You now know how to set clear objectives for your sales call. You already know that your sales objectives will lead you in the direction you desire. You'll be clear about what you want to do and how you're planning to do it.
All that can be made possible if you have a clearly defined objective but do
you know what makes a goal 'clear'?
That's what we're about to touch on in this post.
I can confidently say this: if you asked 10 pharmaceutical sales reps today and
asked them what their objective was for the day's call, I guarantee you only
two out of ten could answer you satisfactorily.
I should know.
I have managed a few of them myself in the past.
Why such pathetic numbers?
The answer is not determined by the objective setting, but
rather by the most precise or 'almost' accurate objective (nothing is
completely accurate anyway).
Throw in these three essential ingredients into your objective, and you'll stay
on course - all the time:
- Specificity
Why is it so challenging to make an objective specific?
Answer: Fear.
Fear of what?
Fear of creating pressure on yourself to achieve it.
Isn't that so?
Isn't it simpler to say, "I want to see Doctor A
today" instead of saying "I want to see Doctor A today to follow up
on the Lipitor 40 mg sample I gave him last week and to get his commitment to
try it on five new patients with a first lot order?"
But such objectives only look nice on paper during the morning mock-detailing
session.
In reality, only two people believe it's the most effective
way to set a goal.
Guess what, the highest incentive payout will also belong to
these two.
Well, if you make your objective more specific, there's no doubt that you'll be
reaping top incentive payouts as well, and that's just the beginning...
- Results-oriented
Simply means you're clear about the outcome.
The product of the call.
"To get doctors to prescribe...", "to
recommend doctors to prescribe five new patients...", "to switch
doctors from prescribing 20mg Lipitor to 40mg Lipitor using the ASCOT trial
results to aggressively lower the patients' LDL cholesterol levels..." so
on and so forth.
Basically, it involves an action that you want your customer
to take.
- Realistic
"To get a doctor to prescribe Viagra 50mg to ten new patients by the end
of this week" for a doctor who sees 50 patients a day and you work five
days a week is realistic (that works out to two patients daily from fifty per
day).
But what's real is subjective, and it mostly depends on your
customer base and patient load.
So you decide what's real and state that in your objective.
*Word of caution - don't go too low and risk complacency. Don't make it too
high or you may risk frustration. Find a balance. With your background info,
this should be a cinch ;)
OK.
For your unlimited incentive payout figures, you need three
things: specific, result-oriented, and realistic.
That's it.
No comments:
Post a Comment