We generally use words like leader and manager without having any clear idea about that. These people are responsible for managing the team and get the job done effectively on time but we found that everyone having their own style of managing team. In every organization there are various team leaders and its common that only few of them are exceptional, enthusiastic and give priority to the people development rather than giving priority to the numbers.
This is especially true when it comes to field sales managers in Indian Pharma. Indian Pharma industry is one of the industry where attrition rate is above 30 % and the reason behind this is lack of good front line sales managers. The front line sales managers are the bridge between mid-level managers and sales force, pressed with dual targets individual and team target.
Indian Pharma industry is one of the complex industry having 10,500 registered manufacturing units and 3000 companies that market nearly a 100,000 branded generics.
The top 10 Pharma companies employ between 3000 to 6000 reps in field sales. Hence, the top 10 Pharma companies having more than 50000 field force who meet doctors every day. If we add the field force of medical devices, diagnostics, disposables and surgical companies the approximate number would cross one million people. That is close to one field sales person per doctor.
Here are some of the common challenges faced by field force:
1. Many companies with similar products and to counter the competition many companies have more than one division to sell the similar products under different brand names. The result: one company 10 divisions, each of which does not know what other is doing!
It’s a bitter truth that 80 percent of any organizations sales done by 20 percent of their sales reps and remaining 20 percent by 80 percent of sales reps. According to latest sales compensation and performance management study , only 55 percent of sales professionals actually meet quota.
Sales force automation and customer relationship management software are just the tools, but we often blame them whenever our sales process doesn’t work. It’s like blaming the bat for not playing the short right by the batsman.
The Objective Management Group has evaluated over a million field reps from various industries across the globe and found that only 16 percent field reps were elite-they have the mindset that allow them to develop any skill and competency, The rest all are struggling anyhow.
One of the toughest challenge for filed force today is getting a prospect to respond. In this intense competitive business world lead generation is the toughest job. According to the recent research, any prospect evaluate at least three to five options at a time.
In fact email click-through rates are hovering around 3 percent and ten cold calls are needed, on average to reach a prospect, up from five calls in 2008.This indicate that the importance and effectiveness level of sales messages are dropping.
But this does not mean that it’s impossible to break the ice. According to Gartner, 71 percent of buyers are open to initiate with the field force during the initial stages of their evaluation. But with one size fit for all strategy you cannot grab the attention of prospects.
Incentive compensation planning is a complex subject. Your compensation framework must be internally equitable, externally competitive and compliant as per the pay and labor laws. Incentive compensation is a variable pay that is given to deserving candidates for outstanding performance. It includes bonuses, company stocks, retirement plans, tour packages and many more.
The objective of any sales team is pretty clear: sell more and drive revenue. Today, most of the organizations are offering mixed pay structure, includes basic salary with commission-based pay. These structures have led to the practice of Incentive Compensation Management (ICM), which includes compensation planning and processing.