As you begin 2010 many of you have made decisions to reduce the number of sales reps and employees in your respective organizations. Congratulations, you have cut out some of the fat from your organization. The bean counters and stock markets should probably be happy with you.

Everyone has heard the saying, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it?” One of my favourite bosses used to say, “if it ain’t broke then break it.” In today’s business environment adaptivity is the key to survival. Let this blog be a wake up call for the pharmaceutical industry. There are fundamental flaws in your business model. It is broken! If you think that cutting people is going to fix the fundamental issues then you will be in the same boat next year and the year after that.

Have you considered whether your business model actually makes sense? Have you asked your customers what they want? Do your sales reps actually make a difference when calling on their physicians?

Have you asked yourself why physicians don’t want to see reps any more? Have you asked physicians how you can better address their needs? I was at my doctor’s office a few weeks ago and we got talking about the Pharma industry? I asked “what do her reps do when they come by the office”.  My doctor told me that the rep drops off samples and sometimes review papers. I then asked if she could name any of her reps and the answer I got was “no”.

Given that there are few new products launches do we still need detailers who drop off samples and make no connection with the doctor? Does your selling model allow your reps to sell? Does it encourage your reps to make a difference?

Presently pharmaceutical companies spend a considerable amount of money having front line sales managers to support their reps.  How many FLM actually understand what their role is? How many go out with a rep and at the end of the day make no impact on from a coaching perspective?

One thing I learned early in my career is that sales/profitability hides many evils. As you look to improve the profitability of your organization here are some of the evils you need to confront when developing a sustainable business model.

1. How can you create moments of magic for your physicians so that they want to see your reps again?
2. How can your sales people actually have an impact on their physicians prescribing behaviour?
3. How can you develop front line sales managers who can have an impact on their sales team and physicians?

The one caution I would make to many of you is not to make the same mistake of going back to the same consulting organizations that have told you in the past to simply add additional sales force. The same consultants that create bi-ads and tri-ads (they must be m-ad).What this industry needs is creative approaches to solving the fundamental evils that are inherent in the detailing business model.

I encourage you to freely comment on my thoughts and exchange your ideas on how we can bring this industry back to its glory days.

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).

Do you know a sales superstar?

AllBusiness and Top Sales Experts want to honor the top-performing salespeople who deliver results in today’s competitive market. You can help make that happen.

We need your nomination. The panel of top sales coaches and experts will select one salesperson each month from among the nominees.

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• Be recognized by their peers for their outstanding contributions
• Be profiled in a feature article for AllBusiness and its sister site, Hoover’s
• Receive free twelve month VIP membership at Top Sales Experts
• Receive a signed copy of a panelist’s book
• Be offered the opportunity to receive a free sales profile  

One annual winner will receive a package of sales training and coaching programs (Value $3000), life VIP membership in Top Sales Experts, a selection of signed books from the panel, plus of course the AllBusiness Sales Star trophy.

Top salespeople inspire those around them and help drive company success.

Take this opportunity to recognize them for their leadership and contributions to the selling profession. Nominate a true sales star!

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Full details HERE

PS: There is no deadline for entries each month, all nominations received are carried forward. 

With a Dose of Peer Group Discussion and a Leadership Coach to Pump you Up!

Sales leaders need to remember that they too, must regularly upgrade their leadership skills.

There are two critical areas that will help you pump up your leadership quotient.  The most effective ways are networking with a peer group of like-minded sales leaders who face similar challenges and utilizing a sales leadership coach.

As a former sales executive I always understood the importance of investing in my own development and the advantages of networking, and yet I always found myself too busy to do either. Between meetings, presentations, conferences and emails I rarely had time even to meet with customers. Luckily for me, the organizations I worked for always insisted on professional development because otherwise it would have continued to be a low priority.

The reality is, networking with peers becomes more difficult the higher you rise in an organization. Most companies don’t have sales leadership programs for their most senior sales managers, therefore development opportunities must be sourced from outside.

Since leaving industry, I have learned that having a well-established professional network of executives was critical to building my business and a great way to ensure career security. I strongly advise clients to plan at least one networking lunch a month. Realistically most senior sales leaders don’t engage in networking on a regular basis.

It is crucial for sales leaders to raise their leadership quotient since the sales force is not only the company’s most important promotional resource but also usually has the greatest number of employees.  Therefore sales executives can benefit the most from improving their leadership skills.

The Old Way

As a sales leader I would enroll in a 2-3 day leadership course offered by a well-known training organization. The reality was these courses were nothing more than a boondoggle. I would look for a nice location, and get away for a few days. As soon as I got back to my desk and found 400 emails and a packed week of meetings waiting, 90% of what was learned was quickly forgotten. That is the inherent problem with leadership courses offered by big-name training organizations. There is no sustainability built into the program.

In today’s reality, it is increasing difficult to justify the costly $10,000 price tag of a weeklong Executive Leadership Training Course that has little ROI.

The New Way

We have understood that networking and sales leadership training are the key elements to creating a pumped-up sales leader. Through one-on-one coaching, group discussions involving the sharing of challenges and learnings, I believe that sales executives will emerge as the winners in this very competitive and difficult economy.

Now more than ever, they must harness the power of group learning forums supplemented with the sustaining power of leadership coaching.

Is there a solution that enables Sales Leaders to both network and improve their leadership skills?

Examining the needs of the Sales Executive, we developed a networking group called the Sales Executive Leadership Forum. This group is modeled after various successful networking organizations. Our main competitive edge is that we use Sales 2.0 technologies to network people together from the comfort of their work base. Understanding the time pressures that sales executives’ face we have designed a monthly tele-forum-networking group to discuss and learn new approaches to solving key sales challenges.

There are 3 reasons why you should consider joining the Sales Executive Leadership Forum:

1. Both the forum and the one-on-one coaching are all conducted by telephone. There is a relatively small time investment of 2.5 hours per month. No travel costs and time out of the office traveling to meetings. The overall cost of the program is less than $6000/year.

2. You gain access to world class coaches who will help you develop and hold you accountable to building and executing your leadership plan.

3. The small group forums offer many advantages including; getting to know and build relationships with up to 10 other sales executives; a confidential forum to exchange ideas; peer to peer learning and sharing of best practices; and a dynamic learning environment that is personalized to meet your needs.

To build your professional network, improve your leadership skills and increase your market value, invest in your Sales Leadership

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.

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

In a strong economy just showing up to play is enough to achieve your sales objectives. In today’s economic environment sales leaders are facing sales force downsizing and poor sales rep morale. Sales reps are frustrated by longer sales cycles, dropping demand, unrealistic quotas, concerns about declining income and losing their jobs.

The key to success is Focus, Focus, and Focus. As the leader of your sales organization you should ask yourself 1. Am I focused? 2. What is Focused Leadership? and 3. Why is focus so important to my success?

Ask yourself the following questions to ascertain your FOCUS factor.

• Have you established your 2-3 critical success factors (CSFs) that will help you achieve your objectives?
• Have you determined the key activities that will help you achieve your CSFs?
• Have you communicated the key activities to your sales team?
• Does each and every one of your sales people know what the key activities are?
• Have they incorporated these key activities into their daily plans?
• Are your sales managers coaching the reps on these key activities?
• Are the sales reps accountable to delivering on these key activities?

If you have answered “YES” to a majority of these questions, then you’re Focused! Congratulations you will thrive. Feel free to share what you are doing. Send me an email. 

If you answered “NO” to more than 2 questions keep reading.

Focused Sales Leadership is about determining, communicating and inspiring your sales to apply all their energy on the critical success factors/activities.

Many of your competitors have surveyed the market and may have come up with similar strategies. The differentiating factor between surviving these difficult times and getting your butt kicked relates to how well your sales team executes. Successful sales execution is about ensuring that each and every one of your sales reps clearly understands their marching orders (CSF). It is imperative that your front line sales managers keep their sales teams focused on executing the critical success activities.

If you would like to find out more about how The Focus Factor can benefit your organization coming soon at www.starresults.com

Focused on your success,

Steven Rosen, MBA

Sales Management Expert