Customer On The Edge

A fairly sizable portion of my clients are medical device companies. They make aortas, blood diagnostic machines, replacement parts for just about every corner of the skeleton, and even those nasty implements of torture utilized by your favorite hygienist. They may produce a nearly infinite amount of items and consumables, but there is one thing they all seem to have in common. They do not want to become or be mistaken for a pharmaceutical company. Most of this sentiment seems to be focused within the sales function and there is one primary driver behind this. Many sales reps in the medical device industry are there having escaped positions previously as pharma reps.

This is a common dynamic within a number of biotechnology firms I have worked with as well, but it is so strong within the med device companies that this sentiment and culture even prevails within medical device divisions of pharmaceutical parent companies. This element of company culture and the beliefs and attitude it harbors is strong, and will influence far and wide.

One of the detrimental aspects of this anti-pharma culture has to do with the over-avoidance of things considered pharmaceutical in nature, but that are actually best practices. Of all these that I find is the most dysfunctional, what causes the most potential harm, is the belief that capturing key activities following a sales call is unnecessary or undeisrable. The fear is that this smacks of call reporting, the big pharma practice of keeping track of sales reps to ensure they are getting through to enough docs. This is such a prevalent practice that some SFA packages designed for the pharmaceutical industry do just about nothing but build call reports.

Keeping track of key activities that take place during a sales visit or phone chat is an essential element of sales force effectiveness. There are nearly an unlimited number of reasons for capturing information about what happens or is discussed when a rep meets with a healthcare professional. And there is a similar number of types of things that can be captured to satisfy all those good reasons.

Perhaps the biggest reason to keep track of things is to measure what is working. What product messages drive the most interest? What actions are best at progressing to the next sales stage? What assurances are best at overcoming objections? If the actual activities are captured and then compared against results, a sales team can use the feedback to improve its performance.

This is not big brother. It does not have to be an issue of control. Although monitoring call activity can help to understand why a sales professional is having troubles at certain sales stages, giving the sales manager an upper hand with coaching. But this should not be viewed as negative or counter-cultural. We are talking about best practices for driving effectiveness. Why would you avoid this just to avoid the perception that you are acting like big pharma?

I totally respect and empathize with those who have chosen a specific type of sales environment, and don’t want to work in the type of environment they have specifically avoided. But we don’t need to throw the baby out with the bath water. Preserve your culture but allow for a bit of discipline that can lead to success. No, we don’t want sales people becoming burdened with administrative chores. Capturing key activities does not have to be a burden – the technology can actually make it easy.

Sales activity and the ability to measure it is at the core of sales force effectiveness best practices. Do what it takes to be successful and you will find a way to preserve your culture.
After all this typing I seem to be experiencing some pain in my wrists. Can anybody leave me a sample of some pain medicine?