Key skills for sales managers
The last few years have brought universal changes to the NHS that have led to new models of health delivery being implemented across the UK.
This in turn has forced pharma to assess the effectiveness of their current sales models and to evaluate the requirements not only of sales representatives, but also their managers.
The time of mass sales representative teams knocking on GP’s doors has gone and with it the sales manager monitoring the number of calls a rep makes on a GP per day. The new model relies less on volume of noise and call rates and more on an integrated approach across the network of influencing customers within the PCT, to take into account the input of commissioning, for example through PBC cluster groups.
Therefore the new model of territory/account managers is evolving and with it the role of the sales/business manager. The size and the speciality of sales managers’ teams will change considerably. They will be smaller and more specialised and the remit of the territory/account managers that the sales manager looks after will become more varied and challenging. The sales manager will need to work more closely with their team members, to fully understand and appreciate the local requirements that need to be addressed.
Key skills
One of the skills critical to the developing role of the sales manager is that they, like the team they manage, have a clear understanding of the customer group relevant to the therapy/product areas they are selling into and serving.
In line with this, they need to be able to develop a comprehensive understanding of the political and clinical environments affecting their company’s products, to ensure the right strategic approach is being applied at territory and regional level by all the team. Following this through, the sales manager will also need to be able to assist members of their team in developing key opinion leaders, who will be advocates of their products at local and national level. For this excellent rapport building and communication skills are a necessity.
To guarantee the pull-through into sales and ensure each team member is achieving their sales targets, the sales manager will need to have good insight and knowledge of the prescribing and purchasing process at a local level for each of their products. The relationship between territory/account manager and sales manager will develop and progress into more of a partnership than a hierarchical approach. Excellent team working and interpersonal skills will be essential in order to develop this understanding. It will also be the responsibility of the sales manager to ensure there is a strong cohesion between team members and that best practice is shared, to maximise the potential of achieving the highest possible sales and return on investment from each individual and the region as a whole. The sales manager’s approach needs to be flexible and he/she will need to give their team members the freedom to try new approaches, be autonomous and take responsibility for their own actions.
Providing the sales manager gets all of this right then they will be able to utilise other essential skills of the role. These include analysing territory/regional data, giving appropriate recognition and guidance to team members and feedback to senior management. Having given guidance to the team on completing account/business plans, the sales manager will need to be able to compose a regional business plan that incorporates stretching targets for each team member’s personal and sales objectives.
With all of these new challenges ahead of the territory/account manager, it is imperative the sales manager can motivate, train, coach and develop their team in order to keep them ahead of the game.
Of course, they still face routine responsibilities, such as producing monthly reports based on feedback from the team and ensuring the CRM system is completed and up to date. But in this new era of sales models, the sales manager needs to appreciate that their role is evolving, just like the people they are managing.
The competition between sales managers for this type of role in the industry is getting much greater. Therefore, a sales manager who wants to perform and achieve at the highest level needs to constantly review and fine tune their skills, to stay one step ahead.
“The challenges ahead make it vital for sales managers to motivate, train, coach and develop their team to keep them ahead of the game.”
Sue Birch
