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Pharma Rep Confessions – What the Job’s Really Like

Dear Pharma Sales Reps,

Here are my observations from 14 years in the business. Do you agree?

Six confessions of a long-time pharmaceutical sales rep:

Achievement is highly overrated. I’ve been both in the bottom 15% of rankings and at the top. I’ve earned bonuses as high as $47k and as low as zero. Every success felt like a lucky break. I was almost never present when a prescription was being written. Plenty of doctors told me they were excited to prescribe but never followed through. Others, who I thought hated my product (or even me) became my biggest supporters. The money is nice, but quickly spent.
Doctors don’t care nearly as much as we want them to. I’ve sold lifestyle medicines, chronic medicines, and life-saving rescue medicines and it’s been mostly the same. Doctors typically DO care about their patients. The drugs they use, however, are like tools in a carpenters hand. Unless they cause trouble or fail to work, they’re largely an afterthought.
Out of sight, Out of mind. For many physicians and their staff, their responsibility is to TELL the patient the right thing to do – not to ensure it gets done. They may prescribe the medicine you sell but give little care to whether or not the patient fills the script.
For the patient and the office, money trumps all. We reps know this. Our managers know it too but are sometimes too afraid to say it. Patients don’t see medication as being a matter of life and death until they are in pain or are dying. Medicines that make them prettier, better in bed, or (sadly) give them a buzz, are worth cold, hard cash.
The only thing that makes you an expert, to management, is your numbers. Therefore, never get too full of yourself. We’re all a couple bad quarters from some kind of probationary status.
If you judge yourself using sales acheivement, you will never fully like your job, or yourself. Whether or not you’ve finally become an expert is a question only you can answer!

Congratulations! You win the Ritalin award for reading the whole article!

Feel free to comment below or send me a note at Meaning2work@gmail.com with your thoughts. And, don’t forget to subscribe if you want to hear more!

Sincerely,

Meaning2work.com

You’ll Find Me in Cell Block C4 – Spreadsheets and Sales

Yes, they’re an excellent tool for analyzing data. Yes, they give individuals and companies the ability to store large amounts of information, perform calculations, and even spot trends. Yes, our employers probabaly wouldn’t be able to pay our paychecks without them. I am, of course, referring to spreadsheets.

No, spreadsheets don’t hurt people. People do. At some point, we went from using them as tools to inform decision making, to tools that actually make decisions. “I’ll spend the majority of my time with my top 20% of customers”, we might say. “We’ll fire the bottom 10% of the salesforce,” management might say. Like a sophisticated Magic 8 Ball toy, a formula plugged into a spreadsheet spits out a course of action for us and we dutily follow it.

Like all computer programs, spreadsheets cannot function without input. That’s where you and I come in. We take one of the outputs of our work, (ie. net sales, market share, etc.) and feed to the spreadsheet so it can work it’s magic. Unfortunately, magic has yet to be proven to be anything more than artistic, entertaining, trickery. Here are some problems with the way we use spreadsheets in sales. Feel free to add more in the comments section of this post.

Spreadsheets Can De-humanize Sales people and Customers

We humans want to be treated as individuals. Considering only a few data points takes away any unique or relevant details regarding the individual. Intellectually, we all know this but, in practice, we forget it very quickly. According to Cal Newport in his book “Deep Work”, it is scientifically impossible for the human brain to truly multitask. Instead, our focus switches quickly between two or more tasks giving us the illusion of doing more than one thing at once. Therefore, when analyzing a sales report, it is impossible to scrutinize the data and consider the person attached to it at the same time.

To this day, I have my personal breakthroughs quickly reduced to rubble at the hands of a spreadsheet. In response to a record week of sales, I am rewarded with a report sharing how many reps around the country had the same or more sales than I did. Customers don’t fare much better either. We don’t throw reports in their faces. Instead, we treat them only as well as their business potential dictiates. Why? That’s what a formula on our spreadsheet tell us to do.

Spreadsheets Facilitate False Assumptions

Where does data come from? The past. According to Nicholas Nassim Taleb in his book, “Fooled By Randomness”, one of the biggest mistakes humans make when looking at history is assuming everything is due to cause and effect and not randomness. He skillfully points out that even major historical events are the result of random factors. For example, what if Adolph Hitler was born a girl? Given the restrictions on women in Germany at the time, is there any way she could have risen to power, let alone attempted to take over the world? In a more practical sense, managers often assume reps are either unskilled or lazy when sales are low.

Don’t get me started on charts either! I like the visual representation they provide in describing the past. It’s what lies beyond the trend line the spreadsheet never tells you. As someone who has won and lost on the stock market, I can tell you that no trendline EVER guarantees what will happen in the future. When your personal sales trend line is pointing down, you are looking at a picture of the past. You and I only have influence on the future.

Spreadsheets Can Hide Information

Anyone who has used Excel can show you how easy it is to hide rows or columns of data. Once the information is out of sight, it’s much easier to ignore. Often its the data that’s NOT recorded in the first place that is relevant. Try developing a list of key customers without looking at geography and you may miss many smaller targets who have high potential because of some geographic factor.

I had a friend who was a judge tell me once that he did not like video-taped testimony. He felt something could be happening off camera that could be influencing the witness. Spreadsheets, have the same effect. They shout, “Hey look at this information here!” All the while, our focus is potentially taken away from something else that could be more relevant.

Spreadsheets Often Oversimplify the Real World

As sophisticated as we think we are when we use them, spreadsheets force us to limit the way we see the world. Why? Our brains are not wired to take in massive amounts of information at once. Therefore we use spreadsheets to help find that one crucial piece of data or trend. Again, it’s the ‘Hey, look over here’ effect. The dumbing down of our approach makes us susceptible to confirmation bias. This is when we only notice data that confirms what we already think. Daniel Kahneman explores this and many other cognitive biases in his book “Thinking Fast and Slow”.

One mostly uh-helpful excercise I’ve had to perform many times in my career is the “Hot, Warm, and Cold” list. “Hot” customers are those we think are close to buying. “Warm” need a little more work and “Cold” are not interested at all in my product. These designations fit nicely into a spreadsheet where they can be sorted. Other than for time management, this information provides little value in advancing sales cycles. Calling someone a “Hot” prospect does not tell me what I need to do next to insure the sale gets closed. Calling someone a “Cold” prospect doesn’t guarantee that I’m not losing business by ignoring them either.

Spreadsheets are no more to blame for these problems than a baby is for a dirty diaper. The real problem is the power we give them – the power to make decisions for us and make us less accountable. Stop confining yourself, your employees, and your customers to numbers in a cell and you just may see your world open up!

I you like what you’re reading, please share this post with a friend and subscribe!

Regards,

Meaning2work

9.13.18 Update:
To date, this my-most viewed post. If you have a second, please leave a quick comment below and tell me just what drew you to read it. Was it the title? What did you think of the content? All opinions are welcome!

Ps. I’d like to put a plug in for Seth Godin’s “Akimbo” podcast. I love his thoughtful and straightforward tone. His thoughts often inspire mine. To check it out on iTunes click here or search for “Akimbo” in your podcast player.
To check out Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Fooled By Randomness” on Amazon, click here.
To check out Cal Newport’s “Deep Work” on Amazon, click here.
To check out Daniel Kaheneman’s “Thinking Fast and Slow” on Amazon, click here.

Think BACk: Did You Really Just Ask That Question?

BACk is short for “Be A Customer”. Thinking BACk entails thinking like your customer would.
“Telling is not selling! You need to ask questions!”
Sound familiar? The above statement summarizes about 90% of the sales training I’ve ever experienced. Situation questions, problem questions, implication questions, and of course, the elusive need-payoff questions. Thank you Neil Rackham and your fabled “Spin Selling” for transforming me from a glorified product presenter to a would-be problem solver! No sarcasm here. Neil’s approach has probably saved customers countless hours of sitting through unfocused and ineffective sales presentations.
It’s unfortunate that the undying impatience and goal fixation we have in sales causes us to oversimplify and overplay every new idea. If asking questions results in more sales, shouldn’t asking more questions result in even more sales? And out we go to our sales calls armed with questions, questions, and more questions!
Stop what you’re doing!
It’s time to question the concept of asking questions. I propose that every question we ask precipitates at least one question in our customer’s mind. Most likely, that question is, “Why do you want to know this information?”. When the grocery clerk asks you paper or plastic, you probably don’t even think. You just answer. That’s because you know why he’s asking. Now imagine if, while you’re rummaging through your wallet, the clerk asks, “Boxers or briefs?” Failing to address the importance of why they asking is one mistake sales people make with questions. Additionally, we ask too many irrelevant and selfish-minded questions and fail to consider their impact value as statements.
Why are you asking me this question?
Think of the struggle you undertake every day just to get your customer’s attention. When you finally connect, don’t make the mistake of taking their time for granted. You may have won the appointment, but you still have to prove why your conversation is important. Understand that, as your questions get more complex, more effort is required from your listener to respond. If your customer seems confused or unhappy in response to a question, you may want to explain why the answer is relevant to matching your product to their needs.
Of course, this approach requires you to know what information is needed and how to ask for it. If you know that, in order to be a good candidate for your product, your customer needs to provide details, A through D, ask for exactly that information. And, be prepared to explain why you need it. The last thing you need is for your customer to assume you want the information for selfish reasons.
Have a conversation not an interrogation.
Early in my sales career, I used to fear having personal conversations with customers. What if we never get to talk about my product? What will I do? In response, I forced myself to ask sales questions, even when I didn’t really need the answer. What I lacked was a deeper knowledge of my product and my customer. This insight allows you to make your personal conversations more productive and your product conversations more personal. Ideally they are one in the same. Achieving this oneness between the personal and business conversation allows you to have an actual conversation. You know, one in which your attention is in the moment and focused on your prospect, not on what you’re going to say next.
This is precisely why asking clients about their “top five initiatives for the year” or “three biggest challenges” go over well in sales training but not in real life. Sure, if someone honestly answered, you would get good information. If your the customer, you gain virtually nothing from answering it. Sorry high level account managers, the CEO of the hospital system probably doesn’t think the bed pans you sell warrant an explanation of his five year growth plan. Feeling interrogated tells your customer they are wasting precious time for your benefit.
Your Question Makes A Statement.
If you don’t think so, try asking your spouse, “When are you going to lose weight?” It’s great that you know the problems your product can solve. Just be aware, the executive you’re about to call on may not be keen on admitting that they even have a problem. Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, in their book, “The Challenger Sale”, advocate an approach using new information to shock customers into acknowledging new problems. While a wake up call may be in order for some of your customers, keep in mind that the book has been out since 2011. Customers may be getting wise to it’s tactics. If you can take control of the conversation in a respectful way and it serves their interests as well as yours, go for it! Just keep in mind you will never control your customer.
The problem with sales techniques is they are, by definition, techniques. They’re an artificial way to manipulate a conversation. In order to execute any sales tactic in a conversation, you must devote extra energy. Try being real instead. If you need to know something in order to assist your customer, by all means, ask. When you honestly want to help them it will show through in your demeanor. Conversely, acting in the role of sales person forces the customer to act in the role of customer. Neither actor gets as much done as two real people talking.
Regards,
Meaning2work