Motivating the experienced pharmaceutical sales representative

Perhaps two of the most vital salesperson characteristics are self-efficacy and adaptability. Much research has supported a strong link between these two characteristics, customer satisfaction and sales performance (Ahearne et al., 2005). Successful sales representatives have a high level of self-confidence and the motivation to persist in the face of set-backs and obstacles. Familiarity with the product, knowledge of the customer situation and usage behaviours, as well as specific disease states and the medical industry all help to build confidence in one’s ability to address a wide variety of customer questions and concerns—particularly if this knowledge is acquired over a number of years.

Many experienced representatives are comfortable adapting to the various needs and styles of their customers. The combination of confidence and flexibility ensures that successful representatives are able to ‘work with their customers’ to a mutually beneficial outcome over the longer term. Often, representatives with several years’ tenure rely more on these personal characteristics rather than expert product knowledge or ‘technical’ selling skills. They leverage their relationships and avoid a formulaic approach to influencing customer behaviour. Company ‘up-skilling’ initiatives are often viewed as overly simplistic, restrictive or for new representatives only. Experienced representatives are often reluctant to apply these techniques with customers for fear of damaging the relationships they have spent so long in developing.

How then does one motivate and inspire an experienced representative to increase their performance and therefore sales results? Contrary to popular belief, an empowering or ‘hands-off’ approach to managing experienced representatives does not lead to increased performance. Ahearne and his colleagues (2005) found that this worked well to motivate relatively inexperienced sales representatives but it had negligible impact on experienced representatives. Other researchers (Lloyd and Newell, 2001) found similar results. Experienced representatives prefer to use their own judgement and manage their territory in their own way. This view was also shared by longer-serving regional sales managers in Lloyd and Newell’s study. In addition, they found that an increased emphasis on sales training and knowledge sharing made the job less autonomous and more standardised. This had a direct impact on motivation, performance and ultimately sales results.

The focus on standardisation and the new sales framework also undermined long-term relationships with customers as representatives pursued new customer opportunities at the expense of existing ones as well as the impact of higher representative turnover. Initiatives designed to have experienced representatives follow the same selling process substantially reduce the freedom of representatives and lead to a degree of de-skilling through the process of routinization. Attempts to manage the discretionary element of the sales representatives job through gradual standardisation of work serves to reduce the amount of time or incentive to be innovative.

The difficulties sales managers have in leading such an experienced work force, have to do with the competing pressures of autonomy and control. The solution rests in ‘capacity building’ where training and coaching is focused on expanding the representative’s ability and competence, enabling them to consider alternative ways of working and the implementation of new ideas. Far from being ‘hands-off’, or worse still overly controlling, successful sales managers need to invest the time in surfacing ideas and strategies directly from their sales representatives while coaching them as ‘business partners’ to put these ideas into practice.

References:

Ahearne, M, Mathieu, J and Rapp, A 2005, ‘To empower or not to empower your sales force? An empirical examination of the influence of leadership empowerment behaviour on customer satisfaction and performance’, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 90, no. 5.

Lloyd, C and Newell, H 2001, ‘Capture and transfer: improving the performance of the pharmaceutical sales rep’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12:3, May.