see their clients or focus-in on hospitals and physicians they could access. Their goal was to focus on making more sales calls.

These 3 basic steps allowed us to over achieve our sales targets by year end. In the end, the SARS crisis resolved itself. In 2009, the economy may take much longer to see an upturn, but the basic principles of redeploying your resources on revenue generating activities will still apply. 

Sales leadership is about focusing your resources on what will have the biggest impact.

Focused on your success,

Steven Rosen

www.starresults.com

Meet Jane.

Jane is an experienced and successful district sales manager who could work in any industry and for any company. In fact, there are many Jane’s in all companies. Jane is performance-driven, a very good coach and a people person. Each month Jane is put to the test with different sales reps she must coach to success.

Jane’s Profile:

Current:

District Sales Manager IBZ Inc. 2004-

Past:

Sales Manager Alba Inc. 2000-2004

Product Manager Alba Inc 1996-2000

Sales Rep Alba Inc. 1992-1996

Education:

Business Degree 1992

Courses:

Managing Effort Getting Results 2008

Professional Sales Management 2007

Sales Coaching for Success 2006

Professional Selling 1998

IBZ is a mid-sized technology company that has had some tough years but has turned the corner. It pays its reps a combination of salary and bonus for achievement of targets. This year the bonus plans have a super bonus portion which accelerates when a rep is 5% over quota.

Jane wants to get 2009 off to a great start. However, as she shared in one of our monthly coaching sessions, she is frustrated with one of her most tenured sales reps.

For some background, Jane took over an underperforming region last year and has helped lead the team to be in the top 25% of districts in the country. Jane’s goal in 2009 is to reach the top 10% of the country and she is focused. Her key area of focus is on finding innovative ways to grow the business. She wants her team to develop new business opportunities for lagging product lines.

As she reviews her team, the one rep keeps coming up. Ray has been with the company for over 20 years and has worked with 10 DM’s. He has been on 2 personal improvement programs (PIP) and has won several sales contests in the last few years.

Ray knows his stuff, he knows his customers and he knows how to get others in the office to do his work. When Jane works with Ray she has a good day although she wonders whether he works full days when she is not with him. He picks her up at 8:30 and drops her off around 4:30. The day is well planned and Ray has a good rapport with his customers.

Jane has invested a lot of energy trying to motivate Ray and a lot of time giving him positive feedback on his skills, customer service and business plans and on his year-end review. She would like to see the results if he would put the extra call each day.

In reviewing Ray’s 2009 business plan, Jane determine that he had not included any new target customers or innovative approaches to driving the business further. She is frustrated with Ray’s lack of initiative and drive.

Questions:

1. How do you motivate Ray to put in the extra effort required to be a top rep?

2. How much time would you invest in Ray in 2009?

See my thoughts on this page…..

Dear Jane,

Ray is an example of a rep that has all the talent but lacks consistent effort to be a top performer. The first thing we need to remember as managers is that it is not our job to motivate our reps. External motivation is short-lived. It is not necessarily sustained when you are not with your rep.

Another way to approach Ray is to encourage him to focus on developing new business. He may think he knows best and he will appease you by picking a few accounts. He knows he will have a new manager in time and will outlast that manager as well. Provide Ray with positive reinforcement only when Ray demonstrates that he is driving new business and initiatives. 

You can continue to invest in Ray’s development but will get limited returns for the time you invest. With 8 other reps you can achieve a better ROI by investing in those reps that put out a consistent high level of effort and are self- motivated.

Let me know how it goes,

© Steven Rosen, MBA

Sales Executive Coach

Common sales management challenges.

I want to thank those of you who have shared their thoughts on “How to coach the self doubter?”

We all know self doubters in our personal and professional lives. Many of them are highly successful. From a cognitive perspective the self doubter looks at the 10% of things there don’t do well and apply it to 100% of what they do. Therefore they lack the self confidence to accept sales coaching.

The key to self confidence is being conscious about know what you do well and what you don’t do well. The self doubter lacks is unconsciously competent and consciously incompetent. Another words, they do not know what they do well but are all too aware of what they don’t do well. If you try to tell them what they do well by nature they remain in doubt. They are difficult to coach because they naturally become defensive to your sales coaching.

As an executive sales coach you need to help this individual to self discover what they do well. Help them become consciously competent!

Feel free to share your thoughts,

Steven Rosen

Sales Management Expert