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Field Manager’s Guide 12/25/09

Chapter 17

Motivating Sales Medical Representatives

Every medical representative has personal reasons for making selling a career. The

representative works hard to be successful because he or she is motivated to do so.

Motivation is common to most human beings. As children, we performed tasks because

we were stimulated by praise for good grades or an allowance granted in exchange for

work done around the home. Whatever the cause, motivation has always played an

important role in performance.

Bill, This first paragraph not read well. Could you fix it?

As adults, our jobs must satisfy many basic needs or we will not stay with them for long.

As a manager, you must make sure that these needs are met so your representatives

will feel motivated to perform effectively and enthusiastically. What are these needs and

how can they be met? To remain motivated, sales medical representatives share ten

major needs that have to be met.

1 Security

Your representatives need security on three levels:• Job Security —Will their job be there tomorrow or next year?

• Financial Security —Will they continue to make enough money to maintain or

improve their standard of living?

• Personal Security —Will they be protected from injustice, excessive demands, or

arbitrary decisions?

How can you make them feel secure? When you are training them, make sure that they

feel capable of doing an excellent job. Only then will they feel more secure and more

certain of job security for the future.

2 Recognition

Your representatives want what they do to be recognized and approved. They need to

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feel worthwhile and important.

How you can make them feel worthwhile—

• Give them personal attention during your representative training activities.

• Keep up with how your representatives are doing. Praising them for things they have

done well lets them know you’re interested in their performance.

• Mention your representatives’ names in sales bulletins.

• Recognize them through contests.

• Give special recognition awards to congratulate their achievements.

• Send them copies of complimentary letters from customers.

Take an interest in your representatives as individuals. It will have a tremendous impact

in improving their overall selling performance.

3 Usefulness

It is essential that your representatives feel like they are making a contribution to the

company. Their economic contribution must be important and useful. They must also

feel that they are contributing to their customers’ welfare.

How you can make them feel useful—• Take their problems and jobs seriously.

• Call them after hours or on weekends to check on how a certain call went, to

congratulate them, or to pass along an idea on how to sell to an account they’re

working on.

• Let them participate in decision making. Let them help solve a problem that has a

bearing on sales strategy.

• Send them to conventions or other offsite meetings.

• Increase their responsibilities. This could involve a new or enlarged territory,

handling a portion of a newforthcoming sales meeting. or an assignment to help train

a new representative.

• Ask a top representative to write up his or her selling strategy for the benefit of the

other representatives.

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4 Opportunity

A real opportunity for advancement must exist in every sales job. This should go beyond

just the chance to make more money. Having some room for advancement motivatesrepresentatives to do well on their jobs.

How you can help them realize their opportunities—

• Let them know how you feel about their future prospects.

• Remind them of the opportunities that exist within your company.

5Belonging

The instinct to join and be accepted by the group is a strong human need. Your

representatives must be reassured from time to time that they “belong” so they identify

themselves with the company.

How you can make them feel that they belong—

• Create “sales groups” to compete with each other. This creation of ‘teams” and

“team spirit” will help them to identify with a smaller group within the company.

• Let them freely express their thoughts and feelings in training meetings. They thencome to recognize that they are not alone—that others face the same difficulties,

have the same doubts and experience the same triumphs as they do.

• Be sure to communicate frequently so no one feels left out.

• Plan an activity such as a party or athletic event outside of the office This will make

everyone feel that their group extends into everyday life—not just at work.

6Challenge

To grow in competence, representatives must bhe offered continual challenges.

Successfully completing such challenges motivates them to keep working harder.

How you can create challenges—

• Assign deserving representatives to new or enlarged territories.

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• Tell them that you have confidence in their abilities. The challenge will then be to live

up to that confidence.

7 Communication

Knowing what’s going on is vital to being motivated. If the need to communicate is

stifled on the job, that job will soon lose a great deal of its appeal. A representative must

have access to his or her boss, and must feel that the boss will listen.

How you can communicate more effectively—

• Get to know your representatives personally so they will feel more open to talk.

• Keep representatives fully informed about plans that affect them.

• Have a periodic appraisal in which a free exchange of ideas can take place.

• Let your team members know that your are approachable and that you are willing to

listen and available to help.

8 Correction

Not everyone enjoys ‘getting away” with things on the job. People need to be corrected

and told exactly what is expected of them. Correcting your representatives will motivatethem to work harder to prove themselves.

How you can provide correction—

• From the beginning, specify clearly what they can and cannot do.

• Criticize promptly and justly.

• Make sure you know all the facts before you offer correction.

• Be honest and straightforward, not evasive.

• Start off with mentioning a positive point, then Followpresent the criticism as an

area for improvement and end with recognition of something positiveshowing your

confidence in your representative. This is known as the “Sandwich Technique.”

9 Status

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We all want the respect of the people who are important to us—respect that largely

grows out of our jobs and companies. Not only do we represent our company, but our

companies represent us.

How you can help improve feelings about status—

• Show your own respect for the company and its policies.

• Assign a representative a new title that indicates a certain level of competence has

been reached.

10 Respect for Leadership

Unless managers have the respect of their representatives, they cannot be effective

leaders. This is especially true when representatives are new. The first impression of

the company may be from the manager, and without respect for the boss, respect for

the company will be hard to attain.

How you can gain respect—

• Know your business well. Be prepared for any question you may be asked.

• Be approachable. Have a sense of humor, and don’t be just a boss—be a friend as

well.

• Be patient and be a good listener.• Be positive and don’t complain about how poorly your superiors run the company.

• Set an example by working hard. If your representatives see you loafing, they will be

prone to do the same thing.

• Be sincere.

By fulfilling your representatives’ needs, you will create an open and enjoyable work

atmosphere. Such a positive environment will undoubtedly bring positive results. Once

you stimulate your representatives to work hard and to enjoy what they do, you will have

completed the most important job of all—that of management.

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[SIDEBAR]

Use Contests To Stimulate Sales

Most company-wide contests are initiated from the home office. However, as a manager

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you may wish to hold a contest at a branch level, or just for your own team.

Planning Your Contest

When planning such a contest, keep these suggestions and questions in mind:

• What are your objectives?

• Will everyone have a chance to win?

• What awards will be given out?

• How long will the contest last? Is it timed right?

• What kind of publicity do you want?

Scoring

Is your scoring system fair? If your scoring is on volume alone, is there some equalizing

factor so that those with a smaller or more difficult territory have a chance?

Staging the Contest

• Is it different enough from your last contest to make it new and interesting?

• Is your starting time scheduled so you can effectively promote the contest?

Hosting the Contest

• Is your contest announcement spectacular enough? Will it impress your

representatives as it should?

• Do you have a simple method by which your representatives can notify the office

every time they score?

• How often do you send out progress reports?

Another helpful suggestion is to involve the representatives´ spouses and families in the

contest. Pressure from home to do well is often more effective than pressure from

management.

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[END]

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